best hydration solutions ?

[HaYWiRe]

In other words, what bottle and cage combo do you use and prefer?

Ive dotted back and forth with various different solutions, both for road, trails and bikepacking. Haven't really found the "perfect" setup.
Ive jettisoned bottles on rough decents, gone to drink and found the nozzle caked in crap, got one jammed because of some over optimistic frame bag packing and worst of all, end up listening to that incessantly annoying tapping sound when the bottle rattles against the cage! Grrr!

Do you have different solutions for different bikes? Or "terrain"?

Currently using a steel thermos bottle in a Topeak cage, the bottle has the nicest taste and its got "f**k diabetes" engraved on it, so yeah.... Plus the cage adjusts to to fit normal bottles. Problem is its quite noisy and rattles loose on rough trails.

Anyone seen those fabric cageless bottles? Seem an interesting concept for clean lines and access under a Framebag.

[Ray Young]

I use a bottle in a stem cell now. Easy to reach and out of the way of muck.

[benp1]

I've found the best bottle bar none is the Camelbak Podium, it's excellent. Even use them as normal day to day bottles, I own at least 7

[ianfitz]

I use specialized side entry cages (available via wildcat) and 750ml bottles (any that are about) the cages are mounted on either mount skidmore or 'band on' adapters to move the cage as low as possible.

The reason for this is that both bikes have custom half framebags that fill all the available space.

I use a fat bike 'gut gender' on the down tube pretty much all year round so the tops remain crud free.

It's taken me a good while to arrive at what is the ideal set up for me

[Pyro]

Podium bottles are good, but the valve system is a git to clean properly, and they don't fit well in the Tao cages I use on my road bike.

Sometimes it's a case of sticking to a single manufacturer. On both my MTBs I use Specialized cages (Ribcage normal-access and Zee side-access cages) which work brilliantly with the Specialized Wide Mouth bottles. Good right grip, no rattles, no ejections. Not as good with the multitude of High5 bottles I have, but at least a very known quantity.

[HaYWiRe]

I bought my girlfriend an insulated podium, even with regular cleaning (though admittedly not as regular as needed) the nozzle got ucky quite quickly and very hard to clean.

Ive got quite a few high5 bottles I get free but these get ruined fast, still, never expected much from freebies so cant complain.

Ive been experimenting with hydration bladders, for trail riding. Even got a Camelbak waistback with a small bladder but just cant get on with them. Hard to clean, hard to fill, no mixes and just more faff Than id like to deal with.

Anyone thought of using collapsible bottles? The thin ones with little carabineers? Ive seen a few roadies use them in jersey pockets lately and liked the idea, maybe even spare in a framebag?

Liked stem cells for touring but on an unladen bike I found the weight too high or unstable on technical terrain.

[ianfitz]

Soft bottles are ok but can be hard to fill from streams or trickly slow flowing water sources.

[RIP]

Currently riding Voies Vertes in Brittany for a week. Water setup: MYOG gaffer tape stem cell weighing about 20g plus 50cl ultralight supermarket water bottle (PS. No, of course I never buy bottled water unless i need a new BP bottle!). Fill in morning then top up from streams with Steripen so weight never exceeds 700g tops, usually half that. Those 'normal' cycling bottles and cages are too OTT pour moi i'm afraid.

'Monsieur Reg'

[fatbikephil]

Must admit I still like my camel bak. I've been using bottles on the bike quite a bit this year to give my dodgy back an easy time but I definitely drink more with the camel back as its just that bit easier to shove the tube in yer gub on the move rather than reaching down for bottles or trying to haul one out of a stem cell and shove it back in again.

[ZeroDarkBivi]

If I had space in my frame for two largish bidons (800ml, or thereabouts) I would be very happy to stick with that simple solution; sufficient capacity for most rides (desert aside), easy to drink, easy to fill from a stream, and easy to keep an eye on how much fluid you have left. Always use Podium bottles on the road bike and have little problem with gunk as I don't put sugary stuff in them - Miltons or dishwasher always gets them clean.

The reality is my MTB frames are barely big enough for one large piss bottle, and I don't want to start mounting bottle below the down tube where they are exposed to rocks, trail-crap, etc, at least not unless I am desperate for more capacity (desert rides?). Therefore I have stuck with hydration bladders for some time now. The best drinking solution for me is a standard pack (Osprey Talon 22 is a favourite, especially if I have rear suspension, therefore reducing the size of seat pack I can use), with a 'vertical' 2L bladder - not the 'horizontal' waist bladders, which I never get on with.

However, in warm weather I prefer not to ride with a pack, and put the bladder in my frame bag, with about 1600ml of water (fits easier that way). This works OK, but can develop some minor problems with blockages in the hose and definitely takes more suction power working against gravity. The hose can also get in the way, flopping around the bars, and on one ride I lost the bite-valve as it got caught in the front wheel! The frame bag (as wide as possible, without interfering with the crank) also maximises what little space I have in the triangle, and as well as water I can fill it with bivi pole, warm gloves, spare tube & pump, small cable lock, maps, and other small items of spares, tools or food. It supposedly also makes the bike more stable by having a lower CofG, but I can't say I've ever noticed much difference.

[ctznsmith]

I use a bottle in a stem cell now. Easy to reach and out of the way of muck.

This is definitely my favorite solution for bikepacking.

[breff]

I use a bottle in a stem cell now. Easy to reach and out of the way of muck.

This is definitely my favorite solution for bikepacking.

Not understanding this "Stem Cell" stuff. Anybody care to edgykayt a new guy?

[whitestone]

They are small bags ( similar to a climber's chalk bag) that attach to the side of your stem and behind the handlebar. https://www.alpkit.com/products/stem-cell