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For most of my cycling life I’ve carried drinks in cages or bags. For a casual ride with friends, I would store a can in my backpack or pannier. For longer rides, I’d secure water bottles in cages.
While both of these options work, there’s something pleasant about going on an easy pedal with a drink accessible on your handlebars.
Who doesn’t want to be able to take a sip of hot coffee on their morning commute or drink their favorite cold beverage while on a leisurely sunset ride?
There’s a number of bike cup holders on the market, but none of them are quite like this new cup holder called the HandleStash.
The issue with most cup holders is that they struggle to do what they were made to do. The slightest jostle can knock your drink from the holder and onto your legs.
While most bike cup holders struggle with keeping your drink on your bike, the Handlestash was designed to keep your cup where it belongs. That is on your bike and off you.
Adam Saplin is the founder and inventor of the HandleStash. He’s an avid cyclist who got frustrated riding his bike, hitting a bump, and having his drink get on him.
That frustration led him to spend the next two years developing this product. It took a lot of real-world testing and many spilled drinks, but from this process, the HandleStash came to be.
Adam reached out to me to review this product and sent me one in the mail. Not only was I intrigued by this “shock absorbing drink holder,” but I thought it was cool that the HandleStash is made in the United States. Most of the parts and assembly are done in Colorado.
The note gives instructions on installation and thanks for picking up a HandleStash. I quickly read the installation instructions and went out to my bike to install it.
Installing the HandleStash on your bike is ridiculously easy. It took me 2 minutes to install while my 6 month old son was strapped to my chest. There’s a screw that you can loosen if you need to rotate the HandleStash to fit the angle of your handlebars, but that wasn’t needed for my setup.
To install you’ll loosen the clamp and open it up. There’s a strip of rubber that you’ll wrap around your bars before clamping shut. It’s simple to install, and between the rubber and tight clamp you won’t have to worry about the holder sliding on your bars.
One of the complaints you’ll read about other bike cup holders is that they slide sideways or downward over time. As long as you clamp the HandleStash tightly onto your handlebars you’ll never need to worry about this happening.
At this point you’re ready to put a drink in and go for a ride. If you have a shorter drink you can place the foam spacer on the bottom of the HandleStash.
There’s an elastic drawstring at the top to tighten to keep your drink from flying out.
You’ll want to pull the drawstring so that it’s tight enough that your drink doesn’t pop out, but allows for your drink to slide up and down.
It’s the combination of the drawstring and a mesh, springy bottom that makes this product work so well. They work together to absorb the shocks of a bumpy ride while keeping your drink in the holder.
I’ve now ridden on bumpy streets, casual dirt trails, and purposely over a fair share of cracks and branches and haven’t lost my drink.
For the rider who wants to carry their drink on a bike commuter, this is the perfect bike cup holder. No longer do you need to worry about your coffee getting dumped on you before you arrive to work!
I’m really happy with the HandleStash and going to keep it on one of my bikes. While skeptical at first I can say that this is a solid product that does exactly what it promises. Right now it’s only offered in black, but maybe in the future, they’ll be able to offer color variety? I’d love to get a yellow one to match my yellow Schwinn Continental!
HandleStash has generously given Bicycle2Work.com readers a 10% discount on its product. Full disclosure: I do receive a commission if you purchase a HandleStash. With this said – I wouldn’t recommend the product if I didn’t think it was awesome.
If you have more questions from me: send me an email. If you have more questions about the HandleStash send Adam an email.