Apidura thinks their new Innovation Lab’s boxy Hydration Bladder is now the most efficient way to haul more water in your bikepacking setup, better filling the space in your frame bag than water bottles alone. Plenty of bikepacking bags have been designed to carry hydration reservoirs on the bike for years, but Apidura’s new custom solution was developed to take better advantage of the more-boxy shape of most frame bags – and not only their packs, in fact…
Apidura 1.5L Hydration Bladder for bikepacking frame bags
The new 1.5L Hydration Bladder isn’t the first time Apidura has custom-made a bladder to carry water in one of their bags – their prototype lab has been working on the idea for at least a few years since we saw one integrated into a custom bag for Marin’s e-Pine Mountain. It’s also not the first effort we’ve seen to haul even more water, more efficiently than water bottles within the unique confines of a bike frame – check out the 4L CrankTank for a wild alternative option.
But Apidura’s 1.5L Frame Pack Hydration Bladder is more straightforward, and a more refined solution than simply tossing the bladder out of your CamelBak into a frame bag… A simple blocky 5-sided polygon, the same width as many popular frame bags, to efficiently pack more water into the bag you already have on your bike, and hopefully get that water weight as low as possible for improved handling.
Tech details
A key feature of Apidura’s Hydration Bladder was the ability to refill it, still inside of your bag. So the bladder gets a wide zip-loc-style opening that rolls down and is secured in place with velcro. It also gets fill markings so you can easily see how much water you have remaining.
The PVC-free bladder uses a proprietary quick-release connector to attach the hose and a locking bite valve. (Apidura had partnered with Hydrapak in the past, but this Made-in-China, EU/FDA-certified system appears to use a different solution.)
Apidura developed the 6.5cm wide Frame Pack Hydration Bladder specifically to fit inside all of their full-frame bags, but also into many of their larger half-frame bags too (most frame packs over 4.5-5L). In addition to its dimensions, they have a compatibility list with their current pack line-up on the bladder’s product page, but also a downloadable PDF template you can print out to be sure the bladder will fit into your pack.
It’ll likely work with many other manufacturer’s bikepacking frame bags, as long as there is a routing port in the bag to get the hose out. (Most packs include routing for power wiring that should fit the hose, too.)
Apidura Frame Pack Hydration Bladder – Pricing & availability
Apidura says they’ve been testing the new Frame Pack Hydration Bladder on road, gravel, and mountain bikepacking setups extensively. And their recently updated Backcountry Series packs even including a built-in clip for extra stability off-road.
The 1.5L Apidura Frame Pack Hydration Bladder sells for £37 / $51 / 42€ and is available today direct from Apidura and partner retailers.
