They appear on a few bikes (e.g. my horsethief, my partner’s super light).

Does anyone actually use these for anything?

Why oh why?

The fact they appear on different bikes of different ages implies someone somewhere thinks they’re not useless… thing is even if I rode somewhere bone dry, good luck fishing the bottle out riding along…

Aren’t they to attatch a crud catcher?

No, I mean bottle bosses. (crud catcher bosses exist too).

Quite a few santa cruzes had them (hecklers too). I’ll find a pic..

Still on current superlights for example:

Yeah, I would never use one of those to hold my drink.

But…
I only use my bottle cage to carry one of those storage bottles with tools and a spare tube in and a boss mounted mini pump. It wouldn’t make any difference to me if it was on the bottom of the downtube.

I use mine to attach a mini blackburn pump

Used to use the one on my old Enduro to carry the battery pack for my lights.When you needed a big battery pack to get anything more than a couple of hrs of power

I only use my bottle cage to carry one of those storage bottles with tools and a spare tube in and a boss mounted mini pump. It wouldn’t make any difference to me if it was on the bottom of the downtube.

I use one of these in the 2nd cage on the XC bike. I did think about putting a cage on the under-mount to swap this about. But then I’ve nowhere for a drink, so I’m still gonna be taking a bag…and if I’m taking a bag I may aswell not have a cage/canister in a daft looking place…

The battery mount is a good reason to use one. Though not in this day and age…

Another “designed in California” type thing ?

I live in the Middle East. In the summer, even with early starts, we ride with full Camelbaks and two bottle cages. One of mine is beneath the down tube. You can’t drink from it on the move but you can swap it when the other is empty. I’ve been glad of it on more than one occasion.

Definitely think it’s a US thing. No idea why they feel the need to do it on my Horsethief, there’s plenty of space for one.

I used the one on my Yeti 575 for the Trans Wales. You need a decent bottle cage but it was perfectly fine for a week

I used a Bomtrager side entry cage as they are a tight fit and wrap all the way round the bottle. Perfik! 🙂

Ibis mojo sl has them down there too, never used it never will.

Was once justified to me as a mount for bottle cage light batteries

I use mine on any ride that needs two bottles. Just swap the bottles over half way round.
I prefer it to using a big pack.

No idea why they feel the need to do it on my Horsethief, there’s plenty of space for one.

I dunno, not tried a bottle in the space (could use strap on mounts) but even in my XL it looks tight. The 2013 has mounts in the frame, but the downtube is more curved to accommodate this.

Just tried it, you’re right. A strap on mount bottle cage might just fit, but it’d be tight on my Large Horsethief.

Bash Plate Mount, most people don’t need them though, mount a bottle if you like the taste of dogplop!

As in to protect the downtube (and cables in case of the HT)? Never seen one to bolt on there, got a link to one?

Looking, tallboy LTc come with a guard, and the bottle mounts, but don’t use the mounts to secure the guard:

http://brimages.bikeboardmedia.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Santa-Cruz-Tallboy-LTc-29er-downtube-bashguard.jpg

Does anyone actually use these for anything?

Why oh why?Extra water carrying capacity on multi-day rides when I have a frame bag fitted. Use it for water that gets boiled in cooking. An important fitting on one of my bikes. Also used it to carry a large battery for long night rides.

I use the underneath one for a tool bottle, I now support it with a toe strap after the cage hinged down during the first ride on my plastic Anthem 😯