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Carrying water-anyone used a front fender? Carrying water-anyone used a front fender?
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Equipping the Bike - what's the best gear? Anything to do with the bikes equipment, saddlebags, etc. Questions on repairs and maintenance of the bike itself belong in the Brand Specific Tech Forums.
Photo by Andy Miller, UK, Taking a rest, Jokulsarlon, Iceland

I haven't been everywhere...
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Photo by Andy Miller, UK,
Taking a rest,
Jokulsarlon, Iceland



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  #1  
Old 30 Nov 2007
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Carrying water-anyone used a front fender?
I'm currently considering ways to add to my water carrying capacity for my next trip. I typically use a 3l camelback and a 4l Ortlieb water sack., strapped somewhere to my luggage.

Getting a custom rally bashplate / water carrier just to increase the water capacity by a few litres seems far to pricey, so I am wondering of any other innovative ways people have discovered to carry water. In particular has anyone ever tried to use a front fender bag that would normally carry tubes / tools to carry a water sack instead? If so, do it move around much off-road?

cheers
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Old 30 Nov 2007
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Tut tut tut, I try to keep as much weight off the front of the bike as I can, remember your fork seals when your off road.

I might be wrong tho so it will be nice to see how other people set up their rides, I was thinking of getting some water bags made up for the tops of my panniers you know the Touratech type, as I have an inch or so to spare in each one, maybe one water one fuel.
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Old 30 Nov 2007
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And of course the right ventilated dirt riding gear makes all the difference for survival.
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Old 30 Nov 2007
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If you ever need to purify bad water into nice clean drinkable water then this IS the company you should look into, I did my research before I asked them for sponsorship...

http://www.bwtechnologies.com/

These guys are the ONLY people that the Ministry of Defence (MoD) buy their Personal Field Filtration Kit from, so they must be bloody good. They are also bringing out some new products such as a water bag with replaceable filter, the filter is a universal one so it will work with ALL of their kit makes changing out the filters a breeze.

I have most of their products with me at the moment for testing and review, and I'm going to be putting up kit reviews as soon as I hit Morocco, that way I can have some decent pictures to go with them.

I use their AquaSak and the AquaPure Traveller everyday for making sure I don’t get a bad tummy (very bad while riding a motorcycle), some of the other cooler stuff I'm saving for Africa so those that visit my site often will get to see it in action before anyone else.

But like I said it’s the very best of all the companies out there.
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Old 30 Nov 2007
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Thanks for the responses.

I am planning on several remote pistes in eastern Mauritania where there are limited wells, so unfortunately I will need to carry everything I need for several days and purification is not the answer. I'm also likely to be carrying 45-50 litres of fuel on a KTM 640 Adv, so using additional fuel tanks is not an option as they will be full of petrol.

Hence when looking at storage spaces for additional water, I figured I might be able to get another 2-3 litres on the front fender in a fender bag, despite the handling constraints in the sand. Thoughts?

I've also heard of water also being carried in spare pipes on some bikes (ie BMW 650s etc).
Anyone else with other storage suggestions?

cheers
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Old 30 Nov 2007
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Matt Roach View Post
Thanks for the responses.

IHence when looking at storage spaces for additional water, I figured I might be able to get another 2-3 litres on the front fender in a fender bag, despite the handling constraints in the sand. Thoughts?

cheers
The mudguard on the Adventure is clamped to the lower part of the forks and the mudguard is flimsy. It will increase unsprung weight and that’s not nice in the desert.

Personally I carry 5 litres in each alu-box, 2 litres in the camel back in my jacket, 3 litres in a camelback attached to my sleepingbag and 2-3 bottles stashed between the alu-boxes and the seat and up to 15 litres of petrol (plus a 43 litre tank). It gives quite a range but feels a bit heavy the first days.
It’s also smart to carry a long rope, the wells are deep!
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Old 30 Nov 2007
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Water bottles
You didn't say what bike or if you had crashbars. I use bicycle water cages built for 1.5 ltr. bottles (2) mounted on my crashbars of a KTM 950 & GSA. Friends have started using standard cages at $5+USD. and as many as 4. I like the larger ones because 1.5 ltr bottles are available from Zimbabwe to China. I have found that you never totally get long term bottles clean, and these can be reused and tossed if they go bad.
Now the sad news, try to find the larger ones! Maybe in Europe, but in the USA they have disappeared over the years from biclycle shops.
You can mount them on the side panniers too. Also Touratech makes some bottle racks for Sigg type bottles.
Allen.
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Old 1 Dec 2007
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Lucky Explorer View Post
You didn't say what bike or if you had crashbars. I use bicycle water cages built for 1.5 ltr. bottles (2) mounted on my crashbars of a KTM 950 & GSA. Friends have started using standard cages at $5+USD. and as many as 4. I like the larger ones because 1.5 ltr bottles are available from Zimbabwe to China.
Allen.

Now that's a very good idea! I'm using that one if I can..

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Old 3 Dec 2007
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You might consider swaping the 4 lit ortlieb for a 10 lit MSR dromedary and strap it somewhere....

MSR - Mountain Safety Research : Hydration : Dromedary Bags

I've rigged one up with a long tube which runs from the pannier (where the dromedary is lashed) up to the handlebars so I can drink on the go. I've bound the clear plastic tube with some white electrical tape in a vain attempt to reflect the heat.

It's an untested solution, but I think it should work OK.
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Old 3 Dec 2007
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Here's a solution I saw in Oz a while ago: Picasa Web Albums - Hans - Lloyds GS
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