bottles or bladders?

water bottle or hydration pack?

  • water bottle

    Votes: 7 41.2%
  • hydration pack

    Votes: 10 58.8%
  • flask

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • i don't sweat

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    17

anrothar

entirely thrilled
which do you use? i've been using bladders since they first appeared in the mtb world(still have two original camelback neoprene sleeves), but have always wondered if the extra liquid they cary makes up for the extra sweat the cause. i'm switching to bottles for a little while to see how it feels.

for bottle users;

what cages work the best? ie:last the longest and hold the bottles the strongest?
 

heythorp

New Member
anrothar said:
which do you use? i've been using bladders since they first appeared in the mtb world(still have two original camelback neoprene sleeves), but have always wondered if the extra liquid they cary makes up for the extra sweat the cause. i'm switching to bottles for a little while to see how it feels.

for bottle users;

what cages work the best? ie:last the longest and hold the bottles the strongest?

I prefer to use bottles, but because of the enviornment I use a pack. Bottles really seem to have a short life in the woods. I use bottles only on the road. I dont really like the pack on my back. I am always adjusting the staps.


I sometimes use a bottle in the woods for longer rides, I will put my heed in it. I do not like putting anything other then water thru my bladders.

I have found that the cheapy cages work well and they are cheap. They may not look as nice but my road cages are 25 bucks a piece and the only thing they do is sit there and look nice. Its not really worth it in my opinion. I have never lost a bottle off the mt.bike with the cheapy cages.

anrothar said:
but have always wondered if the extra liquid they cary makes up for the extra sweat the cause.


Another thought here is do they really hold more water? the bottles with the little extra part at the top holds over a liter of water. So you can carry 2+ liters of water with 2 bottles. My pack is only 1.5 liters. the packs definatly make drinking easier on the move in the woods.
 

anrothar

entirely thrilled
packs make it alot easier to drink. a split second break in a technical section and you can drink through the second half of it if necessary. they're also nice for holding headlamp battery packs. i originally got away from bottles because i was breaking so many cages and ejecting so many bottles. that ringle cage i have on my bike has lasted for about 10 years now and only once lost a bottle. out of production now though.

i'll have to see how it goes. i'll give it at least a few months. i feel like i'm neglecting my jersey pockets. it's time to show em some love.
 

Norm

Mayor McCheese
Team MTBNJ Halter's
I've gone back and forth with this, a lot this year. As mentioned in another thread, I sweat buckets. So it would seem a bladder would be better for me, since mine hold 100oz in theory. Well...

If I can't see how much I'm drinking, I drink too little. So technically it may be easier to drink from a bladder. But it turns out I pretty much need to pull a mouthful of water out every minute to get enough, which is impractical. If I try to draw out as much as I can to make it more like every 5 minutes, it ends up leaving me short of breath. The faster flow of the bottle ends up working out a lot better for me. Plus the whole out-of-balance thing goes away in no time. Putting the bottle back is the tougher part. Just pick a part of trail you think is safe, then look down if you need to. If you try to half-look and half-watch the trail, you'll just end up sloppy and possibly out of control.

As Heythorps mentions, it's messy with non-water in a bladder. So I've gone to a slightly absurd sounding method of having one bottle on the bike, and 2 in the pack. So I don't get away from having the pack on. This is obviously a comment on a roughly 3 hour ride, with 1 bottle per hour. Every hour I make sure I've drained the bottle and I stop for about a minute, pull out a new bottle, and reload. I find the 60 seconds less of an inconvenience than the constant sipping of the bladder.

My bike has a second spot you can mount a cage, on the underside of the down tube, which seems an absurd place to put a cage. I've ripped the zip-ties which hold my shifter cable in place twice this year by kicking up rocks. Also have a few nasty scars on the rock ring. I can't imagine that being a good spot. But I may give it a whirl for the proverbial sh!ts and giggles. (As an aside test, I wonder if shit gets turned into ****).

As for cages, I've always bought the junk ones and they break from wear every few years. If I crash that catastrophically, they usually just bend. I find it a non-issue. Don't waste your money on this particular bell and/or whistle, IMO.

This is a huge YMMV area.
 

Allamuchy Joe

Not White House Approved
JORBA.ORG
I like the pack because you can easily carry tubes, tools & extra parts for those epic rides. Allamuchy is the kind of place you really should carry a pack because, once you are in there, you are in there! It is a difficult place to walk out of sometimes (well, time consuming would be more accurate). Dare I mention carrying a first aid kit?

But bottles are good when you are at a park like Kittatinny where you are never too far from the car. It is nice to try both. For some reason, riding my SS without a pack is more fun, but I feel more at home with a pack on my full suspension.:confused:
 
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Triple-B

Member
Definitely a bottle. I can't stand having a pack on unless I'm biking to a camp site. I don't even like the feel of having a helmet on but I gotta protect my melon !!!
 

anrothar

entirely thrilled
at 24 o' mooch i saw one of the leaders(the costa rican -i think- guy) putting a spare bottle in his jersey pocket every lap. i just(litterally) tried doing a ride with two bottles in my jersey pockets, and i hardly even noticed they were there. easy to put back too. this was all on road though, so i can't say how ejection proof jersey pockets are on the trail. i'll have to test it out.
 

heythorp

New Member
anrothar said:
at 24 o' mooch i saw one of the leaders(the costa rican -i think- guy) putting a spare bottle in his jersey pocket every lap. i just(litterally) tried doing a ride with two bottles in my jersey pockets, and i hardly even noticed they were there. easy to put back too. this was all on road though, so i can't say how ejection proof jersey pockets are on the trail. i'll have to test it out.


I met that guy a couple days after the race, He came in second. What most probably dont know is that there are NO rock in costa rica. He has ZERO experience on techincal terrrian. I sold him a set of wheels. Someone sponsered him for the year to come to the USA and do 24 hour races.

CRazy Crazy
 

anrothar

entirely thrilled
costa rican mtbers are sick. check out: http://www.adventurerace.com/eng/english.htm

i believe there are pictures there. the fact that the locals clean up nearly every year is pretty impressive, considering the caliber of us and international pros that have gone down there and raced. thomas frisckinecht(sp) is the first non-costa rican to win the mens division in 12 years.
 

heythorp

New Member
i know a bunch of guys that go down and do the 3 day race. 40,000 ft of climbing. not techincal but the down hills are so bad some walk them!!!!!
 
Tuff call

Both have advantages and disadvantages. I only know for sure, "BOTTLES DON'T STINK" . I hate bags bouncing around on my back and I sweat, so the camel bag makes it worse. Much easier to drink though and you can carry stuff. Bottles don't carry enough for really long rides, and in my case full sus bikes either have one or in the case of my freeride bike no holders. So I do what I have to do depending on the circumstance. However, nite riding I only have one choice since the light battery is in the water bottle holder on my set up. I'm beginning to see why many people ride quads with big luggage racks that you can put a cooler on packed w/ beer and roast beef subs with american cheese and cole slaw on them. And chips and dip and maybe even some peperoni and chedder. And a chick on the back, then we get fat... then we buy the mountain bike and slim down abit.... and only dring water.
 
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