Bottles or bladder

The planner writes this from the ride you describe, so there is no version of it that is true for everybody. Here it is worked against one ride, named below, with a single answer changed at a time to show what moves.

2 nights · wild camping · cold but not freezing (8 °C) · gravel and tracks · towns daily

You said 40 km between water. That is the stretch that decides how many bottles you need, not the total distance. You are also sleeping wild and cooking, so there is no tap at the other end — dinner, a brew and breakfast all come out of what you carried in.

On that ride the planner marks it essential.

The same requirement, reasoned again from a different answer. One answer moves at a time, so what each one adds is attributable to it and to nothing else.

• Cooking · No

  You are also sleeping wild, so what you drink overnight is what you carried in.

The ride above

3.5 L on the bike

Sleeping · Campsites

2.0 L on the bike

Night low · Mild

4.5 L on the bike

Water gap · Under 20 km

2.5 L on the bike

Water gap · Around 70 km

5.0 L on the bike

Water gap · Over 100 km

7.5 L on the bike

Cooking · No

3.0 L on the bike

These add up rather than rule each other out — carrying two is the ordinary practice here. Every one carries what it costs you as well as what it gets you.

• Bottles in cages

  Fastest to fill, and you can see exactly what you have left.

  but Capped by how many cage mounts the frame actually has.

  A plain web search. We earn nothing from it.

  Find one ↗

• Hydration bladder

  Carries the most, and you drink without stopping — so you drink more.

  but You cannot see what is left until it is gone, and it has to be cleaned.

  Night low · Below freezing

  but You cannot see what is left until it is gone, it has to be cleaned, and below freezing the hose ices up before the bladder does — blow the water back down it after every drink, or carry bottles instead.

  A plain web search. We earn nothing from it.

  Find one ↗

• Fork or cargo cages

  Puts the weight low, and leaves the frame triangle free for a bag.

  but Needs three-bolt mounts on the fork, and the bottles get filthy.

  A plain web search. We earn nothing from it.

  Find one ↗

We hold measured dimensions for bags and for nothing else, so this hands the requirement to a search rather than picking something for you. Nothing on this page has a price, a weight or a maker attached to it, because none of those were measured.

That depends on the ride, and this page does not know it. The interview does, and it is the only thing here that can answer the question — no account, and every line it gives you names the answer that produced it.

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