Water bottle placement and hydration systems
Hi folks. I need some input, guidance, advice:
I'm picking up my new Trek Speed Concept on Friday. I need to decide how many water bottle holders and where to place them.
I usually race the 70.3 distance, but am doing IMLou this year as my first IM. I'm a big guy - 185 pounds right now, 178 at my best - and have a high sweat rate. I also generally ride and race on hilly, hot courses. Staying up on fluids is a huge consideration for me. I need to carry as much fluid as possible and make it as easy as possible. That said, in the past I've usually carried two bottles on the downtubes and nothing more. I've always relied on course support to swap bottles, but not always with success.
I borrowed a Profile aero bottle that inserted between my aerobars and hung down over the front wheel. Once. After about ten miles of riding with it full, I ripped it off and threw it overboard because I felt like it was (a) shifting the weight on my bike in a way that felt uncomfortable, and (b) I hated having a straw in my face.
Advice please! Should I try mounting a bottle between aerobars again but without a straw? How will that affect handling, especially on a hilly course? Should I go for bottles mounted behind the seat? How do those affect handling? I don't practice the flying mount, but I do like to sit waaaay back on my saddle during climbs. Would you install bottle cages on seat and downtube knowing that I put I higher priority on hydration than aero advantage?
Thanks!
Matt
Comments
I use a Speedfil which is mounted in the triangle of the frame and has a tube that comes up between my aero bars. I find it works quite well as I don't have to come out of the aero position to reach for bottles.
Cheers!
Like you I've never liked the "straw in my face", but there are lots of systems out there (I use one from X-lab), where a bottle cage holder that holds a traditional water bottle, can be mounted between the aero bars. When I first used that I was worried that it would be awkward getting the bottle in/out, but it isn't actually. In fact, on my rides I use that bottle first and replace it as I go along, so that I'm always getting a drink from the aero bar bottle.
It takes a little more practice to smoothly AND safely grab/replace the rear mounted ones, especially with the non-dominant hand.
For me the bottom line is.....I like having four bottle holders on my bike for training (downtube, two behind seat, and one between aero bars), so that I don't have to stop as much. But for race day I don't carry four and feed off the course so as to save weight/time. Again, I'm sure others will have different opinions/input.
Matt - I have two different set-upone for training and one for racing -- your question is specific to racing so I will answer that first.
I am about the same weight and have a high sweat rate as well for my two IMWI I carried a bottle between the arms (Speedfil A2 last go round) and one on the down tube. Each race is different and RnP have guidance on every IM in the US but here are my two cents
At each aid station I would do the following all depending on the order of the aid station
- grab a water and drink as much as I could / fill A2 / pour over myself
- rack a bottle of perform on the downtube
- Grab another water repeat above with the goal of filling A2 before I leave
- IF it is really hot stuff another water bottle in my tri top along the way
One thing to note is I try to empty/consume all "disposable" fluid containers before I enter an aid station except for the A2 since I that is the one non-disposable item on my bike. Also, the "water bottles" don't sit in a cage very well and tend to launch on even the smallest bumps so a shirt pocket is the best option for them - at IMWI this is critical when you get to the well known RR tracks and Stagecoach Rd just following an aid station.
For training I add two bottles behind the seat - reduces the number of stops on a long training ride and adds some weight to make things interesting
All,
Lots of great information here.
Matthew,
I have a bunch of thoughts and will share them later. The uniqueness of the new Trek SC monobars makes aerobar hydration solutions a little different than most bikes.
Very quickly, all the Profile Design stuff tests terribly in the tunnel and the Speedfil frame monstrosity is the worst tested... by far. It's like 6x the drag of a Torhans or a torpedo solution.
This chart is a couple of years old but tells a good story:
It doesn't include the newer torpedo solutions that should test similar to the Xlab torpedo mount.
Now to the new Trek SC. The new aerobars are monextensions and look like one of the four choices seen here: Trek SC monoextension
You can't put a Torhans or PD vertical bottle on those bars. Doesn't fit, doesn't work. You would need to use a torpedo style system but the catch is getting it "installed" onto the mono part of the monoextension. I now have the Bontrager cage mount that makes this easy as pie but it costs $80. The mount wasn't available last fall in time for IMFL so I MacGuyvered something up to make it work using a piece of foam and some zip ties. I use the S-bend bars so I needed to raise the bottle cage high enough so the bottle was above the bend.
So now I use the Bontrager SC monoextension water bottle mount with a Speedfil Z4+ cage with a Speedfil A2 bottle. The nice thing about the Z4+ cage (as opposed to the Z4 and other cages) is a little widget that holds the straw down so it's not always in your face.
I have never experience any handling issues having a bottle between the aerobars. Bottles behind the seat can be tricky because they can come with a big aero penalty. A single cage tucked closely behind the rider works best. Avoid those stupid double cage setups.
Also, a regular bottle on the downtube is faster than one on the seat tube on the SC.
Trek SC bottle and mount
Thanks. Thought it might be a piece sold separately. Sorry for hijacking your thread Matt.
Will post photos next week.