KineticShift.com continues our hands on test of water bottles.
Specialized’s Product Description:In creating the next generation of water bottles the team set out to solve the puzzle of how to combine the two most desired elements in the ideal bottle – the flexibility and safety of a sports bottle with the purity of taste from a drinking glass.
Introducing Purist – With inspiration from nature we have created the first water bottle that offers a taste as pure as drinking from a glass, with all the advantages of a flexible bottle. With a simple rinse, mold and residue are removed ensuring that water drunk from the bottle does not taste like plastic or impurities, but clean and fresh. All you taste is the water. Even in extreme conditions where tomato sauce is left in the bottle overnight, Purist shields the bottle from the taste, smell and staining. Nothing sticks, so your bottle stays cleaner and your water tastes pure.
Water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink. That is unless you have a water bottle like the Nalgene with you.
As part of our round-up of water bottles, we’re starting with this the Nalgene All-Terrain Bottle. It says all-terrain but how does it really stand up?
Nalgene’s Product Description:You can rely on the NALGENE All-Terrain Bottle wherever you go. It’s great for carbohydrate/energy beverages, easy to use, and simple to clean. Your ATB fits standard bicycle cages
Except the 32oz. That does not fit in any cages, waist packs or backpack pockets. The hinged Co-polyester mud-cap keeps the drinking spout clean, and the slim profile and textured grip give you firm handling in virtually all conditions. The wide neck opening easily accommodates ice cubes for chilled drinks, and the neck configuration works with most major water purifiers and filters.
Dave Mayer was in France last summer for the Tour, but he wasn’t seeing the sights and probably not a lot of the riding. Instead was there promoting his new water bottle, which he did by having someone wear a giant suit that looked like his revolutionary sports bottle. Now he’s looking to clean up in the world wide market with the Clean Bottle, which is unique in that it unscrews at both ends. The bottle is currently available through KHS, Hawley, Paceline, J&B and Peregrine Outfitters in the United States and he’s looking to take the bottle around the world.
“During the first year of our business, I had to be a little conservative with my distribution partners due to supply and demand issues,” states Mayer. “But due to spectacular results from our Tour de France coverage on Versus and our other marketing efforts, we’re now ready to go big time.”
As Mayer begins his world wide journey he’ll be taking the “Bottle Boy” with him to major cycling events. But more importantly he’s got distribution agreements for the UK, Canada, Japan and Singapore in place. Does the Bottle Boy have a passport we need to ask?
The Purist bottle is the next best thing to glass.
Ever since Interbike we’re hooked on water. That’s because we found a bottle that you can sip clean, pure tasting water (at least as pure as our local water department supplies). Specialized introduced its Purist water bottle. It’s made from silicon dioxide, a material that allows it to mimic the natural behavior of the lotus flower. It doesn’t absorb the liquid contained inside. That means it leaves all the taste, flavor, smell and other properties of your drink for you to enjoy when you’re drinking it, not the next time you have another drink. Continue reading Interbike: Purist About Water
you’ve been watching the Tour de France, especially on the high mountain climbs, you’ve noticed a few colorful characters. There are guys in gorilla costumes, dudes with Viking helmets and of course plenty of yellow to celebrate the race leader. And then there is the giant water bottle, which if you followed the whole cycling season you might have seen previously. But in the latter case the guy (or just as likely girl) in the bottle suit isn’t just a super dedicated fan. This is rather a promotional stunt for The Clean Bottle, a company founded and run by David Mayer, a road and mountain biker.
As you might also have noticed in professional cycling, the serious riders don’t keep their water bottles and often toss them to the side of the road. Since most of us don’t have water bottles handed to us from our “team” car during our long rides, we tend to save a reuse the water bottles. The result is pretty much what Mayer discovered – the bottles get really nasty over time, and they’re darn hard to clean, especially if you enjoy sticky sweet sports drinks rather than just your average H20. Continue reading Tour de France: The Clean Bottle
What do you get when you go for a bike ride with just any water bottle? Bisphenol-A (BPA) and phalates, a chemical that has been linked to obesity, neurological disorders, cancer, and a number of other health problems.
CamelBak makes BPA-free bottles from a material called Tritan, that doesn’t allow properties to leech in the water and compromise taste and health. KineticShift took a look at three of CamelBak’s bottles, two made from BPA-free materials, and one stainless steel. Here’s what we found.
CamelBak is on the lookout for unconventional teams outfit with its bottles and hydration systems. It began its search with the “Official Water Bottle Of” campaign last week. CamelBak will provide BPA-free Better Bottles and t-shirts with the team logo and have water-carrying rights at the teams’ sanctioned events. It will also promote the team on the CamelBak Web site and its Facebook fan page.
Unconventional sports on CamelBak’s radar include dodge ball, roller derby, and underwater hockey. They’ll be happy to hear about more quirky sports, and so will KineticShift. So far Santa Cruz Derby Girls and San Francisco Sea Lions Underwater Hockey are charter members of the search.
CamelBak began years ago as a hydration system built into a backpack. It now offers a line of backpack hydration systems, clothing, and hands-free bottles.
We met up recently with the eco-folks of Klean Kanteen, who showed us their new Wide Insulated bottles. You have probably seen Klean Kanteen products at your local yoga center or Whole Foods. These particular beverage holders have double-walled vacuum insulation and are made with a solid 18/8 brushed stainless steel designed for handling food. They’re also BPA-free, but what isn’t these days since the “scare” of a couple years ago. They come in three sizes—12, 16, and 20 ounces—and all cost less than $30 ($22.95, $25.95, and $27.95, respectively). They can also accommodate the optional cafe cap ($5.95) you can screw on, great for coffee drinkers.
But the big seller to these new bottles is the said double-walled vacuum insulation, which Klean Kanteen says will keep a hot beverage hot for up to six hours and iced drinks for up to 24 hours. Now, when you throw those kinds of claims in my face, I become skeptical (I’m generally skeptical anyway, but that’s another story). After all, we’ve grown up with those Thermoses that promised to keep our soups hot by lunchtime, only to find it lukewarm. After Klean Kanteen provided us with a 16-ounce model to try out, we put it through a quick real-world test.
We brewed some instant coffee (times are tough, leave us alone), poured it into the bottle, and sealed it tightly with the included loop cap. Just to see how tight the seal is, we threw it in a backpack that contains some clothes and we tossed around for the next few hours. Luckily the seal was tight and we didn’t find any coffee-soiled shirts. We opened it once after three hours to check on it (still hot). After a total of 6.5 hours later, we opened the bottle again and took a sip. Sure enough, the bottle lived up to its claim of six hours. But the coffee wasn’t just hot, it was lip-burning hot, as if we had just poured the coffee into it a minute ago. We were pretty surprised that it was so hot. Luckily we had the cafe cap on, which made it a bit easier to drink than pressing your lips directly on the stainless steel (ouch).
We didn’t test it with cold beverages for a complete 24 hours, just 12. We poured in some diet cola with ice, sealed it, and left it in a warm room with a steam heater nearby. After 12 hours, we removed the cap and found the cola very cold, how soda should be drank. The ice, however, had melted, so the cola tasted somewhat diluted but nothing we couldn’t drink.
The one issue we noticed is that, despite having cleaned it with soap and water after we dumped out the coffee, we could still smell a bit of the coffee in the bottle when we were sipping the cola from it. Klean Kanteen says the bottle does not retain or impart flavors, which we didn’t find when we tasted the cola, but we wonder if that also meant smelling it from the bottle. Also, due to a narrow internal chamber it’s a bit difficult to wash using just a regular household sponge, yet the bottle was too big to fit in our Jeep’s cup holder (although Klean Kanteen says it’ll fit most). Plus, it feels a bit heavy when you compare it to non-insulated bottles.
Design-wise, some may find it a bit boring to look at, but we think the simple and clean design is appealing. It lacks the design and color choices of a Sigg bottle, but here we think the function definitely outweighs the option of graphics or pretty colors (just slap a sticker on it to make it yours). Overall we are really impressed, and we think it’s worth the money if you like having the option of either hot or cold.
Update: We soaked the bottle overnight in regular dish-washing detergent, and we found no trace of any smell from the liquid it held prior. So make sure you give it a thorough cleaning unless you enjoy smelling coffee with your cola.
KineticShift.com continues our hands on test of water bottles. 
