I was thinking a lot about hydration packs yesterday. There were piles of folks headed up Fromme wearing hydration hip-packs which absolutely do not work for me, but clearly, offer a superior experience to a lot of folks over a backpack?
I mean, I get hip-packs to carry a small collection of stuff and skip the super-sweaty back experience but even the best ones feel too heavy / too full pretty quick when you start loading them up.
I have a bladder for my pack and I'll use it for longer rides on the Rifty where one bottle isn't enough. Or sometimes if I don't feel like swapping it in I just throw a second bottle in my pack. I don't mind as I wear a pack all the time anyway, but I do prefer hydrating out of bottles.
Anyway, I recognize that there's a flip side to my thinking about more mounting points which is many folks are perfectly happy just rocking the hydration hip-pack. And, as uncool as we are, I still see many people wearing packs (I assume most of them have water in them even though I don't). But, adding bosses is so inexpensive at the time of manufacture I think why not just do it?
Your gravel bike is a great example. What would a couple or few extra sets of bosses have cost you at the time of manufacturer? What would it cost to get Dekerf to add them now? May still be worth it. It certainly was for me with Em updating my V1 with rack and fender mounts vs. using other more temporary mounting solutions.
July 21, 2022, 8:44 a.m. - Andrew Major
I was thinking a lot about hydration packs yesterday. There were piles of folks headed up Fromme wearing hydration hip-packs which absolutely do not work for me, but clearly, offer a superior experience to a lot of folks over a backpack? I mean, I get hip-packs to carry a small collection of stuff and skip the super-sweaty back experience but even the best ones feel too heavy / too full pretty quick when you start loading them up. I have a bladder for my pack and I'll use it for longer rides on the Rifty where one bottle isn't enough. Or sometimes if I don't feel like swapping it in I just throw a second bottle in my pack. I don't mind as I wear a pack all the time anyway, but I do prefer hydrating out of bottles. Anyway, I recognize that there's a flip side to my thinking about more mounting points which is many folks are perfectly happy just rocking the hydration hip-pack. And, as uncool as we are, I still see many people wearing packs (I assume most of them have water in them even though I don't). But, adding bosses is so inexpensive at the time of manufacture I think why not just do it? Your gravel bike is a great example. What would a couple or few extra sets of bosses have cost you at the time of manufacturer? What would it cost to get Dekerf to add them now? May still be worth it. It certainly was for me with Em updating my V1 with rack and fender mounts vs. using other more temporary mounting solutions.