davemd1820

Anybody have any "hands-on" experience with using one of these for brevets?

At 2.5 lbs, it seems awfully heavy. Like the features though: dishwashable bladder, large fill opening, pressurized, in-line filter for "re-filling from a stream".

https://www.geigerrig.com/hydration-p...00-citrus.html

-Dave

thebulls

Hi, Dave,

Ugh, 2-1/2 pounds empty?!? Plus, that doesn't look much fun to wear on a 105 degree afternoon in the blazing heat of the Shenandoah valley.

I used to wear a hydration pack but quit because 1) too much extra weight on my butt and hands, and 2) I drank too much out of it so had to stop to pee more. The one time I might consider it, now, would be a day where forecast temp is below 15 degrees, since then I could wear it under everything and possibly keep the water from freezing, something that has been a major problem on super cold rides. I have a special hydration hose that has neoprene to help keep it from freezing. My hydration pack is a Camelback Blowfish, 20oz empty. Lots of carrying capacity, but then you're carrying stuff on your back that is better off on the bike, in my view.

I also used to carry and occasionally use a water filter, up until 2007. I used a Katadyn EXStream water filter bottle, about the same size as a 24oz water bottle. I could start the ride just using it as a regular water bottle, carrying the filter separately in my saddle bag. Then if I ran out of water I could stop at a stream. Ultimately, though, when I got a bike that could easily handle three water bottles in 2007, I found that there wasn't really any need for the filter. I could carry enough water for any kind of weather and the distances between water spots on our rides (though sometimes in really hot weather I'll buy a water bottle at a convenience store and carry it in my handlebar bag). Stopping to refill your bottle at a stream takes longer than I really wanted; often it can be somewhat inconvenient to get down to the stream, and then it's fairly easy to slip on mossy rocks in your bike shoes and get a shoe full of water. And then you have a water bottle that can't be used as a regular water bottle when you do get to water, because it is potentially contaminated with stuff that might be very hard to clean out in a restroom on the road. And the filter takes up enough room in the bottle that you now have only 2-1/2 bottles of capacity instead of 3.

With the water-filter hydration pack, you will have to be extra careful in the cleaning process if you have used it with a stream. Some of the things that can cause problems are pretty robust and (I think) can even survive drying out. I guess that's possibly OK as long as you're always using the filter. Filters do tend to increase the effort required to drink, somewhat.

Best,

Nick

davemd1820

Hi Nick-

Yes, 2-1/2 lbs empty! That alone seems to be a deal breaker. Especially for someone with a weak low back & core, like me. Dehydration plagued me quite a bit last year. I found that on rides 300K or longer, I was not drinking enough. My right arm was tending to get stiff & the tendonitis in my elbow was flaring up. This caused me to reach for the water bottle less often than ideal.

On the Contrary Mother 300K, somewhere during the darkness, I drank from a bottle & then missed the cage when returning the bottle. I was not even aware of this until we reached Lost River! Needless to say, I was down to only one bottle & few places to refill. When I reached Wolf Gap, it was around 11 pm, dark, foggy & I had no idea where that natural spring was. I sipped what I had left in one bottle & completed the final 25 miles with no liquids.

So, I am not sold on the idea of a hydration pack, but recognize that I need to focus on taking in more liquid. I had my new Waterford built with braze-ons for 3 water bottles, so that is new to me for this year.

Geigerrig seems to have some really good features which Camelbak is not offering, YET. However, they need to put their packs on a diet to become more mainstream in cycling. IMHO.

-Dave

thebulls

Three water bottles may solve all your problems. The problem with your arm and tendonitis may just go away with your new bike.

Alternatively, I recently saw a product that seemed like a "solution in search of a problem" but that might actually be useful if your arm problem remains an issue. Specifically, Showers Pass is selling a saddlebag-mounted hydration pack, see:

https://www.showerspass.com/veleau

You could do something similar just by sticking a hydration sac in a Carradice saddlebag and then running the hose under your top tube and around the handlebars. Or you could even just run the hose up your back and clip it to your collar so it's available whenever you want. Just don't forget it's clipped on when you pull up to a control and hop off your bike!

Back when I used aerobars, I rigged up a hydration sac holder from an old stuff sack to hang under the aerobars, and that worked quite well, too. But it tended to make the steering somewhat wallowy.

Either approach takes the weight off your back and onto the bike.

Nick

StephenH

Way back when, I would hike in the mountains of Colorado. Water was usually fairly plentiful, the little creeks were all in the rock and fairly clean, and a filter system would work great.

Riding around here in Texas, the creeks all have mud banks and bottoms, stock tanks are usually on the other side of a barbed wire fence, and a filter system would be very very useless.

So figure out if your riding areas are more like north Texas or like the Colorado mountains.

Homeyba

I think if you use something like that on a long brevet you are inviting neck issues. I bring a hydration pack on most brevets but I don't use it all the time and when there is no water in it I strap it to my seatpost rack.

max-a-mill

good alternative to the hydration pack may be a frame bag you just stuff a hydration bladder in?

you get the ability to carry LOTS of water with none of the weight on your back.

2-3 waterbottles with the option to stick an extra gas station drink in your jersey pocket will get you a long way though. the longer the ride is the more in tune my body seems to get with drinking. i may get a little dehyrated at first but after 1 or 2 hundred miles my body screams at me to drink it is really impossible to ignore.

Andrey

I find the hydration pack useful in hot summer brevets, when I can fill it with ice and enjoy cold drinks all day long. However I start hating it on my back on the second day of a long brevet when I get tired. Then I usually mount it on the rack like Homeyba said.

I think the above mentioned pack is too big and heavy for comfort. I am using the first generation M.U.L.E. from Camalbak and it seems too big at times. Newer smaller packs (70 oz) seems like the best compromise between size, weight and capacity.