I’ve got quite a selection of water bottles, but I find most of them don’t flow fast enough.
During a race, there might only be a few seconds of relatively smooth and straight track where I can drink, so I want to get as much in as quickly as I can.
An old wiggle bottle I’ve got is the best, but they’ve changed the design and I don’t know what the new ones are like.

What’s the best Impossible To Lose, But Easy To Get Out cage too ?

I’m liking my Specialized Rib Cage. Seems very secure. Pretty light too.

Salsa Nickless Cage. The Salsa bottles have a big mouthpiece too.

GB

Elite Race Cage. Cheap at about £8 look nice and really secure. Have them on all bikes* and never lost a bottle.

*Mtb, cross (not for racing!) and road.

As for bottles I’ve ever really had a problem, I like the SIS ones onew but all the rest seem to be elite ones that I’ve been given at events. Maybe one that is a bit softer so you can give it a squeeze. I tend to only sip water rather than drink a lot.

camelback podiums are the best bottles ive had – and last for ages unlike the cheapy ones. – dishwash well an all

i also swear by blackburn MTN cages – not the lightest but welded and externally sleaved as i went through a phase of breaking alloy cages.

have had good experiance with bonty plastic cages as well (v.light) but i suspect fragile.

i have some merida carbon ones too – never lost a bottle but a chunt to get in and out of !

+1 on the camelbak bottles

I use bontrager cages and Elite patao ones. I’ve used the elites for years and never lost a bottle even on my cx which gets shaken to hell

Another vote for Camelbak Podium. You wouldn’t have thought you could improve on a water bottle, but they have! Soft plastic that you can squeeze easily to get a real jet of liquid, doesn’t leak, doesn’t pong of plastic. Only gripe I have is that the silicone squeeze valve goes manky with sports drinks and is difficult to clean – but that’ll happen to any bottle in time!

Cages – I swear by the cheapo Brand-X ones from CRC. Five quid and I’ve never lost a bottle, and I do some rocky descents…

Thanks for the replies.
They’ve got the camelbak ones in Halfords on 3 for 2, so I’ll call in today and have a look at them.

camelback again here
Topeak modula cage – adjustable, so set it a little bit tight

I can safely say that loose bottle cages are a very poor buy, regardless of the price.

Put a couple of these on my road bike recently, and promptly lost a full bottle shortly after the race started.

Couldn’t get a new bottle for the fist 40km, which I’m pretty sure affected my performance for the rest of the race.

I’ll be chucking these in the bin shortly 😡

Cheers, Rich

+1 for Bontrager cages. Used for numerous mtb races, never lost a bottle from one yet. Topical for me as I dropped a bottle yesterday from my cross bike on the Pennine Bridleway, Blackburn cage I think, and made a mental note to stick another Bonty cage on today.

Just the basic black resin ones like:

http://www.pedalon.co.uk/acatalog/pair_of_race_lite_cagespp.html

I use Elite cages and Torq bottles. Cant go wrong with the cages!

The Camelback bottles are great- you’d not think a bottle could be so much better than another but they are.

I like Bonty plastic cages too as they’re very easy to get bottles in and out of. Not the most secure in a crash though, but I’ve never had a bottle bounce out normally.

+1 for Bonty plastic cages, lighter than some carbon offerings too. Never lost a bottle, apart from me fumbling 1 or 2 😳

King Cage Ti for me…light and super strong.I’m using a Camelbak podium bottle which flows well but i don’t like the fact that the valve is not removable for washing.I’ve had a couple of specialized ribcages which were ok for the price but ended up breaking.

I’m using a Camelbak podium bottle which flows well but i don’t like the fact that the valve is not removable for washing

pumper, can’t comment on whether the valve is supposed to be disassembled, but it can be! Here’s my method…

On the outside of the bottle lid first prise off the clear rubber cover over the valve with a dinner knife or similar under the edge. Then pop off the plastic ring which contains the silicone valve, using the same hi-tech tool inserted under it, and separate ring from valve.

Turn the lot over, and with the flat side of the knife blade placed on the small button shaped bit of plastic, force it past the four flanges holding it in place, and withdraw the vale core.

Viola, you’ve now have it in bits, and can use your cleaning solution of choice and an old tooth brush, and a couple of cotton buds to make it like new!

Really, I think Camelbak have missed a trick here, and should be selling a kit containing a dinner knife, toothbrush and cotton buds for about fifty quid 😉

or just wash regularly in a dishwasher so.it never gets manly in the first place 🙂

Another vote for the specialised rib cage here. The most secure, for a light cage, I’ve ever used. Plus they look as good as many carbon cages. Also a vote for the Camelbak podium (stopped buying them since my son chews them) or the newer type of specialised bottle.

If looking for something superlight which holds bottles really securely, the Lifeline Ti off Wiggle has been great for me. Incidentally, it’s the same as the Mt Zoom ti cage off xcracer.com, just a generic Taiwan titanium cage which manufacturers slap their branding on. Superlight, superstrong, can be forced in and out to accomodate different size water bottles and has never dropped a bottle for me even on rough terrain.

Camelbak Podiums for me as well.

There was a Boa equipped bottle cage I saw somewhere recently. I doubt you’d find more secure! Can’t remember where I saw it though. Sorry…

😳

Elite race bottle holder had them on all my bikes. The camelbak podium bottles are very good my fav bottle 🙂

Vinceo designs… Great bottle with a magic worlds lightest cage. The bottle has a clever valve, no need to pull it open, just squirt and it flows, and then seals.

Vincero bottle and cage

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvb6LEDKR0A[/video]

Just saw the review of the Vincero in ST. Before I buy one from Charlie, anyone got any real world experience of them for offroad use?

I’ve got some old Token versions of this Thorn Superlite cage and they are the best cages I’ve ever had.

Don’t mark bottles and utterly bombproof holding

Bontrager side entry bottle cages are ace. I had one in the underside of the downtube on my Yeti 575 for the entire Transwales and it never budged.

That said THE best bottle cages ever made are Ringle H2O. Never been beaten IMO. 🙂

Like this one from Wiggle.

Lots of carbon cages cheap from ebay. Really like one I bought from this shop.