i always carry a large mouth nalgene bottle in my bag. its perfect last night i carried soup to my friends house, ive put Granola in it, you can put just about anything in it it wont leak in your bag or get crushed. just a tip.

http://www.nalgene-outdoor.com/store/subcategory.asp?categorysubcategorycode=5

what is nalgene?

check out the link its great stuff.

I love my Nalgene bottles too - hot or cold stuff, dry or wet, it all goes in there. Plus, the fact that I can boil it whenever it starts getting 'funky', or if I forgot to clean it out...wonderful.

- b

Boil it? Man I've been struggling to keep the bottom clean with my bottle brush.

Boil it? Man I've been struggling to keep the bottom clean with my bottle brush.

put a little bleach and water in it, shake it up and let it sit for a few minutes

I love my nalgene sooo much. I've been a nalgene junkie for about 5 years. I'm much more reverent with mine though, I only carry water. When they get dirty, this little trick works for me: Soap, water, a handful of rice, shake violently, rinse, repeat as needed.
Adam

Rice?

i second the rice idea. it scours out the inside, loosing any funk thats in there. i use rice water and baking soda. sometimes i'll forget to clean it if i carried something other than water, then i'll have to grab the bottle brush. Does anybody know if there any any water bottle cages big enough to hold a nalgene? I figure it would be pretty difficult to drink while riding, but it would free up some room in my bag.

put a little bleach and water in it, shake it up and let it sit for a few minutes

Some people think that what's left behind after you use this method of cleaning can have harmful health effects. Like increasing the risk of allergic reactions to seemingly unrelated stuff.

I use soap and hot water and it works fine for me.

Salt, water and crushed ice would work too.

nalgene is great...i've never used it for soup or anything else, though...just water and and brass monkeys...that way you can drink in public and people think it's just orange juice. not that i condone drinking and riding. and i sure never do it myself....

Not to be too much of downer, but...Grist.org's environmental advice column, Ask Umbra, has no less than 3 columns devoted to the subject of plastic bottles, and talks about nalgene's in particular.
http://www.grist.org/advice/ask/2004/08/02/umbra-bottles/index.html
http://www.grist.org/advice/ask/2005/01/10/umbra-bottles2/index.html
http://www.grist.org/advice/ask/2005/01/13/umbra-plastics/index.html
They honestly left me slightly more confused than before, though. I actually bought a metal water bottle from my natural food coop for by bike carrier, which I like even though its not squeezable. I was on a slightly paranoid kick between reading Steingraber's book Living Downstream: A Scientist's Personal Investigation of Cancer and hearing Dr. Epstein, the author of Cancergate, speak last year at the Environmetnal Law Conference in Eugene. That is certainly not the purpose of either of their work, their points running more to the point how we are all vulnerable as long as we put these materials in the environement without sufficient science looking at their safety and cumulative and synergistic impacts.
When people see my water bottle, a lot of them will say they got rid of their Nalgenes in the past year due to safety concerns. I still use plastic (for both food and the keys on which I type, for a starters) and have no real delusions about protecting myself from our common fate through consumer choices. I waiver between resenting marketing on my fears and notg wanting to ignore information becuase it is inconvenient. When I first arrived in this area, (lefty area with lots of areas for backpacking and such) everyone seemed to have a Nalgene, and that trends seems to have leveled off a bit, just from personal observation.

I stopped using plastic and prefer instead clear, lead-free glass bottles. A tomato sauce jar works well for holding things, and you can find glass jars with rubbel seal lids almost anywhere. One might initially worry about the breaking of glass, but most bottles are fairly thick and I have never had one break in all my journeys.

(Treehugger, check out the bottle assortment that either the Arcata or Eureka Co-Ops have. fairly inexpensive and good sealable bottles.)

i've been using glass jars for quite a while after a friend gave me one, i also recently saw Steingraber speak and i must say she is genuine.

aside from the side-effects nalgene can have on humans the company also makes restraint devices used in animal testing. i will not be buying a nalgene bottle. ever.

http://www.rmad.org/nalgene.html

http://www.rmad.org/images/nalgene.jpeg

i knew that pic would show up sooner or later

Hey! That looks like Frank! No wonder I haven't seen him in a few days!