Toefuzz wrote:
Not to thread hijack, but this is the first year I've gone long and I have a 70.3 coming up in about a month and realized I needed to get hydration setup and didn't think I needed to create yet another thread on BTA hydration. I see so many people with the BTA/straw setups but worry about refilling as my bike handling skills leave much to be desired as do those of the people riding around me who are refilling their bottles. My plan is to have a concentrated bottle of Infinit on my down tube and then grab water for BTA at the aid stations. Aero is always a concern, but let's be honest, I'm not winning any awards. I'm a big fan of the KISS method (keep it simple, stupid) which lead me to simply using zip ties to install a Gorilla Cage BTA (or something like the Torpedo Kompact) and swapping out bottles at the aid stations. I assume something like the Gorilla cage will hold standard water bottles from aid stations? Is there a big advantage to using one of the larger BTA setups with a built in straw over this method? How about for 140.6?
Sounds like we're about the same when it comes to handling skills. I went with a concentrated mix on the down tube and a torpedo w/ water up front. Depending on the heat you'll likely refill the BTA once, maybe twice. If you keep the soft / foam cover on it you just grab a water bottle, turn it upside down, plug it in, squeeze 5-10 seconds, and you're done. Toss it, drop back to aero, and keep on rolling. Do a few practice runs with family or friend holding one out for you and you'll be fine.
My next issue to figure out is not coming out of aero when grabbing my concentrated mix every 15 minutes...