Talk to me about carrying drinks alongside a frame bag...

[Cudzoziemiec]

With the general trend to outdoor gear as urban wear, the conflicting requirements are not limited to cycling.

[quixoticgeek]

With the general trend to outdoor gear as urban wear, the conflicting requirements are not limited to cycling.

Aye. I've ranted at many an outdoor equipment supplier on this one too.

J

[Nick H.]

It's a shame that there's no use for all that wasted storage space in the frame tubes. Something liquid would fit nicely in there. When our species is more highly evolved we won't need our drinking water to be clean and fresh. I foresee a drinking tube in the headset cap. And a catheter going into the seat post to feed the onboard purification system.

Mind you, by then our legs will have evolved into wheels, so there'll be no need for a frame.

[Cudzoziemiec]

With the general trend to outdoor gear as urban wear, the conflicting requirements are not limited to cycling.

Aye. I've ranted at many an outdoor equipment supplier on this one too.

J

I'm actually thinking both ways. Fluoro in the "wilderness" and everyone dressed black, brown, grey and camo on the high street, which I find quite depressing (winter mostly).

Anywayz have you considered rendering your avatar in greyscale? Or better still shades of khaki? 

[Cudzoziemiec]

It's a shame that there's no use for all that wasted storage space in the frame tubes. Something liquid would fit nicely in there. When our species is more highly evolved we won't need our drinking water to be clean and fresh. I foresee a drinking tube in the headset cap. And a catheter going into the seat post to feed the onboard purification system.

Mind you, by then our legs will have evolved into wheels, so there'll be no need for a frame.

[quixoticgeek]

I'm actually thinking both ways. Fluoro in the "wilderness" and everyone dressed black, brown, grey and camo on the high street, which I find quite depressing (winter mostly).

Anywayz have you considered rendering your avatar in greyscale? Or better still shades of khaki? 

No, cos we're not outside somewhere pretty.

You'll be pleased to know in the city I have a new shawl to wear...



My friend made it for me.

J

[Davef]

Surely that gets in the way of pedalling?

Depends on the position.

J

Well I suppose you could sit on the pannier rack instead of the saddle but it might be uncomfortable for long journeys.

Pannier rack? Saddle? It fits to bottle cage bosses. Seat tube would be a problem but many down tube bosses are high enough.

I was interpreting “depending on the position” to mean the position of the rider. I think if used with the bosses on most down tubes it would cause an issue.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Surely that gets in the way of pedalling?

Depends on the position.

J

Well I suppose you could sit on the pannier rack instead of the saddle but it might be uncomfortable for long journeys.

Pannier rack? Saddle? It fits to bottle cage bosses. Seat tube would be a problem but many down tube bosses are high enough.

I was interpreting “depending on the position” to mean the position of the rider. I think if used with the bosses on most down tubes it would cause an issue.

I see I misread your previous post. I read "you could sit on the pannier rack instead of the saddle" as "you could use it on the pannier rack instead of the saddle", hence my question marks following that.

Quite a lot of bikes now have triple bosses. I have them on the downtube of my Specialized Sequoia. A quick play suggests that using such a device on the top and middle positions would be okay. Middle and bottom, no way. Fork bosses would be an obvious possible location (though I'm unsure of the wisdom in putting that much water on the forks).

[fimm]

Nice shawl, QG.

[Cudzoziemiec]

You'll be pleased to know in the city I have a new shawl to wear...



My friend made it for me.

J

It's very pretty.

It will also keep you warm on your next bivvy. 

[morbihan]

All for colour we is.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CCEXXE-lg0n/
Enough with the drab military style bike packing colours.

MY EYESS!!!!

Personally I will always choose a black/grey/dark green for my kit where possible. Mostly cos I tend to end up bivviing in places I shouldn't and don't want to draw attention to me, that's what my lights are for.

J

 
5 years as a Royal Marine when a young'n cured me of the will to wear camoflage again.
I'm with you on the Motorway high viz Orange/yellow for bags though. (aside from a gillet on busy roads or riding through La Chasse.

[Kim]

I am glad of that. I don't want to have spent the day crawling up some long fire road to the top of the pass, to look down and have my view of nature spoilt by BRIGHT FUCKING ORANGE blobs of people below. The same when hiking. We talk about the pollution of littering, but there is also the visual pollution of our very presence. Imagine if you had hiked to the top of the mountain, only to find your view spoilt by some fucktard pitching a dayglow orange tent in the middle of your view.

Meh, it's not like most of the green stuff you see isn't in some way man-made.  This country is supposed to be woodland or mostly underwater or whatever, not fields and hedgerows, grouse moors and so on, interspersed with all the usual car infrastructure that we're systemically blind to.

If someone's in a bright orange tent, it means they're camping, which is in my book a Good Thing.  Maybe I'm biased because hi-vis orange isn't that far away from foliage green anyway.

On the other hand, I like dark-coloured kit^[1].  It dries quickly, doesn't look terrible when dirty and saves me from having to make complicated aesthetic decisions.


_{[1] Ideally, with a light-coloured liner, when it has such a thing.  Makes it easier to find things lurking at the bottom.}

[Cudzoziemiec]

Maybe I'm biased because hi-vis orange isn't that far away from foliage green anyway.

Apparently hunters (the ones who shoot for meat and blood lust, not the equestrian cyclocrossers) are recommended to wear orange hi-viz in camouflage patterns for this reason. Human colour vision sees the shiny, deer vision is fooled by the pattern. As with bikepackers, I reckon there's probably a bit of image concern in there too.

saves me from having to make complicated aesthetic decisions.

What sort of aesthetic decisions? Are you really concerned about having things which look good to KimVision^TM but which Colourists will say clash? It's impossible to please everyone, so don't try. But I don't think that's what you mean anyway, just I don't know what you do mean?

[Kim]

It's impossible to please everyone, so don't try. But I don't think that's what you mean anyway, just I don't know what you do mean?

Yes, that.

[Cudzoziemiec]

It's impossible to please everyone, so don't try. But I don't think that's what you mean anyway, just I don't know what you do mean?

Yes, that.

Well at least it means when you annoy eg Goth-haters, you know you're wearing black! Or rather, using black panniers or whatever, as you were talking about 'kit'.

Continuing the dangerous path of personal aesthetic colour discussion, what I didn't like about the SKS chromoplastic black mudguards I once had was that they weren't properly black, but a dark brown. Their Bluemels models, however, are properly black.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Another possibility: bottle on your stem, horizontally. ??!??
https://alpkit.com/collections/bikepacking/products/love-mud-bheesty

[Nick H.]

Interesting.....

[Cudzoziemiec]

Two of the four reviews have used it as a GPS mount, which I think says something...

[quixoticgeek]

Another possibility: bottle on your stem, horizontally. ??!??
https://alpkit.com/collections/bikepacking/products/love-mud-bheesty

I tried one. It didn't work for me.

J

[mzjo]

You'll be pleased to know in the city I have a new shawl to wear...



My friend made it for me.

J

It's very pretty.

It will also keep you warm on your next bivvy. 

It's not just pretty, it's dead cool as well (unless they are all very uncool in that Amsterdam, which I doubt).
As a plus it will enable anyone who doesn't know you to recognise you instantly (unless you have been cloned like a myriad of  Harry Potters)

Got nothing to do with carrying water of course but that's btp. Give us Style any day!!

[LittleWheelsandBig]

Emily O’Brien is a RUSA fixed wheeler who periodically publishes plans for various bike bags (which she also sews for sale). Her most recent project might fit the bill for some folk.
https://www.dillpicklegear.com/category/projects/

[Davef]

Another possibility: bottle on your stem, horizontally. ??!??
https://alpkit.com/collections/bikepacking/products/love-mud-bheesty

I tried one. It didn't work for me.

J

I would be concerned how much torque you would need on the stem bolt, but as a position If you have aero bars you can mount a bottle horizontally there quite conveniently

[Frank9755]

Stem cap is a great place to mount bottles, but it is also a great place to put other stuff, so isn't always available.

I have always put a bottle there for long time trials (usually a litre, with no issues).  On my ultra-racing bike I have my phone mounted there as it is a priority.  There are mounts that allow you to put a device (garmin, phone, etc)  on top of a BTA bottle, but I've never explored them.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Stem cap is a great place to mount bottles, but it is also a great place to put other stuff, so isn't always available.

I have always put a bottle there for long time trials (usually a litre, with no issues).  On my ultra-racing bike I have my phone mounted there as it is a priority.  There are mounts that allow you to put a device (garmin, phone, etc)  on top of a BTA bottle, but I've never explored them.

So I googled BTA bottle, thinking it must stand for something like Behind The Aerobars (cos Behind The Arse would be a silly place to put a phone or garmin!) and found... a submarine!

[Frank9755]

Sorry, I did think when I wrote it: BTA = Between the arms