FROM BROOK TO BOTTLE

Of all the things we carry into the mountains, water is the heaviest and most voluminous. For a while, we carried it in backpacks even on short rides. In those days, space for a water bottle inside the front triangle was considered little more than a convenient byproduct of certain frame designs. Those days are over: Many of us now go to great lengths to shed our backpacks, and since the ability to put a bottle on the upside of the downtube is often the lynchpin in doing so, a few brands have even chosen to tweak their frame designs to make room for water.

One bottle may not be enough, though, and carrying a second leaves little room for everything else you need to jam into your bib pockets or fanny pack. Faced with this conundrum, I