Cycling UK Forum

mercalia wrote:well not so the ST pancras one, or so the lady in charge of restoration suggested wasnt just for refreshment so I suspect true for all the ancient victorian ones anyway - There also used to be water troughs for horses all around also for a different reason.

I was thinking of those drinking fountains one sees which produce a vertical jet to which one applies ones lips. Some are set in a shallow alcove which makes filling of any vessel impossible
I imagine these, and the modern ones, took hygiene into account, and have a valve which cannot be left open.

mercalia wrote:There also used to be water troughs for horses all around also for a different reason.

Refreshing Tour de France racers?

mjr wrote:

mercalia wrote:There also used to be water troughs for horses all around also for a different reason.

Refreshing Tour de France racers?

Nah, I believe they favoured the 'cafe raid' and bottles of red wine [emoji106]

I'm a trendy consumer. Just look at my CLT-L09 using hovercraft full of eels.

Mike Sales wrote:I was thinking of those drinking fountains one sees which produce a vertical jet to which one applies ones lips. Some are set in a shallow alcove which makes filling of any vessel impossible
I imagine these, and the modern ones, took hygiene into account, and have a valve which cannot be left open.

Sometimes called 'bubblers'. The original 'bubblers' had no publicly accessible valve and ran most of the time, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benson_Bubbler

In country areas of Australia drinking water frequently comes from household tanks that are nominally filled from roof run off. Many prefer it to 'town water'.

Bottled water is perhaps the most unnecessary curse of our age

Cyril Haearn wrote:Bottled water is perhaps the most unnecessary curse of our age

There's some pretty serious competition for that unenviable title, but the combination of environmental destruction and sheer pointlessness is hard to argue against. What a state we're in.

I'm a trendy consumer. Just look at my CLT-L09 using hovercraft full of eels.

elPedro666 wrote:

Cyril Haearn wrote:Bottled water is perhaps the most unnecessary curse of our age

There's some pretty serious competition for that unenviable title, but the combination of environmental destruction and sheer pointlessness is hard to argue against. What a state we're in.

Perhaps bottled sugar water (ak energy drinks) is even more unnecessary, because it is not merely unnecessary but actively harmful.

Warin61 wrote:In country areas of Australia drinking water frequently comes from household tanks that are nominally filled from roof run off. Many prefer it to 'town water'.

That was our water supply when I lived in Oz. The dunny was a seat over a hole in the ground.
No mains services at all.

Audax67 wrote:Dunno if it's been mentioned above, but in France all non-potable public water sources - taps, pumps & what-have-you - must carry a sign to that effect. In our village there's a horse-trough with a permanently-running spout and an old sign in German on it reading "I am so good, I can only give". A modern sign in French says "not drinking water".

Many such water sources are probably drinkable, but a sign is cheaper than making sure of it.

Riding in NE France two weeks ago I was amazed how hard it was to find drinking water - the little villages are completely closed up in daytime and there are no shops, bars or tabacs. The only thing I could see were ponds with bright green water.

hamster wrote:
Riding in NE France two weeks ago I was amazed how hard it was to find drinking water - the little villages are completely closed up in daytime and there are no shops, bars or tabacs. The only thing I could see were ponds with bright green water.

Surely there must be supermarkets, even if not actually in the villages?

Only one in a 20 mile radius. And shut between 12:30 and 4.

hamster wrote:Only one in a 20 mile radius. And shut between 12:30 and 4.

Ah, well that makes you a good lab rat/hamster for the "find water challenge". What did you do?

Rode on. Eventually, 35 miles later diverted to somewhere with a proper supermarket.

hamster wrote:Riding in NE France two weeks ago I was amazed how hard it was to find drinking water - the little villages are completely closed up in daytime and there are no shops, bars or tabacs. The only thing I could see were ponds with bright green water.

Same here, I've had a couple of issues in Brittany earlier this month. Carry 2 bottles on the bike and in this sort of weather it is not enough.
Searched around village churches, one did have a couple of taps which were disconnected and only offered a few drops. One village was all closed up with only an open door of a Tabac showing life, I went in with a couple of bottles to refill, but the man inside wasn't willing, but did explain there were public toilets near to the Marie, fortunately these were fine. Another occasion sneaked into a campsite late morning to re-fill.

Another occasion we stopped in the shade of a hedge to rest on an extremely hot day, a man came up and just informed us that the library building opposite had toilets and water round the back, very welcome.

So there can be water but it often seems well hdden, I would never have found the water by the Marie or library above, neither were signed or obvious.

Des49 wrote:Another occasion we stopped in the shade of a hedge to rest on an extremely hot day, a man came up and just informed us that the library building opposite had toilets and water round the back, very welcome.

So there can be water but it often seems well hdden, I would never have found the water by the Marie or library above, neither were signed or obvious.

In France I generally used the camping municipal. Often free by the football pitch using the toilets there.