Funny how much the time spent meditating on my bike is/was a muse for this blog. I miss it. It seems while I was riding I had a neverending font of ideas to write about. Now that I'm in bike-exile, thoughts are more sluggish, ideas are harder to find.
One thing I have been wanting to do is the occasional product review. This one is about the CamelBak "Better Bottle." I've been searching for quite some time for a bottle that I will actually use to drink more water (and less Diet Coke) at work. I've tried several, and they all seem to come up short in some way or another.
(Photo courtesy of R.E.I. - a great place to buy one of these...)
The Better Bottle is basically a plastic bottle in one of two sizes (0.5 and 0.75 L) with a fancy screw-on cap. The bottle is made of BPA-free Tritan (looks/feels like Lexan, but it's not...) The cap includes a handy carrying loop and a flip-out, spill proof "big bite" sip valve. This is a larger version of the sip valve used in CamelBak's more famous hydration packs, and works quite well. You can hang a full bottle upside down and shake it with no leaks. An internal straw lets you drink (nearly) the whole bottle down without tipping.
I like the way the valve, when flipped closed, is fairly well protected from damage and dirt. I did notice when drinking from it that it tends to shoot cold liquid against the back side of my front teeth, which can be a bit uncomfortable at first. This is a minor issue, and seems to have gone away as my teeth got used to the cold.
My favorite part of the bottle is the hanging loop. Integrated into the lid, it's easily strong enough to hold a full bottle, and sized just right to hook a finger into. This makes the bottle easier to carry than a soda can -- an important feature when I'm feeling lazy. It can also be used with a carabiner to clip the bottle to a pack or belt loop.
One minor nit to pick: The 0.75L bottle is just a little bit too large to fit into a standard bicycle bottle cage or an automobile cupholder. If you intend to use it this way, I'd recommend going with the 0.5L size (which from the pictures appears designed to fit a standard cup holder).
Another nice thought: CamelBak claims the lid (also sold separately!) is built to match a standard size bottle, so you should be able to attach the lid to a standard bike bottle and solve the cage issue. I have not tried this yet, but it looks like it would work.
The Better Bottle comes in a variety of colors, including some interesting patterns, if you like to dress up your liquids. At $13 retail, it is quite an expensive bottle, which makes me worry about misplacing it, but here's the key. Unlike most of the other bottles I've tried, I actually tend to use this one... and isn't that the point?
One thing I have been wanting to do is the occasional product review. This one is about the CamelBak "Better Bottle." I've been searching for quite some time for a bottle that I will actually use to drink more water (and less Diet Coke) at work. I've tried several, and they all seem to come up short in some way or another.
(Photo courtesy of R.E.I. - a great place to buy one of these...)
The Better Bottle is basically a plastic bottle in one of two sizes (0.5 and 0.75 L) with a fancy screw-on cap. The bottle is made of BPA-free Tritan (looks/feels like Lexan, but it's not...) The cap includes a handy carrying loop and a flip-out, spill proof "big bite" sip valve. This is a larger version of the sip valve used in CamelBak's more famous hydration packs, and works quite well. You can hang a full bottle upside down and shake it with no leaks. An internal straw lets you drink (nearly) the whole bottle down without tipping.
I like the way the valve, when flipped closed, is fairly well protected from damage and dirt. I did notice when drinking from it that it tends to shoot cold liquid against the back side of my front teeth, which can be a bit uncomfortable at first. This is a minor issue, and seems to have gone away as my teeth got used to the cold.
My favorite part of the bottle is the hanging loop. Integrated into the lid, it's easily strong enough to hold a full bottle, and sized just right to hook a finger into. This makes the bottle easier to carry than a soda can -- an important feature when I'm feeling lazy. It can also be used with a carabiner to clip the bottle to a pack or belt loop.
One minor nit to pick: The 0.75L bottle is just a little bit too large to fit into a standard bicycle bottle cage or an automobile cupholder. If you intend to use it this way, I'd recommend going with the 0.5L size (which from the pictures appears designed to fit a standard cup holder).
Another nice thought: CamelBak claims the lid (also sold separately!) is built to match a standard size bottle, so you should be able to attach the lid to a standard bike bottle and solve the cage issue. I have not tried this yet, but it looks like it would work.
The Better Bottle comes in a variety of colors, including some interesting patterns, if you like to dress up your liquids. At $13 retail, it is quite an expensive bottle, which makes me worry about misplacing it, but here's the key. Unlike most of the other bottles I've tried, I actually tend to use this one... and isn't that the point?
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