The Best Bottle Cages for Gravel Cycling: They Don't Launch Bottles!
Vložit
- čas přidán 9. 07. 2024
- The humble bottle cage, whose job in life is simply to tote around a bottle on your bicycle, and ideally never lose it. Sounds simple enough, right? If you've been riding a bicycle of any kind for any length of time, you may have experienced the dreaded bottle launch. This usually comes about when your bike inadvertently encounters a bump in the road surface.
The bumpy road sensation is exacerbated on the gravelly road less traveled; bumps, potholes, washboard / corrugation, washouts, creek crossings, and so on. Extremely varied conditions that can and will eject your water bottles from their cages if the bumps are forceful enough.
This is a big problem. Ejecting a bottle into the roadside ditch or woods is annoying enough, along with retrieving it, assuming you can, but ejecting a bottle at an event / well-populated ride / race can spell disaster. We've all seen riders crash in professional road cycling should a bottle fall into the middle of the bunch, and the result is no different riding with other people on a dirt / gravel road.
JOM of Gravel Cyclist has been at this gravel cycling madness for over 14 years, and during that time he's learned from experience, which bottle cages safely retain their bottles over the harshest of mixed-surface roads. In this video, JOM discusses the bottle cages he recommends for gravel cycling.
Support Gravel Cyclist:
Buy Me a Coffee - www.buymeacoffee.com/gravelcy...
OR
Patreon - / gravelcyclist
Links of Interest:
King Cage - kingcage.com
Silca Sicuro Titanium Bottle Cages - amzn.to/32lj3f7 (or silca.cc/collections/bottle-c...)
Arundel Dave-O - amzn.to/368uQ1r (or arundelbike.com)
Arundel Mandible - amzn.to/3p1VBxl (or arundelbike.com)
Calfee Design - calfeedesign.com
Zefal Magnum Water Bottle (1 Bottle) - amzn.to/365PsHI
Zefal Magnum Water Bottle (2 Bottles) - amzn.to/3eEXAmw
JOM's source for "Pedal Bitch" 20oz Bottles - procycleandtri.com
Big Sugar NWA Gravel Pre-Ride Video - wp.me/p4V4se-b8C
Calfee Tetra Adventure Bike Review - wp.me/p4V4se-aDS
Amazon Affiliation Link:
No cost to you, but every purchase made helps keep Gravel Cyclist up and running! - www.amazon.com/?&_encoding=UT...
Web: GravelCyclist.com
Facebook: / gravelcyclist
Instagram - / gravelcyclist
Twitter - / gravelcyclist - Sport
Thank you a lot! Now entering in the gravel world and I know it is more bumpy than other disciplines. I was looking what PROs uses in competition, but you came directly to the point and I can now easily choose. 😊
My road and gravel bikes have the King Ti. These bottle cages have a death grip on it. 20+ years and still looks great. Great customer service. I do have the Arundel side loader for my Ripley because of the shock being in the way. Both are great and never had a bottle launch out of it.
Nice! I may have to try a side loading cage if I ever used a frame bag, etc.
Not to mention, lost bottles litter and are not biodegradable. We should always do what we reasonably can to respect the land we use. Silca and King have worked for me for years. Love both. Well done JOM. Thank you.
Road Glide wrong. most bottles are bio degradable.
Great video, would you say that the mandible will scrape/mark the bottles more in comprison to any of the other ones in the test?
Thanks, perfect timing. Need holders for finally arrived Diverge Carbon Comp.
Specialized Zee cage. Never lost a bottle on MTB or Gravel Bike.
King's Iris cages are secure to a fault! Tightest hold on my Purist bottles I've found to date, and beautiful to boot.
I second that about the Iris and would add they are arguably the most beautiful cages, and are available in titanium, if you like bike jewelry. Somewhere else in these comments, someone complained about expensive cages. I'm tired of cheapskates. I love cycling, I love my bikes, and I like nice stuff. By no means am I rich, but you only live once, buy nice things for yourself instead of lining your coffin with all the money you saved.
I'm a huge fan of the Tune Wassertrager 2.0, very light but never lost a bottle even on cobbles and singletracks!
I used to ride some of the earlier Tune bottle cages circa 2003 - 2005.
King Cage Iris all the way! Beautiful and retention is second to none! Ti option as well.
I have an Arundel Looney Bin on the underside mount for the extra security but I never drink from that bottle I only use it to refill another bottle
Did you read my mind hahhaa? I was looking for a video like this haha
FYI...REI, currently, if you buy 2 or more of the Silca Sicuro Titanium Bottle Cage it's 10% off each making it $58.50 per. Still pricey but every little bit helps...
ps...I have 3 of them and I love mine! Never lost a bottle either!
Silca titanium cage is the best. How much water in. no matter that. it must be tight
Specialized Side-Feed plastic cages. Zero losses in 7+ years. A++ for “during riding” accessibility!
I am a big fan of the Arundel Dave O. I have been using them for years. Never ejected a bottle. Please people out there, invest in a good set of cages. I have a friend who is currently nursing a broken collarbone due to someone else’s cheap cages.
Oh wow, I am so sorry to hear this. What you said x 1,000.
I got the King Stainless cages to save a bit of cash, still as good as the Ti. Cheers!
Nice, glad to hear that!
I’m running 3 stainless steel King Cages on my gravel bike and never once had a bottle ejection. I won’t ride another bottle cage.
For many years I've used house brand stainless cages with good results. They are far cheaper than Ti cages and, IMO, functionally equivalent. All the money that I've saved on cages went to a Ti bike 😆
@@raymondmuzic4520 I’ll check them out. I too bought a Ti bike, 😂. Litespeed Watia
the ti cages grip stronger
I bought my plastic water bottle cafe from trek, and I’ve had 2 bottles launch and second one went right under my tire nearly causing me to have an accident, I am ready for an upgrade!!
I’ll be ignoring the race and straight collecting bidons if i in that race
I ride my gravel bike sometimes on XC trails(I have a Beyond 1, which takes 29x2.1 xc tires) and use the REI branded bottle cage. Yet to eject a bottle and only cost me $10. Mines is a bright yellow as it was the only color they had in stock at the time, but it kind of stands out on a blue frame for a bit of visibility.
Yes, I would imagine that a bottle holder that costs $60-$99 would do the job nicely. But I am pretty sure I can find one that works well for $10.
Good thing there are choices for all. Some folks do not desire a $10 cage on their $$$$ bike. Thanks for chiming in!
@@GravelCyclist True. And who doesn’t like great gear? I’m riding a 19-year old hard tail, so my gear choices are more budget-friendly. But those cages are functional art…
King Cage Ti FTW!
Super classy too!
Lezyne Power Cages hold bottles really tightly and are also affordable.
I have a plan to install bottle 1L (32 oz) on the downtube frame. my area condition is full of gravel, plotholes, and hills. so what's you're preference bottle cage it? I have a plan to use Fly MTB 950 ml bottle
Hello, I use the King Cage Titanium, I have never lost a bottle.
My Specialized Rib Cage II's.....they hold my bottles so tight it's often a struggle to get them out lol. Never lost a bottle. I have some King Ti cages on my Emonda which are nice and much easier to get the bottle out of the cage than my Specialized ones, but I don't think I'd use the King ones on my gravel bike as they don't hold my particular bottles (Abloc) all that tight in comparison.
It's interesting that you mention the Abloc. I've got the same bottles, in large size, and have had them ejected from the King cage more than once despite bending the cage to secure them tighter.
Can I zip tie all of these bottles to my down frame if my frame does not have any screw holes?
Probably not going to stay in place long. The vibrations from the road are going to wiggle everything loose.
100 dollars for a bottle holder, come on. People are dying from hunger in our planet..
Nobody said you had to buy a $!00 bottle cage. Animals are dying on the planet from humans eating them, and humans are bulldozing every tree to make way for more humans.
Been using King titanium cages on my custom Seven titanium MTB for over ten years. Looks great, light and doesn't mark up my bottles. They hold bottles very securely.
Agreed, they are my #1 fave cage.
Fidlock FTW IMO.
I’ve got that Silca titanium on my titanium Lynskey GR270. They sure look the part on a titanium frame and do a secure job but at Aussie AU$110 each with 3 on the bike they are some investment!!
Yikes, $AU... I don't miss those prices from the homeland. Curious, did yours arrive with Ti bolts? Silca seem to have ditched bolts from the current model cage :(
@@GravelCyclist that was 18 mths ago and yes Silca came with Ti bolts but they could have been on the shelf did a bit
Arundel side-loader/ other side-loader is also excellent!
Those would be super handy for frame bags... which I generally don't use.
@@GravelCyclist Also good for we short people with small frames :)
Given that you reviewed a Arundel bike product, curious why the ‘Looney Bin’, w the ratchet system, or the ‘Bando’ w two stiffnesses of rubber bands weren’t on your list?
I’ve been using both for two years. No issues, the Looney Bin allows you to jam a wide sports drink bottle in there too, heck, even a 750ML wine bottle as well.
Cheers.
Hi David, never had a need to use those cages, been very happy with the Dave-O and the Mandible. Happy that other riders have plenty of alternatives.
@@GravelCyclist 👍🏼
what material is the Calfee Cage?
Hi Gerald, carbon fibre.
King SS cage are phenomenal
Bontrager bat cage- hands down best for the money ( only good thing bontrager makes!)
Timely release, broke a profile design one last week. And I am no gravel rider, ride on roads, though the road condition is worse than gravel riding.
I should record video of the gnarly paved roads I see in my travels, worse than gravel as you point out! Good luck figuring out which cage to buy :)
Any good side entry cages?
Arundel makes some cages fitting that description, but I have yet to try them.
The Sideburn 8 cage (by Dawn To Dusk) is carbon fiber side entry cage and features 8lbs of bottle grip force; no way your bottle will ever get ejected
The Salsa side entry cages are pretty good. Not the best looking, but they work.
I've used plastic side load cages from aliexpress on very rough gravel without problems.
I've got the Arundel side loading ones. Basically Mandibles. STR for Seat Tube Right and DTR for Down Tube Right, although you can swap them around for left sided entry.
So far so good.
Holy shit, that's all expensive stuff!
None of them suitable if you have a frame bag as a side access would be best. I've used Leyzne Flow Side Load. They even hold the bottle on my rigid MTB with no loss. Be great if you had several side entry cages to compare.
That might be the topic of a future video, thanks Rich. I generally do not use frame bags, so that thought escaped my mind.
If you use a frame bag then you should also consider the Wolftooth double barrel mount for the cages.
Why is it bad to install bottle cage beneath down tube?
Ever ridden across a cow field? There's your answer :)
No I haven’t. But makes sense.
I used many cheap cages over the years…they all did well! 60 to 99 USD per piece is a joke. Besides, most people I know focused on the weight of their accessories, could lose a few gramms by skipping a beer or two…
Each to their own. If someone desires to install a $60 to $99 cage onto their $10K bike, that's their business. King Ti Cage is #1 IMHO, retail price was $60 last I checked, never dropped a bottle. I'll gladly pay $60 every time.
Here’ a low budget tip: the old SKS wirecage. They cost less than €10,-, weigh 52 grams and I have tet to loose one 👍👍
Using the King cages as well but the SKS definitely beat them 1-0.
Probably the ones good enough for XC
Most of those riders seem to prefer hydration packs.
The best water bottle is a camelback . Offroad and water bottles don't mix
No. I so despise Camelbaks, or anything on my back for that matter... including toting around my drone!
@@GravelCyclist riding offroad in the uk usually means you are sharing the track with horses sheep and cows so at every gate you will find a very muddy bog hole which produces a wonderful soup of bovine piss and shit which then gets sprayed on the bottle tops and frame. I'm sure in the usa where the gravel is just gravel it's less of a bio hazard but in rainy England every gram of crap may contain 1 million bacteria and not the good kind so I will stick to the sweaty back mounted Camelback which contains all my spares and snax. Enjoy the ride.
Now that you've explained your rationale, this makes total sense. No effin way would I be using bottles either!
@@peterbee8892 Did you consider to get bottles with a cover cap?
@@Adrian-ky4bi we tried these for a few years then when camel back arrived it was an instant switch to this. Larger capacity and the ability to carry everything in one place. On a long rocky descent with several riders behind are you going to stop and risk a crash to pick up a bottle or carry on. As we don't have much gravel in the UK it's mainly tame mtb trails and the surface will be very varied even within a few miles .
Damn you’ve got expensive tastes
There are choices for all.
Keep the intro as it is of no bull sh"t
Thanks! I think it fits nicely.
@@GravelCyclist it does and that's no bs
Overpriced, a < $ 10 bottle cage will do the job
People can ride whatever they like. Love seeing a cheap cage on an 8k bike, but whatever works.
@@GravelCyclist by not comparing these to (much) cheaper alternatives you present this as if (expensive) > $ 60 bottle cages are the norm. Your options certainly aren't "Best" if you factor in cost. 😉
"The best bottle cage for gravel cycling". Huuuummmm!!!???
Really??? Did they gave you or did you pay for the bottles cages? It will be good to know!
I understand your position, but really, others brands are no good?
Well I pay for my bottles, an I've never loose any, if you want to know the brand :Elite. And no it doesn't cost me 60$ or more.
I usually like your content, but I think this time you've done a poor job!
Expecting the next time you'll be embracing more brands. 🤔😉
@jp Santos I’m not sure what the problem is, it’s just his opinion on what he has found to work well for him. If you like Elite...great! Stick with them and ride on 👍
I echo what Steve said. I listed the bottle cages I use, I like them, they work, no need to get angry or bent out of shape. If cheaper cages work for you, that's fantastic.
You completely missed the point of my video. Seriously, don't ever place expectations upon me, I do this as a side gig to my regular 40-hour a week job. I like to keep it fun, comments like yours are disappointing. I did a great job with the video, if you can do better, rather than writing a BS comment, produce a video of your own and show everyone your favorite bottle cages.
People can buy whatever they want, a $60 Ti cage works for me. Finally, barring one pair of cages I kept from a review bike, all were purchased by me.
P.S. You don't "loose" a bottle, you lose it.
Well I never say that the brand I use was better or equal than yours. Just saying that I also never loose any bottle. It's true sometimes paying more gives you better products, but not all the time!
We probably have around the same age, and you should know by now that "the best" doesn't exist!
But you're right, I loose.
I loose my time! ✌️
@@jonitas66 No worries!