Yeah Camelback's are ridiculous. Get a Hydrapack, or at least a Hydrapack bladder! Either one will change your life! They are an awesome company to deal with as well.

A buddy of mine was boiling his Hydrapack bladder to decontaminate it, and fell asleep while it was boiling. He awoke to his smoke alarm going off as the water had all evaporated and his hydrapack bite valve melted to his pot at home. He was fine, didn't burn down his house, called Hydrapack and they sent him a new bite valve!

 

I have used Ultimate Direction roll-top bladders for years now.

I love the roll-top velcro design - easy to fill & clean and zero leakage. I have the 128 oz version, and like the fact that if I don't want to fill it all the way up, I can roll-down the excess bladder for a nice fit. I use it in a Wingnut Hyper 3.0 currently.

Definitely DO use a CamelBak bite-valve though - that's still the best design going (and it fits on the Ult Direction hose just fine).

Cheers, Chris

 

Read this thread last week with the same complaint as the original poster. Pipe wrenches and canola oil was what I had been doing for months with mine, *****ing about it before every ride. PITA it was.

So I read this thread and saw "Hydrapak". I had never heard of it so I visited their site and bought one that day (an '07 Big Sur). Used it twice since. Excellent system ... way easier to load up than camelbak. Much better bite valve too. Thanks Anthrax and other posters for the advice!

Do they still use that spring-loaded valve? Those were pretty cool.
Lou

 

maybe some wrist, forearm exercises to build raw brute strength.

hell yeah.....

 

petcock

huh huh

 

I run hot water over my lid when it is tough to open. This normally helps a bunchl