If you're a serious road cyclist who's trying to maintain an aero position and keep your eyes on the road, then tilting your head back to drink from a bottle isn't ideal. The Upright bottle was designed to address that problem.
Invented by Dutch cyclist Lex van der Meiden, the Upright is being manufactured by his company Nothirst. The bottle's design is quite simple.
It consists of a main water-containing body, which an angled upper portion screws onto. A lid with a mouth valve screws onto that upper portion, with an internal rubber straw running from the mouth valve down to the bottom of the main body. Everything is made of bio-based food-grade LDPE (low-density polyethylene).
The idea is that whenever the user needs a drink, they just pull the Upright out their bike's bottle cage, hold its valve to their mouth without tilting their head back, then squeeze its main body to deliver a squirt of water. This design is reportedly capable of delivering all the water in the bottle, leaving none behind.
Between uses, the whole thing can be disassembled and washed in a dishwasher. And as an added bonus, its angled top allows it to be filled in an almost-horizontal orientation (handy if the sink is full of dishes), plus it won't roll away if dropped on the road.
The Upright is currently the subject of a Kickstarter campaign, where it's being in offered in three color choices and a capacity of 750 ml (25 fl oz). Assuming it reaches production, a pledge of €15 (about US$16) will get you one – the planned retail price is €22 ($23). If enough pledges are received, additional colors and a 1,000-ml (34-fl-oz) model will additionally be offered.
Potential backers might also want to check out the existing H2bike system, in which a handlebar-mounted hose is run down to a frame-mounted bottle which stays in place throughout the ride.
Sources: Kickstarter, Nothirst
