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TECH NEWS

Upright cycling water bottle has an angled top to "maintain an aerodynamic position" while sipping, and it's crowdfunding on Kickstarter

The idea is that you don’t have to tilt your head to hydrate, which Nothirst claims can reduce drag by up to 35% compared to using a traditional bottle

Upright is a sports water bottle that allows you to drink without having to rotate the bottle, and it’s currently being crowdfunded for on Kickstarter over here. Dutch start-up Nothirst has designed it with an angled bottleneck so you can maintain your precious aerodynamic position when taking a sip, while also keeping your eyes on the road.

Nothirst points out that cyclists currently have to angle their body to get a proper sip of whatever it is they're drinking, saying this both partially obstructs their view of the road, and means a large portion of their chest is now creating drag. To avoid this, Nothirst reckons it has the solution with Upright. 

Nothirst upright water bottle 5

Nothirst makes the bold claim that Upright can reduce your drag by a massive 35% compared to drinking from a bottle with a normal design:

“To achieve a good sip of water, all you need to do is squeeze your Upright,” says Nothirst. “The internal straw is just the right length to ensure no residual water is left in the bottle when you reach your next re-fill checkpoint.”

Nothrist upright water bottle 3

The unique design of Upright also means it won’t go too far if you accidentally drop it. “When you drop a regular bottle on a slanted surface, say, on the side of the road, it tends to roll away,” Nothirst points out. 

Nothirst is selling the Upright bottle in two sizes, one with 750ml of capacity and the other with 1000ml.

Nothrist upright water bottle 2

The bottle can be disassembled in three parts for easy cleaning, plus it’s dishwasher safe. 

By pledging 15 euros (about £13) for the Upright 750, you can save 30% off the retail price of 22 euros. 

So far over £2,400 has been pledged of the £12,635 and there’s 23 days to go. 

As always, all the usual Kickstarter rules and regulations apply which can be found here.

What’d you think? A gimmick, or should we all be using bottles like this? Let us know in the comments below as always... 

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31 comments

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StraelGuy | 1 year ago
0 likes

They're going about this all wrong. If you skeletonise yourself to become super aero you wouldn't have any leg muscles to propel you along and the water would just pour through you and end up on the road.

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peted76 | 1 year ago
1 like

To be fair this could be the next 'queens award for innovation' winner..  I mean if we didn't know we needed a plastic stick to put our chains back on then how do we trust ourselves to know anything nowadays.

Plastic stick inventors be like.. 'who's laughing now eh!'

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v1sionmaster | 1 year ago
0 likes

Erm - the Camelbak Performance was much simpler and has a bite valve as well as a straw to the bottom of the bottle  3 It's still available if you hunt around. I just cut the loop handle off the top  1 No neck bending or arm raising required  1

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Clem Fandango | 1 year ago
2 likes

So have they created a problem for their solution?

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chrisonabike | 1 year ago
0 likes

If you're really going for it isn't your head slightly lower than your rear?  I mean if they're really worrying about the most aero way of rehydrating...

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hawkinspeter | 1 year ago
5 likes

I really appreciate the "Easy refill thanks to the angular neck" as I've been having a lot of trouble using standard shape bottles

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henryb | 1 year ago
6 likes

In that marketing graphic, why is the rider shown as a skeleton? And why is the skeleton all one colour except for the lower back vertebrae which are shown in the same colour as the bike? It's a mess. Also, slightly ironically, the bike the skeleton is riding doesn't have a bottle cage.

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hawkinspeter replied to henryb | 1 year ago
2 likes

henryb wrote:

In that marketing graphic, why is the rider shown as a skeleton? And why is the skeleton all one colour except for the lower back vertebrae which are shown in the same colour as the bike? It's a mess. Also, slightly ironically, the bike the skeleton is riding doesn't have a bottle cage.

I like the non-aero position of the disjointed skeleton that demonstrates how useful the aero bottle is in not needing to adopt a non-aero position. Also, why stare at a blue dot?

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pockstone replied to henryb | 1 year ago
12 likes

It's showing you that water is delivered direct to the bones, right where you need it. (Except for the lower vertebrae, which MUST be kept dry in order to maintain stiffness and aid in aero positioning!) Trust me, I'm a doctor.

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mdavidford replied to henryb | 1 year ago
0 likes

I'm more concerned about the strange protruberance on their lower back - looks like it might need medical attention.

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BalladOfStruth replied to mdavidford | 1 year ago
4 likes

Or the fact that one of their eyes appears to have just flown out of thier skull...

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Dhill replied to mdavidford | 1 year ago
0 likes

mdavidford wrote:

I'm more concerned about the strange protruberance on their lower back - looks like it might need medical attention.

Back to you povkstone.

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Mungecrundle replied to henryb | 1 year ago
0 likes

You only get the aero advantage whilst holding or drinking from the bottle. Putting it in a bottle cage would negate that benefit. Also no bottle cage = the Holy Grail of aero and less weight.

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Dhill replied to henryb | 1 year ago
0 likes

henryb wrote:

In that marketing graphic, why is the rider shown as a skeleton? And why is the skeleton all one colour except for the lower back vertebrae which are shown in the same colour as the bike? It's a mess. Also, slightly ironically, the bike the skeleton is riding doesn't have a bottle cage.

Very good point on the missing bottle cage, but from my experience skeletons don’t need bottle cages as they don’t need bottles, they are way to dehydrated for it to matter.

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hawkinspeter replied to Dhill | 1 year ago
0 likes

Dhill wrote:

Very good point on the missing bottle cage, but from my experience skeletons don’t need bottle cages as they don’t need bottles, they are way to dehydrated for it to matter.

I'll have you know that I keep my skeleton moist all of the time.

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OnYerBike | 1 year ago
0 likes

Feels a bit like L-shaped cranks... The "angular neck" achieves nothing different to an angled straw, and water bottles with angled straws are a dime a dozen. 

And if you're serious about aerodynamic drinking, there are of course far more effective systems already in existence (e.g. hoses attached to aero bars.) 

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Global Nomad | 1 year ago
1 like

This sounds so desperate - trying tto hard to pitch a weak idea....f the rider in their picture was wearing a more aero jersey they will save far more effort..

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matt_cycles replied to Global Nomad | 1 year ago
2 likes

If the rider in the picture also had wheels on their bike, that might help as well. Plus the rider is naked in that picture, that looks like just the bones & muscles of the body.

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bobrayner | 1 year ago
3 likes

How is this an innovation? Bottles with angled heads were common in the 1990s. I had a purple one. I thought it looked cool. But then again, in the 1990s I thought purple-anodised chainrings looked cool.

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Dhill replied to bobrayner | 1 year ago
0 likes

bobrayner wrote:

How is this an innovation? Bottles with angled heads were common in the 1990s. I had a purple one. I thought it looked cool. But then again, in the 1990s I thought purple-anodised chainrings looked cool.

They do look cool, trends always come back in.

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Jimwill | 1 year ago
3 likes

Maybe this is why a pro teams not done this

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Jimwill replied to Jimwill | 1 year ago
1 like

Personally I don't drink much on a bike and when I do I'm sat up having a chill. If I'm tucked last thing I'm doing is drinking..

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EddyBerckx | 1 year ago
9 likes

But won't it be less aerodynamic for 99.9% of the time e.g. when in the bottle cage?!?

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RobD replied to EddyBerckx | 1 year ago
0 likes

This was my thought, surely an aero shaped bottle would save you far more, even if it was areal inconvenience to drink,  the 60-90 seconds you'd spend on your ride actually using it vs the hours spent riding with it.

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youngoldbloke | 1 year ago
1 like

What a waste of plastic. How about an alloy bottle with a cork bung with a hole for a straw. held in a cage on the handlebars, or even 2 mounted side by side?

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Steve K | 1 year ago
1 like

I can't help but feel that if this was a real runner, then someone would have developed it for a pro team rather than rely on a kickstarter.  So I'm out.

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andystow | 1 year ago
2 likes

Bidon doubles as bidet.

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mdavidford | 1 year ago
0 likes

Quote:

Upright is a sports water bottle that allows you to drink without having to rotate the bottle

...unless it's pointing away from you.

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quiff replied to mdavidford | 1 year ago
0 likes

Yep. And as I'm pretty sure I rotate my wrist in the process of getting a bottle from bottle cage to mouth, not rotating the bottle will leave it pointing off to one side (presumably not aerodynamic) when it's in the cage. I'm out.  

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Basemetal | 1 year ago
3 likes

Since it's an internal straw design, there's no need for the angled head.... just squeeze and suck the straw on a straight bottle. I've had a karrimor badged bottle that can do this for about 5 years.

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