Collabsible Water Carriers

[tonupgilly]

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.

[alicej]

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.

[bikes4two]

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.

[pedalsheep]

+1 for Platypus.

[andrew_s]

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).

[tonupgilly]

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.

[rualexander]

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!

[RickH]

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

[tonupgilly]

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.

[slowpeddler]

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

[rapidfire72]

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.

[willem jongman]

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

[foxyrider]

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.

[thirdcrank]

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.

[tonupgilly]

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