Medium Cafe Bag Freudian Slip question

[frogger]

Hi. I'm brand new to the forum. My wife and I ordered our first Tom Bihn bags last night, each getting a Medium Cafe Bag with a Freudian Slip. While watching the video on Tom Bihn's site, we saw them put a water bottle into one of the two mesh pockets in the Freudian Slip. We'd like to use that while using these bags. My question is, does anyone know the max diameter that would fit in those pouches? The one we want to use is the S'well 20oz traveler which is 3.25" in diameter according to the specs on their site. Is that too fat of a bottle for this? If so, can you let me know some bottles you've used that do fit? Since these will be stored inside the bag, we are specifically looking for bottles that don't sweat.

Normally, we'd just wait until the bags arrived and test the water bottles we already own and figure out if there is enough room for this slightly wider bottle. However, we are going on vacation in just a couple of weeks and want to use these as our day bags on the trip. By the time they arrive and we figure out what will fit we probably won't have enough time to then order the water bottles and they arrive before we leave. Hence, hoping someone on here has tried this and can help. Thanks in advance for any information you can provide.

[G42]

Welcome to the Forums @frogger, we're glad to have you here!

I don't have a MCB, but hopefully folks will chime in soon with some thoughts.

[gathiel]

Hi, @frogger! I don’t have a 20 oz Swell traveler but I do have a 12 oz. Mine fits but I think it bulges too much and I don’t think one much fatter would work well. I’d highly recommend a Klean Kanteen if you’re going to get a new water bottle. The 20 oz bottles are very tall but do fit in the mcb and the width of the narrower mouth option is perfect. (The wide mouth fits too.) They’re all easy to fill with ice. They also do great in the dishwasher! Mine have been dishwashered a zillion times and still hold ice all day. Even the new print options have done well with the dishwasher, although they’ve probably only done 20 or so cycles.

[gqb]

I use a 16 oz Nalgene wide mouth water bottle and I think it bulges too much in the FS, so +1 for the narrower clean canteen models

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[jessmakes]

I was able to comfortably fit my 20oz wide mouth hydro flask in the pocket! The base diameter is 2.91”.


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[moriond]

I concur with the other suggestions here that you’re better off with a slim design water bottle if you want to use the Medium Cafe Bag Freudian Slip mesh pockets to hold one in place — below about 2.9” diameter. The ones I used in pictures of the Medium Cafe Bag FS were Zojurushi 12 oz or 16 oz models (probably 2.7” diameter). The 20 oz models also fit, but using taller thermoses blocks some of the usability of the top row of pockets on the Freudian Slip. The Kleen Kanteen and Hydroflask models that were previously mentioned are also good options. I’d generally consider a diameter larger than 3.1” thicker than average, and coopting a Freudian Slip’s mesh pockets requires something thinner. Alternatively you could try using a tethered yarn or travel stuff sack if you don’t need the support of the stiffer Freudian Slip backing.

HTH

moriond

[frogger]

Thanks for the replies everyone. I ordered a Klean Kanteen 20 oz for myself based on your recommendations. My wife decided she still wants to try the S'well 20 oz Traveler, but if it is too wide, she wanted one for use at home anyway and will buy a slimmer one for use when traveling. She'll just have to put up with the bulging for this one trip. The cool part of that is that once it all arrives, we can see first hand how much of a difference the slimmer bottle makes than the fatter one in the FS and I'll try to remember to come back here and report our findings.

[REP]

16 oz Zojirushi SM-SC48 stainless mug fits nicely in the in MC Freudian Slip. See moriond’s post above for everything else to keep in mind.

[b1gsky]

Thanks for the replies everyone. I ordered a Klean Kanteen 20 oz for myself based on your recommendations. My wife decided she still wants to try the S'well 20 oz Traveler, but if it is too wide, she wanted one for use at home anyway and will buy a slimmer one for use when traveling. She'll just have to put up with the bulging for this one trip. The cool part of that is that once it all arrives, we can see first hand how much of a difference the slimmer bottle makes than the fatter one in the FS and I'll try to remember to come back here and report our findings.

If the bottle is too big for the FS you might just attach it to the o-ring instead, that only works if your bottle is the right shape/height though. I've been using this method to secure my water bottle in a DLBP for years: https://forums.tombihn.com/general-b...tml#post153739
I do the same with a smaller bottle in my Small Cafe Bag when it's not full enough to keep the bottle in place, so it should also work in a Medium Cafe Bag if your bottle is compatible.

[colleeno]

The 20 oz. Contigo fits the Freudian Slip in my Medium Cafe Bag. I love this bottle: narrow profile (easy to grip), push button pop-up spout, locking feature so it can't open accidentally. I also bought the Contigo brush set to keep it all clean.

[G42]

The 20 oz. Contigo fits the Freudian Slip in my Medium Cafe Bag. I love this bottle: narrow profile (easy to grip), push button pop-up spout, locking feature so it can't open accidentally. I also bought the Contigo brush set to keep it all clean.

Welcome to the Forums @colleeno!

[anna2222]

Just a visual: 26 oz Yeti on right, 18 oz Hydroflask on left of MCB FS. Both fit. Keep in mind that the water bottle will cover some of the top pockets and may render them unusable

[moriond]

Just a visual: 26 oz Yeti on right, 18 oz Hydroflask on left of MCB FS. Both fit. Keep in mind that the water bottle will cover some of the top pockets and may render them unusable

This is a great picture for illustrating the sizes of the these flasks in the Medium Cafe Bag Freudian Slip, but I'd like to add a few comments. The 18 oz Hydroflask on the left is about 2.9" in diameter. This is a fairly common diameter, and is about the dividing line that I mentioned in my earlier post (#6 in this thread) marking out bottles that are thicker than usual. That Yeti Rambler is 3.4" in diameter -- and wide-mouth Hydroflasks 32 oz. in size and larger are 3.6" in diameter. (You can find charts of showing products and their dimensions on the Manufacturer's product pages, and I've even excerpted some for the Hydroflask in answering earlier forum questions about how different models fit into various TB bags).

However, you can also see a few other things from this picture: (1) the larger size water bottles tend to extend past the upper boundary of the Medium Cafe Bag Freudian Slip. Exactly where depends on the details of each bottle and cap/lid design. (I can use the 20 oz Zojurushi thermoses within these limits; they are also smaller in diameter than both the flasks shown in the the picture. (2) the front view shot shows that taller bottles can impact the use of the top row of pockets. (3) In addition to what you can see in the front view, what is not easy to see is that the larger diameter bottles cause the back side of the Cafe Bag Freudian Slip to curve. It doesn't matter if you are dedicating the Freudian Slip solely or mainly to holding water bottles in place. However, if you are using the reverse side to hold folder(s), papers, or anything flat like an iPad or iPad Air, be aware that putting in a large diameter water bottle will impact that usage. That's one of the reasons I gave an actual diameter to aim for in my earlier post.

I've also tried taking the foam out of the FS (it's possible, but complicated, since you have to invert the bottom pockets, and then push the foam into a "V" shape in order to get it of the small sized opening at the bottom; the foam is like the one used to the Night Flight Travel Duffel). I did try experimenting with this, but I don't personally recommend it.

HTH

moriond

[ejvc]

I'm always impressed by the dedication that people have to water bottles. Where I live (in Sweden) the climate is temperate and moist. I think very few people carry water bottles with them; at least, I never see them drinking from them or using them. On the other hand, 8 months of the year we have hats and gloves!

I do carry a water bottle when I travel though. Nothing like waiting for a delayed train forever out in the middle of nowhere, with kids, to make you glad you have your own supply. (we once did a "short" trip from London home where every single transport we got on was delayed - tube in London, airport train, plane, airport train in Oslo, train from Oslo to Karlstad -- it took like 15 hours to do a 6 hour trip).

[colleeno]

Thank you! These forums are my current go-to for fun reading