Biking to church


NightSG
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Should I wear the black suit and be mistaken for a missionary, or the gray one and be mistaken for Pee Wee Herman? :D

Is it just me, or is it a bit odd that the LDS Church is so well known for missionaries on bicycles, but I still haven't seen a meetinghouse with a bike rack?

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Guest LiterateParakeet

Better go with the PeeWee Herman look, or some of your ward members might mistake you for a missionary and have an accident while looking around for your companion rather than looking at the road. . .

It is funny about the bike rack.

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Better go with the PeeWee Herman look, or some of your ward members might mistake you for a missionary and have an accident while looking around for your companion rather than looking at the road. . .

Now THAT'S funny!

but I still haven't seen a meetinghouse with a bike rack?

When I lived in the San Francisco Bay area our ward had several bike racks and they were frequently filled every Sunday. It wasn't uncommon for moms and dads to pedal to church each with a passel of kids loaded into the kiddie "rickshaw" attachment behind them and an older child or children riding their own bikes between the parents' bikes.

Perhaps it's just a California thing.

Goody

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Better go with the PeeWee Herman look, or some of your ward members might mistake you for a missionary and have an accident while looking around for your companion rather than looking at the road. . .

I started to say something about getting an inflatable companion, but you people would probably take it wrong.

It is funny about the bike rack.

You would think that it would be included in the standard meetinghouse design. Certainly a couple of Sheffield stands outside (much better for the bike, and cheaper than those awful ladder-style racks) would be better for the folks cleaning the carpet than hauling bikes inside.

When I lived in the San Francisco Bay area our ward had several bike racks and they were frequently filled every Sunday. It wasn't uncommon for moms and dads to pedal to church each with a passel of kids loaded into the kiddie "rickshaw" attachment behind them and an older child or children riding their own bikes between the parents' bikes.

I'd like to see something like this rolling in on Sunday morning:

Posted Image

A lot of our members live close enough to do it without even being in very good shape, too.

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I've done a lot of bike touring and commuting -- most of it pretty strenuous. I'd like not only bike racks, but showers. Bike in sensible biking clothing, shower, and change to whatever you usually wear to church.

It's right around a mile for me, and my commute bike would be a Trek 7100, so even the suit shouldn't be much of an issue as long as I don't try to sprint the whole way.

Unfortunately, the last couple of Sundays we had a major headwind, so I just walked.

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  • 5 months later...

I've done a lot of bike touring and commuting -- most of it pretty strenuous. I'd like not only bike racks, but showers. Bike in sensible biking clothing, shower, and change to whatever you usually wear to church.

This is something that has been coming up for me in another context lately; meetinghouses need proper changing areas. Even without showers, a stall with a small sink would be really handy.

My current $700 beater of a car has no air conditioner. That means I'm not driving the 80 miles to another stake in proper attire for a fireside, but when I get there, the men's rooms are way too cramped for a proper change, and lack anywhere to put clothes while changing. A simple handicapped stall with a small shelf would be ideal. (They do have the hook on the back of the door that works fine for hangers, but there's nowhere to empty my pockets. In defense of other meetinghouses, that's the only stake center I've run into where it really seems like men having a bathroom at all was an afterthought, but the others aren't that much better.) Instead, I'm in a smaller-than-normal stall trying to do a complete change, (underwear too; Texas summer, remember) trying not to step in the toilet that takes up more than half of the stall, and really hoping nobody missed the toilet in the last few hours.

Honestly, even if I did have A/C in the car, an hour or two driving in nicely creased wool suit pants and a starched white shirt isn't fun, (better not have a flat tire) and a good changing area would seem like a nice thing for baptisms too. (Thinking back to mine, six dripping wet men trying to dry off and change into suits in a men's room about the size of a large walk in closet was not exactly how I'd envisioned my first few minutes as a Mormon.)

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This is something that has been coming up for me in another context lately; meetinghouses need proper changing areas. Even without showers, a stall with a small sink would be really handy.

Boy the church just can't win. We have another thread where there are complaints that the church is spending too much money elsewhere instead of helping people. Now we have a complaint that the church should spend more money in designing their bathrooms to accommodate a random few.

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Complaint? I thought it a valid observation / discussion.

I agree that church facilities could be improved to meet the needs of the ward. The bike thing wouldn't work for us as the chapel is half way up a very steep hill, even walking it is hard, but in general the toilet/shower facilities are very inadequate if there is more than 1 baptism on at a time.

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While my car was on strike and my bank account was suffering an attack of paranoid schizophrenia ... My only option was riding or walking.

Walking = 50 millions times as long

Biking = Sweaty, stinky, frizz ball, with grease stains, and bits of blood seeping out of my shin onto passing toddlers.

As soon as meeting houses have showers to decontam after biking before sacrament... I'll ride regularly. Until then, once was a learning experience I shall not duplicate.

Q

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Boy the church just can't win. We have another thread where there are complaints that the church is spending too much money elsewhere instead of helping people. Now we have a complaint that the church should spend more money in designing their bathrooms to accommodate a random few.

the meetinghouse has 2 bathroom, a more standard pair with stalls and such and one by the chapel area that is a single room thing.

I, being the only one who bikes to church, I assume that's why that random metal pole is still there, I lock my bike to it and bring the seat inside. Its out of the way, locking it to the... well I think its a gas thingie, made me nervous. I keep deodorant in the bag, but in the early morning its still pretty cool so I don't get all drenched.

I have no complaints about the building, 'cept its weirdly far to where I go afterwards but... it is close to a store.

That's nice, oh during a storm, the back of the parking lot was flooded, its infront of a really nice creek- I try and not wig out when I see the terrifying water beetles:lol:

Edited by Lakumi
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Boy the church just can't win. We have another thread where there are complaints that the church is spending too much money elsewhere instead of helping people. Now we have a complaint that the church should spend more money in designing their bathrooms to accommodate a random few.

"Random few?" You mean most of those other people at church haven't been baptized? Or did they just drip on the carpet until time to leave?

Besides, I'd imagine all those stake-and-higher level folks who often end up driving an hour or more to a service would really like a good place to change at the meetinghouse before the meeting rather than having to make the whole trip in their Sunday best pants and shirt.

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"Random few?" You mean most of those other people at church haven't been baptized? Or did they just drip on the carpet until time to leave?

I've been to many baptisms in my lifetime and I've never been in a church where one went from the baptismal font to carpet. So that just doesn't make sense.

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I've been to many baptisms in my lifetime and I've never been in a church where one went from the baptismal font to carpet. So that just doesn't make sense.

Well, the rest of the service at my baptism was carried out in a carpeted room, with cushioned seats. I suppose they could just tile the chapel and use plastic chairs to eliminate the need for a good changing area, but I suspect that would detract from the solemnity of the occasion. (Maybe not as much as being wedged into a tiny room with a bunch of naked guys did, though.)

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My last ward meeting house had a bike rack! 'Course, this building was next to a school and I honestly think someone just stole the school's bike rack and dragged it over...

The only thing I'd like my current building to provide would be warm water. I hate washing my hands in cold water and if I forget to warm up a bottle before leaving home, well, no bottle for baby.

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Well, the rest of the service at my baptism was carried out in a carpeted room, with cushioned seats. I suppose they could just tile the chapel and use plastic chairs to eliminate the need for a good changing area, but I suspect that would detract from the solemnity of the occasion. (Maybe not as much as being wedged into a tiny room with a bunch of naked guys did, though.)

Every building with a font that I've seen has included a small tiled area where people can dry off and change, a fair amount of them have included showers. I suppose the building you were baptized in may have been different, but such changing areas do exist. This makes your observation/complaint, whatever you want to call it, about the design of particular buildings rather than some sort of institutional objection to letting people dry off after a baptism.

Edited by Dravin
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It is strange that there aren't bike racks at church, I've never considered this before. On a personal level I must have been born the wrong height for the church's male toilet urinals. One is too high and the other is too low. If they could put one in that moves up and down like those fancy pulpits theses days that would be just perfect.

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Every building with a font that I've seen has included a small tiled area where people can dry off and change, a fair amount of them have included showers.

I've been a member of 5 wards in 3 states plus add to that another 4 Stake Centers to that and never saw any that had either a tiled area or showers and only one (the newest Stake Center) had decent sized restrooms, the rest of the buildings it appeared the restrooms were an after thought.

I won't even use the restrooms at the current building, that's how small and dingy they are :eek:, luckily I only live a couple blocks from the building.

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I've been a member of 5 wards in 3 states plus add to that another 4 Stake Centers to that and never saw any that had either a tiled area or showers and only one (the newest Stake Center) had decent sized restrooms, the rest of the buildings it appeared the restrooms were an after thought.

Did these buildings have fonts? And would you have had access to them? In my experience the changing areas are locked when not in use, so unless you were there to perform a baptism or have one performed you'd probably never see them. I wonder what factors go into if a building with a font has a tiled area for changing (location, age, size, ect...).

Edited by Dravin
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I've been a member of 5 wards in 3 states plus add to that another 4 Stake Centers to that and never saw any that had either a tiled area or showers and only one (the newest Stake Center) had decent sized restrooms, the rest of the buildings it appeared the restrooms were an after thought.

I won't even use the restrooms at the current building, that's how small and dingy they are :eek:, luckily I only live a couple blocks from the building.

Ha ha, same here. I just walk home between classes.

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I've been a member of 5 wards in 3 states plus add to that another 4 Stake Centers to that and never saw any that had either a tiled area or showers and only one (the newest Stake Center) had decent sized restrooms, the rest of the buildings it appeared the restrooms were an after thought.

I won't even use the restrooms at the current building, that's how small and dingy they are :eek:, luckily I only live a couple blocks from the building.

I don't know about showers, but I have never been to a stake center or a meetinghouse that had a font that didn't have a tiled area that you stepped onto coming out of the baptismal font. In fact almost all had a room between the baptismal font and the actual bathroom to give people a place to dry off some before going to change. That was always where we put the wet baptismal clothes as well.

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Should I wear the black suit and be mistaken for a missionary, or the gray one and be mistaken for Pee Wee Herman? :D

Is it just me, or is it a bit odd that the LDS Church is so well known for missionaries on bicycles, but I still haven't seen a meetinghouse with a bike rack?

Definitely the latter.

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On a personal level I must have been born the wrong height for the church's male toilet urinals. One is too high and the other is too low. If they could put one in that moves up and down like those fancy pulpits theses days that would be just perfect.

I had occasion to visit my old elementary school once a few years back, and needed to use the men's room while there. I finally realized how brilliant their design was, with the tall narrow urinals that run from about 4 feet up all the way down about 2-3 inches into the floor; not only are they a good fit for anything from a toddler on up, but you can aim into the bottom of it and completely eliminate potential splashback issues.

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