Beautiful bike, Paul. Anybody know where that t-bar and bag might be available here in the USA colonies? How about thr water bottle holder? How is it attached and where can i get one?

this might or might not help, but I just ordered a shim for my moulton from sjs (uk to colorado)
and the service was excellent, got it in a week no problems at all...expensive shipping but this was the only place for the shim

that is a nice accessory for the swift, I must say

A shim for what purpose, Doco - and you had to order it all the way from the UK? How about just a water bottle? What's a good one to attach to my Swift. The problem is there are no fittings for the holder on the frame.

The water bottle cage mounting is the one Swift problem I haven't cracked yet. I attach mine with tool clips and rubber O-rings to the rear of the seat post, and that works but it is a hassle when I need to fold and want to use the seat post to hold the folded bike together. Putting it on the stem riser doesn't work because when climbing out of the saddle, my legs hit the bottle.

I might just have to carry teh water bottle in my back pack or waist pack, Jur - or , when I get a rack for my Swift, I can carry it in a bag attached to teh rack. I'm thinking of getting the rack directly from Swift - here:

http://www.xootr.com/xootr/swift/Del...asteRack.shtml

or here:

http://www.xootr.com/xootr/swift/Del...rterRack.shtml


Waddya think?

Jur - Here's a water bottle clamp that Swift is selling -

http://www.xootr.com/xootr/swift/MinouraCageMount.shtml

What about mounting it to the front.. I've used a Minoura clamp on a couple of mine and it seems to be a decent solution.. relatively convenient and hassle free..

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2050/...de7bbc11_b.jpg

Problem is, if you do long fast rides, the bottle needs to be accessible while riding. With the bottle on the rack you need to stop for every sip - not practical for group rides.

On the front of the handlebars isn't good either - all the cables are in the way, and besides my bars are cut narrow and there's no room for anything else.

I'll look again... the problem when I looked last time was the bottle was too tall. If the clamp can hold the cage away from the headset nuts so it can go lower, then it might work.

Here's my bike on the Xootr site sporting it.. it's not a perfect solution, but I haven't changed it around since that picture was submitted to them a couple of years ago.. that's a 20oz bottle ..

don't want to hijack, but I got the shim for a seatpost problem on my apb, and sjs only place I could find it...last option was to custom make one... all good now ;)

as far as the water problem, I was just doing the backpack but I just put on the rear double saddle holder on my swift

i bought all four of these several years ago, came in handy for my track bikes

http://aebike.com/page.cfm?PageID=30...ils&sku=WC2019
Parts & Accessories Catalog - AEBike.com

http://aebike.com/page.cfm?PageID=30...ils&sku=WC3102
Parts & Accessories Catalog - AEBike.com

http://aebike.com/page.cfm?PageID=30...ils&sku=WC3101
Parts & Accessories Catalog - AEBike.com

also maybe something for you guys at minoura site, halfway down..maybe something will work

http://www.minoura.jp/index-et.html

werewolf, when we going to see your swifty and are you the 20 owner now?

If you have problems getting the 'T' bar you could always use a short stem and saw a section of handlebar to fit. The bag is Rixen Kaul. The bottle holder is also from Rixen Kaul and is much neater than the Minoura model, www.klickfix.com. The seat pack is a new bag from Carradice, it's the SQR Glentress, the SQR fitting does not impare the folding and allows for a variety of bags (including the traditional saddle bag) to be fitted.

Paul,
Thanks for your lead on the 'T' bar and your suggestion. My problem, I think, is that the newer Xootr Swifts only have a short section of the stem, at the top, extension at 1 1/8. The rest is 1 1/4. The only stems I can find to fit that are really long and expensive stokers stems. If you, or anyone else, has a suggestion, I'd be interested in trying it.
Jonathan

Question about the Swift handlebar tube:

There's a little hole in the front of it. Can I fill it in in, or tape it over, in case of the unlikely event that it ever rains here again and water might get in? Why is that hole there?

Those holes should have a spring pin in them that aligns to slots in the top of the steerer. Its to prevent total loss of steering if the stem quick release fails or opens somehow. Shouldn't cause a problem taping over them.

so that's what that is :) I was wondering what that was

Duh, I forgot to look inside. The hole(s) is actually the end(s) of a little internal bar - like the spring pin Itsmoot mentioned - that fits in the slot and keeps the steering tube aligned - so disregard my (stoopid) question, thank you.

Water Carriers
 

There have been several questions about the best way to carry water bottles on a Swift lately; the pictures show my latest idea. Previous posts have shown my Swift with a bottle cage attached to the rear of the steerer tube via a Rixen Kaul adaptor. This has worked OK but it has limited the size of bottle I have been able to carry. Standard bottle cages are designed to "lay back" against the frame members of a standard diamond frame bike - the front of the cage is lower than the back. Placing the bottle cage on the rear of the steerer tube (facing the rider) leans it in the wrong direction and consequently the bottle is not as secure. With a standard 50ml bottle this is not too much of a problem but the taller 75ml bottles are a different story. Putting two cages on the Swift would allow two 50ml bottles to be carried.

As regular readers will know, my Swift is fitted with a 'T' bar on the steerer tube (www.sjscycles.co.uk) which is home to my 'bar bag, it is now also home to two bottle cages! Using a pair of Rixen Kaul bottle adaptors (www.klickfix.com) I attached two bottle cages to the ends of the 'T' bar. They fit snugly, close to the steerer tube, and are well out of the way of the rider's knees. Being behind the front wheel axel they do not affect the handling and may even counter balance any load in the 'bar bag. I think it looks neat and the bottle cages are angled to provide a safe home for the bottles. Rixen Kaul offer two types of bottle bracket. One is a quick release which allows you to remove the bottle cage quickly. Why you would wish to do this is anyone's guess but if you can do it, so can anyone else who happens to be passing by! The permanent bracket is much neater and far more secure.

If you don't have access to a 'T' bar, the R/K fittings can be used on vertical as well as horizontal tubes so you could always attach two directly onto the steerer at a slight angle to each other. I am very pleased with the arrangement and it may help you solve your liquid refreshment problems.

I think my knees would bump into those water bottles while standing on the pedals.

Despite the hills around here, I don't think I've ever stood on the pedals of the Swift. I have lowered the gearing to take the hills into account.

cagefree H2O
 

A 3L Camelback inside an Airspeed (back cooling vented) Osprey Atmos 50 pack gives handsfree cagefree water slurping + lots of room for breads with chocolate, jacket/rain gear, veggies for the day...

Just wanted to add support to putting the bottle cage around the bars and steerer tube, I use the minoura clamp already mentioned, clamped to the steerer tube so that the bottle sits to the side of the steerer tube and just behind the bars. I use a 750ml bottle and have the bottle cage quite high so it's easy to reach while riding. I have no trouble with my knees hitting this (and I'm 6 foot).

In contrast, on my Brompton I used to have cage behind the saddle and the bottle kept falling out, despite the brompton's rear suspension.

Hopefully I've managed to attach a picture of this.

My knees would hit the bottle when climbing out of the saddle, which I do quite a bit. I have tried the cage on the rear side of the steering riser, but that was unacceptable due to knee hit when climbing. Initially I though it would be OK because my knees are apart enough; but when climbing, the bike rocks from side to side and that knee clearance is taken up.

I have now tried BruceMetras' idea with a Minoura clamp low on the front of the steering riser. It fits but the bottle is so close to the stem that I have a bit of trouble getting it out. But it's one of the newer clamps which can be set at any angle, and I might position it slightly to the side and angled slightly diagonally. That way I might extract it and my knees might clear it while climbing out of the saddle.

That looks like an odd upright position you have your handlebars in, Ricky. Do you like them that way?

I ordered the water bottle attachment gadget from Swift, so I'll see what I can do with that when it comes. I also ordered the seat post attaching rack from them.