Water bladder/bottle capacity for CTR

[Pawel]

Hi! I am from Poland. I am planning to take a part in CTR in 2010. I wonder how much water I need on the trail? It seems that lots of streams are within easy reach. Is it 50 oz water bottle enough?

My concern is also about the way of carrying water. My current bike is Titus Moto Lite in size small which has only one mount for bottle cage on the bottom of down tube which is difficult to reach. I don't want to use camelbak or similar solution (racebak is interesting) and I am looking for alternative solution. Any ideas? My current setup is topeak modula xl cage+1,5L PET bottle+ortlieb drinking tube. But PET bottle is prone to damage... 

[Pivvay]

50 oz is probably not enough for some sections. A minimal setup for me would be a 20oz bottle and a 2L bladder so maybe ~90oz total capacity. And that's pretty minimal. Last time I did it I had at least twice that capacity.

[Stefan_G]

This year I went with only 3 water bottles, so 72oz capacity.  I had to stop and refill a lot, so I'd probably recommend going with 4 bottles or a 100oz camel bak.  I was also dry in a few stretches.

[Pawel]

Thanks for replies and sharing you experience. I wonder what do you think about Platypus products (soft bottles)? Anybody used such bottles?

[daveB]

The Platypus bottles are very robust, much more so than you might expect.  They are large volume for their weight and also compress/collapse unlike bottles, so there is very little volume sacrificed in a pack or frame bag if you don't need 100% of the water capacity.