water bottle slung from down tubes

[journeyman]

Im looking ta carry more water than my normal 1litre on a trip I've got coming up in a hotter than Devon destination. Looking around at the options it seems that nearly every photo of an American bike has a mandatory wide kleen kanteen slung under the down tube. it looks the part like having bottles strapped to forks but I cant help thinking that this is the worst place to put a water bottle and a sure way of ending up drinking filthy water. Or am i missing something and its actually a good set up for carrying extra?

[ScotRoutes]

Decant it into a clean bottle before drinking.

[NewRetroTom]

I think this is one of those things that works nicely in dry places, but not well at all in UK gloop. If the bottle is completely covered in sheep/cow poo as it would be riding a lot of UK trails you'd want to give it a pretty good wash before even trying to open the top to decant it into a clean bottle. Even riding with a Camelbak there have been plenty of times when I haven't wanted to put the valve into my mouth!

[RIP]

stem cell closer to hand too...

[Mariner]

If only there was a cover to go over the top of a bottle mounted in a cage under the down tube.

[PaulB2]

A beerbabe downtube bag works well or if the recycled look isn't your thing then bedrock bags do something similar. When I've used a regular bike cage I've either used a nalgene bottle with a flip up dome lid protecting the spout and or I've decanted from the bottle into a clean one.

[Lazarus]

My bottle the entire cap/top/mouthpiece is covered with a plastic dome cap so that no dirt/mud/crap can get to where i would put my mouth.

I am also fairly sure i can decant it without smearing or pouring mud at the same time - wipe it off on some grass then decant.

[dlovett]

If only there was a cover to go over the top of a bottle mounted in a cage under the down tube.

a sandwich or dog poo bag and and elastic band will keep the top of a water bottle free of most dirt and mud.