rhm

I'd like to put a water bottle cage, or two, on the handlebar of one of my bikes... or two. But I haven't seen anything I'd want to spend money on. So, I'm thinking, DIY. I have a fair amount of scrap aluminum, and some of that aluminum bar they sell at Home Depot. I have leather thick enough to make straps that would hold a bottle securely. I have 5 and 6 mm metric taps. I think I can make a pretty strong, lightweight, and perhaps presentable water bottle cage.

I think I'd make it the size to fit a stainless steel bottle.

But before I do that, I'd like to hear the experiences of anyone who's used cages of this kind. Photos would be welcome, too. What brand do you have? How does it attach? Is it sturdy enough? Any problems or design flaws? If you were designing your own, how would you do it?

Bianchigirll 

I like the Minoura holders

repechage

They bounce a lot. So, if you can make one that isolates and or holds the bottles VERY securely, GO. I personally was thinking of a gimbaled one, to hold that hot mocha within the final mile of my ride in to work. Minoura made a mount that allowed one to mount a downtube cage in front of the handlebars, only for one bottle.

Roger M

I made one out of a copper uni-strut clamp. I can't find it now, so I don't have a picture. It started out as this:



I cut both halves narrower, and bent up the tabs(the part that hooks on the unistrut). I drilled holes in the tabs for the cage to bolt to, and then cut a strip of rubber to pad the bars with. It isn't the most decorative piece,but worked like a champ.. til I picked up a bike the had a store bought unit.

BTW, I had the Strut clamp already, that's why I used it. If you want one send me an address and I'll mail it out.

Velognome 

I've got a nice set up I purchased a few years back. Basicly it's a standard cage for braze-on mount, there is an extra piece shaped like a cross, the cross bar being just wider than the handle bars. This additional piece has 2 holes to attach it to the cage pluse 4 hole on the cross bar. 2 very thin U bolts wrap the bar on each side of the stem and connect to the cross bar..easy enough. You can kinda see it here, if you need more, you'll have to wait until Thursday when I get back.

I'm too slow, Bianchigirl has a better pic anyway. Oh, and it doesn't bounce at all

jan nikolajsen 

Who was it that brazed an elegant wire bottle holder, and also fabricated thorn catchers?

auchencrow

Rootboy makes nice tire savers. I don't recall him making bottle cages though.

kroozer 

I wonder why VO hasn't done one yet. I think there would be a pretty decent market for it.

Bianchigirll 

I couldn't find the pic earlier but Minoura also makes a double mount, although I have not used it yet.

gaucho777 

Are you thinking of Cinco? I was very impressed with the work Cinco did here. He set the DIY bar rather high.

(Not sure I saw thorn catchers, but Cinco also fabricated some awesome toe clips.)

sillygolem

I have a Giant handlebar mount that looks a lot like this piece from VO:
https://www.amazon.com/Velo-Orange-Ha...511203&sr=1-46

It's for a 1" bar, but works fine on my 3 speed's 7/8 bars with the pads included with it. It lets you mount any standard bottle cage, and it hasn't budged over hundreds of miles of dirt riding.

I also have one of these M-Wave mounts:
https://www.amazon.com/M-Wave-Plastic...7511181&sr=1-4
It slides around on handlebars, but it works great on frames. I currently have it mounted on the seat tube of my single speed.

relyt

These add bottle bosses to handlebars:

https://www.universalcycles.com/shopp...120&category=2

Velo Orange has one in silver:

https://store.velo-orange.com/index.p...age-mount.html

smoothness 

if you have a 1" threaded headset, you can rig up a "lightweight" holder by attaching a bottle cage to one of those heavy duty front reflector spacers. the most recent one that i've found looks like it could hold a bottle - made by cat-eye, threaded for an adjustment bolt, the whole shebang. works in a pinch, but would probably need more support in the long term. had it done on my bike as a kid, worked fantastically.

Sixty Fiver

This is an old clamp on mount that dates to the 60's... the cage is brazed to the bracket and it is fixed in place with hose clamps. It would be rather easy to fabricate a similar plate which is essentially an "X" shape and one could tap holes in this.





Velo Orange makes an excellent bar mount for a water bottle cage that costs about $5.00... used one of these on my daughter's Raleigh 20 and she loves it.

martl

friend of mine DIY'd one

ftwelder

I need a double for the moto.

pastorbobnlnh 

The Velo Orange unit works well, but IMO, not very elegant.

rootboy 

No, I don't make bottle cages but ...I'm getting some ideas here. Would be cool to replicate those old TA units, no? Might be beyond my capabilities though. I'm no welder.

nlerner

My gripe with the V-O units and the like is that the bottles end up being mounted fairly high unlike the old TA mounts. Here's one from an eBay auction:



Neal

bradtx

RHM, Bell makes a single cage holder and cage available at Wal-Mart that can mount to the stem, about 7 bucks and may require some shimming. Looks very similar to the Minoura frame mount.

Brad

-holiday76

the minoura is interesting, and IMO better than the VO (which I have) because it mounts the bottle down lower where it should be, however it doesnt look very c&v. Maybe for an 80's bike. Maybe you could strip the black off of it.

I really like the TA unit like Neal posted, but they seem to go for ridiculous prices. Someone should def look into making a copy.

wrk101

+1 OK, I realize some consider Walmart evil, but this is a decent solution IMHO.

eddubal

I saw a bunch of these (Minoura branded) at REI in East Hanover NJ. I'm sure they're available online too.

ColonelJLloyd 

+1

I keep saying I'm going to make an adapter to lower the cage using the VO mount. I just need to get around to it.

jan nikolajsen 

Right! Cinco it was. Elegant stuff; if he offered that cage for anything under $40 I would buy it.

I got Rootboy's pursuits mixed up with Cinco's.