VIDEO: Thousands of cyclists - and even more spectators - turn out for World Naked Bike Rides

Thousands of cyclists - and even more spectators - turned out for World Naked Bike Ride this weekend in London, Brighton and Southampton.

Main roads were closed due to the number of people turning out to gawp, and in London, in a rather unsavoury thought for those who use them usually - many of the riders borrowed Boris Bikes for the event.

In London riders set off from Marble Arch, Regent’s Park, King’s Cross, Clapham Junction and West Norwood yesterday before converging on Hyde Park Corner.

London organisers estimated that as many as 1600 riders turned out for the ride, seen here in this video:

CAUTION: VIDEO CONTAINS NUDITY (funnily enough - although it's edited to be fairly tame...)

In Southampton on Friday there were more than 150 naked riders, who left from Southampton Common, taking off along a six-mile route through Portswood and into the city centre, before returning to Southampton Common.

We'll report back when the Brighton ride currently underway has finished, but organisers anticipated a thousand cyclists would gather at Preston Park from noon and take part in a nine mile 'sightseeing' day out.

According to the founding organisers of World Naked Bike Ride, the reason for staging the events is "to celebrate cycling and the human body. The ride demonstrates the vulnerability of cyclists on the road and is a protest against oil dependency."

The organisation's website claimed that as many as 152 locations in the Northern Hemisphere held naked rides yesterday.