Best bottle cage (yes, sorry, but..)

dennisn

Rolf F wrote:

dennisn wrote:

You're right. I am "..being a plonker.".

"I like my kit to look smart." I can only assume from that that your first interest in cycling is showoff / bling / look at me. That's not a problem with me. Just trying to establish what your prorities are. Mine are different apparently. In truth, I'm not out there to impress anyone. As a side note I've never heard anyone complain about scratched water bottles. That really is inexplicable to me.

I'll "....try not to be an idiot...." but can't guarantee it.

....... next weekend I am cycling coast to coast in one day. 150 miles and 15,000 feet of climbing. And I'll be doing it with smart bottles and cages.

Look on the MTB forums. There are folk there who pull all the bolts out of their bikes and replace them with coloured anodised ones. Then they do the same with the jockey wheels and seat post clamps. Then they photograph the bikes before dismantling them and selling them on to fund the next build. All of this without actually riding the bike.

To me that is daft but even that isn't inexplicable. They gain enjoyment out of their builds and for all I know take another bike out at the weekend and get it totally caked in mud. To say that you find that the idea of wanting a bottle cage that fits certain conditions rather than some any old random piece inexplicable is, to be honest, inexplicable!

Good luck on your coast to coast. Hope the weather treats ya right. Tailwind, cool temps, and downhill all the way.

Not quite following your MTB section. They buy a bike? Dismantle it? Put it back together with custom parts? They photograph it? Post it of course, I assume? Then dismantle it? Then sell the whole bike? Or just parts of it? Then repeat? Or am I missing something? That's very possible. Are they making money on these ventures? I would hope so.

All I can say about bottle cages is that in all the years I've been riding I've never gotten hold of a bad one(if there is such a thing) or one that didn't do the job. All of them have been "random" you might say. Ok, maybe I did buy one or two because I wanted yellow or black, but never bought one thinking "will this do the job?". Never had a bottle cage failure.

Velonutter

dennisn wrote:

Rolf F wrote:

dennisn wrote:

It's a forum. Just saying what I think.

But pretty much everything on this forum is trivial. If you don't want entirely trivial and ultimately pointless conversations about bikes then why come on here in the first place?

It is trivial, just like you said. Just pointing that out. I think that there are no bad or stupid questions. Only bad and stupid answers. Still, if someone needs help picking out a bottle cage it makes me wonder. :?

There is saying what you think once and then repeating it which is trolling, cut it out!

Velonutter

dennisn wrote:

neeb wrote:

Available products differ considerably.

If they "differ considerably" give me 10 ways that they "differ considerably". Key word being "considerably". Make sure all the reasons deal with with how they effectively they hold a water bottle( since that seems to be your main concern) and not how they look or what they are made from. Also, please provide any research data that you've found or read about that shows friction analysis between different bottle and cages.

Why, your baiting...now cut it out for the final time!

neeb

dennisn wrote:

All I can say about bottle cages is that in all the years I've been riding I've never gotten hold of a bad one(if there is such a thing) or one that didn't do the job. All of them have been "random" you might say. Ok, maybe I did buy one or two because I wanted yellow or black, but never bought one thinking "will this do the job?". Never had a bottle cage failure.

You've never had a bottle jump out of a cage when going over a bump at speed? Either the roads are exceptionally good where you are or you've just been extremely lucky with your random choices!

rolf_f

dennisn wrote:

Good luck on your coast to coast. Hope the weather treats ya right. Tailwind, cool temps, and downhill all the way.

Not quite following your MTB section. They buy a bike? Dismantle it? Put it back together with custom parts? They photograph it? Post it of course, I assume? Then dismantle it? Then sell the whole bike? Or just parts of it? Then repeat? Or am I missing something? That's very possible. Are they making money on these ventures? I would hope so.

All I can say about bottle cages is that in all the years I've been riding I've never gotten hold of a bad one(if there is such a thing) or one that didn't do the job. All of them have been "random" you might say. Ok, maybe I did buy one or two because I wanted yellow or black, but never bought one thinking "will this do the job?". Never had a bottle cage failure.

Taa very much - I'm hoping for all the above aside from downhill all the way which is pure fantasy! Infact, I will on the ascent of Wrynose, be keeping an eye open for the Camelbak Podium that ejected from the Elite cage on my way down it last year.

And yes - they dismantle the bike (the parts being worth more than the whole as who wants to buy a blinged up MTB that someone else made) after finishing it. There have been threads that went on for years about a bike build that eventually generated something that wasn't ridden. They'll lose money because the parts won't be worth as much stripped off even if they aren't used. But it's a hobby that gives pleasure so why not?

neeb

OnYourRight wrote:

In what conceivable way does the sparsely elegant and quite purposeful design on the left not look as good as the overwrought and arbitrarily swoopy contraption on the right (touched off with cringeworthy typography because there just wasn’t enough visual noise there, do note)?

Buying an ugly cage to match an ugly carbon bike does not strike me as a brilliant idea. Unremittingly ugly is worse than ugly in part.

I do find it fascinating how and why people form their aesthetic judgements, and how certain they seem to be that they have some sort of objective reality. I include myself in this too I might add!

The Elite cage isn't really "arbitrarily swoopy". It's made of a different material (plastic) which is well enough suited to the job. But you couldn't make a plastic cage in the same shape as a metal one, it has to have wider, flatter surfaces because of the different properties of the material. In this case the design quite closely follows function in that it supports the bottle all around while also allowing it to be removed and inserted from above and avoiding the use of excess material. There would be various other shapes that would perform the same task, but it would be quite difficult to make a good plastic bottle cage that didn't look just a little bit "swoopy" unless you were going out of your way to try to make it ugly.

It's interesting how aesthetics goes in cycles. Right now a lot of people seem to be reacting against the naturally streamlined aesthetics (and I don't mean aero necessarily) of carbon and plastics through nostalgia for the bike aesthetics of 50 years ago or more, which were driven by the use of steel and other metals. But I bet if you could transport a cyclist from the 1950s or 1960s forward in time they would be blown away by the streamlined swoopyness of modern carbon bikes (not to mention their greatly improved performance and weight). That sort of look was all the rage in the 50s and 60s, it's just that the technology of the time didn't allow it to be applied to bicycles. We are simply jaded today because we have got so used to this look, hence the search for something different in the form of nostalgia for the aesthetics of the past.

prhymeate

I like the Specialized Rib bottle cages. I tried the Elite Custom ones but I didn't find them as easy to use....not that they were difficult, just felt less natural. I didn't really look into why, I just switched back to the Specialized after the first ride.

flanners1

Flanders is a good tester for a bottle cage.....the Elite Custom passed with flying colours. Best cages I have used fir function and style....carbon have been overpriced for minimal benefit

greasedscotsman

dennisn wrote:

As a side note I've never heard anyone complain about scratched water bottles.

No?

viewtopic.php?f=40042&t=12627790&hilit=scratches&start=20

Matthewfalle

neeb wrote:

It's surprisingly important when you are racing, along with other seemingly trivial things such as the ease of opening of your gel packets, perfect functioning of gear shifting etc. The cage needs to hold the bottle securely over big bumps at speed and also be easy to insert and remove the bottle from. Simple, but many cages fail on one or both of these counts.

Incidentally I got the Elite custom races and they are doing fine so far. Easier to insert and remove than I anticipated, I've still to test them over big bumps but they seem a bit more secure than my last cages. A lot depends on the bottle you pair them with and the position and shape of the recessed section at the top.

Hi

Just wondered at what level you raced at - local, national, Elite etc.

Just intrigued to know people's experiences with different kit.

As an aside, I use Massi carbons on the good bike (8 years of constant use, look immaculate, hold bottles perfectly over all surfaces including pave) and a set of Planet X on the fast bike - as above, no problems and cheap in the deals.

neeb

Matthewfalle wrote:

Hi

Just wondered at what level you raced at - local, national, Elite etc.

Just intrigued to know people's experiences with different kit.

I'm actually living and working in Finland (although I'll be moving back to the UK in the Autumn). Here we only have two categories in amateur racing, elite and "kilpa" ("race"). I just started racing in some of the kilpa events this year. I guess the standard is about the same as 3rd cat in the UK. The scene is pretty small and annoyingly the season is very short - most Finns disappear off to their summer cottages in the forest in July.. ;-)

The immediate impetus for looking for new cages was losing a bottle on the first lap of my last race (the Porvoon ajot, actually the oldest bike race in Finland!) and the hassle of making sure I didn't lose the other one at the same point on each of the other 4 laps.. There was a steep downhill bit just after the start/finish with a series of cobbled "rumble strips"... Needless to say I wasn't the only person so lose a bottle!

earth

earth wrote:

Recently replaced a Blackburn Swerve Ti cage with an Arundel Mandible because the Ti cage snapped after about 2 years. So that's one that is definitely not the best.

The Arundel is as light and there is no rattle at all. Only problem for me so far is that my spaghetti arms just don't have the strength to get the bottle in and out easily. It grips it that tight.

I've also had a Tacx Tao for years but relegated it to the downtube cage because it is also a bit fiddly to get the bottle in and out of. Other than that it is great.

After a ride the other day I've decided the Arundel Mandible is not much use with a Camelback Podium bottle. The Camleback seems to be a bit wider than other bottles. The Mandible grips it too tight and squeezes the bottle. If you are carrying plain water this might be OK but if you are carrying anything sugary then you are bound to get drips over the outside of the bottle. You may as well have covered your bottle in superglue because you will never get the bottle in and out.

The Dave-O seems to have a looser grip and might be better or a different bottle.