This blogger has been an avid cyclist for the better part of her rather long life. Happily riding with her fellow riders almost always, for the first two decades or more of her rider’s life as the sole female in a flock of males, and very happy with that situation.
However …
Rather long rides have always – always! – led inevitably to situations that called for either stamina to standing her grounds as one in a kind among the male cyclist friends and co-riders („No way, no stopping here – we shall ride a little further, up that hill to where the little wood is, on the very top“); or to just playing it very, very cool, despite. Despite the fact that there is very often nowhere to .. well, to „go“.
Where to go, if you have to go? – picture borrowed from http://bilder.4ever.eu/tag/1149/wuste?pg=22
Guys, as we all know, have no problem with emptying their bladder basically wherever they go, stand or simply: are. Show a man a wall, a tree (yes, yes… all reminds us of… but we all know they do it still), the garden fence in a nice neighborhood with well-kept gardens and lawns, or if nothing else to squirt against is available: a tuft of grass. Draw, aim and splatter – such a smooth single move for most of you guys that in fact it has become a great nuisance, especially when groups of riders are out on the road together: Usually well mannered, shirt-and-tie types whose mothers have certainly told them how to behave in public (and have told them to wash their hands, after – especially when you are about to reach into, say, a bowl of sliced apples that others want to have a piece of as well !). Clad in riders jerseys and pants, in a group of lookalikes, they forget all about Mom’s good advice.
Biker when you come here, please, display civilized behavior!
But times, they seem to be a-changing. The cycling club of Griesheim, Hessia, has thought of a very simple, while extremely effective means of putting up a Ladies‘ Room for the female participants of their most recent Spring Marathon ride. Take a stretch of tent cloth, stretch it up and out with ropes, put a little sign on it and enjoy the happy, smiling faces of the ride participant, females and males alike, by the way:
Simple, but very effective – the „Ladies‘ Room“ of Griesheim Marathon 2015
But keep an eye out for those who want to make it into a unisex straight away – for lack of accessibility of the natural Male Riders‘ Rooms around:
Natural Men’s Room, inaccessible