Water Bottles...What To Match?
 

This is quite possibly the most important question of our times. Do you match your water bottles to your bike, your kit, or none of the above?

Whatever I got free somewhere along the line. Since I won't pay for a bottle, matching is out of the picture, but wouldn't be anything I cared about anyway,

Cages should match trim color, or metallic silver is acceptable if the bike uses silver components.

Bottles should match frame primary color, or beverage should match frame primary color if the bottles are transparent.
If the bottles are transparent, matching the beverage color to the primary kit color can also work, but do not attempt if the kit primary color is rich and deep.

What ever bottles are clean.

You want the vessel with the pestle, not the flagon with the dragon or the chalice from the palace.

To wit:

I hadn't even thought about clear bottles and colored liquids... if the kit is lightly colored, would it be acceptable to mix Gatorade flavors to get that perfect match?

I've clearly not thought about this enough...

Mixing gatorade flavors is fine. As is diluting with water.

My bike is matte black so matching the frame is not good for summer riding.

Easy. Clear bottle, Guiness. Problem solved.

My bottles don't even match each other but I did just refinish my stem and order cages to match my seat post.

I'm still searching for a medium grey sports drink

I have team bottles, which match the team kit.

I don't so much care about bottle number one, on a short ride.
But on a longer ride, I prefer bottle number two, to match bottle number one.

Of course I match to either my bike or my kit! What are you all, barbarians? I'm a bit of an aesthete so my stuff not only has to be functional but it has to look good. This tendency I blame on my roots. I'm mostly Teutonic but with just enough northern Italian--Piemontese, to be precise--to have an influence on these matters.

Black matte--anything goes with black.

Consult a color wheel for godsake.

Nope, from two points of view.
Matching bottles to anything would be like matching ones food to something. That's kindergarten stuff, not pro.

It would be hopeless anyhow. Bottles come and go too unpredictably and too often.

Thanks. You just made my point for me. I'd bet you order pineapple on your pizza, don't you?

Sporco!

Counterpoint - the pro's bottles match both their kit and their bikes. You can see the reason for the confusion

http://www.pezcyclingnews.com/wp-con...pose-920-1.jpg
http://www.afr.com/content/dam/image...8727171684.jpg

Wait...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/media/images/4...unch_getty.jpg


WHERE IS THE RESPECT FOR ORDER, FOR DECENCY!?!? WON'T SOMEONE THINK OF THE CHILDREN?!?!

Now this is a new one... mixing drinks to match your bike/kit takes OCD to a new level! :lol:

Well, all serious cyclists are OCD.

I try to match them to the cable housings. Makes those suckers pop!

You missed an option.

I would consider it a triumph if I had two bottles, and they matched each other. But alas, usually mis-matched bottles. I'm more worried about having water in them than their color.

The more beat to hell a bottle is, the more proper. I've been using the same pair of Podium Chill bottles since day 1-- all of the graphics are worn off of one of them, and the other is close behind. And I'll keep using them until one day a cage cracks a hole in the side of the sun-aged plastic.

As far as matching... they're white...ish. Should go with everything.

Exception for merlot?

That's fair.

OK, OK, sure, if someone wants to give you bottles that match your kit, or your bike, go ahead. However, it is my contention that bottles are the one accessory that should NOT match anything, and it is quite proper that they not match each other, especially if one contains plain water and the other contains something else. They should be the exception that proves the rule, an indication that it is not irrational.

That said, if one MUST match something, the bottles should match ones kit before they match the bike. The bottles are carried by the bike and, like the rider, they do not stay on the bike when it is not in use; they are not part of it.