Plan B is "try not to think about it"...

I'd like that look immensely.

I have not researched it yet, but the kitchen sink where I fill mine has water that has been through two filters in our house alone. Then again, I do not know the particle size.

Those filters, they are plastic. Just sayin.

I got one recently and haven’t had any issues gripping it. Capacity is a bit less because double wall, and it scratches easily in a cage, but I’ve been happy with it.

Potentially relevant information: https://news.umich.edu/nitrile-and-l...study-reveals/

Very interesting…

Yup.

Ingested microplastics make you stronger and help you shed water in the rain.

I came here to post the link Andy_K shared. There's a reasonable chance that most of the microplastics that were found in lab tests were coming from the gloves used in the testing protocol.

Reminds me of the time when I was in the Navy and one of the chemists kept finding chlorides in the feedwater sample. Turns out he had made up a batch of titrating solution with tap water instead of demineralized water.

One of the big problems with what we have seen in the “news” is that the information we are given is incomplete. We have made thousands of different polymeric materials that are classified as “plastic” but I’ve never seen general articles that identifying which of those thousands are the ones present in our bodies nor which ones are detrimental. Saying “plastics” and assuming that they are all bad is wrong because they all have different properties. Polyethylene or polypropylene or polyethylene terephthalate…all used in food and beverage containers…are very different from styrene-butadiene rubber (SBR) which is used for tires. The latter, car tires, are probably responsible for most of the microplastics we encounter.

Cars tires ablate far more material into the environment than water bottles do. Additionally, the SBR is more reactive than other plastics when it is reduced in size. Think of it this way: tires “dry out” over time while your water bottles will stay stable for decades. The “drying out” of rubber over time is due to the rubber being what is called a thermoset plastic while the water bottles are thermoplastics. The thermoset plastic that is SBR goes through irreversible chemical reactions and will continue to react over time. Remove little bits of that plastic through ablation and that plastic will still continue to react. Ingest it and it will react with the body.

A thermoplastic like those used in water bottles don’t really react with themselves nor much of anything else. If you were to ablate the water bottle…not something that happens during use…and ingest them, the chemicals in the plastic don’t react with the body too much because they are water phobic and most inert. That’s what makes them “thermoplastic”…they can be melted over and over and over again without changing character.

And stainless steel isn’t perfect. While it doesn’t form iron oxide…rust…easily, chlorides in the water can leach chromium from the steel which isn’t good for you either. Chromium is added to the steel to make a chromium oxide that passivates the steel and keeps the iron in the steel from oxidizing. But chlorides in water can exchange the oxygen for chloride and mobilize it…i.e. make it water soluble…so that the chromium can be ingested. It’s not a fast process nor really anything to worry too much about but it does expose you to trace amounts of chromium which isn’t not a good metal to be ingesting.

I learned, a long time ago, that even ppm amounts of chloride in water can have a detrimental effect on chromium in stainless steels designed for chemical resistance which is much more resistant to that kind of leaching than consumer water bottles. Granted the conditions I was using were far more severe than what you’d encounter in daily use but it indicated to me what even a tiny amount of chloride can do to stainless.

But personally, I’m not anymore worried about chromium exposure from my stainless coffee cup than I am of micro plastics from my water bottles. Neither is that large of a problem nor an area of much concern. And I’ve also seen the report from University of Michigan which calls into question the whole microplastics brouhaha anyway.

I have a chemistry degree and I do not understand how any of the standard beverage and food containers could cause a significant quantity of plastics ingested, and even if it was occurring, how this could represent a major health threat.

But without delving too much into politics, note the self-interest of the groups that are the most shrill about this issue: health researchers and left-leaning governments. For the former, more research grant money. For the latter, more revenue (a plastic tax) and more control over consumer purchases. And possibly domestic manufacturers of beverage and food packaging/containers. Age-old playbook: lobby government(s) to keep imports/competition out.

If you have 15 seconds to spare, it may behoove you to get The Definitive Word on the subject:

YouTube video

QED

Over 30 years often working in a cleanroom, I put on latex gloves daily. Oddly I'm still alive.

A quick test to see if an airborne particle monitor is working is to snap your latex glove above it, and see if the number spikes.

Lots of info here, much of which suggests I might be fine continuing w/plastic bottles. That said, my one non-red bike is silver aluminum, might consider trying a KiLEY SR-01 "DORIC" bottle on that one, see if I like it to outfit the rest of the bikes ($). DORIC well, I guess you convince yourself it looks a bit like a Doric column?

Ah yes, conspiracy theories from all sides, right left front and back plus the top and bottom. I love 2026.

What about the yucky plastic taste on a hot day? Surely something must be coming out into the water. Call me crazy.

I will likely regret having said much of the above.

What I really came here to say is that I have been using a Klean Kanteen 27oz as a bidon the past month. It is the right diameter (same as traditional bidon or Coloral) but too tall for a normal cage, but Blackburn briefly made a cage called the "tallboy" for a koozie of beer, and its top lip fits the neck of the Klean Kanteen. The King Cage Iris is also advertised to fit the Klean Kanteen. The Sports Cap (*not the flip top straw one, rather the one with the rubber nipple) gives a decent flow and doesn't leak when tipped on its side. I was pleasantly surprised by the whole experience. My toddler begs to drink from it, which is a bonus. That's the 27oz Klean Kanteen. The smaller (18 or 12oz) ones might be the right height to mimic a traditional bidon, and they sure resemble the old Coloral bottles in shape so wouldn't look terribly out of place on C&V ride. I think they even sell wooden caps if you really wanted "the look". I cannot find a definitive height measurement for the 18oz Klean Kanteen, but my rough calculations suggest its shoulder will be slightly below the lip of a normal bottle cage. I am tempted to get a used one on ebay just to test this out.

My little brother sent me some Bivo Duo bottles after hearing my Klean Kanteen saga. He is an avid fat biker and said they fall out or rattle too much off road for his use. They are fine for me on the road. As satisfied as I am with the flow from the Klean Kanteen, the Bivos blow it out of the water! They have a silicone straw, but it's for letting air in, so that you don't gulp bubbles from the little air inlet. It is amazing how well they flow, even not being squeezed. You barely have to suck at all. They fit ok in most cages. The Blackburn Chicane cage works fine. The Elite Ciussi a little better still. Nitto and Electra Ticino Nitto knockoff fit like a glove.

scarlson Obliquely gives the correct answer.

Beer can in a coozer.

The solution is clearly glass:

Again, not that bad.

You cannot squeeze water out of metal water bottle, or even suck it out, the way you can with a plastic bottle and nipple. You have to open it up and drink or have a different kind of spigot.

Stainless is heavy. Aluminum is lighter. There are MANY aluminum water bottles out there with a two-hole plastic top

Bah!, you know all that, I'm sure.

The old “plastic” taste of yore is mostly a thing of the past. Modern quality bicycle water bottles don’t impart the same taste. That taste was due to the plasticizers they used back then but they have changed formulations and improved quality control. That taste, however, is not due to “microplastics”.

In 1967, my brother finished his stint in the Navy and came home, and dragged out his old race bike; I recall it in the driveway and not only the bottle but four year old water. At age 11, before he could stop me, I grabbed it and drank the water. And NOW I'm worried about microplastics?

Eeww! Forget about plastic, what was growing in that water?

I'm no expert but I have heard that the problem with plastic bottles isn't microplastics (particles), it is plasticizer chemicals leaching out. I'm way out of my depth here but I think I heard the problem is they are similar in some ways to hormones, so they act as endocrine disruptors. WebMD says "One study links high levels of phthalate exposure to early death in older people." But it was just a correlation, doesn't prove causality.

My wife, before she retired, was a hazardous materials educator, teaching businesses. She says one recurring problem we see is when a chemical gets banned, some companies substitute another similar "cousin" of that chemical, which might be as bad or worse but hasn't been tested yet.

She uses hard plastic bottles because they have less plasticizers than the soft pliable ones. I forget the brand of the bottles she likes. I use regular soft bidons because hey, who wants to live forever?
She also insists on cooking dried beans, rather than getting canned beans, because the lining of the cans can have BPA or other chemicals that get in the food. We try not to store food in plastic, we buy our olive oil in glass bottles, and never ever microwave anything in Tupperware or other plastic.

Because of microplastics, we strongly prefer cotton and wool clothes, avoiding synthetics and blends, even our towels and rags are cotton.. No carpets except a couple that are wool — not synthetic. We don't allow microfiber Swiffer mops or the like. We use Ridwell to recycle more plastic than the city of Seattle will accept, to try to keep some of it out of the landfill. Of course not buying plastic things (or things that come packaged in plastic) is a goal, but those are unavoidable unless you're willing to go Full Amish. We're not weird about it, just aware.

Not only that, think of how much weight we're saving as microplastics replace regular cells!

The obvious C&V solution:

The only real downside is that production stopped a few years back, so we're stuck with eBay and such. So between the cage and the bottles, expect to pay about 200 bucks. And the aluminum will give you Alzheimer's. Or something.

Cool, what are they? I see L'Eroica peeking out there, is it official swag?