Relaj water bottle
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Relaj water bottle
23rd November 2012
Can you improve on the humble bidon?
The humble bidon; we all have one and no matter what level we ride at we are pretty sure, beyond preferences based on size, shape and colour, that none of us have had a real problem using them, have we..?
Well Relaj, a small US company think that they have spotted a problem with the humble bidon, namely that the very act of drinking from a bottle is not only upsetting our aerodynamic co-efficient, but alarmingly putting us and those around us in mortal danger! Who’d have thought?
Ok, maybe that’s a little dramatic, but the theory behind the Relaj water bottle makes sense, it’s just that nobody had considered it an issue before. Therefore, you have to ask, is it really an issue at all?
The founder of Relaj came up with the idea after his racing cyclist son noticed a rider in the Tour de France ‘fumble’ for a moment while drinking from his bottle, and wondered why someone hadn’t invented a bottle that was easier to drink from?
When pressed, he revealed that when he drank he had to tip his head back and in so doing could not see the road. This ‘issue’ led them to design and manufacture the Relaj water bottle. Maybe we should all pay more attention to our kids comments; or maybe not..?
Maybe with practice we all learn to work around bottle drinking without falling off and, aside from mountain bikers, we’ve never heard of it as a major complaint among riders.
Having said that the Relaj does have some useful features. For a start it has a tapered shape and flexible spout which allows you to drink without having to tip your head back. We can appreciate the benefits of that in bunch racing for sure.
The bottom screws completely off, making getting rid of that biology experiment at the bottom of your bottle a doddle.
The Relaj also comes with a screw in ice block, not much use as we sit shivering in northern climes, but we’re sure that those of you that live in warmer parts would find it most useful.
At the business end, there is a flexible, LeakLock Valve which needs a twist to close off the bottle, rather than the traditional push down closure. Hopefully, this will see an end to sticky dribbles over our downtubes!
At $19.99 the Relaj isn’t as throwaway as most bottles, maybe keep it for those special days when you need all the ‘marginal gains’ you can get?
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