Water Temperature or Volume?

Now that it is Summer, my outdoor rides have typically been in 95 to 105+ degrees Fahrenheit (according to my Garmin 500's thermometer) and have been getting longer in distance.  I am really putting my newfound water carrying capabilities to the test.

It's nothing new to note that cool water makes you feel better than warm water on a hot ride, but I've apparently been missing something in my quest for better water take-along capabilities. While carrying sufficient volume is important (hence the third bottle cage, now using a different saddle-rail-mount), the ability to keep what I drink cool or even cold is a game changer I never thought I really needed when I was riding shorter distances and ice in a plastic, insulated bike water bottle just barely sufficed.

With an ice-filled vacuum-insulated bottle, e.g. the 20 fl.oz./600 ml Contigo Matterhorn stainless steel bottle, fitting nicely into a standard bicycle bottle cage for a reserve tank, I can make good use of warm to hot-ish water from water fountains in parks, turning it into ice cold water to put into my main on-bike drinking bottle.

Drinking colder water throughout a ride in hot temperatures seems to serve my hydration and cooling needs better than drinking more water.  So even though I may be carrying 400 ml less water than I can when using the 1000 ml Elite Maxi Cincio bottle (an older bottle with some newer alternatives available, e.g. the Elite Maxi Corsa or the Zefal Magnum), I can ride just as far.  This more than makes up for the extra weight of the steel bottle (308g - 107g = 201g of extra bottle weight, minus 400g of water for a net savings of 199g).

The two downsides of going with this steel vacuum bottle are that it's a bit more work throughout the ride to transfer water between bottles, and it makes more noise when going over bumpy roads.

Noise?  Metal on metal clanking, but some strategically placed duct tape or sections of old inner tube on my steel bottle cage should fix that.

Water transfer?  To maximize the efficacy of the ice in the vacuum bottle (yes, ice, not just cold water, but ice that remains solid even after hours in blazing hot sun), I essentially have to cycle water from my second reserve in the behind-the-saddle cage into/through the vacuum bottle.  So what used to be a simple process of pouring water from one bottle into another now introduces a third bottle in between, at least for the second refilling of the day.  The first refilling comes directly from the vacuum bottle reserve tank into the drinking bottle.  Once there is only ice left in the vacuum bottle, I pour the second reserve bottle's water into it, shake things up, then pour again into the drinking bottle.  If needed and available, I then refill the second reserve bottle from a water fountain that more often than not gives warm water.

Actually, there is a third downside to the new bottle--it insulates so well that I am finding myself left with a chunk of ice that's too large to pour out and consume rather than liquid water as my ride nears the end.  I think I need to put a little less ice into it so that at the end, I'll have only cold water left in the bottle rather than just ice.