Das Urinator: German Pee Bag for Long Road Trips

by Neil Woodburn on

We’ve all been there before. You’re on a long trip and you’ve got to pee really, really bad. The only problem is that there is no toilet anywhere near.

Well, now a German manufacturer has solved this age-old problem.

The RoadBag is a handy little receptacle for your urine. Simply do your business into the bag and a special chemical immediately solidifies your waste, thus preventing any spillage or mess. Seal it up and then throw it away at your next stop. Problem solved!

The RoadBag website is unfortunately all in German. For your convenience–and entertainment–I’ve translated it using Google Translator:

Each man knows it: Situations, in which one would give everything for a toilet. Roadbag® this problem eases once and for all.
Whether in the back-up or on the festival, with the camping or in the sport airplane – Roadbag®, the bag WC for men, facilitates you, where you also are.
Roadbag® is handily, surely, hygenically and comfortable.
The secret of Roadbag® is the superabsorber: This special granulates in the interior bag connects itself with the urine to a firm gel. Thus no drop can run out, become unpleasant smells reliably prevented.
For clean hands after urination Roadbag® a refresher pad is attached to everyone. A completely clean thing.

Oh, and be sure to listen to their classic theme song.

(via RandomGoodStuff.com)

Bicycling in Paris: A New Version of this Option

by Jamie Rhein on

Perhaps hopping on a bicycle to enter Paris in the Tour de France is not probable, but it is possible to hop on a bicycle for an alternative way to travel in Paris. Angela Doland, in an Associated Press article, presents what you need to know about a new bicycle rental program in Paris. The interesting thing about this version of transportation is that you don’t rent a bike for a day to ride around, but rent a bike to get from one point to another. Let’s say you want to go to the Louvre, but after that you want to head to a restaurant too far away to cycle to. You just drop off the bike and hop on a Metro. You don’t ever have to go get that bike again.

The bicycles are at various bike stations so if, later, you want another bike, you can get one. The draw back I see is that these are only available for people 14 and older and at least 5 feet tall. This makes this not an option for a family with kids. Because the bikes are the touring type and the seats adjust, they can fit a multitude of body types. They also come with locks, however you need to bring your own helmet. In the photograph with the article I read, people aren’t wearing helmets, so perhaps they are not required. Another thing I noticed was how cheap it is to rent a bicycle. A day pass costs roughly $1.36 except I’m a bit confused if that’s correct. Doland mentions that if you are going to keep a bicycle for more than a day, it’s cheaper to rent from a by-the-day estabishment. Maybe I’m missing something. Check out www.velib.paris.fr. for a list of the various bike stations. The site’s not in English yet.

Other cities the article lists with similar cycling programs are:

  • Barcelona, Spain
  • Brussels, Belgium,
  • Copenhagan, Denmark
  • Stockholm, Sweden
  • Vienna, Austria

One for the Road: Cycling Misadventures

by Kelly Amabile on

Balance for me is only achieved properly through the use of two feet on solid ground. So, needless to say, I’m jealous of all you folks confident enough to ride bikes for pleasure, and those who race competitively too. It’s definitely a smart, ecological and healthy way to travel, but it’s just not my thing.

However, this won’t stop me from telling you about a neat new anthology of cycling stories! A perfect gift for your bike lovin’ pals, Cycling’s Greatest Misadventures is a collection of twenty-seven true stories. Written by a variety of cyclers from everyday riders to expert pros, these tales tell of freak accidents, animal attacks, eerie incidents and an assortment of jaw-dropping bike calamities. Stories are organized around certain themes, like Race Day, Training, Turns for the Worse and Animal Encounters. There’s even a few stories devoted to cycling tales from places like Laos, Idaho and India.

Maybe some of these stories could convince me to face my two-wheel fears?! Possibly, but then one look at the Bike Crash Photo Gallery in the middle of the book, and I’m reassured that walking is indeed more my speed.

There are some events related to this new release coming up soon, including one on July 16th at Distant Lands in Pasadena, CA.

Bamboo Bicycles

by Neil Woodburn on

I’ve rented my share of bicycles in third-world Asian countries. They’ve always been beaten up, rusted, falling apart, and hardly able to peddle. But, they’ve gotten me around.

Now there may be a new alternative to these two-wheeled lemons: the bamboo bicycle.

Designed by Craig Calfee (who normally designs carbon fiber frames for professional racers), the bamboo bike is being touted as a cheap and sustainable transportation alternative in developing countries. The design is still being improved upon with the end goal being the ability to build such a bike without the use of power tools.

The idea is so intriguing that the Earth Institute of Columbia University is sponsoring Calfee on an upcoming trip to Ghana to explore the possiblities of bamboo bike making in this impovershed nation with the idea that cheap transport will allow more people the opportunity to find employment and get to their jobs.

In the meantime, Calfee’s bamboo bikes are creating a buzz among road racers for their strength, endurance, and ability to better cushion the shocks and jolts of a long ride. At $2,400 a pop, however, this carbon fiber supplemented model certainly won’t be the version manufactured in Ghana.

National Parks Traveler Gets Facelift

by Erik Olsen on

One of my favorite Web sites about the National Parks, National Parks Traveler, has received both a face and content lift, and I highly recommend you give it a spin. It is lovely and they have a much more sensible web address now.

NPT is run by the ever-diligent, park-loving Kurt Repanshek who has done a stellar job over the years bringing to light issues and developments within our nation’s national parks. Seems he has teams up with the folks that do Park Remark to create a fantastic new site dedicated to the parks.

I wax rhapsodic about the parks frequently here because I deeply believe they are the crown jewels of our national heritage. We should all thank Teddy Roosevelt Ulysses Grant for having the foresight all those years ago to set off Yellowstone as a place that would be protected from development and where all Americans (and others) would be welcome3 to enjoy. The parks are in peril…well, there is a large backlog of much-needed repairs, and it is our duty to pay attention to what is happening to them. Now, that said, I am a realist. My first job out of school (my first REAL Job…after being a photographer in Tahoe) was with the Department of the Interior, the government agency that contains the National Park Service. At that time, there was a serious backlog of repairs, a shortage of qualified rangers and various threats to the sanctity of the parks (i.e. snowmobile issues, planes over the Grand Canyon, etc.). So many of these issues are not new. Not that we shouldn’t continue to pay attention, especially during these “difficult” years.

Anyway, I’ve given the new National Park Traveler a once-over and it is loaded with new features and lots of useful, interesting info. So I urge you, as we move swiftly into summer during which time your plans might include a trip here and there to the parks, to check it out.