Multiple water bottles, bottle swaps, etc.

[Susie]

I can carry 4 bottles on my bike:  cages on each of the downtube and seat tube, and 2 more on my seat post in one of these:


I am doing primarily liquid nutrition on Saturday.  1 bottle of Heed per loop of the 2-loop course, plus water for hydration, so 3 bottles?  4 bottles?  How much water I need depends on the temp.  3 will probably be fine.

There is a bottle exchange on the loop (location TBA), where you can get Heed or water, have to throw a bottle to get a bottle.

Do I want to take advantage of this at all?  Or carry everything?  I want to carry everything, so there's no risk of not getting what I need, right?  Or is that foolish to carry unnecessary weight? 

In any event, I want to use a throwaway bottle for my first Heed bottle at least.  I have an easier time pulling bottles out than getting them back in, especially any location save for the downtube (that's where I always keep the bottle I'm currently drinking), so I want to be able to toss bottle #1 when it's empty instead of juggling bottles.  Anybody found a sport drink style bottle that fits bottle cages well?

[sadlebred]

My all time favorite cycling bottle and worth every penny (of the $6-7):

specializedwaterbottles.com/bottles/big-mouth-24-oz/

[pamela]

Will you need an extra water bottle with liquid nutrition?

[Susie]

Jun 10, 2013 13:32:27 GMT -5 pamela said:

Will you need an extra water bottle with liquid nutrition?

I expect to actually drink 2 bottles of Heed + 1 bottle of water while I'm on the bike. 

I could carry all of that right out of transition, I'm just trying to decide whether I want to swap later to get some of it so I don't have 3 full bottles' weight at the beginning of the ride.

[joenali]

I carry 3. One for calories and electrolytes, like 700. One for plain water and one for just plain electrolytes. You can swap a water bottle for a water bottle on the course. You can also carry extra calories (powder) and dump into a water bottle if you need to.

[trigal]

Swap. No need to carry the extra weight and I personally hate riding behind someone with those behind-the-seat cages. I've seen too many people lose their bottles out of them!

[katandkevin]

I would carry 4, but I hate relying on bike aid stations. Some people don't know how to do the hand ups and end up causing a big problem. Maybe wait and see what the temp is and make a game time decision.