Written by Peter Suciu on 23 July 2010
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. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: BPA-free plastic, Clean Bottle, Cycling, David Mayer, road and mountain biker, Tour de France, water bottle
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Written by Enid Burns on 31 March 2010
CamelBak Better 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.
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Tags: Better Bottle, bite valve, BPA-Free, CamelBak, hydration, phalate-free, Podium Chill, Stainless water bottle, water bottle
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Written by Enid Burns on 12 March 2010
CamelBak's Better Bottle is BPA-free.
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.
CamelBak
CamelBak “Official Water Bottle Of” page
CamelBak Better Bottle
Tags: BPA-Free, CamelBak, team sponsorship, water bottle
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Written by Les Shu on 22 January 2010
Klean Kanteen Wide Insulated Bottle with Cafe Cap
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.
Klean Kanteen website
Tags: cold beverage, hot beverage, klean kanteen wide insulated, sigg, thermos, water bottle
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