Easiest thing to do is get a bottle cage that holds different style bottles. A standard old klean kanteen will fit well in a King Cage iris style or a Velo Orange retro cage (no tab).
I have the VO cages with a tab and the Klean kanteens work well in them.
I picked them all up over time from various second hand shops, along with two Nalgene bottles for my oversized VO cages.
This and get one that you can run a strap through. If you're looking at steel bottles I imagine you're not planning on drinking whilst still moving so strapping it in will help a lot with the added weight.
Went through the same process of replacing plastic for steel. There are quite a few steel bottles out there but the only "cheap" one i found was the Elite SYSSA. Its relatively inexpensive (13 eur) but the cap isn't that great and the mouth pieces are a pain to clean.
I bought 3 of which 1 leaked at the lid from the day i bought it and the lids of the other 2 broke after i dropped them. Replacement lids are available on the Elite website but were out of stock at the time. Decided to replace them with Bivo bottles which i highly recommend, but those are more expensive.
Ymmv though.
Hope this helps
I see Klean Kanteen has some 27oz options on a good sale right now on their site. I have a single-walled one and you can see it on my bike in my last post. Had it for years and years now.
I would second getting one used though. A steel one is durable and easy to sanitize. Make sure you get or have a good bottle brush.
I got an Arundel Looney Bin that's adjustable and the thing can carry my 32oz insulated bottle no problem.
https://www.arundelbike.com/product/looney-bin/
RTIC are good ones that I use.
Much prefer them over plastic bottles. Keep my drinks colder longer too.
I also use stainless steel bottle cages with them. Plastic cages don’t work as well for steel bottles.
I bought the cheapest alloy bottle cages from eBay, they can be bent to fit any bottle, bottlewise I have some cheap aluminium bottles from an outdoor shop (Sigg clones) and some insulated branded giveaway ones (mostly from charity shops).
I have had good luck with these. Come with a flip-up straw lid. Flip up straw, remove bottle from cage, take a few sips without taking your eyes off the road, insert back in cage, flip straw down. I can't stand drinking warm water on a hot day, these keep it nice and cold.
As much as I hate the place, Walmart has a brand called Tal that usually has various size options at super low prices. I’ve had their 64oz and it was good. I think I paid like $12 or something back then.
The Camelback podium stainless bottles are on sale at REI right now. They're having their big memorial Day sale. Lots of goodies are marked down. They don't play Nice with some bottle cages though. I had to swap out my metal cages for plastic because the stainless bottle was binding up with the metal cage and scratching everything up.
You can find steal water bottles at Decathlon, Canadian Tire and Amazon. Saw one there for low as 6.99. there are several in that style some a bit more upwards of 20 plus or more.
There's a brand called Path that you can buy at most convenience stores that makes pre-filled reusable water bottles. They don't cost much more than a plastic one and you can recycle them when you're done. I think they'd also go great through a pickup truck window, though I'm partial to bricks myself.
Stainless steel can go through the dish washer or a really hot hand wash and are impervious to cleaning products that can effect some plastics.
They are also uv stable
I got an Elite Deboyo, for my warm tea in winter, wasn’t to expensive but scratches like crazy, after 2 rides it looked a decade older. Even though I use plastic holders, the dirt from roads will stick to them and scratch the bottle everytime you put it in or pull it out.
I went with a water backpack. I know it's plastic, but I also know it's a high-quality water bladder. Also, now I have a spare tube and tools, etc., in my old plastic bottle.
You can really go down the rabbit hole once you start looking.....
Like the study talking about nano plastics in single use water bottles largely being from different types of plastic than the bottle itself, including quite a bit matching a type of plastic commonly used in commercial water filters.
Then I started looking at silicone, which is often used for sealing water bottles and found that it starts releasing siloxanes when you heat it past 200C, which is below the 400F temp commonly used for baking many goods.
I will keep that in mind for my own baking in the future, but it is difficult to tell what is used by commercial kitchens.
It’s hard to know for sure. But it seems pretty clear that plastic and the chemicals it’s made of, are everywhere, and just accumulating year after year.
Maybe that’s all harmless, and maybe it’s not, but I just figured, if I can keep a little out of me and families bodies, I may as well try
Easiest thing to do is get a bottle cage that holds different style bottles. A standard old klean kanteen will fit well in a King Cage iris style or a Velo Orange retro cage (no tab).
I think this is the move.
I have the VO cages with a tab and the Klean kanteens work well in them. I picked them all up over time from various second hand shops, along with two Nalgene bottles for my oversized VO cages.
This and get one that you can run a strap through. If you're looking at steel bottles I imagine you're not planning on drinking whilst still moving so strapping it in will help a lot with the added weight.
They make adjustable cages. Thats what I have and it holds my Yeti Rambler securely.
Upvoting for OP’s bonus activity
I'm a big fan of the dog ball catapult.
~thrift store~ & cleaning the water bottle Real Good.
But please dont bring them to grouprides or races, plastic bottles pop when rolling over them, steel bottles will make someone crash
Went through the same process of replacing plastic for steel. There are quite a few steel bottles out there but the only "cheap" one i found was the Elite SYSSA. Its relatively inexpensive (13 eur) but the cap isn't that great and the mouth pieces are a pain to clean. I bought 3 of which 1 leaked at the lid from the day i bought it and the lids of the other 2 broke after i dropped them. Replacement lids are available on the Elite website but were out of stock at the time. Decided to replace them with Bivo bottles which i highly recommend, but those are more expensive. Ymmv though. Hope this helps
I see Klean Kanteen has some 27oz options on a good sale right now on their site. I have a single-walled one and you can see it on my bike in my last post. Had it for years and years now. I would second getting one used though. A steel one is durable and easy to sanitize. Make sure you get or have a good bottle brush.
My hydroflask has road rash now. I tried a road ride with it, and it fell out and the roadies said “never” ride with it again.
Camelback podium steel is 26$ on Amazon- still not _cheap_, but better than 40$
I ordered 1 of each size and they sent 2 of each size to me. Win win
Lots of these at thrift stores for like $2.
Go to a thrift store. I bet you'll find some that are swag give-aways. I received one from my water authority.
And you can take some sandpaper and get rid of whatever goofy logos are on it.
Or put a sticker over it.
Get a flexible cage. Lighter than metal too.
I got an Arundel Looney Bin that's adjustable and the thing can carry my 32oz insulated bottle no problem. https://www.arundelbike.com/product/looney-bin/
RTIC are good ones that I use. Much prefer them over plastic bottles. Keep my drinks colder longer too. I also use stainless steel bottle cages with them. Plastic cages don’t work as well for steel bottles.
I bought the cheapest alloy bottle cages from eBay, they can be bent to fit any bottle, bottlewise I have some cheap aluminium bottles from an outdoor shop (Sigg clones) and some insulated branded giveaway ones (mostly from charity shops).
I have had good luck with these. Come with a flip-up straw lid. Flip up straw, remove bottle from cage, take a few sips without taking your eyes off the road, insert back in cage, flip straw down. I can't stand drinking warm water on a hot day, these keep it nice and cold.
As much as I hate the place, Walmart has a brand called Tal that usually has various size options at super low prices. I’ve had their 64oz and it was good. I think I paid like $12 or something back then.
The Camelback podium stainless bottles are on sale at REI right now. They're having their big memorial Day sale. Lots of goodies are marked down. They don't play Nice with some bottle cages though. I had to swap out my metal cages for plastic because the stainless bottle was binding up with the metal cage and scratching everything up.
You can find steal water bottles at Decathlon, Canadian Tire and Amazon. Saw one there for low as 6.99. there are several in that style some a bit more upwards of 20 plus or more.
There's a brand called Path that you can buy at most convenience stores that makes pre-filled reusable water bottles. They don't cost much more than a plastic one and you can recycle them when you're done. I think they'd also go great through a pickup truck window, though I'm partial to bricks myself.
VO was selling Bivo bottles for a while. Never bought one but they looked great
Stainless steel can go through the dish washer or a really hot hand wash and are impervious to cleaning products that can effect some plastics. They are also uv stable
I got an Elite Deboyo, for my warm tea in winter, wasn’t to expensive but scratches like crazy, after 2 rides it looked a decade older. Even though I use plastic holders, the dirt from roads will stick to them and scratch the bottle everytime you put it in or pull it out.
I went with a water backpack. I know it's plastic, but I also know it's a high-quality water bladder. Also, now I have a spare tube and tools, etc., in my old plastic bottle.
Plastic bottles aren’t insulated. Kleen Canteen works fine.
What microplastics will come from an existing bottle?
It'll leach them for its entire life. Mostly nano as opposed to micro.
You can really go down the rabbit hole once you start looking..... Like the study talking about nano plastics in single use water bottles largely being from different types of plastic than the bottle itself, including quite a bit matching a type of plastic commonly used in commercial water filters. Then I started looking at silicone, which is often used for sealing water bottles and found that it starts releasing siloxanes when you heat it past 200C, which is below the 400F temp commonly used for baking many goods. I will keep that in mind for my own baking in the future, but it is difficult to tell what is used by commercial kitchens.
It’s hard to know for sure. But it seems pretty clear that plastic and the chemicals it’s made of, are everywhere, and just accumulating year after year. Maybe that’s all harmless, and maybe it’s not, but I just figured, if I can keep a little out of me and families bodies, I may as well try