The artist for this series is Eliza Carver. Eliza is a designer, illustrator, and animator based in the Pacific Northwest. She was born and raised in Vermont and shaped into the person and artist she is today by the rolling hills, rugged trails, and vibrant small communities of the Northeast. Her process is centered around play as she explores her style through different mediums-digital, hand-carving linoprint, painting, and collage. Her work is rooted in the natural world where she spends most of her free time, exploring new trails on bikes and skis or floating rivers. Her lighthearted, loose lines focus on the importance of play in our daily lives and the way we feel when we get out of our heads and interact with our environment. 

There has been a lot of chatter in the news and social media this week about lead on insulated metal water bottles. I wanted to take the opportunity to talk about lead and other chemical testing we have done to ensure Bivo bottles provide you with a safe drinking experience and a safe manufacturing environment.

A few years back, Robby and I were in the thick of parenting chaos (still are with #2) with our little bottle-challenged daughter, Svea. She was on a mission to reject every bottle in sight. We had to test bottle after bottle and always hated the idea of feeding her out of plastic. We appreciate her stubbornness but damn, that was a stressful one! Thankfully, she finally gave in and went straight to a glass sippy cup that was a win for all of us.

Whelp, the cold weather has finally settled across the US as many of us winter lovers were anxiously awaiting true January conditions. Snow fell in Vermont and the team has been out for backcountry and Nordic sessions and we are all loving it. 

Let’s talk cage fit – it’s an important topic when it comes to safety on the bike. We did some serious 3D printing and modeling when we were developing the Bivo One. We became good friends with the team over at River City in Portland, OR, who were just a block away from our office at the time – we would go over and show them the shape, see how they interacted with their favorite cages at the shop, and go back to the office with some new ideas. We spent 18 months developing the Bivo One and cage fit was a huge piece of that. The whole River City crew are pretty tough (and reliable!) critics so having their feedback was awesome. They were the ones who turned us onto Arundel (still the Bivo team favs!).

We have been following the Tour de Ski quite closely (Charlotte from our team was actually there watching and I’m not sure about you, but I’m JEALOUS).  Ben Ogden got his first World Cup podium on Saturday. He was the third fastest man in the world (and he chooses to drink from a Bivo, just saying 😉). WILD.

What a year it has been, thanks to all of you! Running a small business is crazy hard but equally crazy fun and we are so happy to have you along with us for the ride. We are just closing out of third full year and wanted to share some highlights from 2023:

Snow has been falling in Richmond recently and the office morning runs have 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 know 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.

“Haha, that has to be spam” I said in all seriousness six weeks ago to an email that had caught our team’s attention.

Before Bivo, Carina and I spent our time working with startups in the footwear space for nearly 10 years. It was like a crash course in everything to do right (and sometimes wrong) while launching your idea to the world. If there is one theme we never let go of it was ensuring we didn’t overlook one piece of the business and fall flat on our naive faces. Too often it felt like incredible product gurus missed sorting out sales or great salespeople missed what the broad word marketing involved. 

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 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.