Water-to-Go Go! bottle

Water-to-Go have been around for a good number of years, offering water filtration solutions for genuinely hostile conditions. Until recently, though, their bottles have been more orientated towards military and expedition use, with rather more bulk than is useful for cycling. The 500ml GO! Bottle is aimed at fitness users of all types and for general travel.

This isn't merely a home-use style water filter, taking away bad tastes and some chemical bits and pieces. The GO! Bottle uses a 3 in 1 filter to eliminate over 99.9% of all bacteria, viruses, chlorine, fluoride and heavy metals such as lead, leaving clean, safe drinking water. The bottle itself is BPA free and comes with a handy indicator band that allows you to keep tabs on how long the filter has left – each filter is designed to last for around 2 months, or 130 litres of filtration.

A bottle style water filter such as this makes touring in more exotic climes a much easier thing to consider, giving easy access to safe and drinkable water. Even in the UK and Europe, it's always nice to know that should things get desperate, that nearby stream is a feasible option as a water source.

First off, the time band gizmo does cause some trouble fitting the bottle easily into a bottle cage. The rubberized band is designed to allow the bottle to be held securely, but it also wedges quite firmly and not easily into most styles of cage. It is definitely better suited to side access cages.

That aside, the bottle is easy to use and results in great tasting water. It is slightly slower to drink than most bottles, given the small dimensions of the drinking spout, so you'll want to save it for more relaxed paced rides rather than sporting efforts. It is however, also spot on for overnight hotel stays before events, allowing easy hydration from bedroom taps, with no fear of pollution from pigeons in the water tank and so on.

I'd be inclined to take this bottle on more wild and woolly touring adventures, but would probably use a normal water bottle in other circumstances, given the niggles of using this one as it stands. It's an excellent and cost effective bottle for office and travel use, a far more ethical alternative to bottled water, but it needs a bit of tweaking to make it genuinely easy to use for cycling adventures.

Verdict

Reasonably priced, effective water filter bottle, spot on for travel and workplace use but not quite perfect for cycling