Snow fell in early December in Richmond and the office morning runs transitioned into skis at the local nordic center, Sleepy Hollow! As a recently retired member of the Middlebury nordic ski team and new member of the Bivo team, these group skis are helping me settle into my first winter skiing entirely for fun and my own joy! I’ve been shuffling around on nordic skis since I could walk, and growing up in Vermont instilled a deep love of snow and all winter activities in me that will last a lifetime. I know that a lot of the Bivo readers are big cyclists, so I figured that a blog with some skate skiing tips for cyclists could be a pretty good idea. I’m no expert, but I hope that with 8+ years of being coached by the best in the biz (thank you AJ and Sverre), I will have picked up a few essential tips that I can pass on to anyone looking to get into the sport!

What the hell is performance hydration? It’s a new thing, that we kind of created without even knowing we were doing it. We wanted to drink out of less plastic and make something that lasted longer. I hate the taste of plastic, and quite frankly, have always thought it if tasted bad, it couldn’t be good for us.

Apple cider is pretty damn good. Warm apple cider is even better. Especially when you get it fresh from local apple orchards in Vermont. It’s amazing the things you get reintroduced to when you have young kids. I’ve had more apple cider and hot chocolate over the last 5 years since my daughter was born than I have had combined since I was in middle school and I’m pretty happy about it.

Nordic skiing has a special place in my heart and always will. I was basically born into the sport and most of my strong memories as a child include two skinny skis under foot. When we moved back to Vermont, we had the pleasure of meeting Ben Ogden. Ben is a professional cross country ski racer who loves to have fun, make others laugh and is damn fast. Last season, he ended the World Cup circuit as the top U23 male skier in the entire world. That, my friends, is remarkable, and it's so fun to watch. Ben pops into the Bivo office to steal some peanut butter or bagels from Sam (Bivo's warehouse and operations coordinator) post workout and to add some laughs to the room. We feel lucky to know him, have him as a product tester and ultimately sponsor him this ski season. Check out his interview we did with him below and follow his adventures along on both his Instagram account and his new YouTube Channel.

Robby and Mark have been hard at work creating a guide to pick the best bottle for you! We have heard that it is sometimes hard to know which bottle does what when visiting our site and this new page is an attempt to make that easier. Some of you in the high heat areas make me laugh at events when you find out we have both non-insulated and insulated models when you comment

Hello Hello! Beyond the bike, we have had some great comments recently about how customers are all using your Bivo bottles that we wanted to share. Perhaps you'll find a new way to use and love your Bivo. 

When we set out to design the first Bivo bottle, we had the cyclist in mind. High flow, ease of cleaning and cage fit were frequent points of conversation. Early on, we got a lot of questions about how we possibly could think there was room for another metal bottle in the market. In our eyes, the hole was wide open and we were ready to go for it. But we had to focus on the cyclist and not get distracted. Bivo bottles have many types of fans beyond cycling now - we get comments about how many kids steal their parents bottles, how perfect they are in the car, how great they are for bringing to and from work. 

When I flew to Bentonville, AR on Sunday evening, I came knowing I would learn more about e-bikes at the People for Bikes Shift Conference, mingle with some other industry folks and see a place I have been hearing about since I entered the bike industry. Bentonville is home to Walmart and there is no denying that there

When we came up with the idea of Bivo, we knew we had to be able to drink out of it with ease. We had tested other metal bottles out there and the other sports nozzles all chugged as air was pulled into the bottle so the water could come out. Neither Robby nor I liked that experience, and knew we needed to solve that problem first if were really going to make a bottle specifically for riding bikes. There were other things we needed to solve for, but that was NUMBER ONE!

We are happy to now offer four different bottles styles at Bivo. Each one of them was designed to help tackle a specific problem and ensure we have your hydration covered during your next adventure. However, we realize with options come choices and sometimes laying it all out makes things easier. So, we thought we’d take some time today to outline the four different bottles in our line to help make your decision easier when selecting which version!

We are back in Vermont! Thanks to everyone for the support, cheers, emails, hellos and for helping us spread the word about Bivo during our Big Bivo Roadtrip!  We continue to reflect on what we learned on the road. It was such a good experience to see you touch the bottles, ask questions and make decisions on which bottle to pick. This week, I wanted to focus on Raw versus Coated because that was a common discussion we had at events!

Cleaning cleaning cleaning. Honestly, not my favorite thing to do. But when it’s made easier, I really appreciate it! When we came up with the idea for Bivo, we knew a lot of what the bottle would need. Flow rate was our first thought – how can we get water out quickly enough so you don’t lose a breath focusing on sucking in water (and getting rid of that precious air)?