Frocks on Bikes Tauranga is planning a leisurely group ride along the Daisy Hardwick trail ending up at a café on Saturday, February 19.

Organisers say the ride will be mostly off-road, with a few small sections on-road.

Frocks on Bikes started in Wellington in 2008, when a handful of women caught each other's eye during a ‘Bike To Work' day.

They weren't in lycra or mountain biking gear, instead cycling in what they wanted to wear at work that day – some trousers, a skirt and one in a dress.

After swapping contact numbers and doing a bit of research, they found there were some barriers that kept many Kiwi women from jumping on a bike, some stemming from NZ's contemporary cycle culture.

The idea of ‘Frocks on Bikes' grew, because a frock is the antithesis of what Kiwis tend to think of as ‘cycle wear' and is a symbol for a new attitude to transport: regular, stylish women choosing bikes as one of the ways to get around every day.

Frocks believes in 'show, not tell” to change people's attitudes: being seen on the roads riding bikes in everyday life and dressed like 'regular” people is steadily mainstreaming and normalising cycling as transport.

Leaving from the Daisy Hardwick trail entrance at Maxwells Rd in Otumoetai at 9.30am, the Frocks on Bikes Tauranga ride on Saturday is about 10km, taking in water views, trails and boardwalks. It includes the entire Waikareo Estuary with an 'all-important” coffee break at Chapel Café at the end of the ride.

For those driving, the suggestion is to park near the café, before crossing Chapel St and joining the start of the ride.

For more information, see Frocks on Bikes Tauranga Facebook page: www.facebook.com/frocksonbikestauranga

Frocks on Bikes ride leaves from Daisy Hardwick entrance, Maxwells Rd, at 9.30am on Saturday, February 19.