| Hydration With a trip around the corner, I needed a better way to stay hydrated while on the road. I had a water bladder in my tank bag that fed through a drinking tube but it only held 1 liter and got hot quickly because it lacked insulation. I also worried that the various gizmos in the tank bag were at risk if the bladder ruptured or leaked. Additionally, it was slow to access and refill. All of this motivated me to develop an alternative that addressed all these weaknesses.
Using the "competition panniers" (#902) from Rider Warehouse (meant as panniers draped over the gas tank), I draped them over the frame (under the seats). I support the bottom of each with the passenger foot pegs. They are held in place with bungee cords interlaced through the passenger peg support bracket. I then picked up a couple of 1 gallon, insulated water jugs from Wal-Mart, some ice maker tubing and some soft-walled water tubing from the local home supply place and went to work.
I drilled an undersized hole through the sidewall of the jugs and fed a length of the ice maker tubing through. This avoids feeder tube binding when removing and replacing the lid during gas stops.
I left a length of the ice maker tubing stubbed out.
I then slid the final length of soft-walled tubing over the ice maker tubing as the drinking tube and installed a bite valve from the water bladder.
The final results are very clean. Callin' out props to ma peeps fo da phat skinny on da scam. Ron, you da man!
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