Cycling UK Forum

Has anyone any experience of using collabsible water carriers - not for transporting on the bike necessarily, but mostly for use on a campsite. I have read a couple of customer reviews on the ones that concertina, some good, some bad - but they are writen by people camping with cars and looking for greater capacity. I was thinking of getting around a 5 litre one just to have water conveniently to hand without having to find somewhere to buy bottled water (and carry it) before going to a site.

Are you likely to need as much as 5 litres of water? My partner and I wild camp (no taps!) with one 2.5 litre Platypus, filling it up at the last possible place before we camp. This easily gives us enough water for cooking a meal and having some to drink overnight.

A Platypus folds or rolls up really small when empty, much smaller than the concertina bottles, I can highly recommend them. Buy two 2.5 litre ones if you want 5 litres. Look out for them second hand on ebay.

On really hot days I have the Platypus in a pannier to refill our water bottles when we've drunk as much as will fit in the bottle cages.

Search google for platypus hydration. You'll find lots of items in the rangle - I always carry a 2L Platy Bottle on tour in case I need to carry extra water during the day's ride, but it's useful on site too to store a bit of water.

+1 for Platypus.

I use an Ortlieb 4 litre waterbag.
May have a bit of an advantage over Platy bottles in that it folds up as well as flattening (depending on how you pack).

Thanks for the info. No we don't need 5 litres - I only put that because it seemed to be the smallest of the types I looked at. The Paltypus sounds as though it's just what I'm looking for. I'll get on eBay. Thanks again.

Ortlieb water bags and MSR Dromedary bags are also good for water carriage, and if you are wild camping you can get shower nozzles which allow you to have a shower at the end of the day!

rualexander wrote:Ortlieb water bags and MSR Dromedary bags are also good for water carriage, and if you are wild camping you can get shower nozzles which allow you to have a shower at the end of the day!

On a trip I did, with a bunch of others, from Cherbourg to Barcelona we had some soft water containers (don't know what make) that were clear on one side & black on the other. They had a shower nozzle and if left filled in the sun for a few hours would give you a nice warm shower

Ortlieb water bags and MSR Dromedary bags are also good for water carriage, and if you are wild camping you can get shower nozzles which allow you to have a shower at the end of the day

They had a shower nozzle and if left filled in the sun for a few hours would give you a nice warm shower

I must admit, I like the sound of the shower. We may do some wild-camping - so a shower would be most welcome.

I use the Orlieb 2 litre water bag. If you read Josie Dew she uses the 4 litre and it makes sense. Not much bigger than the 2l size but with the greater volume.

It rolls up to a very small size and when full at camp you just hang it on your handle bars.

John

I'm walking the coast to coast this spring and purchased a 3 litre Platypus water bladder, which will be ideal for the rucksack for sipping water on the move and for camp cooking. Recommended.

I have 1.5 - 2.75 litre water carrying capacity on my bike frame, with an ordinary 0.75 litre bottle and a Bikebuddy that can take larger bottles (the third set of bottle braze on's is for a fuel bottle). On a campsite I just use a cooking pot to get some water. If I think I need more because of hot weather, I take an Ortlieb water bag. It weighs only little, and sometimes provides important safety. When filled, I just put it on top of the rear rack.
When I was living in the Middle East, I simply put a couple of large plastic water bottles into a rear pannier (just as nobody would ever drive a car out of town without a couple of large water bottles in the boot). But that is a rather different situation, of course, with a daily consumption of at least 5 litres.
Willem

I use a very light, 18gram, compact bit of kit from some ultralightweight company which is effectively a pertex bucket.

http://www.ultralightoutdoorgear.co.uk/ ... r_bag.html

Holds @ 5l but does have a tendency to lose its contents by osmosis! Never been an issue though, no cleaning to worry about either unlike the assorted latex and plastic containers i've used in the past.

I was in my local Aldi today and they have a camping gear promotion on. One of the itens is a collapsible water carrier. They also have an Ortleib style canoe closure stuffsac which looked cheap (compared with Ortleib) but it is PVC.

Thanks for that "Third Crank" - I'll take a look tomorrow