carrying hot drinks on a bike

[andrew_s]

Am I showing my age.......

Anyone else remember the Bike - Buddy:



Used to fit about any flask / fuel bottle

Still does
I'm sure they will sell LWaB a replacement for his broken bit too, though he may have to ring up and ask.

[Brucey]

nearly all flasks are 'all stainless' these days. IME they are not quite as effective as glass Dewar flasks but they are considerably more robust.

Cheapest option (last time I looked, about a year ago) for something that you didn't buy sight unseen was in Tesco's; they do/did a small stainless flask that ought to fit a bottle cage (check measurements carefully) for about four quid.

cheers

[TPMB12]

Fair enough. Point well made. Mostly a commuter and weekend warrior personally so it's less of an issue. Thought I'd ask.

How long are your rides? I would have thought of you only need one cup mid ride then you could find an insulated mug that fits a cage. I've had the lifesystems insulated cups before now. They're a little better than the thermos insulated mugs and the cheapo copies too.

If it's really cold then I think you need a proper steel vacuum flask and try to make it fit your cage with say inner tube around it to increase the width. Steel vacuum flasks vary widely for performance and will fail after not that long time. Good brand to look for is Zojirushi. Expensive but effective and long lasting.

I once bought a vango steel cycling drinks bottle. It was on offer. It came with two lids. One was a cycling bottle lid with a straw to the bottom of the bottle. The other was am isolated lid. The actual bottle was a vacuum flask. I never used it because I didn't like the feel of it. I wonder if vango still do such a product. It might suit your needs since it is v designed for standard bottle cages.

If you go for a good vacuum flask like the Zojirushi then you could get an adjustable bottle cage to take it.

Personally I'd avoid thermos flasks. That brand is cheap and nasty for most of the flasks sold. They do the odd good one but they cost more and still aren't that good. BTW Stanley and thermos I heard were made in the same fairy, might even be owned by the same company.

Hopefully these latter comments are more helpful.

[Kim]

You try finding a cafe, let alone an open one, in the middle of the North York moors at 8am on a sunday. Or in the middle of the night (on the Whitby ride, we carried stoves to brew up).

There are places so wild and uncivilized as to lack 24hour cafes.

Or the East Midlands on a Sunday afternoon.

[mrcharly-YHT]

It isn't just about keeping a drink hot.

I remember setting off from holmfirth one winter morning - I filled my water bottle with boiling hot sweet tea  (I had no taste in those days). Literally boiling - it was still bubbling as I poured it in.

By the time I was 12miles into the commute, the tea had half frozen and was slush. It was a solid block of ice before I reached Leeds.

[dme]

What's wrong with supporting your local Cafe network. Isn't the idea to ride out to back cafe and back?

This originally started when I bought a coffee in Hertford on Saturday. It was so hot that I had to sit for 10 minutes in Hertford town centre before I could drink it, and was hence thinking that it would actually have been nice to drink it 30 minutes along the road sitting in a field rather than in the town centre.

So I'm not against buying the coffee and supporting a cafe, just want options (hey - I did say "special snowflake"!).

[dme]

Thanks for all of the feedback and advice.

I will acquire a steel bodied flask at ~500ml capacity and see how it performs. Getting one that suggests it will keep a liquid hot for 12 hours and hoping for 6 seems like a plan. If that works out I will acquire a Monkii Cage!

[TPMB12]

I suggest you hunt out reviews on a hiking / walking magazine site / forum. A simple steel flask can perform vastly different depending on how it's made. I've had good and bad. Expensive and £3 supermarket. I've had ones that don't keep a drink warm for more than half an hour to one's I've left outside on an icy night and still had coffee warm enough to enjoy the next day. Price isn't always important. I've had a good supermarket one.

Plus small flasks aren't as good as big ones for keeping stuff warm. Not that you can have a 2 litre flask in your bottle cage of course.