Sometimes it’s nice to ditch the backpack, grab a few tools and a tube in a seatpack and head off out of the door.
There’s a time and place for taking everything but the kitchen sink in your hydration pack of course, but there are also rides that just don’t justify it; the feel of nothing on your back when you’re nipping down a bit of moorland singletrack with the sun shining, is a good one. For rides like that, a bottle cage will carry all your hydration needs and the King Cage Iris Stainless Steel cage is a pretty sweet little bit of bent metal that will do the job.
Made in Durango, Colorado the Iris is light, neat and minimalist. It drops the traditional bottle cage design in favour of curving up and over the top of the bottle to hold it very securely in place. This is a good thing; the design clamps the bottle tight to the bike, reducing rattling to an absolute minimum and has yet to drop a bottle, even on loose rocky descents. According to bike lore it’s possible to accommodate a Thermos in there too but I’ve not really felt the need to pack one yet.
The beauty of steel is of course its ability to correct knocks and bends as they happen to keep the Iris cage aligned and holding bottles securely. Doing this requires just a simple squeeze of the cage to reset the position. This should keep the Iris nice and tight and doing its job for a long time.
Overall: Light, neat and efficient cage to keep your bottle in place, even on rough descents.
Review Info
| Brand: | King Cage Iris Stainless Steel bottle cage. |
| Product: | King Cage Iris Stainless Steel bottle cage. |
| From: | Evolution Sports, evolutionimports.co.uk |
| Price: | £15.99 (£34.99 for Ti) |
| Tested: | by Dave for Six months |
