Long Story Short: Two Bottles, No Problem

Two full-size water bottles on a full-suspension mountain bike? It’s not something you see very often, especially across every frame size. But our engineers found a way to make it work on the Salsa Spearfish and Horsethief, and it embodies the ethos of Adventure by Bike. Riding with two bottles in the frame means you can go farther without carrying water on your back. Paired with our Anything Bracket and Pack for your tube and tools, you can drop the backpack altogether, making half-day to all-day rides and races a lot more enjoyable. Two bottles in the frame give you more flexibility with what you bring on your rides—fill your bottles with water, supplements, or electrolytes in any combination. Or get creative…

Two Water Bottles Or Whatever from Salsa Cycles on Vimeo.

Nice, right? I sat down with Salsa engineer Pete Koski for more about what this feature means to us and why we did it.

Was accommodating two bottles a goal at the start of the design work or did you realize the possibility later on?

Pete: It actually wasn’t a specific goal when we started out. When designing Horsethief and Spearfish, we took the bones of the previous bikes and we were modernizing the geometry and tweaking a few things in the kinematics. When looking at early stick models of the new frames I realized that some of the suspension pivots had moved enough in that modernization that there may be room for a bottle on the seat tube.

How did you go about making this feature a reality?

Pete: We realized that with a little extra clearance near the bottom bracket, we could make a second bottle work. The “belly” at the bottom bracket and down tube junction kicks the down tube mounts out far enough to clear a bottle on the seat tube. We also sacrificed a little standover to fit the full height of a bottle on the seat tube, but we thought the end result was worth it.

There was another happy accident when you made room for the two bottles. Care to talk about that?

Pete: We discovered that the layout created a unique space between the two bottles, and then there was this realization, like ‘Hey, we can fit our tube and tools in this space.’ We decided that a proper mount would be better than just strapping a tube and tools to our carbon frames, and that was the genesis of the Salsa Anything Bracket. With that accessory, you can fit two bottles, your tools, a spare tube and CO2 cartridge and go out for half a day or more without a backpack. Or for an all-day ride, you could throw some layers and your water in a hydration pack, then carry two bottles of supplements or nutrition, plus your tools, on the bike. It’s a lot more versatile, especially for the intended use for the Horsethief and Spearfish.

Long Story Short Two Bottles No Problem from Salsa Cycles on Vimeo.

So there you have it: two bona-fide 23 oz. water bottles in a full-suspension mountain bike frame. It might not seem like a big deal at first, but give it some thought when you're on your next mountain bike ride.

And, stay tuned for more Long Story Short episodes! Each will take a dive into our product line or product feature, or just how certain things happen at Salsa Cycles.