Thanks for tuning in this The Sweet
Cyclists and today we're gonna be looking at
Elite's FLY water bottles as well as
their ICE FLY bottle. Here we have
three variations of Elite FLY water
bottles, these are one of the lightest
water bottles on the market. We want
to thank Elite for providing these to be
reviewed. The three variations we have in
front of us today are two FLY
versions, one of the smaller size at 550ml
and a larger 750ml.
As well as the newer ICE FLY
500ml version which is their
insulated bottle. As you can see the
insulated bottle has almost the same
outer height as the 750ml but due to the
double isothermal wall design you lose some
capacity. In terms of specifications the
retail prices range from $8.99 for the
smallest version, up to $9.99 for the
bigger version and then $18.99 for the
insulated bottle, so very competitive in
terms of price. These are all ultralight
and if you have ever use these before, you can see
they're very soft plastic and very
lightweight. They have high flow nozzles
and it's really easy to use and really easy
to clean out. Now let's take a
look at the weight of these water
bottles, although it seems a little bit
ridiculous that you would need a super
lightweight bottle it makes it easier to
handle to have a lightweight bottle.
The smallest bottle, the 550 milliliter
version is 54 grams on my scale. The ICE
FLY 500 milliliter version comes in at 124 grams
and then the larger 750 standard FLY
version is 58 grams so super light.
[Music]
Now let's take a closer look at the
fit and finish of these bottles. As I
mentioned we have three versions in front of us.
Let's start with the smallest version,
these bottles all is really well known
for their lightweight and as a result of
that they're very squeezable which makes them
really easy to drink out of. Design-wise
it is very simple, it has a very soft feel
so really easy to grip and very minimal
graphics in this version. They also come
in quite a wide variety of different
color schemes and at these prices
they're cheap enough that you can easily
color match them to your bike or even
custom order them to have whatever
graphics you'd like. The caps are all
very low-profile with a very large
mouthpiece. If we open this up, you can see
it is very thin
and easy to squeeze.
Cap wise this is very large you can
easily pull off the mouthpiece by just
pulling on it. As you can see it is
very large, and this provides
quite a bit of water flow making it
really easy to drink out of and easy to
clean. If you've had a deal with Camelbak bottles
before you'll know that their jet
valves get pretty nasty, especially if
you're using drink mixes. A bottle like
this it's really the way to go as it's
easy to clean and won't develop anything
mold in it or anything. To put it back on
just pop it in place. Really easy to
modulate this up and down as well. The
higher capacity version is almost
identical except it has a nice little
ring on it. If you look at the larger
capacity you get this little grip ring
on it which makes a little easier to
handle. The caps are
interchangeable, just have different colors. I
like to run with the 750 ml bottle
during the summer as it gets pretty hot
and having extra hydration is always a
good thing.
During winter it's great to have a
smaller bottle as the cold weather
usually prevents you from drinking quite
as much. One complaint I have is with
just with minimal use you can already
see this is quite a has quite a few
scratches and gouges in it. I don't
think these affect the actual
performance of the bottle, it's just
something to be aware of due to the
lightweight they're less durable and
will look more
scratched up and beat up faster than
a typical bottle. The more
interesting bottle out of the bunch I
think is the ICE FLY, this is 500
ml but you'll note that it
looks really similar in terms of height
to the 750ml. It's because you lose some
capacity due to the insulated nature of
it. Again it has the same cap, and this
one has a little fractal design to it
which makes it really easy to grip.
It comes in different colors, this
one actually came with this little
protective cap which is a little strange.
You wouldn't want to ride with this as
it would be pretty inconvenient. If we go ahead
and open that up you can see it pops out.
It's a little
sleeve so I can pop that out and
actually put it on the other bottles.
The protective cover is
great for traveling or leaving it in the
car. You can see on the insulated bottle
the inner diameter is less than the
outer diameter, it's still squeezable but
it's less squeezable due to the
insulated nature. Now let's do a quick
comparison between the Elite bottles and
some standard bottles on the market.
First off we have the standard cheap
bottle, this is a purist bottle and is made of
thick plastic. The nozzle head is really
hard to pull up and down, so especially
when you're riding you'll just end up
leaving this open and spilling in once
you flip your bike or mount it. That's
one thing I don't like about this
comparing this to the Elite bottles you can see
it's a lot heavier and easier
to squeeze really. I think the
gold standard in terms of water bottles
are the Camelbak podiums I have two
variations here these are both the
insulated bottles this is the Big Chill
which is a little bit taller now these
are as I said these are insulated so
really like these especially during
summer what makes these really easy to
use but nasty to kind of use longer term
is the bottle heads you get really dirty
and ugly they're a lot harder to clean
you have to pull out this piece and the
to a valve in here although it's really
cool because it doesn't link if you flip
it does require more me
and you have to soak the head if you
compare the elite mouthpiece versus the
Camelbak you can see it's a lot shorter
and profile and a lot easier to use so
with the camel backs I really avoid
using drink makes it just because it's
so nasty sizing wise they all have the
same diameter so you end up getting the
same capacities but again just easier to
squeeze now let's go over the pros and
cons for the elite fly bottles I really
like the prices they're really
affordable you can color match them you
get different designs they're very
lightweight so if your weight we need
this is the bottle to go with and the
high flow nozzle and the fact that the
bottles are so easy to squeeze makes it
very easy to use on a ride some of the
things I don't like about it that it is
that it's so easy to scratch even after
the first use so you start to see the
scratches on their elite also has a very
confusing range of bottles they have six
or more different names and variety so
it's a little bit difficult to figure
out which one will work for you and
finally that push and pull valve is
inferior to the jet valve
I like the Camelback one-way valve even
though it's a little harder to clean
it's I think a better style valve. Now
let's give the bottles a final rating,
out of 10 I would give it a 8. I think
they're really easy to use bottles and
they're very lightweight. With the
variations of designs and colors they are
great to mix and match with your
bikes. Thanks for watching this review
and please like and subscribe to support
the channel. You can follow us on
Instagram at @thesweetcyclists as well
as our website at thesweetcyclists.com
for additional content. This is The Sweet
Cyclists reminding you to enjoy the ride!
[Music]