I'm interested in people's opinions and experiences of gathering water on a ride...

Personally, I drink water untreated and try to be careful about where I take it from. I carry iodine tablets in case there is no trustworthy source and I've run dry, but I rarely use them.

When I'm hiking, I use a filter. It tastes better than tablets but it's huge, takes ages to pump through, and requires regular cleaning.

I'm very suspicious of steri-pens but I've never tried one.

Your thoughts?

Travel Tap water bottle.

Works well for drinking bit slow if your decanting to another bottle. But it ticks all the boxes for me. Not too heavy, quick to fill, simple to use, fits in bottle cage etc.

I tend to use a bottle rather than a bladder and just fill it from streams, etc and filter it with a dose of common sense BUT at the start of the year we'd have been really stuck if flatfishy hadn't been carrying this http://www.theoutdoorshop.com/showPart.asp?part=PN10008 I was impressed enough to buy one. I don't take it if I'm alone but do take it when out with a group. It'll filter 4l in 4 minutes ... no pumping, etc just gravity.

I use a super delios filter - http://www.delios.co.uk

Video demo - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwckomLMGR8

Used it for the first time in the Peak District a couple of weeks ago to filter water from a mermaids pool by Kinder Downfall.

easy to use,compact and super lightweight.

Can be attached to a platypus/source water bottles.

I've used MSR Miox it's slow and fiddly, salt this test papers, and takes an age to kill everything! But it's robust!. Also use a Steripen, brilliant piece of kit dragged it around the place in rucksacks, but pack it carefully and ensure you have batteries and a means of power if away for extended trips. The real benefit I think with Steripen is in high altitudes, the boiling point of water gets lower the higher you go, so you aren't going to kill the bad guys with a rolling boil, steripen cleaned our boiled water supply, and assisted with one more potential issue.
Personally I'd go with a Steripen and a decent filter system, or just use a buff as the filter and zap the bottle.

I use a super delios filter - http://www.delios.co.uk

Ive just been checking these out they look great, not sure I would use it that often but I guess I 'NEEEED' one, shame they're out of stock at the moment.