Water Carriers: Update #3

Thanks to a very kind friend, I have these mounting rails for bottle cages.

 Well, who knew so many of you were into water bottles and bottle mounting? Gosh! These posts have been big number generators for the blog and, frankly, I am a bit surprised by that. But, I suppose a guy or gal has gotta drink or ya know.....you might die! That's not on the agenda for a good ride, so let's keep those bodies hydrated out there!

And I think I have my situation figured out, finally. But first, I have to thank a very good friend to me and Trans Iowa, Mike, who had another former winner and volunteer of Trans Iowa, DG, machine these awesome bottle mount spacers. They are precursors to the Wolf Tooth B-Rad modular system, and they were made with a similar thought- To be able to move water bottle cages to fit in places more advantageous for bike packers and long distance riders in events or otherwise. By the way, I am not 100% sure, but these were likely made around the time of T.Iv8, so probably 2012-ish? Definitely before the B-Rad stuff was around.

So, what you are looking at here are two 'bars' of machined aluminum with two countersunk, ovalized holes in each. Those are the points where the bars get attached to whatever bottle bosses are on your bike where you want to modify the bottle's position. The holes are threaded for accepting standard water bottle bolts. So, as you can see, you have several possibilities for moving cages slightly this way or that using these. The spacers are for raising the bar a bit in case of interference with cables, front derailleur clamps, and the like. You'd use these spacers underneath the bar bit and mount the cage on top in your preferred position. Stay tuned- I have plans for these.....

So, here is how I used the B-Rad to work out my water bottle situation.

 In the meantime, here is how I solved my dilemma with the BMC MCD and the Elite Jet bottles. I had a B-Rad 4, which is the longest B-Rad accessory mount available. On one end I have the B-Rad Accessory Plate and Strap which is doing the job of holding that ginormous Jet Green bottle in place. Up top I have moved my bottle cage, which is the new Lezyne Side Mount Cage, to the furthest 'up' position. This allows for easy access to the upper bottle on the fly while leaving plenty of space between the base of that bottle and the top of the Jet Green bottle. The wide Wolf Tooth accessory strap locks down that bottle so there is absolutely no movement while riding. Meanwhile, I replaced the weak Velocity Cage with my old Lezyne Side Mount Cage which is far more robust and with that side entry/exit, it makes for a much easier time of getting at that big Jet Green bottle when I need to. 

The two remaining bottles are the Velocity Bottle Traps and they are perfect for where they are at on the bike. I just added that orange ByeKyle Velcro strap to stabilize that Jet + bottle. Basically a peace of mind thing. I'm about 99.9% that this will be it for Gravel Worlds and as far as water goes, I should have enough to get through the entire event, given that there are usually plenty of opportunities to get water on their routes. 

The way I figure it, with the one extra bottle onboard in the Chaff Bag, I have three and one-third quarts of water with this set up, and that should be plenty. Probably overkill, but that's what I am taking. I don't want to have any excuses when it comes to water/hydration/nutrition. I plan on using that GU Energy Roctane stuff too, which seems to be setting well with me. I feel stronger when using it and it doesn't seem to get my gut into a shutdown situation. But that said, I plan on mixing in some regular ol' hydration via Elite and other food as well. 

Anyway, I digress.... This is pretty much the set up unless I can think of something better.

Water Carriers: Update #3

Thanks to a very kind friend, I have these mounting rails for bottle cages.

 Well, who knew so many of you were into water bottles and bottle mounting? Gosh! These posts have been big number generators for the blog and, frankly, I am a bit surprised by that. But, I suppose a guy or gal has gotta drink or ya know.....you might die! That's not on the agenda for a good ride, so let's keep those bodies hydrated out there!

And I think I have my situation figured out, finally. But first, I have to thank a very good friend to me and Trans Iowa, Mike, who had another former winner and volunteer of Trans Iowa, DG, machine these awesome bottle mount spacers. They are precursors to the Wolf Tooth B-Rad modular system, and they were made with a similar thought- To be able to move water bottle cages to fit in places more advantageous for bike packers and long distance riders in events or otherwise. By the way, I am not 100% sure, but these were likely made around the time of T.Iv8, so probably 2012-ish? Definitely before the B-Rad stuff was around.

So, what you are looking at here are two 'bars' of machined aluminum with two countersunk, ovalized holes in each. Those are the points where the bars get attached to whatever bottle bosses are on your bike where you want to modify the bottle's position. The holes are threaded for accepting standard water bottle bolts. So, as you can see, you have several possibilities for moving cages slightly this way or that using these. The spacers are for raising the bar a bit in case of interference with cables, front derailleur clamps, and the like. You'd use these spacers underneath the bar bit and mount the cage on top in your preferred position. Stay tuned- I have plans for these.....

So, here is how I used the B-Rad to work out my water bottle situation.

 In the meantime, here is how I solved my dilemma with the BMC MCD and the Elite Jet bottles. I had a B-Rad 4, which is the longest B-Rad accessory mount available. On one end I have the B-Rad Accessory Plate and Strap which is doing the job of holding that ginormous Jet Green bottle in place. Up top I have moved my bottle cage, which is the new Lezyne Side Mount Cage, to the furthest 'up' position. This allows for easy access to the upper bottle on the fly while leaving plenty of space between the base of that bottle and the top of the Jet Green bottle. The wide Wolf Tooth accessory strap locks down that bottle so there is absolutely no movement while riding. Meanwhile, I replaced the weak Velocity Cage with my old Lezyne Side Mount Cage which is far more robust and with that side entry/exit, it makes for a much easier time of getting at that big Jet Green bottle when I need to. 

The two remaining bottles are the Velocity Bottle Traps and they are perfect for where they are at on the bike. I just added that orange ByeKyle Velcro strap to stabilize that Jet + bottle. Basically a peace of mind thing. I'm about 99.9% that this will be it for Gravel Worlds and as far as water goes, I should have enough to get through the entire event, given that there are usually plenty of opportunities to get water on their routes. 

The way I figure it, with the one extra bottle onboard in the Chaff Bag, I have three and one-third quarts of water with this set up, and that should be plenty. Probably overkill, but that's what I am taking. I don't want to have any excuses when it comes to water/hydration/nutrition. I plan on using that GU Energy Roctane stuff too, which seems to be setting well with me. I feel stronger when using it and it doesn't seem to get my gut into a shutdown situation. But that said, I plan on mixing in some regular ol' hydration via Elite and other food as well. 

Anyway, I digress.... This is pretty much the set up unless I can think of something better.

Water Carriers: Update #2

So far, this is what I have come up with......

Another update on the Elite water bottles and the challenge to get them to work on the Black Mountain Cycles MCD. You can check the last post here. This post will detail my work and testing so far and I will go over my results. 

The challenge was to find a couple water bottle cages that would make the under the down tube bottle more stable and to get the big Jet Green bottle to sit on top of the down tube without interfering with the upper bottle on the downtube. 

I ordered in two cages- One a Lezyne side loader and a Cat Eye cage. I had to wait several days to get those and when they showed up I got to work. Unfortunately, neither cage made any difference. The Cat Eye cage actually made the fitment worse as it sat the Elite + bottle in space where it interfered with the front wheel! Bah! So, I fiddled around, dug through my stash, and found a couple oldies-but-goodies. These got bolted in and I actually had a workable solution for on top of the down tube. Underneath I ended up going back to the Velocity Bottle Trap. 

A reader posted a comment on the last update saying I should use a strap to stabilize the under-the-downtube bottle and he was right on with that suggestion. I used an old ByKyle Strap I got from a stash left over from a Trans Iowa sponsorship years ago. So, the bottom bottle was sussed but not before I had tried two other cages to see if they would work. That's besides trying the Cat Eye cage! One was an old Profile composite cage from the 90's. I used to have it on my Bontrager Race mtb. Anyway, I could mount that cage so low that the bottle interfered with the inner chain ring! That cage ended up on top. The range of adjustment with the Profile cage is amazing, and they tend to have a great hold on bottles without causing issues retracting a bottle or inserting a bottle while riding. This cage would have originally had a rubber "O" ring acting as kind of a spring retention, but they always broke and they are not really necessary anyway.

Click to make the image bigger if need be.

So, I was able to 'shove up' that Profile cage, but what about the lower cage? I tried several in this position, but nothing allowed 100% clearance of the Jet Green bottle to the upper bottle cage. I came across my old Velocity bottle cage. The 'original', Australian made cages had a modular base system and twin tubing that ran across the entire backside of the cage. This allowed the end user to position the modular bases anywhere along that twin tubing as long as you could line up the bottle bosses. So, I used this feature to 'shove down', in effect, the Velocity cage until I was able to achieve the best possible result using what I had here. 

Now before I continue, I want to put out a call to all you small-time tinkerers with metal 3D printers or small CNC machines- "Please make something like this out of titanium and a design that isn't as flexy as the old Velocity cage is." 

Someone could make a good living doing that, because in effect, this cage design is essentially a Wolf Tooth B-Rad and bottle cage in one. Think of all the places you'd make use of this. Got a top tube bag that interferes with a bottle? Move the modular bases so the bottle clears. I think the range of adjustability on the old Velocity cage is well over an inch, although I've never actually measured this. That said, it would be more than enough adjustability for probably 90% of cases where it was necessary to have this feature. 

So, after installing the cages I had it where the Jet Green would go in behind the Profile cage, but the nipple of the bottle was touching the base of the Profile cage. Still, that was just enough clearance to make things work. I grabbed another ByeKyle Strap but for the Jet Green it was too short, so I utilized a Moots ankle strap I got at Interbike ages ago to use as a retaining strap. Now with this set up I was ready for a riding test.

I could have gone out on the gravel, but with the intermittent showers all day Wednesday and the fact that gravel isn't really rough enough, I opted for the more extreme choice for testing; alleyways. Our alleys are full of dust and what I call 'decomposed gravel', but what really makes them great for testing accessory mounts is all the potholes, ripples, and whoop-de-do's that these narrow byways have. So that's where I went. 

It cleared- but just barely!

I hit as many potholes and bumps as I could, and unfortunately I did get that big Jet Green bottle to shift sideways part way out of the Velocity cage. Thank goodness I had that Moots commuter strap on there or that bottle would have come out and caused some mayhem. So, I stopped and noted that the full bottle had enough mass that it actually bent the tubing of the Velocity cage outward a bit. I just wasn't comfortable using this cage now and I was glad I found out in the alley and not amongst hundreds of other riders at the beginning of Gravel Worlds. 

So, while I am close to having this sorted, I am not quite there yet. My solution will be to get my big B-Rad rail from the Orange Crush bike and use it on this pink BMC. That rail has a 'pad' which could be set in various places, and that metal pad has a strap on it which is supposed to be used for a tool roll. It is wide and has a rubber/foam base on it. With the base and the longer B-Rad I can not only move the cage up on the upper end but I can use that 'pad' and strap to better cinch down the Jet Green bottle as well. Plus I can use a better, more secure cage on the lower end of the down tube without fear of the Jet Green bottle interfering with the upper bottle.

I also added a home made cue sheet holder and a home made light holder on the left fork blade made out of a carbon steer tube I cut off years ago. Those things are good, but I may have a newer idea for a light mount if I can find a bolt long enough for that. Stay tuned.....

All this will be important for Gravel Worlds since this is the set up I am going to use there. I want to do plenty of riding on this set up beforehand so I need to get this squared away before long here. I'll talk more about the set up in other posts and update this bottle cage deal as well soon.

Water Carriers: Update #2

So far, this is what I have come up with......

Another update on the Elite water bottles and the challenge to get them to work on the Black Mountain Cycles MCD. You can check the last post here. This post will detail my work and testing so far and I will go over my results. 

The challenge was to find a couple water bottle cages that would make the under the down tube bottle more stable and to get the big Jet Green bottle to sit on top of the down tube without interfering with the upper bottle on the downtube. 

I ordered in two cages- One a Lezyne side loader and a Cat Eye cage. I had to wait several days to get those and when they showed up I got to work. Unfortunately, neither cage made any difference. The Cat Eye cage actually made the fitment worse as it sat the Elite + bottle in space where it interfered with the front wheel! Bah! So, I fiddled around, dug through my stash, and found a couple oldies-but-goodies. These got bolted in and I actually had a workable solution for on top of the down tube. Underneath I ended up going back to the Velocity Bottle Trap. 

A reader posted a comment on the last update saying I should use a strap to stabilize the under-the-downtube bottle and he was right on with that suggestion. I used an old ByKyle Strap I got from a stash left over from a Trans Iowa sponsorship years ago. So, the bottom bottle was sussed but not before I had tried two other cages to see if they would work. That's besides trying the Cat Eye cage! One was an old Profile composite cage from the 90's. I used to have it on my Bontrager Race mtb. Anyway, I could mount that cage so low that the bottle interfered with the inner chain ring! That cage ended up on top. The range of adjustment with the Profile cage is amazing, and they tend to have a great hold on bottles without causing issues retracting a bottle or inserting a bottle while riding. This cage would have originally had a rubber "O" ring acting as kind of a spring retention, but they always broke and they are not really necessary anyway.

Click to make the image bigger if need be.

So, I was able to 'shove up' that Profile cage, but what about the lower cage? I tried several in this position, but nothing allowed 100% clearance of the Jet Green bottle to the upper bottle cage. I came across my old Velocity bottle cage. The 'original', Australian made cages had a modular base system and twin tubing that ran across the entire backside of the cage. This allowed the end user to position the modular bases anywhere along that twin tubing as long as you could line up the bottle bosses. So, I used this feature to 'shove down', in effect, the Velocity cage until I was able to achieve the best possible result using what I had here. 

Now before I continue, I want to put out a call to all you small-time tinkerers with metal 3D printers or small CNC machines- "Please make something like this out of titanium and a design that isn't as flexy as the old Velocity cage is." 

Someone could make a good living doing that, because in effect, this cage design is essentially a Wolf Tooth B-Rad and bottle cage in one. Think of all the places you'd make use of this. Got a top tube bag that interferes with a bottle? Move the modular bases so the bottle clears. I think the range of adjustability on the old Velocity cage is well over an inch, although I've never actually measured this. That said, it would be more than enough adjustability for probably 90% of cases where it was necessary to have this feature. 

So, after installing the cages I had it where the Jet Green would go in behind the Profile cage, but the nipple of the bottle was touching the base of the Profile cage. Still, that was just enough clearance to make things work. I grabbed another ByeKyle Strap but for the Jet Green it was too short, so I utilized a Moots ankle strap I got at Interbike ages ago to use as a retaining strap. Now with this set up I was ready for a riding test.

I could have gone out on the gravel, but with the intermittent showers all day Wednesday and the fact that gravel isn't really rough enough, I opted for the more extreme choice for testing; alleyways. Our alleys are full of dust and what I call 'decomposed gravel', but what really makes them great for testing accessory mounts is all the potholes, ripples, and whoop-de-do's that these narrow byways have. So that's where I went. 

It cleared- but just barely!

I hit as many potholes and bumps as I could, and unfortunately I did get that big Jet Green bottle to shift sideways part way out of the Velocity cage. Thank goodness I had that Moots commuter strap on there or that bottle would have come out and caused some mayhem. So, I stopped and noted that the full bottle had enough mass that it actually bent the tubing of the Velocity cage outward a bit. I just wasn't comfortable using this cage now and I was glad I found out in the alley and not amongst hundreds of other riders at the beginning of Gravel Worlds. 

So, while I am close to having this sorted, I am not quite there yet. My solution will be to get my big B-Rad rail from the Orange Crush bike and use it on this pink BMC. That rail has a 'pad' which could be set in various places, and that metal pad has a strap on it which is supposed to be used for a tool roll. It is wide and has a rubber/foam base on it. With the base and the longer B-Rad I can not only move the cage up on the upper end but I can use that 'pad' and strap to better cinch down the Jet Green bottle as well. Plus I can use a better, more secure cage on the lower end of the down tube without fear of the Jet Green bottle interfering with the upper bottle.

I also added a home made cue sheet holder and a home made light holder on the left fork blade made out of a carbon steer tube I cut off years ago. Those things are good, but I may have a newer idea for a light mount if I can find a bolt long enough for that. Stay tuned.....

All this will be important for Gravel Worlds since this is the set up I am going to use there. I want to do plenty of riding on this set up beforehand so I need to get this squared away before long here. I'll talk more about the set up in other posts and update this bottle cage deal as well soon.

Water Carriers: Update

A close up of those Elite bottles on my BMC MCD

Recently I posted about two new Elite water bottles I was gifted by some nice marketing people. 

Last Wednesday I decided to check out how those big Elite water bottles would do on my pink BMC MCD. I test fit the Jet + bottle Tuesday evening under the down tube on two bikes and found that the Jet + just barely clears the front wheel on the pink BMC and it is actually the same situation on my Noble GX5. There is about an inch there, if that, between the top of that cap and the tire. Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades, so, on with the show....

The bigger Jet Green bottle worked, but again, just barely. The side entrance Lezyne cage on my BMC was the only reason it worked at all, to be honest, and the nipple of the bottle actually prevented the upper bottle from seating into the Velocity Bottle Trap completely. But I figured it could work, and in reality, it did. It just looks all wrong. (See the image) By the way, there was no way that bottle would work on my Noble GX5. I decided these bottles were going on my pink BMC then.

My Strategy: So, my plan was to use the Jet bottles as sources to refill my two Twin Six bottles from. I did not plan to try to grab that enormous Jet Green bottle, and of course, the Jet + was out of reach anyway. In this case, I had two hours worth, more or less, of fluids available without stopping. I had approximately three small bottles worth of fluid in those two Jet bottles, plus a little. So, in effect, this set up carried five-plus water bottles worth of fluids. If it rode well, it would work as my set up for Gravel Worlds with ease. 

How It Worked: So, my main concern up front was how the Jet + underneath there would ride. I noted that the bottle rocked up and down due to the Velocity Bottle Trap's flexing. Would this cause issues with keeping the bottle on the bike, or cause safety concerns? After some of the roughest gravel I've ridden in a long time, I think the answer is 'no'. However; I have some changes in mind there. The Jet Green bottle stayed put and was not a problem whatsoever. I didn't ever notice that my upper bottle wasn't 100% in its cage, but again- I have some ideas here as well. 

Changes: First of all, I have to swap out the cage underneath for something a little more reassuringly solid without losing the capacity to hold the bottle securely. I happen to have a Cat Eye bottle cage which has a bit better design and should keep the Jet + from wobbling up and down. I feel that the Bottle Trap would be okay, but the possibility that this movement could crack, and even break off the cage is concerning. If the Cat Eye cage arrests the movement I am noting, I will run it instead. That cage has a stellar reputation for holding a water bottle in even the most severe situations.

The Jet Green bottle will get a Wolf Tooth B-Rad cage mount which will allow me to scooch that cage it is in a little more down on the down tube which, theoretically, should get the upper bottle all the way back into its cage. I also will be replacing that upper cage with another Lezyne side load water bottle cage. The Lezyne cage has its mounting holes in such an arrangement that I can get it a tiny bit higher up the down tube than the Velocity cage. Between the Lezyne cage and the B-Rad I should be able to fit that ginormous Jet Green bottle with no problem. 

Stay tuned......

Water Carriers: Update

A close up of those Elite bottles on my BMC MCD

Recently I posted about two new Elite water bottles I was gifted by some nice marketing people. 

Last Wednesday I decided to check out how those big Elite water bottles would do on my pink BMC MCD. I test fit the Jet + bottle Tuesday evening under the down tube on two bikes and found that the Jet + just barely clears the front wheel on the pink BMC and it is actually the same situation on my Noble GX5. There is about an inch there, if that, between the top of that cap and the tire. Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades, so, on with the show....

The bigger Jet Green bottle worked, but again, just barely. The side entrance Lezyne cage on my BMC was the only reason it worked at all, to be honest, and the nipple of the bottle actually prevented the upper bottle from seating into the Velocity Bottle Trap completely. But I figured it could work, and in reality, it did. It just looks all wrong. (See the image) By the way, there was no way that bottle would work on my Noble GX5. I decided these bottles were going on my pink BMC then.

My Strategy: So, my plan was to use the Jet bottles as sources to refill my two Twin Six bottles from. I did not plan to try to grab that enormous Jet Green bottle, and of course, the Jet + was out of reach anyway. In this case, I had two hours worth, more or less, of fluids available without stopping. I had approximately three small bottles worth of fluid in those two Jet bottles, plus a little. So, in effect, this set up carried five-plus water bottles worth of fluids. If it rode well, it would work as my set up for Gravel Worlds with ease. 

How It Worked: So, my main concern up front was how the Jet + underneath there would ride. I noted that the bottle rocked up and down due to the Velocity Bottle Trap's flexing. Would this cause issues with keeping the bottle on the bike, or cause safety concerns? After some of the roughest gravel I've ridden in a long time, I think the answer is 'no'. However; I have some changes in mind there. The Jet Green bottle stayed put and was not a problem whatsoever. I didn't ever notice that my upper bottle wasn't 100% in its cage, but again- I have some ideas here as well. 

Changes: First of all, I have to swap out the cage underneath for something a little more reassuringly solid without losing the capacity to hold the bottle securely. I happen to have a Cat Eye bottle cage which has a bit better design and should keep the Jet + from wobbling up and down. I feel that the Bottle Trap would be okay, but the possibility that this movement could crack, and even break off the cage is concerning. If the Cat Eye cage arrests the movement I am noting, I will run it instead. That cage has a stellar reputation for holding a water bottle in even the most severe situations.

The Jet Green bottle will get a Wolf Tooth B-Rad cage mount which will allow me to scooch that cage it is in a little more down on the down tube which, theoretically, should get the upper bottle all the way back into its cage. I also will be replacing that upper cage with another Lezyne side load water bottle cage. The Lezyne cage has its mounting holes in such an arrangement that I can get it a tiny bit higher up the down tube than the Velocity cage. Between the Lezyne cage and the B-Rad I should be able to fit that ginormous Jet Green bottle with no problem. 

Stay tuned......

Water Carriers

The Elite Jet Green (L), the Jet Plus,(M), and a standard bottle (R)

 I got a nice gift in the mail yesterday from a marketing company I work with for review items for RidingGravel.com. It was two bottles from the "Elite" company.

I wouldn't normally say anything about 'water bottles', but I thought that these two bottles were unusual enough that they warranted mentioning. By the way, I wasn't asked to review these at all, nor does the marketing company or Elite know I am posting this. I just thought maybe some of you folks could use something like these bottles. 

First up, the enormous 'Jet Green' bottle I got here, which is on the left in the image. The impressive thing about it is that it is made from a 'bio-plastic' using sugar cane plants. There is no petroleum based products in its manufacture at all. The other thing is its size. Now, any of these two bottles are available in 550ml and 750ml, which are normal bottle sizes, but this example is 950ml! That's about a quart, in case you were wondering. 

The nozzle at the top has a bigger diameter than many bottles have, so it flows a bunch of water. The bottle is reasonably soft, easy to squeeze, and not weird feeling. I'm not sure about the 950ml size. There is more volume over the top bit where a water cage grabs this bottle than there is under that area. It makes me wonder how this would stay in a water bottle cage or not. It is so tall that it probably will not work in several cases. So, it has its limitations, but in cases where you need to pack a lot of water and you have the available cage space, well..... This might work for you. https://www.elite-it.com/en/products/water-bottles/sport/jet-green

The Jet Plus has a cover which would make it ideal for under the down tube.

The 'Jet Plus' is Elite's bottle with a cap cover which protects the nozzle from dirt and debris making this bottle a great choice for under the down tube situations where the front tire can sling all sorts of crud at a bottle. 

The other feature of the cap is that with its design, you can 'one-hand' the opening and closing of the top with ease, allowing the rider to keep one hand on the handle bars at all times. One slight flick of the wrist, and the protective cap snaps back into place and you can stow the bottle away again.  

This bottle comes in all three sizes that the Jet Green bottle comes in as well, so you can get something with the protective cap that fits your situation. The 750ml size I received might be a bit much for some bikes under the down tube position, but I'll give it a whirl here and see what bike it works on for me. 

The other thing with this bottle, and the Jet Green, is that they are biodegradable once you are done with them. The plastic is infused with certain elements that allow micro-organisms to attack it and break it down more quickly which allows the bottles to be assimilated into the earth again. You can check out the Jet Plus here:  https://www.elite-it.com/en/products/water-bottles/sport/jet-plus

So, there you have it. As always, I am not being paid, nor bribed for this post, I honestly just thought these two bottles were cool and unusual enough that they deserved to get a mention. I'll be using them soon and I will have a thing or two to say about them down the road, but Elite s a well known and respected company from Italy that manufactures these bottles there. I have little doubt that they are at the very least, 'good' products. But, we shall see.......

Water Carriers

The Elite Jet Green (L), the Jet Plus,(M), and a standard bottle (R)

 I got a nice gift in the mail yesterday from a marketing company I work with for review items for RidingGravel.com. It was two bottles from the "Elite" company.

I wouldn't normally say anything about 'water bottles', but I thought that these two bottles were unusual enough that they warranted mentioning. By the way, I wasn't asked to review these at all, nor does the marketing company or Elite know I am posting this. I just thought maybe some of you folks could use something like these bottles. 

First up, the enormous 'Jet Green' bottle I got here, which is on the left in the image. The impressive thing about it is that it is made from a 'bio-plastic' using sugar cane plants. There is no petroleum based products in its manufacture at all. The other thing is its size. Now, any of these two bottles are available in 550ml and 750ml, which are normal bottle sizes, but this example is 950ml! That's about a quart, in case you were wondering. 

The nozzle at the top has a bigger diameter than many bottles have, so it flows a bunch of water. The bottle is reasonably soft, easy to squeeze, and not weird feeling. I'm not sure about the 950ml size. There is more volume over the top bit where a water cage grabs this bottle than there is under that area. It makes me wonder how this would stay in a water bottle cage or not. It is so tall that it probably will not work in several cases. So, it has its limitations, but in cases where you need to pack a lot of water and you have the available cage space, well..... This might work for you. https://www.elite-it.com/en/products/water-bottles/sport/jet-green

The Jet Plus has a cover which would make it ideal for under the down tube.

The 'Jet Plus' is Elite's bottle with a cap cover which protects the nozzle from dirt and debris making this bottle a great choice for under the down tube situations where the front tire can sling all sorts of crud at a bottle. 

The other feature of the cap is that with its design, you can 'one-hand' the opening and closing of the top with ease, allowing the rider to keep one hand on the handle bars at all times. One slight flick of the wrist, and the protective cap snaps back into place and you can stow the bottle away again.  

This bottle comes in all three sizes that the Jet Green bottle comes in as well, so you can get something with the protective cap that fits your situation. The 750ml size I received might be a bit much for some bikes under the down tube position, but I'll give it a whirl here and see what bike it works on for me. 

The other thing with this bottle, and the Jet Green, is that they are biodegradable once you are done with them. The plastic is infused with certain elements that allow micro-organisms to attack it and break it down more quickly which allows the bottles to be assimilated into the earth again. You can check out the Jet Plus here:  https://www.elite-it.com/en/products/water-bottles/sport/jet-plus

So, there you have it. As always, I am not being paid, nor bribed for this post, I honestly just thought these two bottles were cool and unusual enough that they deserved to get a mention. I'll be using them soon and I will have a thing or two to say about them down the road, but Elite s a well known and respected company from Italy that manufactures these bottles there. I have little doubt that they are at the very least, 'good' products. But, we shall see.......