Last weekend I went for my first (!) bike ride up the Port Hills. I figured I should do at least a minimal amount of training for my upcoming cycle tour from Ireland to Sweden. I don’t really exercise outside of my daily, totally flat 5km commute, which I perform in a meditative yet glacial fashion to the mild surprise of middle aged office workers and parents with toddlers who overtake me in the cycleway on the regular. I have also never committed to any regular form of exercise, be it the gym, yoga, running, rock climbing, walking, etc. and I particularly despise the feeling of cardiovascular intensity like sprinting or biking up steep hills (I blame cross country).

So when I did a few off-the-couch 2-4 day cycle tours around NZ and Korea, I was surprised at how well I coped. “A little bit every day” I suppose they say, and living car-free certainly helps with that 💚 However, a 4-week solo tour with tent could be quite a different experience. So 2 weekends out from my trip, I decided to do the Summit Road loop, and test some gear in the process.

I bought these Fixplus straps (the German equivalent of Voile straps) because they came highly recommended by bikepackers and I needed a way to attach my sleep system to my bike. While I’m touring, not bikepacking, and will have two rear panniers, I’ll still be attaching things to the top of the rear rack, the front bars, and the frame.

I read that the heaviest things, like water bottles, should be near the centre of gravity as low as possible. I immediately realised that my Nalgene bottle is too wide for the down tube, and would get in the way of both pedals, so I turned to the front tubes. I’m too cheap to buy a $50 cargo cage, so I wanted to test whether straps alone could hold a full 1L nalgene to the frame.

The ride up Hackthorne Rd and Dyers Pass was less excruciating than I’d expected, in fact rather pleasant! It’s a path that many mountain bikers and weekend warriors take every week, but I had always put in my “impossible terrible awful way to spend time” bucket. After the initial steep streets, which were unremarkable in that I didn’t love it but also didn’t want to throw up like the last time I tried hard cardio, it flattened out considerably. The cars also leave you decent margins and don’t speed that much around the corners (at least during the day 😬).

My Nalgene stayed on pretty well, only rotating towards the rear slightly but not enough to catch on the spokes. The real test was in the bumpy fast summit road and downhill to Sumner though.

The rotating effect was much worse downhill on bumps, where it eventually kept hitting the wheel even when I rotated it back. I wondered if the rigidity of the bottle against the frame meant the rubber straps weren’t making the most of their friction. It had also damaged the bottle a bit 😬 I tried padding a headband in between which meant I could pull the strap tighter (and protect the bottle), but it still rotated. It may still work with something grippy like a busted inner tube, but I didn’t have one.

I tried one last configuration, putting it on my top tube dangling down. It was fine, but that’s a prime spot for long stuff like tent poles, and so high above the center of mass.

So the verdict is no, I couldn’t really get my 1L Nalgene to attach to my bike with just straps, but YMMV. My bike has round front forks, maybe with flat carbon forks plus a pad of rubber, it could work. For me, I’m just going to chuck my spare bottle into the bottom of my pannier bag. If I find a cargo cage secondhand somewhere, maybe I’d try that.

The Fixplus straps themselves were great though, easy to use and very sturdy. And very stoked that I can do the Summit Rd loop without stopping! Excited to try it again with a fully loaded bike, and using the longer Fixplus straps for attaching my tent/sleep system!