I often feel like I’m hitting the bottle when I’m out for a bicycle ride. I reach for a drink every few minutes; especially in hot weather such as this.

When I first started on the road bike, keeping hydrated was quite a problem. My road bike doesn’t have a handlebar-mounted bottle cage; and that means reaching for a bidon on the down tube. Having Gunga Din would have been helpful; but he wasn’t around.

In the early stages of road-bike riding, I didn’t need the weight of a Camel-Bak on me; so I needed to figure out the bidon business. And it sure is awkward at the beginning!

The first step was to reach down and touch the bottle; and get used to how it felt when I did so. Of course I need to lower my body in order to reach the thing; and when you still aren’t quite sure of your ability to control the bicycle, that’s a bit unnerving.

After I practiced that move for a while, I began to pull the bidon part-way out of its cage; then push it back in. At last, I pulled it all the way out; and got myself a drink.

After that, the hardest part: putting that bidon back into its cage. Any number of times, I dropped the bidon; and had to stop and pick it up. Or, I’d have to hold the bidon’s nozzle in my teeth while I stopped; and then I could put the bidon back.

Even now, after 10+ years of road biking, I still sometimes have days when it’s very difficult to put the bidon back in the holder. It can be especially tricky when there’s a strong wind; especially if it’s a sidewind!

I tried once to make a YouTube of this process; but it didn’t work out. I had my camera mounted on a “chesty” ( sort of harness that holds the camera); and all I saw were my pedaling legs! So I’ll have to be content with this blog post on hitting the bottle!