I thought I knew what I thought about a thing, an unimportant thing, and then Padraig said what he thought about it, and that threw the whole thing into confusion again. Don’t get me wrong. I don’t just accept Padraig’s take on a thing, even a bike thing. But this is more of a practical and aesthetic matter. I’ll tell you about it and then you can tell me what you think.
It’s about water bottles or not water bottles. How many? And where to put them.
Here’s the crux of it. If you’re going for a shortish ride, say less than 90 minutes. How many water bottles do you bring? And if you only bring one, where do you put it?
My take was, one bottle, and I put it on the seat tube. In fact, I must have moved my down tube cage to another bike, because I just have the one right now. Padraig was slightly aghast, feeling that one bottle was fine, but that clearly, for aesthetic reasons, the single bottle needed to go on the down tube. All of this goes away on a longer ride where maybe you wear a hydration pack.
Now obviously, these are extremely important questions to answer, because one must, at all time, take bike riding very seriously in order to be a Serious CyclistTM.
So, give me some guidance. What do you do?
I am blown away that you or anyone has even considered the seat tube for single bottle days. No judgement just shock. I would have thought the answer from every cyclist every time would be down tube . Maybe it’s just Padraig and I….
One. On the downturn, obvi.
Next question: what’s in that one bottle – straight H2O or enhanced in some way?
*downtube. F’ing predictive typing.
To set the stage, I’m old school, and I ride a vintage bike. So, you start with the downtube, then if you need more, you add to the seat tube, then if you need more, you go to a jersey pocket, then if you need more, you stop somewhere along the way and refill. And all said bottles are the shorter ones (not the longer ones that hold more water and are more efficient but less aesthetic).
By vintage I mean late 80’s. As the picture shows, bottles lived in different places before bottle cage braze-ons became a thing.
Seat tube for me too but I am aware that is going against the grain.
Per this video seat tube vs downtube is 1.4 watts quicker!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1oY81dsNjWg
If I saw a cyclist riding with 2 cages and they only had a bottle in the cage on the seat tube I would assume they dropped their other bottle
Reading from Bartali’s Second Book of Water Bottles, Chapter II, verses 1-4 “On short rides, thou shalt put the water bottle on the downtube. For longer rides or really hot days, thou shalt put the second bottle on the seat tube. If the seat tube is short due to you being a runt, thou mayest without disfavor from St. Campagnolo of Derailleurville, mount a larger bottle on the downtube. If thouest are going for a really long ride, yer on yer own, kid.”
Praise to Bartali and St. ChromeMoly….
Heh. I’ve been putting the primary bottle on the downtube for so long that I’d probably fall off the bike and crash if I put it anywhere else. But I only use a backpack water bladder on long mountain or gravel rides as the bottles on the bike start to look like grunge city.
That said, I need to save that picture of the classic bike. Made me swoon!
One bottle. Downtube. 3 inch socks. Full finger gloves. Shades under straps. Bib shorts. Disc brakes. Need anything else?
There are many ways, but only one correct way; and it is downtube first bottle, seat tube second bottle. There shall be no other bottles unless you are domestique servicing your team in a UCI-sanctioned race… or a bikepacker with fuel bottles. As it ever was, so shall it be. Amen!
One bottle- seat tube.
One bottle; down tube. My mountain bikes only have that location available. If I am going out for an unknown time and/or distance I will take an additional bottle or two in a hip bag. I do now actually have a “gravel” bike and max I’ll bring with me on it are two with the understanding that there will places along my route to stop and refill.
If I met a bunch of folks at the ride start, and one of them had a set-up as pictured in the image at the top of this piece, Robot, I’d call the bomb squad.
Second, what the hell’s wrong with you? Seat tube? I’m surprised Padraig will still agree to do a weekly podcast with you. Good thing you have Stevil for the other podcast. He’s an iconoclast.
One bottle: seat tube
Caveat: downtube if you still ride 23s at 120psi with horribly exposed cables, flapping jersey, and a helmet that never once thought about being aero. Because downtube says I don’t care about science. Downtube is what The Rules would have said.
QED