Righto, just bought myself a nice new carbon road bike so of course i’ll need a nice new carbon bottle cage to go with it..

…how much??? 😯

Stuff that, plastic cheapo one will do nicely thank you!

Pair of Planet X carbon cages £30.

My point exactly!

Hardly breaking the bank is it, especially if you have just brought a new carbon bike. Maybe you should have haggled some in the purchase of the bike.

The Elite custom ones do the job or the Tacx Tao

I do wonder if these £40+ carbon cages are actually any lighter than a plastic one though.

If you want a needlessly expensive bottle cage, but are so over carbon, you could get a stainless steel King Cage that won’t* mark your bottles.

* will

Look carbon bottle cage 34grams – £44.99

Brand X plastic cage 36grams – £2.38

Now, i like nice kit as much as most people but that really is taking the proverbial!

Get metal cages, either steel or alloy, so you can bend them in a bit to grip bottles tightly. It’s a pain to lose bottles when the road gets bumpy, but it’s even more of a pain to see the carnage a lost bottle causes when riding with others.

you could try ebay for a carbon set… about 6 quid each last time i checked.

Cheers

I’ve got a plastic Topeak one that works just fine and weighs 35g ish. £4 off CRC and not dropped a bottle yet, feels very secure. Have one on my Mtb, and one on the road bike.

Expensive cages are a mug’s game.

POST A PICTURE OF THE BIKE THEN! 😀

Which one did you go for?

Tacx Tao, all you need.

Not got it yet RS – went for the Colnago in the end. Whilst i do like the Mekk i didn’t want to wait another month and the Colnago was pretty, similar in spec and geometry.
Hopefully will turn up thursday!

Spesh Rib Cage…. Hold the bottle perfectly well and look about as good as a bottle cage can.

you should get the plastic elite ones, or one of the multitude of clones.

I’ve got an eXotic (Carbon Cycles) bottle cage languishing in the spares bin. Cost very little and is pretty useless. You can have it if you want.

Be careful the bottle cage screws don’t weigh you down! Just to be safe use no more nails 😉

I had one of the Topeak Mono cages, with the soft plastic on the front, the plastic fell to bits. Got an army of Specialized Rib cages now, very secure!

36g again

I’ve found that Carbon bottle cages have more than compensated for the 4 stone extra I carry on my body.

£ for pound top weight saving.

Pizza!!! – oh yes

Carbon cages – guilt relief

Happy planet

If you want reliability then look at what the pro’s use for Paris Roubaix… then use those.

To be honest, if I was wasting money, I’d get:

http://www.charliethebikemonger.com/vincero-designs-stratus20-system-magnetic-bottle-and-cage-system-2567-p.asp

and enough magnets for all of my bikes.

The biggest thing slowing you down on a road bike at speed is the air resistance, not the 36 grams of your bottle cage.

I have two carbon bottle cages on my carbon bike, that I often ride the 10 miles to work. I use one very lightweight cage to carry a normal plastic bottle with 3/4 litre (and this 750g) of fluid inside. I arrive at my destination hideously dehydrated, with the bottle still full, having time-trialled a bike that weighs nearly a kilo more than it needed to.

Then I have a drink from the bottle in a place where there’s a tap nearby.

I’ve just had a Tacx Tao fail, the plastic looks to have fatigued around where the bolt goes through. it was pretty old though. and the other one has warped a bit, though I have no idea how.
And whilst those Vincero magnetic bottles look great and are amazing to use, they fall off at least once a ride – a bump in the road will dislodge the bottle when it’s full. not good. I’ve just taken mine off.

the second Tacx Tao on my bike broke last night, in the same place.
looking for two replacements now…

Specialized Ribcage just seem to work really well.

The TAOs have also been really good on my tourer. I like that the cage can be bent by hand to make it grip the bottle a bit better.

I’ve always found Elite cages to be fine and they weigh bugger all.