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The Water Dilemma
By spokesman | October 26, 2008
Cyclists need to drink water during a ride. Not drinking can lead to diminished performance, dehydration and more serious health problems. As a result, cyclists are big drinkers of bottled water and regularly drink from plastic bottles (even if they fill those bottles from the tap). However bottled water has environmental and health consequences. Drinking tap water avoids the environmental problems but using a plastic bottle still has potential health consequences. Since dehydration is not an option - what is a cyclist to do?
The Problem With Bottled Water- Bottled water is environmentally unfriendly. It takes an excessive amount of energy to bottle and transport the water. The manufacturing of the bottles requires energy and uses petroleum as a raw material. Most of the bottles are not recycled and wind up in landfills. Wikipedia gives detailed information on the issues with bottled water. Many cyclists are environmental conscious, some even ride to reduce their carbon footprint. Undoing part of the benefit of riding by drinking bottled water with its environmental consequence is not good. So tap water - filtered or unfiltered seems like a good option if it is available. However, there may not be access to a tap to refill your bottles during a ride - which bring me to the next issue
The Problem With Plastic Bottles- Most plastic bottles are manufactured with Bisphenol A (BPA) - an industrial chemical linked to a wide variety of health problems. I came across a blog post on the Mom Goes Green blog that discusses the health issues associated with BPA and includes a link to a National Institutes Of Health report. Both the bottles for bottled water and most refillable plastic bicycle bottles contain BPA.
What To Do- Ignore it all. Drink beer like the cyclists in the 1921 picture at the top of this post. Go retro and get aluminum bottles with cork stoppers. Drink tap water from BPA free bottles such as these CamelBak bottles available from Amazon - (CamelBak Podium Bottle 24 oz. 2008 - “BPA Free” Bike Water Bottle - 6 Colors
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Topics: Training |
October 27th, 2008 at 4:03 pm
I like the beer idea. On my Azor Secret Service, I don’t have a water bottle cage at all - I usually just throw a sigg steel bottle in my bags, and stop and drink for a moment if I need to (of course, when you’re on that big and heavy of a bike, performance isn’t really something you are interested in).
I do think it would be pretty interesting to roll down the street on my bike dressed in a 3-piece suit with a beer mug…
March 12th, 2009 at 12:50 am
I decided to go f’n metal after two rides where I ran out of water in a row. I managed to find a 1L lined aluminum bottle with a sports top that fits in one of my cages.
I have turned down, several times, offers to head home from work with a beer bottle in one of the cages. Largely because I’m pretty sure I’d fall off.