Water bottles

Those sure look like bike bottles. Bikers are notorious for wanting lightweight gear. Check out a good shop selling road bikes, and they should set you up with the lightest bottle possible.

http://www.gossamergear.com/cgi-bin/gossamergear/User_tips?zip=01760&country=US

Scroll down to water bottle holders.

Mandatorygear.com has instructions for making the shoulder strap holders too.

Eins, from your other posts I assume you are in the UK. In the US, we get a lot of bottled water in plastic bottles of every size and shape, with several shaped like bike bottles with the retaining grooves and with bike bottle style pop-up valves.

I assume you have some bottled water or soft drinks in plastic. Many thu-hikers use them for long distance trips. They hold up very well and they can be very light.

A one liter bottle like the one pictured is 1.9oz/55g. I rummaged through my hiking kichen box and compared two 24oz/700ml bike bottles: one was 3.2oz/90g and the other was 1.9oz/55g. I didn’t check the diameter but it looks like the bike bottles have the groove centered at roughly 5.5″/140mm from the bottom. There are dozens if not hundreds of bike bottles on the market. Search the web for “promotional bike bottle” and you’ll find all kinds.

Firstly: this is what i meant:

http://www.gossamergear.com/gossamergear/images/water_bottles.jpg

thanx 4 that John

And nope Dale, I’m 100% dutch. But Scotland is only 1:15 hours away with easyjet so i go there when i can. Hiking in holland suck cause we don’t have mountains and those are an important part of where i want to hike. I also tend to go to Belgium a lot cause thats relatively close. I’ll try googling for that. Didin’t think it would be that easy.

Thanx, Eins

Not really answering your question, but I imagine there must be dozens of bottles to choose from in any supermarket — be it Holland, Scotland or England??? And I think almost all bottles have some sort of grooves, right?

If I were you, I would just install the bottle holders (two elastic cords like the ones found in tent poles, plus two cord locks for each shoulder strap), then go for a walk in your local supermarkets and try out different bottles.

You may want to give one of these a try.

http://www.specialized.com/bc/SBCEqSection.jsp?sid=EquipWaterbottles

None of these appear to be in the exact capacity that you are looking for, but they are very durable water bottles and reasonably light weight (not ultralight). Be careful when choosing bottles that are to light as the shock cord straps that hold them in place will crush them.

Just my 2 cents.

Bryant

Einstein X, I use the .75 liter Propel bottles shown on the Gossamer Gear site. Weight for a pair is 3.4 oz., about the same as your platy+hose set up. In well watered country, I may substitute the .5 liter Propel bottles, 2.9 oz. a pair. I tried going lighter but found that the very light bottles were too easily crushed by the shock cord, as Bryant mentioned. Look for bottles with at least two deep grooves in them. If you can’t find any, one deep groove will work. Just hook the top shock cord under the lip just below the cap. Wider mouth bottles are good for easy filling and gulping.

True story– a friend who knew we had travelled to Europe asked if we had ever been in the Dutch Alps. I said, yes, we went skiing there, but the lines for the ski lifts were really long :)

Dondo, sounds like the bottles i’m looking for, though i can;t find then at gossamer. Do you have a link for me?

Thnx Eins

Gossamer Gear doesn’t sell propel water bottles. They are in grocery stores.

http://www.propelfitnesswater.com

They must be made by Gatorade. Gatorade bottles will work too. The newer bottles have a different shape from their past bottles.

Go to your grocery store and see what is available.