Carrying Water



Sunflogun

Active Member
Apr 20, 2015
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I think that carrying water is something basic when we are riding our bike, and it's really easy to put a bottle in the bike support. Sadly I've lost a few of these bottles, I tend to leave them behind when I stop somewhere lol! Any tips not to lose them or I just need to pay more attention ahah... :D
 
I just leave them in the cage on the bike if I am stopping somewhere for a little while- I mean who really wants someone else's used bottle cage??? I guess some people will take anything that isnt nailed down.. but if I pedal over to the book store and do some browsing for an hour or so... i'd leave it on the bike.
 
Yeah I'd agree with just leaving them in, if you really wanted something you could take with you maybe one of the bottles you could clip onto a carabiner or similar? That way you couldn't just put it down and forget it.
 
I use disposable - Absopure, Dasani, and Smartwater in the 1 L size all wedge nicely into the cage - and if they fly out and I don't realize it until too late, no big deal. I've refilled some many dozens of times before losing them.
 
I've got a wire basket at the front of my bike. It doesn't only serve for carrying water for myself but often also for the water bottles of my friends, and whatever else they can't carry on their backs, when we go on a trip. I don't mind. It doesn't make my cycling any harder, unless I have to wheel along a big bag of food. :) But even then I don't mind too much, as it's usually our picnic, and I only have to put up with it until we reach our destination. :)
 
Yes, buy an expensive water bottle. :D


Something like this:

sigg_fahrradflasche_7dl.jpg
 
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an expensive one? Why do you think I just started reusing bottles from bottled water? I lose things - wallets, keys, credit cards, drivers license, cash - and at least 4 or 5 water bottles in a year.
 
MotownBikeBoy said:
an expensive one? Why do you think I just started reusing bottles from bottled water? I lose things - wallets, keys, credit cards, drivers license, cash - and at least 4 or 5 water bottles in a year.
How can you lose a water bottle? :wacko: Reason I said an expensive one is that it would probably cause you to be more careful...
Btw Sigg also makes bottles that have a straw inside... ;) No more tilting the bottle. :) They are also made of aluminium so they wont get all mangy after some use... But they started to make some plastic ones now too...

sigg-075l-sports-bottle-dynamic-red-touch-nat.jpg
 
How - with me, it's easy - one or two bounced out somewhere and I didn't notice the sound and didn't miss them until too late. Most of them were left at the gym when I would ride over and work out. My mind is mush compared to B.T.T. (Before 2012).
 
Another more popular bottle here in the USA is the Polar Bottle, better insulated than the Camelbak, holds a couple more ounces of fluid, and lasts longer too.

As far as how not to lose a bottle...hmmm, well this is sort of like losing your sunglasses, people lay things down then after a bit of time and the distraction of socializing get up and leave and forget stuff, there isn't a whole lot you can do. With sunglasses you can wear them on top of your head, or use a cord so it hangs on your neck, but a water bottle has none of those features so either leave it on the bike where someone could take it or leave it on the table in plain sight not off to the side of the table to keep it out of the way, in other words leave it in the way.
 
Froze said:
Another more popular bottle here in the USA is the Polar Bottle, better insulated than the Camelbak, holds a couple more ounces of fluid, and lasts longer too.
I got a similar one with these from Zefal. Same double wall design with the insulating foil between... The insulation is not thaaat great. You can keep water cool for about at hour (it can get really hot around here) instead of 3 hours or something they say.

For hot drinks it's useless... I got some tea on it once and it was "room temperature" after half an hour...

You could maybe put another sleeve over it to insulate it further but...

Trick that works to keep water cool is to freeze the whole bottle (cap open so it wont warp). That should provide you with ice cool water for a few hours.

For hot drinks it's probably better to use these double walled vacuum between steel thermo bottles.

Problem is probably that once you take a sip, hot-cold air goes in the bottle and starts warming-cooling it.
 
If I'm not going on an extended ride, then I won't even bring a water bottle in the first place. I don't lose them that often, but they're annoying to deal with when you don't wind up using one. I can often wait until I get home to drink water, especially for shorter rides. For more intense rides, I'll take something with electrolytes in order to recharge during the trek.
 
Yup - ambient temp definitely affects the performance of these things. I've had liquids cool to the freezing point in cold weather very rapidly - wind chill effect. Warming isn't a big concern where I am just because of availability of places to stop and get something fresh and cold - there is a frickin' convenience store, restaurant, big box or supermarket at every intersection.

In really cold weather I found it better to forego the cage entirely and just keep the thing in my backpack.
 
MotownBikeBoy said:
In really cold weather I found it better to forego the cage entirely and just keep the thing in my backpack.
Lololol I just remembered something reaaally funny. :D I went for a mountain hike once and I had a backpack with a thick laptop sleeve.

The sleeve is something like 1cm thick (the material is probably quite similar with insulation sleeves) and I had a 2l hydration bladder in it, which I froze solid the night before.

After the about 5 hour hike, which was in something like 35 Celsius we stopped for a bit.

Everybody was sweaty and exhausted and then I pulled a still half frozen hydration bladder from the backpack and started sucking on in... :D

I could see proper "Vampire" faces around me... :D A friend of mine even said: "Do you know how this thing looks right now?" :D


41NwYc3gPUL._SY300_.jpg
 
If you lose a bottle when you take a break then the solution is simple:

Don't take breaks - Problem solved!
 
lol, don't know if that would work..., but it's a good idea for me to pay more attention to it. As for not taking breaks, that's another thing I find hard not to do. :)


Volnix said:
Yes, buy an expensive water bottle. :D

Something like this:

sigg_fahrradflasche_7dl.jpg
 
I carry a backpack with me specifically for that sort of thing. It's worked for me so far. I haven't lost a bottle yet.
 
Everyone here is giving you great tips and brands for handling your water. But here's a little trick I learned in the dessert. Take a bottle water and fill it up with water and throw it in the freezer over night. The next day take it with you on long bike rides. It will be frozen solid which is a good thing. In a few hours that water will be melted but it is going to be ice cold. Water is good to have on long bike rides, but it's even better when it is ice cold.
 
Yeah, but it can be ice cold and I lose it either cases josh. :) It's just a matter of being careful when parking. I might park and bring the bottle so that no one steals it and then I leave it, it's nonsense.