I'd love to find a better solution to getting a second bottle on my wife's bike. The frame is so small that the seat post bottle rack doesn't allow enough room to fit a small bottle. She makes it work, but not great. Anybody else have issues like this? Ideas to make the seat tube rack work better?

BTW if you didn't figure it out, the white bike on the right is the one that I'm talking about:

There are lots of side-entry cages available that should make this easier for her. Even with side-entry, I'd empty the DT bottle first, then switch them at the next stop.

This was just asked the other day. I found this site to be the most useful.

Adding Water Bottle Cages to Bicycles without Braze

Give you many.... many different options if you want to relocate the cage and water bottle completely.

What about a bottle cage that attaches behind the saddle, like this?
Amazon.com : Tacx Behind the Saddle Water Bottle Clamp : Camping And Hiking Equipment : Sports & Outdoors
There are lots of people making them for varying prices...just the first one I came to.

For any ride much over 10 miles, I strongly prefer a Camelback or similar hydration system.

There are a number of seatpost mounted hydration systems as well, none of which need a bottle.

If a bottle it must be, I would rather carry that on a belt device than on the bike for ease of access:

Mercury 2 | Nathan Sports

Seat post or rail mount behind the seat. You can get single or double then when your primary goes empty just switch it out.

Nice site, thank you! I think the saddle mount may be the best option, allowing for the large bottles. This is the long haul bike (centuries) and carrying enough water is important.

This site has some options for another bike that's got me scratching my head... Her city bike that she want a bar mounted bottle rack for a stainless steel bottle and it has to work with the woven front basket.

Coming back to my old thread.... I totally stumbled on to this, decided to order one:

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https://mountskidmore.com.au/shop/ad...-cage-adapter/

I like the saddle mounts and will likely be going there for myself, but Lisa didn't like that option.

Check out two fish for options. Also made are a bottle holders that screws to the top cap. For the bike pictured? Take the down tube cage and use just the top mount and slide the cage forward. Use a side loader cage and a slightly smaller bottle for the seat tube cage.

Have a look at Topeak bottle mount options. I’ve used the X adapter and the QR cage mount both work but for different purposes. I plan to try the Dual Side EX on my folder.

I’m currently using a side entry cage on my folder. Not particularly impressed. The bottle fell out several times when hitting bumps and potholes. I bent the cage arm tighter which holds the bottle tight but the bottle can still twist to the side while riding. Plus it makes it harder to get the bottle out while riding. Lastly the cage is pretty heavy. Now this is the only side bottle cage I’ve tried so there may be better ones out there.

The X-15 is interesting and I'll keep this in mind as an option for Lisa'a other bike.

But the QR Cagemount just confuses me, I don't know why this is a thing....

The side-entry cages are fine, but the bottle will still slammed into the top tube, so I need a way to move the whole rack down or the X-15 would offer a reasonable solution too.

The simplest solution is an 18 oz water bottle instead of a 20 oz water bottle. Something like this (Maybe not that one exactly but something similar). It's not as convenient but it fits.

I would also suggest ovalizing the holes on the both cages. You should be able to move the down tube bottle up a little so that you can move the seat tube bottle down a little. Most bottle cages already have some adjustment available but you can take a file to the holes and make the a bit longer.

The down-side of smaller bottles, less water for long rides. The Kona (reference photo in the first post) is Lisa's endurance bike. Machining the bottle racks could help for a small difference. I'm hopeful the the cage adapter I order will give the flexibility needed for larger bottles. I'm post an update when it gets here from Australia (long distance order )

I know it's sacrilege to suggest a Camelbak to a road rider but as the spouse of a small person (perhaps smaller than yours), it's a solution that works. Filled with ice, a Camelbak is better than any water bottle. It stays colder longer and it keeps the rider cooler.

As to the cage adapter, I see a bit of a fly in the ointment. Looking at your picture, there's not much room between the down tube cage and the seat tube cage. The cage adapter is going to move the seat tube cage a 1/4" or more forward which will interfere with the downtube cage. You may need another adapter for the downtube cage but that may move it forward and up too much.

I honestly hope it works for you but you may just be move swamp water and alligators around rather than actually draining the swamp.

Agreed, that's my concern too. But the new ideas coming up with be helpful if this fails to work.

I've seen ppl w a bottle mounted on a front fork

I've got 1 bike w only 1 holder, so I put the 2nd bottle in the rear trunk (standing upright) not ideal but works. also trunks are not for everyone & I see no rack on those bikes

You could always consider hanging one below the down tube. It's not the cleanest option and I always transfer the water from that bottle to another one before drinking but it does add another bottle. You could use the 20 oz in downtube cage, an 18 in the seat tube cage and another 20 in under the downtube.

To mount the cage, use an Elite VIP Cage mount. It's very solid and won't mar the frame.

Update: The parts arrived:



This works OK, but if you go this route you'll need two adapters, one to lower the seat tube cage and one to move the down tube cage up.



Comically, the day this arrives, Lisa decides (after 2 years of dragging her feet) to buy a new road bike. The new bike doesn't have this issue, two bottles fit fine. Now the Kona is going to be the indoor trainer bike and she does use the bottle cages when riding on the trainer.

Side entry cages are the way to go. I use the Lenzyne Flow SL on one mountain bike that has very tight bottle clearances. It works great: hold well, easy to put the bottle back, cheap, durable.

Back of the Saddle, And Handlebar mounts for Water bottles..

Are side entry cages lower? The ones I've looked at would continue to have the same issue: the bottle doesn't fit under the top-tube (or you bend the cage by forcing the bottle in).

To be clear: the issue with the Kona is that the bottle simply doesn't fit the space from the bottle cage to the top-tube (see the picnic table pic in the first post). Accessing the bottle is a minor issue. I hope that makes sense.

Even though you solved the issue, I figured I'd drop this here for anyone searching in the future. I bought one of these, to put a second bottle on one of my bikes without second braze-ons. I just mounted it a bit to the side, instead of dead center of the frame, so I could bring it up a bit higher and easier to access while riding, works great being offset like that.

https://www.rei.com/product/873462/t...Fcq2wAodDoEHnA