Thanks for tuning in,
today we're going to be reviewing the
Elite NANFOLY ultralight
insulated thermal cycling water bottles.
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The Elite FLY bottles have been used by
professional cyclists around the world
and are touted as one of the lightest
bottles on the market.
Today we're going to be looking at
Elite's latest FLY variation
the NANOFLY. Now as with the FLY bottle
this is claimed to be one of the
lightest thermal bottles on the market
today.
Packaging wise super simple you just
have this little cardboard
cover that pops off the nozzle once you
take it off
with some basic information about the
bottle.
Now spec wise these bottles are $39.99
retail however they are listed for about
$29
directly from elite through amazon or
other vendors.
They are only offered in a 500
milliliter variation that we have here
today
and these three colors black blue and
gray but i'm sure they'll add more over
time.
It has a four hour thermal effect so
double
the thermal effect of the ICE FLY which
is a current insulated
FLY bottle. What's really cool about
these bottles is that they use the NanoGel
structure
so that means these are really light and
soft
as they use one of the world's lightest
insulation materials.
It consists of five percent solid
material and ninety-five percent air
to achieve the really nice thermal
effect without adding a lot of weight.
It has a simple push-pull valve that you
see with all the FLY bottles and
it's bpa free plastic and really soft
and squeezable which is one of the main
selling points of the Elite bottles.
Mow let's take a look at the weight of
the NANOFLY bottle.
As other FLY bottles these are claimed
to be the lightest in the world
for this insulation level so
at 500 milliliters this comes in at 118
grams so
really light especially compared to
other insulated bottles.
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Now let's take a look at the fit and
finish of the NANOFLY bottles.
Visually these look very similar to
the Elite FLY bottles,
They have a very squared off modern
design so constant diameter with the
a large center notch this is designed to
match your bottle cage holder which has
a little tab here to hold it in place.
It has a squared off cap really flat with a
standard push-pull valve.
Now what really makes these unique is
that they're very squeezable. You can see
despite being a insulated bottle it
feels almost like a standard
non-insulated bottle
just how soft and squishable it is.
They offer it in three different color
variations. We have all the color
variations here: blue
gray and then the black with the
contrasting
graphics on here. So it's either red
white and black depending on which
bottle you get.
The caps and nozzles are actually color
matched too which is really cool feature
so same color as the main body with just
a simple black ring here for all of them.
Now you can see it has a very boxy
design with minimal curves
unlike the other Elite FLY bottles it has
these little grip rings here so
these little ridges that makes it easy
to grab
and adds a little visual style to it.
Now you can see on similar to the other
leaf bottles
this is already showing a bit of wear
despite minimal use.
So they're not that quite as robust due
to the softness and thinness of them
so they will show some wear and tear
quicker than other bottles on the market.
Now the cap is really simple, that's
one nice feature about the Elite bottles
it's basically a push and pull valve
and you can see it's quite large.
Simple plastic with a nice big hole here
to clean this you simply grab the nozzle
and then pop it out
so you can see it's a pretty large
diameter too and that means you get good
high flow.
Really easy to clean unlike the older
CamelBaks you can just simply get your
hand in here
really get all the ridges same thing
here with the
nozzle portion so simple two-part design
there is no locking mechanism you just
simply close it to lock
it. If you're traveling you do need to
be careful
but otherwise really simple to use and
it's squeezable that makes it really
simple.
The inside of the bottle is all black
which is hard to see on the inside but
otherwise really easy
easy to clean as well so minimal ridges
which is a nice feature.
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So now let's do a little comparison with
the NANOFLY and other bottles on the
market.
What we have here is the standard FLY on
the far left, the ICEFLY which is twice
as insulated
then the NANOFLY in the middle which is
four times as insulated
as well as the Polar Breakway insulated
bottle
and the CamelBak insulated Podium Ice.
Now right off the bat you can see all
the bottles look pretty similar, they all
have the same diameter
and that's to make them compatible with
any bottle cage which is 74 millimeters.
They also have a little grip ring down
the center
and you can actually see that with any
bottle cage it's a
little tab here so if i were to put the
bottle in here
you can see that tab actually rests in
that grip ring and that prevents the
bottle from flying out so nice little
subtle feature.
That means most bottles will have a
very similar shape to accommodate this.
Now comparing the NANOFLY versus the ICE
versus the standard FLY you can see you
lose some capacity.
The standard one is 750ml
while the NANOFLY is only 500ml but still
taller.
It's not quite as squishable as the
standard version, this is super soft
right almost very flimsy you can see it
shows quite a bit of wear just from
putting it in and out of the bottle cage.
They have the same cap style really flat
with the push-pull valve.
We also have the ICEFLY which was the
previous insulated version
this is twice as insulated as the
standard version.
It has a firmer design, still squishable
but you can see it has this almost
textured faceted
design where the NANOFLY looks more like
the standard FLY.
The NANOFLY is also softer and
lighter
than the ICEFLY despite being more
insulated
again because of the insulated
properties it's actually taller
than the same capacity ICEFLY so
it is a taller bottle with less water
capacity.
Other bottles that we've reviewed here
are the Polar Breakway,
probably one of our favorite bottles has
more graphical options as you can see
here
there's a larger capacity variation.
Probably
one of our favorite features of this
would be the cap.
So you can see here this actually has a
membrane style
so if I were to provide a little force
on here you can hear that
so there's a little a membrane inside
here
with slits in it and that prevents water
from spilling out if I were to flip it.
If you were to apply pressure
it comes out so really nice feature
it also has a push pull style so you can
lock it by simply pulling it down
and then pull it back up to drink from.
That's one negative of the Elite
FLY bottles, very simple
a lot easier to clean than even the
polar
though so you do get some of the
convenience and clean ability.
Probably one of the most common
bottles on the market would be the
Camelbak
Podium. This is the iCE variation which
is very insulated
you can see the cap is way more
complicated, not only do you have a
locking mechanism here
but you have separate pieces so again
you have a membrane
and if i were to open that up you can
hear
this is composed of multiple parts.
You can see you have a junk filter,
you have a lock ring
and there you can actually see the
membrane with the little slits on the
inside
so a nice little rubber piece so a lot
harder to clean.
Even the top portion of this cover
actually pops off so
the nice thing.
So we like the Elite bottleswhich
for drink mixes while
bottles like the Camelbak are much
more difficult to clean and more
labor-intensive so
a little bit give or take depends on
what kind of cap you want.
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Now let's go over the pros and cons for
the Elite NANOFLY. What we like about it
is the lightweight construction,
this is one of the lightest insulated
bottles we've reviewed and it's a great
way to save a couple grams on the bike.
It also has a very easy to clean nozzle
and cap they're no hard to reach area so
even if you use drink mixes it's easy to
clean everything and prevent any mold
from building up on it.
It also has the Elite FLY's signature
squishy and flexible design
despite the insulated walls they're
still soft and flexible which is really
nice feature
so you can really get high flow out of
them on the bike by simply pushing down
with your hand.
Some of the cons for the bottle is the
premium price
especially at full retail $40 is
a lot to ask for for a 500ml
insulated bottle. But as we mentioned at
least at the time of this review
it's almost half off through
Elite's Amazon store so definitely look
for it at a discount.
It's also only available in solid color
schemes the gray
black and blue we showed here it'd be
nice to have some more graphical
variations.
Finally the simple push and pull
style valve
is not our favorite we prefer the
membrane style as it's less leaking
and is a little more robust on the road.
Taking everything into account would
give the NANOFLY an 8.2 out of 10.
This is an insulated bottle without the
weight.
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This is The Sweet Cyclist reminding you
to enjoy the ride!
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