TT Bike Drinks System

[BeirutTaxi]

Hi everyone,

I am new to the world of time trialing and could do with some guidance with respect to the best drinks system. I am taking part in shorter events - 10 and 25 miles.

If you could post some photos and share experience of whether you like your setup that would be great.

I'm sure there's a lonely smartypants desperate to tell me to Google the answer however I've found PH great for cycling advice

Kind regards,

Matt

[MarcelM6]

I use a XLab Torpedo which is excellent. Big enough for sprint and full triathlons, ie 13-25miles

I've replaced the valve at the end of the straw with a Camelbak one as the original gave off a fine mist of water (when not drinking!)

Mine is a 2 years old and used velcro straps to mount the plate to the handlebars. Bit of a faff to adjust. The latest version uses clips to attach to your tri bars.

While I have the carbon version, in retrospect I shouldn't have bothered and gone with the standard one. No real weight difference, I was just seduced by the carbon goodness.

[louiebaby]

Tony Martin uses one of these:

https://www.evanscycles.com/elite-crono-cx-aero-bo...

http://www.bikeradar.com/road/gear/article/tony-ma...

Quite a cheap solution, would it suit?

[AyBee]

10 - no bottle
25 - don't really need a bottle but an aero Elite bottle on the usual cage if you do decide you want one
50 - haven't worked that one out yet

[Razor O Rourke]

AyBee said:

10 - no bottle
25 - don't really need a bottle but an aero Elite bottle on the usual cage if you do decide you want one
50 - haven't worked that one out yet

As above. If you have time to drink on a ten or a 25 you are not going hard enough. Now back in my day we didn't drink enough - you never saw a bottle on a bike unless the event was over fifty miles - but I can't help feeling that things have gone too far the other way now. I saw a post on a cycling forum a while back where somebody was going to do a fifty mile ride and wanted to know the best way to strap two extra bottles to the bike in addition to the two on his frame. The astonishing thing was those of us who were telling him he didn't need them were being abused as murderers by others.

[g7jhp]

Cambak under your jersey!

[BeirutTaxi]

Thank you to everyone for taking the time to reply Some good helpful posts.

I got through a whole 700ml bottle on my first 25 mile TT last night!

[okgo]

You don't need to drink in 10/25 mile events.

[upsidedownmark]

Really, okgo is right on this.. drink before, dehydrate, drink after.. If you're trying on a 25 you barely have the capacity to drink.

Beyond that, I've been through the whole gamut and settled on a cage and standard bottle between the arms. None of the straw systems really provided a significant advantage despite a lot of faff / splash / pokey straw upseting my aero-ocd. But it's a bit personal, I'm happy drinking in bars while riding with one arm and not sitting up.

Small camelback down the back of jersey would seem like a pretty good shout too.

[okgo]

We don't however know if a 25 is taking 50/60 or 90 mins for OP though. But either way, you should be able to ride for 1.5 hours very hard without needing a drink.

[BeirutTaxi]

It took me circa 1 (pedestrian) hour to complete 25 miles yesterday. I'll give it a go without a bottle next time during a training run!

[Marcellus]

On 25s a lot of the guys pre-hydrate massively and then hydrate after the event leaving bottles with the timers.

After all 750ml weighs 750grammes

[BeirutTaxi]

okgo said:

We don't however know if a 25 is taking 50/60 or 90 mins for OP though. But either way, you should be able to ride for 1.5 hours very hard without needing a drink.

BTW Okgo thanks for your previous advice to me RE: Power metres. On my new TT bike I've fitted a Power2Max and so far it's excellent. Interesting looking at my left right balance as it was 52% Left Balance at the start of the 25 miles and 42% nearer the end. As you suggested a crank based system isn't a huge amount more expensive than a left hand crank only power meter and also a lot more accurate.

[okgo]

Glad to hear it.

Every person I can save from Stages is a mini victory to me. As you say, the fallacy of one side nicely evidenced there in your balance changing as time went on.

@marcellus - weight is not a problem in TT's generally.