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We have recently added peronalised bidons (water bottles) to our range of custom cycling & triathlon clothing. We have a total of 9 different options, including the classic cycling shape with a cinched grip and several “big mouth” options with smooth sides and a large top opening to make it easier to mix powder supplements. We have also added a new environmentally friendly option which is made from 95% cane sugar and is fully biodegradable.

We have a massive range of colours available for the caps and the bottles themselves which can be mixed and match and we use a rubber teat that is much more comfortable to pull out with your teeth then plastic alternatives which can also be colour matched.

Our minimum orders are 100 bidons, although the prices work out much cheaper for orders of 300 and above. So for example our classic bottle costs €2.39 per bottle if you order 100, but €1.52 if you order 300. We also charge a fee of €50 to make the print stamp for an order run. However shipping to northern Europe is included in our price. All our custom bidons are BPA free and dishwasher safe.

We have a range of Bio Bidons which are an environmentally friendly alternative made using sugar cane extract and we also have a budget range of personalised sports bottles which are not as durable as our premium range and have fewer colour options, but come in from prices of €1.22 per bidon (based on an order of 1000 x 550ml bidons), including delivery to northern Europe.

Generally we can deliver orders in around 3 weeks of receiving a confirmed order. You can download our custom bidon prices and catalogue here. If you need any further information, please contact Eldon at eldon@carvalhocustom.com .

We have been running Carvalho Custom, making custom cycling & triathlon clothing for 15 years now – it is amazing how much the market has changed over this time! If you take the UK, when we first started there were a handful of custom cycling clothing brands available in the UK, most of them still made in the UK, but now there are over 20 brands, most of which are made in China or elsewhere in Asia.

With new brands popping up all the time, we get regular requests for us to produce their kit for them and rebrand it as their own, typically because they do not want to source from China (either because of the carbon footprint, or because of some of the difficulties in doing business there), but we only produce for our own brand when it comes to custom cycling & triathlon clothing.

However in other areas of the clothing business, we are able to help with sourcing, particularly with personalised uniforms and workwear, where one of our key suppliers is a specialist. They are a small business but produce everything from scratch (whereas suppliers in northern Europe typically import uniforms from Asia in bulk and then just add a logo or name to the already completed garment). This means that they can supply an almost infinite level of customisation.

So if you are looking for a personalised uniforms supplier at a mid to premium price point, then please contact Charlie at charlie@carvalhocustom.com.

Over 2019 we have been adding some new fabrics to our custom cycling clothing and triathlon ranges. Most have been updates to existing fabrics, such as the increased breathability of our Drystorm winter jackets, now with “Shield” membrane insulation technology, which has helped us to reduce the weight of the jacket a little without losing any of its warmth. The same goes for our carbon thread cycling jerseys, which are now a little softer without losing any of the robustness that gives them their incredible longevity.

In terms of new fabrics we have introduced a new fabric known simply as “Speed” for our custom Speedsuits (short-sleeved tri-suits) that is incredibly lightweight and fast drying, but also very drag-resistant and aerodynamic. It is also very breathable to make it an extremely cutting edge fabric for competitive triathletes.

Finally we have added a new fabric for our bib shorts, which we use for the inside panels that are in contact with the saddle; this is a brand new fabric that is extremely breathable and soft to the touch, but is also outstandingly durable. So it helps to avoid problems with moisture build-up and rubbing, but holds up incredibly well to the constant friction these panels are subjected to as they rub against the panel. It means that our bib shorts are now even longer-lasting!

We were the fist company to develop halterneck bib shorts to enable female riders to easily pull their shorts down to take a pee without removing the straps of their shorts. As we were the first to come up with the idea we were able to succesfully apply for patents in Europe. Currently our shorts are sold under license to Wiggle and Chain Reaction via their DHB brand (see
https://www.wiggle.co.uk/dhb-aeron-womens-halterneck-bib-shorts-2018/ ) where they are one of their top rated and best selling bib shorts). They are of course also available to our custom cycling kit clients (and as we are the design patent owners we are the only supplier of custom cycling clothing that can legally supply them in Europe as well as owning design patents in other countries).

Designing our halterneck bib shorts was not as simple as it may appear, but given that pretty much all male riders wear bib shorts, it is clear that there are some important advantages over waist shorts, which are:
– they don’t press on the belly area
– they don’t leave a gap between shorts and the back of the jersey when the rider is in the riding position (i.e. bent forwards)
– they pull the chamois up against the riders backside so that it is held firmly in place, improving the functionality of the chamois and reducing chaffing.

The difficulty of developing the halterneck option was mainly that in order to function correctly, it has to pull the back of the shorts up, so the straps need to be anchored at the rear of the shorts. Meanwhile, the straps could not cover the lower back, otherwise it would be difficult to pull the shorts down far enough when nature calls. Other designs of halterneck have gone for more of a corset type solution, but with the lowerback covered it then means that that halter strap behind the neck has to be removed to allow the shorts to be pulled down far enough.

One of the clever parts of our solution is that the shorts keep a perfect tension on the straps when the rider is in the riding position (bent forwards over the handlebars); however when standing upright, the halter strap is without tenstion so it is not really performing any function, but when the rider squats down for a call of nature, as the neck comes down towards the waist there is sufficient give in the straps for the back of the shorts to be pulled down. So the key to our invention was to understand first that the straps had to be anchored at the back of the shorts to make the shorts function correctly as bib shorts and second to understand how the straps could function completely differently in the riding, standing and squatting position. One additional bonus we discovered from our design is that the anchoring of the straps causes them to be pulled to the side of the breasts, so they are not a source of discomfort here either.

Some female riders have expressed concern that the halter strap would exert pressure on the neck, but we have bypassed this problem by making the strap super stretchy and also widening the strap across the back of the neck.

If your club is interested in using our halterneck design for your female riders (and we hope for the supply of the rest of your club kit also!), then please get in touch. We also will be happy to talk to other manufacturers about licensing agreements.

Here you can see the Wiggle video that explains how the shorts function:

Here at Carvalho Custom we have seen over the last 5 years or so an enormous expansion in the number of triathlon clubs that we supply that now offer membership to children. It is great to see so many kids of all abilities giving triathlon a go, as it has always been one of the great strengths of triathlon that it is a sport that welcomes athletes of all ability levels.

One of the downsides of triathlon is that it can be an expensive sport however, so in line with our philosophy of supplying pro quality kit at reasonable prices (and so focusing on clients who are more interested in quality and value for money rather than branding) we launched a kids club tri suit around 5 years ago. This kids tri suit misses some of the technical features from our adult custom tri suit (such a hydrophobic fast-dry Lycra for example), but is still a good quality mid-range garment, with well-finished seams, robust zips and durable fabrics. The cost of the kids tri suit is €59.90 (as opposed to €81.50 for the adult tri suit).

Although we are based in Portugal where we manufacture all our garments, we are registered for UK VAT, which means that we can zero rate all of the children’s clothing that we sell. As well as the tri suits, we also offer kids sizes in all of the rest of our custom cycling clothing range and we also do hoodies, tracksuits and other general kit in kids sizes.

We are closed for holidays from the 30th of July until the 17th of August. Portugal has a fantastic tradition of closing down for August so that we can all ride our bikes and go to the beach for a couple of weeks.

If you are looking for custom cycling clothing or club triathlon kit, please send us an email and we will reply when we get back.