You might start to wonder what really goes on in the design lab of Purely Custom when I suggest this next little item.  It is also important to try to convince all that there was not extensive hours of late night research and relentless testing before arriving at this “a-ha moment.”  It’s not a new invention but a re-purposing of a current product.  Simply explained, somebody stuck one of our custom handlebar end caps in a wine bottle and the replacement cork worked perfect.

Is that a handlebar cap on your bottle or a bottle stopper on your handlebar?

You have to admit when you stumble upon an idea to use a product for something completely different than what it was intended, it seems better than the original purpose.  Of course it does, it was your own idea and we know how much we like our own ideas.  This discovery of the handlebar end caps/bottle stoppers idea, most likely will only be topped by the little blue pill that was originally meant for the treatment for symptoms of heart disease.  I can hardly wait for the television commercials bringing together those special moments between cyclists and wine.  Perhaps I have speculated too far and shall now return to the original thought.  These are the actual photos that were shared with me when the guys out in the plant came across the idea.  We circulated them around, firing back with any questions or concerns and of course any wise cracks we could force into the conversation.  At one point someone suggested that this bottle stopper would work for a beer bottle; to which many of us questioned why we would need to cap a beer.  I guess we completely forgot about all the home brewers with their larger bottles they were sharing a variety of home batches with friends, darn narrow mindedness.

Why these are pretty cool

Every product that is made here at Purely Custom is designed, tested and made to be more durable than it really needs to be.  Isn’t that what being made in America is all about?  So this handlebar end cap is made of aluminum and durable enough for the toughest of mountain bike riders and it is of course designed to not fall out.

It has an expansion gasket made to stay in a set of mountain bike handlebars and certainly capable of holding a seal on a bottle.  The design of this cap allows you to tighten the threaded collar to fit most bottles.

So depending on the size of the bottle opening, just tighten the threaded collar to expand the gasket more, or loosen the collar and the gasket will become thinner, pretty easy to work, right?

So we have the functionality covered, but here’s the real reason these stoppers are cool.  These stoppers are smooth aluminum available in a variety of colors and can be engraved with your own personalized message or decorated with an image.

Personalized Engraving

Many of our bicycle accessories are offered with custom engraving and these caps/stoppers are no exception.  We can create some pretty amazing designs with artwork or clever mantras, and that’s what I think is really fun.  I sat down and started scribbling out some ideas for bottle stoppers, here’s a few contributions that we came up with:

Obviously you can let your imagine run and if you have a little more extensive idea, we can work with you to make it happen!  Each Bottle stopper is ordered individually so you can create a different cap for your reds or even your home brew.  They make great personalized gifts and with over 66 million people supposedly spending over a month searching for that perfect gift, we’ve made it easy for you!

We’ve come a long way

Remember back in the old days when you had to re-cap a beverage with an old cork, or even a beer cap, if it wasn’t bent too much in the removal process?

I’ll admit that I’ve covered a bottle with a piece of plastic wrap and a rubber band.  We really have come a long way in capping a beverage with such sophistication.

You may think of it as the evolution of bottle caps and stoppers.

I like that these caps don’t stick up like a cork does all crooked and trying to snag on everything.  A bottle of wine is pretty tall and a flat stopper like these makes an open bottle easier to store on a shelf or in the refrigerator.  I always have a bottle of cooking wine on the shelf in the pantry, I’ve caught people drinking it in the past, I’m thinking this little issue might be corrected by a clever engraving on my next cap, this has got to stop!  To order your customized bottle stopper just visit the Purely Custom website and have fun, get a little creative, and cheers!