What is a Bidon in Cycling?

There are plenty of phrases related to cycling that come from the French language that are unfamiliar to non-cyclists or cyclists who are new to the sport. One term that comes up is bidon. What is a bidon? Quite simply, it’s a water bottle.

Historically in cycling, a bidon was a metal bottle with an opening that you sealed with a cork. It was mounted on the handlebars until cyclists discovered the advantages of mounting them lower on the bicycle on the down tube and seat tubes in the mid 1950s. Around this time period, cyclists also discovered that plastic bidons were easier to drink from because you could squeeze water from them, and metal bidons became extinct in professional cycling.

So next time you want to throw around some cycling vocabulary, tell your fellow riders that you need to fill up your bidons instead of just calling them water bottles.

Want to learn more cycling jargon? Check out our cycling glossary.