Drew Eckhardt 

Is there a website or Android route-planning app identifying restroom and water locations?

I'd like to do solo rides this year beyond four hours at which point I exhaust my two 25oz water bottles and need to pee, without spending much more time on the roads I'm familiar with.

Machka 

https://toiletmap.gov.au/

skiffrun

Good grief!

• Are there not roads that branch off your regular route(s)? Explore them.
• Do you not have access to Google-maps or RideWithGPS? Look at those on-line and explore.
• Are there not gas stations and/or convenience stores in your neck of the woods? They'll have water & other fluids. Food-like stuff, too.
• Are there no trees/bushes along the side of the road. Pee there.
• Are there no c-stores? Pee there. Or sit on the porcelain throne if need be.

You get the idea: just turn off your regular route(s) and go exploring.

skiffrun

Are there no local cycling clubs, likely with an on-line prescence and at least some route-slips / cue sheets on-line? If you can't talk to a local club member, or ANY other cyclists(?), at least try looking on-line for published routes.

The latter is what I did a decade ago, and combined with "go exploring" (see above), and by the time people starting riding with me on what used to be my solo Saturday ride, I knew plenty of options. We kept exploring new roads further and further out, and now there are roads I'd like to ride that I haven't been on for several years.

StephenH

I thought the same thing, started to type a response, then thought, "No, he might be riding a 100 mile stretch of freeway shoulder with NO services and continuous traffic..". Anyway, what skiffun says is what I'd do. It's a little more awkward for the ladies, but the ones I ride with, deal with it okay too.

skiffrun

I didn't think of the freeway thing, Stephen, but I probably should have.

I used to look at more & different cycling forums, including 2 SoCal based, and I was frequently amazed by the photos / videos of roads that SoCal'ers thought were good cycling roads. Many lanes wide, much traffic, no shade, etc..

Several years ago, maybe more than several, a woman originally from SoCal moved here (after spending some years in Dallas) and after I taught her boyfriend and her quite a few different routes / roads, she told me that I should start a cycle touring company because people from LA would flock to ride the north-central North Carolina roads; she said she would handle the publicity if I started such an entity. (Btw, she also mentioned a couple other metro areas in which she had lived.)

Obviously, I never tried to create a touring company. However, the roads here are pretty good (I've heard that the Seattle guys are jealous of our roads), we have dead-flat geographical areas and roads, we have hilly areas and roads, and we got mountains with some leg-busting climbs. If anyone happens to know someone that is thinking of doing some traveling, maybe a weeklong cycling visit to somewhere, North Carolina can be a good destination. (Do you know anyone thinking of something along those lines, Stephen?)

rhm

The Strava Global Heatmap is a very cool application:

https://labs.strava.com/heatmap/#15/-...1179/blue/bike

It shows where Strava users ride; so the emphasis is on the roads that get the most use by Strava users. It's a pretty good indicator where the most popular cycling roads are. It's not without its glitches; I guess people sometimes forget to turn off their GPS when they put the bike on the car, which is a problem if they go somewhere where you can drive but you can't ride (the heatmap suggests the Verrazano Narrows is a popular cycling route; it is not). Also, there does not seem to be a clear distinction between road cyclists and off-road cyclists. Just because someone likes to ride somewhere does not guarantee that you will.

For creating routes, I like the 'plan' feature on Map Bike Rides with Elevation Profiles, Analyze Cycling Performance, Train Better. Ride With GPS best. As you plan your route you can switch between a standard Google map, satellite, various topo options, etc. Public toilets and the like are not explicitly marked, though.

Machka 

As some of the others have mentioned, this is where exploration can come in.

Go out for a ride along your usual route ... and turn left at the first unfamiliar intersection you come to ... see where it goes.

Get a paper map, spread it out on the table, and pick a destination a little bit out of your comfort zone ... a town or park or beach or tourist destination. Go there. Use some of your familiar roads to get there there ... and some unfamiliar.

Open Google Maps. Type "Public Toilets near _____"


And most importantly ... don't pass up a chance to fill your water bottle. This was something randonneurs in Manitoba and Alberta repeat to each other because there simply isn't anything for long distances. So if you come to a toilet and/or water source, and if one of your two water bottles is down a bit ... fill it. Also, if you suspect it will be 100 km or more to the next water source, buy an extra bottle of water and tuck it into your Carradice.

As for peeing ... that's what ditches, clumps of bushes, hay bales in the field, culverts, etc. etc. are for.

rm -rf

Water and restrooms
Use Google Maps, pan/zoom to your riding area, then search:
convenience store (For the USA. This is what I search for.)
city park (this seems to work too, but many parks don't have water.)

Convenience stores go in and out of business. If it's critical--the only store in the area, you might want to call them in advance.

~~~~
This has been a problem for making some local rural routes in northern Kentucky. Some areas have no stores or parks at all.

Some riders have gotten water at churches, but I've never tried that.

~~~~
I've been impressed with the Strava Route Builder route choices. See my review here. It's still new, and not perfect. It sometimes routes on gravel roads, and is happy to climb steep hills when there's a nearby reasonable route.

unterhausen

we have some areas with no public amenities. There are a batch of alluvial springs in this area. You usually can see evidence that people fill up water jugs there. In fact, one of the most useful ones around here had the benefit of being an Eagle Scout project, and now it's one of the fanciest springs I have ever seen I know that it's mildly risky to drink water from them, but the locals seem to do fine.

Drew Eckhardt 

I live and ride here:



Santa Clara county is on the right with plenty of convenience stores serving its 1,900,000 inhabitants. San Mateo county on top has similar shopping opportunities and density, contributing to the 7,500,000 total population surrounding San Francisco Bay.

Unfortunately, those people need a lot of traffic lights to avoid killing each other. I counted 20 on my 26 mile workday ride with a pleasant 14 mile uninterrupted stretch in the middle.

On the left side are mountains. The terrain is more interesting, scenery great, and traffic lights aren't needed for the few tiny towns and estate homes. Convenience stores are sparse - I only found three, two around mile 36 and one at mile 60 for my planned 85 mile ride. There's also a park with water at mile 69.


Fortunately, sans insulating middle-age fat I can get four hours out of two 25oz water bottles.

Lots of people ride there and post route sheets which are great, but generally only cover workday length rides where they needn't mention pit stops.

Roads to Ride, South: A Bicyclist's Topographic Guide to San Mateo, Santa Clara, and Santa Cruz Counties is also a nice resource, but silent on those things.

Out of ridewithgps, mapmyride, and strava you'd think one of the companies would annotate their routes; or at least people sharing routes would use the water/food/bathroom/etc. icons supported by ridewithgps and mapmyride.

openstreetmap cycle maps include metadata identifying water and they have an API allowing searches for it, although I have yet to come across a web page which allows me to do that as a normal user.

Carbonfiberboy 

I use RideWithGPS for all my rides, even my solo "exploring" rides. First I explore on the map, then I go there and see what I got myself into. Whatever. I ride it anyway. In any case, the first thing I do is look for refueling stops. It's sorta like planning a Permanent route. You know you gotta eat, gotta drink, don't want to have to use a water filter. So you put your route through refueling spots which will be open during the hours you'll be there. It's fun to plan and doesn't take long. Sometimes I'll back RWGPS up with Google Earth if I need Street View. I used SV a lot when planning our Czech tour. Nice to have a visual, to recognize the place when you see it for the first time.