ETA: Please read all my posts on this thread, in which I solve some long-term issues, before trying this for yourself.I'm posting this in The Dark Side as it's likely to be of most interest to recumbent riders, even though it's not actually recumbent specific.
The problem: The HPV Streetmachine (and close relatives) is an awesomely German tourer with a conspicuous absence of sensible places to mount bottle cages. As standard you get two sets of braze-ons: one under the seat, which works well enough but can only be reached when stopped, and one on the front of the dérailleur post, which you need inspector gadget arms or a dismount to get at (and is much more usefully employed as a place to mount lighting). HPVelotechnic suggest drilling the seat to mount another pair of bottle cages, which apparently works well enough, but seems like a bit of a scary hack. The obvious alternative is something Camelback-like behind the seat or in your luggage.
Before I was drawn to the dark side, I'd read around and invested in an
Ortlieb 4 litre water bag as a solution to campsites with a silly-long walk to the tap, and the odd insanely hot ride across the midlands on a Sunday afternoon when everywhere's shut. It's pretty much what you'd expect from Ortlieb: simple, well made and does exactly what it says on the tin. The material isn't going to tear or p*nct*r*, and the straps are just long enough to fit an arm through for carrying over your shoulder. The valve seems pretty decent, with good control of the flow, so you can have a slow trickle for washing hands or rinsing out pans. There's an optional shower valve cap, and the black version does a pretty decent imitation of a solar shower. It should also work fairly nicely as a pillow, but I've yet to try that.
Ortlieb do a
drinking tube accessory for the water bag, so that seemed like a no-brainer for hydration on the 'bent. It consists of a hose with a decent enough bite valve on one end, and a cap that fits the water bag on the other. The thread on this is identical to standard PET drinks bottles, and the cap incorporates a pressure-relief valve that allows it to be used with PET bottles without them getting crushed by air pressure as the contents are consumed. A potentially handy feature that I never see myself using.
Put these together, fill it with a sane amount of water (the full capacity is strictly for camping purposes!), and strap the water bag to the rear rack, and you've got a rather good darkside hydration solution. What you do with the end of the hose I'll leave as an exercise for the reader. I'm currently managing okay with it looped through a gear and brake cable when not in use, which puts it in an easily-reached position when riding, and keeps the end reasonably clear of the road crud. Some sort of clip to hold the end on the handlebars or underside of the seat would be better, but not so much that I've actively looked for one.
Unfortunately, there's a problem - the PET cap on the drinking tube leaks. Not badly to the point of losing all your water, but enough to get things a bit wet. I initially thought this was from the pressure relief valve, but a more detailed investigation by Charlotte of this parish determined that it was from the hole where the hose passes through the cap. This is simply a well-fitting hole, with no attempt at any kind of seal or gasket. Useful with PET bottles, as you can easily vary the length of hose inside the bottle to allow for different bottle sizes and you're going to be using it in the upright position anyway, but annoying with the water bag in horizontal orientations.
Charlotte was in favour of solving this by creating a decent seal with some epoxy or similar. Seemed like a good idea, but years of experience of largely incompetent thing-construction have taught me that if I'm attempting to fix a problem with adhesive, I'm probably doing it wrong. It also occurred to me that there was an online water-rocketry community who were bound to have solved the problem of coupling hoses to PET bottles at high pressures.
A bit of noodling around the interwebs led me, as these things often do, to the
cannabis growing hydroponics section of eBay. More specifically, to
someone selling Tefen food-grade nylon hose and British Standard Pipe threaded connectors in a variety of shapes and sizes. It turns out that this was clearly the right idea, as I later discovered that the bite valve of the Ortlieb drinking tube is connected to the hose using one of these connectors.
A bit of measuring confirmed that a 1/4" BSP connector will fit inside the neck of a PET bottle with plenty of clearance, and that an 8mm barbed hose connector is the right size for the Ortlieb drinking tube hose.
So I ordered some bits, and threw this together:
From right to left: Orlieb water carrier screw cap; Tefen 1/4" BSP female-female socket; a random plumbing washer from my box of random plumbing washers; the lid from a bottle of Tesco value [yes, it's] still water with a 14mm hole (13mm would be a better fit, but I didn't have a 13mm bit) drilled in the centre; another random plumbing washer for good measure; a 1/4" BSP male-male nylon nipple; a 1/4" BSP female to 8mm hose connector and the Ortlieb drinking hose and spring.
Surprisingly, this works as well as intended. Absolutely no leaks from a full bag hanging vertically (with the cap at the bottom) for several hours. Not even when squeezed. The BSP hose connector has a swivel function, with the threaded nut rotating around the hose while you tighten it (the BSP nylon connectors have tapered threads and are waterproof when finger-tight), so the hose can be left in place on the bike and easily removed and reattached to fill the bag.
It fits nicely on the rear rack of the SMGT between two panniers, with the hose pointing down through the rack and routed under the seat:
Your bike may vary. One possible variation on this would be to dispense with the male/male nipple and use a right-angle hose connector instead. This would stick out a lot less, but would sacrifice the swivel and easily disconnected BSP connection.
I fully accept that this is completely over-engineered. But I ride an SMGT
It's had two outings now, on the Dun Run and Butterfly/Clarion wedding weekend. Still no leaks.
More photos here.
