Originally Posted by
Machka
And as for water ... snow takes a long time to melt, if it melts at all, and only produces a small amount of liquid. If the whole trip is going to be in below freezing temps, there's almost no point to bringing a bottle at all because any water you put into the bottle will freeze. You can slow the freezing process a bit by putting the bottle in a sock, but unless the temps come above freezing, the water will still eventually freeze.
When I've done long rides in cold temps, I've planned them so that I drink quite a bit in the morning before I go. Then I stop in a town after an hour or two and drink quite a bit there. Then I stop in a town after an hour or two and drink quite a bit there. And so on until the end of the ride. I haven't relied on my water bottles at all.
Interesting. I hadn't heard of not being able to melt snow. I do agree it doesn't give much liquid on the end, unless you are in an environment, eastern midwest US that generally has a lot of heavy, wet snow. There you would get quite a bit more water out of snow.
I agree with you totally on not planning on taking water with you. Whenever I head out to do a winter century ride or even shorter rides I take an empty water bottle with me and it always leaves anywhere empty. I drink while I'm there and make sure to empty the bottle out before I leave. Not only does it save weight on the ride but it prevents the frozen water effect as well. The only trouble with doing that can be unplanned on dehydration effects. I finally come to realize last winter, thanks to a posting here on the forum what one of my problems had been. I knew it only happened on long ride and only during the winter months. Someone asked a question about giddiness he was experiencing. Someone made mention of dehydration, even though he was only riding 5-10 miles to work. I thought about what was being said and the light bulb went off. You may think you can't get dehydrated during the winter months but it's probably even easier to get dehydrated during the winter months than it is during the summer months...simply because you think it can't happen and as a result you don't drink enough to keep yourself hydrated.