Backpack with hydration bladder or bike bottle?

Bottles or hydration packs? What is better for bike tours? One thing is clear – the warmer the weather gets, the more important it is to ensure sufficient fluid intake during sports or excursions. As a cyclist, you have it really easy here because, unlike a tennis racket, soccer ball, or surfboard, your sports equipment helps you transport your water supplies. 

You can attach one, two, or even three bottle holders to almost any bike, and on a bike with a luggage rack, you can take a whole crate of water if necessary. Or you transport your water "on your back," as a hydration pack can hold liters of fluid. But which is better?

Hydration pack or bottles?

Here you will learn how much liquid you can pack where and what you need to pay particular attention to as a cyclist when it comes to water supply.

 Bike bottle or backpack with water bladder – the KO arguments

If you don't want to read on, here are the most important advantages of bottles and hydration packs right at the start:

What can a hydration pack do?

Initially, hydration packs are rarely sold as such; you usually pack a water bladder with a drinking system into a backpack. Smaller water reservoirs have a capacity of 0.75 liters, while the largest can hold up to 3 liters of fluid.

 

With a drinking system (+ hose and mouthpiece), the bike backpack becomes a hydration pack. Image © Evoc

Hydration pack or bike backpack?

• You can buy a hydration pack. It is primarily intended for transporting a water bladder and offers little additional storage space for other items. 
• But you can also buy a bike backpack buy one that has a compartment for a hydration bladder and an opening for the hose. These backpacks come in many different sizes and with more or less capacity. The advantage: cycling backpacks are particularly comfortable to wear on a bike, and they have many compartments for your small items.

How the hydration system works

The opening of the hydration bladder is large enough for you to easily fill and clean the bag; many models allow the entire top to be opened. They are made of thin plastic and are therefore light and soft; they can adapt to the shape of the backpack and your movements.

The water bladders often have a scale to help with measuring and mixing spritzers or drink powders. Thanks to the soft material, these are more approximate values.

The water bladder with quantity indication tells you how much water is left in the backpack. Image © Leatt

Almost all drinking hoses have a mouthpiece that opens by gently biting, hence it is also called a "bite valve."

❄️ How do drinks stay cold in the hydration backpack?

In the backpack, your drink is warmed from two sides, by your body heat and by the sun from outside. If you don't like drinking lukewarm, an insulating layer in the water compartment of the backpack is helpful. You should not pack hard ice packs, but you can cool your drink with "coolies" – cooling packs for bruises.

Hydration backpacks for MTB:

Safety or enough to drink? Fortunately, you don't have to choose here, as there are mountain bike backpacks that can do both. They have an integrated back protector, yet there is still a compartment for the water bladder.

Information about the bicycle bottle

You park bicycle bottles within reach in a bottle holder, up to three bottle holders are common on racing bikes, trekking bikes, or gravel bikes. Only with a full-suspension bike, it sometimes looks bad, as there simply isn't enough space in the frame triangle for the "Cage". But don't panic, there are bottle holders that can be attached to the seat post or under the saddle.

Bicycle bottles are mostly made of plastic, less commonly there are bottles made of stainless steel or aluminum.

The materials of the bicycle bottle in comparison:

Plastic bottle	Metal bottle
light	heavier
unbreakable	can be damaged or dented in falls
soft, can be squeezed, to get a lot of water quickly	rigid
very cheap	a bit more expensive
should be made of non-toxic plastic	Stainless steel is usually non-toxic; aluminum is no longer recommended for contact with food
heat up quickly, but there are insulated bottles	double-walled bottles insulate
usually do not damage the bicycle	can rattle in the bottle holder and damage the paint if dropped
transparent and marked with a scale	you have to guess the remaining amount

A classic plastic bicycle water bottle, here FOX Racing Purist, 26 oz., 770ml

Are there special bicycle hydration backpacks and bottles?

There are many water bottles and hydration backpacks are being offered for more and more outdoor sports. This naturally raises the question: Do you need a bottle and backpack specifically for MTB, road bike, trekking bike, and the like? Or are they all the same?

The hydration systems in the backpack are the same for hikers, bikers, or joggers. What differs is the backpack around it. For cyclists, there are bike backpacks that fit better in a bent riding position than backpacks designed for an upright back. Generally, you can go hiking with a bike backpack without any problems. However, a hiking backpack quickly becomes cumbersome on a bike. If you want to use your (hydration) backpack often and for long periods on a bike, a special bike backpack is highly recommended.

A bike hydration backpack simply fits better when biking! 

You can use a bike bottle for any other sport, but many water bottles don't fit into the bike's bottle cage, or at least don't hold there. A fitting diameter of 74mm has become standard for bottle cages, but there is no official norm. The length of the bottles is also limited so they don't tip out of the holder. Much more than 700 to 750ml per bottle is not feasible. The bottle holders adhere to these dimensions and ensure a good hold.

Which is better? Water bottle or hydration backpack?

Whether you prefer to train with a hydration backpack and water tube or opt for the bike bottle is purely a matter of taste. Both hydration options have pros and cons, which we list here again:

✅ Hydration backpack advantages:

• large capacity
• no holders needed
• additional storage space
• “hands-free” drinking
  

❌ Hydration backpack disadvantages:

• higher purchase price
• heavy weight on the back
• need for replacement of bitten mouthpieces
• There are no insulated water bladders, you need a backpack with an insulated compartment.
• The soft water bladders and the hydration system need to be hand-washed.

✅ Bike water bottle advantages:

• easy to clean, even in the dishwasher
• cool or keep drinks warm
• affordable
• You don't carry the weight of the liquid on your body.
• Some bottle holders can also carry tools, a spare tube, or a mini pump.

❌ Bicycle Water Bottle Disadvantages:

• limited amount of liquid
• You have to look for the bottle and reach for it with one hand.
• In small frames, there is no space for (multiple) bottles.

Bottle holder with storage compartment for a CO2 mini pump. Image © Birzmann

☝️ Buy Hydration Backpacks & Bottles 

Backpacks | Hydration Bladders | Drybags | Bike Bottles | Bottle Holders

More Information on Hydration Backpacks & Bike Bottles

If you have decided on a hydration backpack or bottles + holders, you're already a good step further. Here are some tips for water supply during (cycling) sports:

How to Drink Properly During Bike Training

Your hydration backpack holds 2.5 liters - water in and off you go? Your bike has three bottle holders, so you fill them all up too? Stop, it depends on your biking plans.

Here are a few tips on how to drink “properly” during bike training to avoid dehydration and its negative consequences.

• Drink even if you don't feel thirsty, as your body develops thirst as a reaction to water deficiency. If you become thirsty, it's actually already too late.
• The rule of thumb: It's better to take a little too much liquid than too little!
• The amount of liquid also depends on the training intensity: Top athletes in road cycling training need a bit more than downhillers who let gravity work or leisurely tour cyclists.
• In the two hours directly before training, you can drink about half a liter.
• It's better to take frequent sips than to drink a whole bottle at once. A hydration pack is particularly practical for this! It is recommended to drink about 100 to at most 250ml every 15 to 30 minutes
• For intense training, you can estimate the amounts of liquid based on the duration of the training.
• For a relaxed day tour, you should simply pack as much liquid as possible, especially if you have no opportunity to refill on the way.
• You can also accurately check your liquid needs. Weigh yourself before and after training. The difference in before-and-after weight is the fluid loss. Now you know how much liquid you need to drink to balance your water balance. You can deduct the amount you have already consumed on the way.

Children also need enough liquid on the go!

Can you drink too much during cycling training?

Athletes are supposed to drink a lot, but it is actually possible to drink too much! Especially with extreme athletes, it happens that they lose a lot of electrolytes through sweat and further disrupt the balance with too much water. This can lead to a “water intoxication” or the dreaded over-drinking with fatal consequences.

What drink should go in the bike bottle?

In general, it's always a good idea to pack water, as your body needs fluids before, during, and after exercise. To replenish lost calories and electrolytes (minerals like sodium, potassium, or magnesium), juice spritzers are excellent. Isotonic sports drinks also replenish sweat-lost fluids and minerals, and thanks to precise dosing, you can meet the exact needs. Depending on their composition, they can also provide calories to prevent a performance slump. And even though the rumor persists that beer would be helpful in replenishing lost calories and minerals, alcoholic beverages are, of course, taboo on the MTB or road bike.

For intense training, the combination of water and energy gel is also suitable, as you can swallow gel more easily on the go than energy bars.

Isotonic drinks belong to sports nutrition, you can buy them in many different flavors. Even though they are officially supposed to taste like orange or strawberry, you often encounter a slightly salty drink, the minerals that are added are responsible for this. Isotonic drinks in powder form, which you can mix yourself, by the way, save a lot of plastic waste, because many liters of finished drink can be made from one can of powder.

Hydration backpack & bike bottle – Practical tips

• Carbonation in the hydration backpack or bike bottle?

Drinks with carbonation are not recommended for sports, because with the drink you swallow a lot of air bubbles. Especially on a bumpy MTB tour, carbonation in the water supply can also lead to a technical problem: The bike bottle or hydration backpack is shaken thoroughly on the way, causing them to be under pressure and the closure can pop off. If you want to take carbonated drinks with you, you should buy a bike bottle that has a valve through which excess carbonation can escape.

• Poison in the hydration backpack?

If you buy a high-quality sports drinking bottle today, you can assume that it is made from non-toxic material. This also applies to the bladder of a hydration backpack and the hose system. This means the bottles are free from chemicals or pollutants that could leach into your drink. Look for labels like "BPA, BPS, or BPF-free," "contains no plasticizers," or "phthalate-free" when purchasing! Bottles and bladders from good brand manufacturers are generally clean, only very cheap bottles still use questionable plastic.

• Tasteless hydration backpacks?

Especially when the drink inside the bike bottle has slowly warmed up in the summer, drinking bottles used to often impart a stale plastic taste to their contents. Today, however, they are generally taste-neutral, even if the liquid has been stored in the bottle for a longer time. Many manufacturers seal the inner surface with a taste-neutral layer.

• Thermos bottles help against lukewarm brew

On a bike trip in the summer, every bike bottle will eventually get warm, especially bottles stored in the bottle holder are directly exposed to the sun. Here, a thermos bottle or insulated bottle helps, as it not only keeps tea and coffee warm in winter but also keeps your water supply cool in summer. These bottles have a double wall, and the air between serves as an insulating thermal layer. However, the thicker bottle wall reduces the content, although some bottles can still be squeezed.

The water bladder of the hydration backpack is usually not insulated, but the backpack can have an insulating compartment.

A double-walled bicycle bottle keeps drinks cooler for longer. Here Podium Dirt Series Chill by Camelback

• Can I clean bicycle bottles in the dishwasher?

Not every bottle can be cleaned in the dishwasher! When purchasing, you can check if the manufacturer has approved the water bottle for dishwasher cleaning; if it also has a large opening, you save yourself the manual work. The smaller the opening, the less chance the dishwasher has to clean the bottle all the way to the bottom edge.

Attention! Especially if you want to fill your bottle with more than just water, cleaning in the dishwasher is easier and more hygienic than hand washing. Juice spritzers are also a popular drink among cyclists, but the mix of water and juice is also a good breeding ground for mold spores. Other isotonic mixes can also quickly become a breeding ground for bacteria. For these drinks, a dishwasher-safe bottle is the best choice.

• How do I clean the water bladder of my hydration backpack?

Cleaning the hydration backpack is more difficult. With a cleaning kit that contains cleaning brushes and cleaning tabs, the water bladder becomes hygienically clean. 

The user manual will tell you which cleaners can be used to clean the hydration system. Depending on the manufacturer, there are special cleaning tabs, or you can use denture cleaner or dish soap (please follow the manufacturer's instructions!).

To reach all corners of the drinking tube, most hydration systems can be disassembled into all their small parts, so you can simply scrub them individually. But the cumbersome cleaning is the major disadvantage of the hydration backpack!

With a cleaning kit, your hydration backpack stays fresh as a daisy. Image ©  Camelback

• Want something less? Waist bag instead of hydration backpack

If you don't want to carry liters of water, you can simply opt for the slimmed-down version of the hydration backpack. Also waist bags offer the possibility to pack a smaller water bladder. An amazing 1.5 liters fit into the waist bag, and many bags are still far from full, giving you additional storage space for other items.

The alternative to a hydration backpack is a waist bag with a drinking system. Image ©  Leatt

Bike Bottle Fun Facts

1. If you have “only” water in your bike bottle, it also works as a small shower or as a water gun on the go! 
2. It gets even more fun with a hydration backpack where you can detach the mouthpiece. Hang the full water bladder on a branch and turn it into a camping shower. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work the other way around, as camping showers are not always made from non-toxic materials and are thus not suitable for beverages.
3. Bottle holders are not just for water: There are special containers that have the size of a bike bottle where you can store other accessories. But technically, nothing stops you from putting a hose and a multitool in a bike bottle and storing your emergency kit in the bottle holder.
4. Apart from the fact that carbonation puts a lot of pressure on your bike bottle, the air you swallow with a carbonated drink also needs to come out. In plain language: a lot of carbonation leads to a lot of burping. This can quickly become embarrassing, for example, when riding in a group.

Hydration backpack or bike bottles, drinking amount, and which drink... now you know how to balance your fluid intake during bike training and what advantages and disadvantages the two possible water storage options offer you. Cheers!