Bike Tinker

one of these bottle designs is a good idea…

old-timey oil can far superior to tall tippy bottles

Written by

philip

in

old-timey oil can far superior to tall tippy bottlesMy tall bottles of bike oil (TriFlow, Pedro’s, ProLink, whatever) can usually be found tipped over in a pool of expensive oil.

This little oilcan I got at a thrift store has never tipped over. It looks like they run about $10 each on eBay, which is a pretty good deal if you count all the $5 bottles of oil I’ve wasted!

This one I fill up with synthetic motor oil – whatever’s left in the cans after an oil change.

If I were an industrial designer… I would package my oils in short, squat little bottles shaped more like these old oilers. They were designed like that for a reason.

Comments

2 responses to “one of these bottle designs is a good idea…”

  1. Andre Avatar
    Andre

    Curse those Pedros bottles! I got a free bottle of their eco-lube or whatever at a bike event once and I felt like I was trolled. It has oiled up my workbench or papers on multiple occasions. I must be an optimist though since the bottle is always more than half full it seems.

    My variety of bike lubes/solvents/greases/oils/glues reached critical mass though and I modified my tool bench with a “Lube Trough’ last winter.
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/mrjoeball/5538904928/in/set-72157626172318435/
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/mrjoeball/5538326729/in/set-72157626172318435/

    Reply
    1. philip Avatar
      philip

      “I ‘felt like I was trolled!” That’s hilarious. “Is this a bottle of Rickroll?”

      Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

More posts