So a little while ago I experimented with ditching the camelbak. It works fine for day rides with just a large bottle or even stuffing an extra coke bottle size, er, bottle in the jersey pocket.

As soon as I went to an overnighter I had to get the camel bak back out to add 2 litres to the water capacity. In Tenerife it was so hot I had camel back, 2l. 700ml bottle and one dal another 1l in another bottle in the pack.

I hoped with the new frame my existing tangle bag (1/2 frame bag) would allow the use of one or more bottles but it seems unlikely.

Chioces are,
1, stick with the 1/2 frame pack and try a monkii style holder low on the frame for 2+ dayers, coupled with camelbak.
2, custom frame bag, with some way of mounting a 3l reservoir in there. Does anybody do this with any success?
3, 2 massive bottles, back pocket too.

There's always the chance I'll end up needing a way to carry more food too of course!!

What do you do?

Aside from a normal bottle I tend to carry a fold up/squishy platypus bottle but you still need somewhere to put it once it's full.

I'm thinking about getting a Sea to Summit Pack tap. The 4l one weighs 134g and you can strap it over a bar harness, etc. While I wouldn't really want to ride miles carrying it full, I think it would be handy to fill up a few miles before camp.

I tried putting a bladder in my admittedly small frame bag and it seemed to take up loads of room. Also as the water level dropped things started to rattle about a bit. I now have a separate frame fit bladder bag and it seems to work fine but I have only used it once. If you go for a custom frame bag a separate compartment for a bladder might work.

I don't like using bottles off road as I find they get covered in crap. Prefer to use a camelbak.
Always use bottles on road though.
I've got a travel tap bottle that'll sit in my frame bag that I'll fill just before camp for additional water.

I don't think I've worn a camelbak in over two years - frame bag and bottles for me for rides of any length.

Putting a bladder in a frame bag is a poor use of the space in my experience. It invariably doesn't get into all the corners and takes up a disproportionate amount of volume for its capacity. I always think bladders are also more difficult to fill up at streams (smaller hole, can't submerge them to fill them up, difficult to fill in the absence of small waterfalls etc), and less convenient to drink out of on the move.

My day to day set up does depend on what sort of ride/trip I'm doing. For short trips and/or trips with good food resupply options, I use a Wildcat Clouded Leopard cut around two bottles, which given the constraints on my medium size frame allows me to take a 750ml and 500ml bottle. If I'm bikepacking, I may also take a 1 litre platypus bladder that will fit in a jersey pocket (just), so I can fill up shortly before heading to an overnight spot where there might not be any water.

However, for the Highland Trail, I want more space for food in my frame bag, so space for only one bottle will do fine against the seat tube - this is exactly the sort of bag we made for Aidan Harding for the Cairngorm Loop. As it's Scotlandshire, opportunities to pick up water along the way should be plentiful. When making a water stop, you can always drink a bottles worth there and then, and take a full one away with you, thereby reducing the frequency of having to stop to refill/stay hydrated.

So, in answer to your post - I'd go for #2.

I have a tangle bag below which I can fit a side pull cage for 1 bottle.
Trying to ditch the camelback for the WRT so was going to try a couple of these, mounted on the handlebars
(facing backwards so it doesn't get in the way of the front harness) for a couple more bottle cages

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Mobi ... elID=74876

s8tannorm wrote:Aside from a normal bottle I tend to carry a fold up/squishy platypus bottle but you still need somewhere to put it once it's full.

I'm thinking about getting a Sea to Summit Pack tap. The 4l one weighs 134g and you can strap it over a bar harness, etc. While I wouldn't really want to ride miles carrying it full, I think it would be handy to fill up a few miles before camp.

Interested in knowing how you mount that one Stu. Still looking for TD capacity ideas.

Interested in knowing how you mount that one Stu. Still looking for TD capacity ideas.

Because it's flexible, I thought about a strap through the cutouts on the carrier with the carrier wrapped round the front harness drybag ... the carrier sort of becomes a pocket.

Maybe something like this ? Similar to the Sea to Summit one but only 2l and can be worn as a belt / bum bag type of thing. Won't take up much space when you're not using it.

I've been trying to shed the back pack too!
Inspired by http://joecruz.wordpress.com/2011/10/17 ... o-pugsley/:

I've been experimenting with using the rear caliper brake mounts (redundant as running a rear disk) to host a mini rear rack and two extra bottle cages..... it's at the 'rice crispie box and sellotape' mock up stage at the moment to check for heel strike etc.
Marvel at the engineering magnificance :)

Bottles-1 by 99percentchimp, on Flickr

Bottles-5 by 99percentchimp, on Flickr

Check out "Amazon, mini alloy rack" , £13.61, you might be able to adapt it. Nice idea by the way.

Cheers Ray - will have a look!

Also, why mount the bottles vertical, could you not follow the line of the seatstay, it would give more clearance or does it throw up other problems?

Hi Ray,
Still cogitating on the final bottle cage position and I did think of parallelling the seat stays too, as your post. Final verison will be dictated by a combination of factors including heel/calf strike issues, ability to get at the bottles on the move, chances of the bottles staying put off road and finally aesthetics (will look nicer parallel as you've mentioned I think).
Was also thinking of alloy plate for a further mockup and with various drillings to test for for cage positions?

Ooooh, I like the v-brake mount water option - smart!!!

I might have a play around with that myself.

Nice idea!

s8tannorm wrote:Maybe something like this ? Similar to the Sea to Summit one but only 2l and can be worn as a belt / bum bag type of thing. Won't take up much space when you're not using it.

I've got the 4 l one of these and instead of a belt strap that goes from end to end, it has a separate strap at each end with clips... Looking at this last night I think it would very happily sit on the front of a bar drybag setup... You might not want that much weight up front all day but as something to fill when you can later in the day it could be handy. The only issue I can see is that it may rotate around the bar dry bag to the lowest point, and that may mean it clatters the front wheel, when the fork compresses, at least. Will have to think of a way of keeping it in place.

Loving the rice crispie pack work...!