Cageless bottles
 

I like my bottle cage, but haven't been able to find a matching one. I'm too vain to run them mismatched, and finding two cages I like hasn't been a priority over the winter. But now it's starting to warm up. I spent the weekend in the desert and did a 50 mile loop, so I got one of these as a temporary solution.

http://www.cyclingsportsgroup.com/wp...1-1280x853.jpg

These are smaller than typical water bottles. And the mounting system is in the bottle itself so if you forget it you're screwed. Finally, the plastic bosses don't look great without the bottle. But it's secure and easy to use.

FYI.

Thanks for the info. Seems like a nice lightweight option. What is the brand?

Oops. Sorry.

Brand is "Fabric." I saw these at an LBS that had the tire I needed last week. Here's their link:

Fabric | waterbottle

Pretty cool, but there are downsides:

1. Limited to one type of bottle. Cost?? Capacity??
2. If you forget your bottles at home, you can't borrow or buy any old bottles. With cages, you can borrow from a friend or even put a coke or generic water bottle in there.
3. If you drop or launch a bottle, you are similarly screwed as in 2 above.

Do the bottles stay in place on rough roads? (My #1 requirement for cages. #2 is not breaking (which often leads to #1).

Funny, I was just looking at photos of yesterday's Paris-Roubaix bikes. Some teams had rubber bands or bungy cords around the bottle cages and/or double sticky tape inside to retain the bottles.

Ben

^^ At P-R, they were losing/launching bottles left and right. Luckily they had full support to replenish along the way!

I drove 250 miles for a ride once, got there at 5 pm, and realized I didn't have socks. If you tend to forget stuff like me, this can be a big deal. With a regular cage, you can fit a bottle of water from the gas station, it looks ugly, but it'll work for a ride.

No problem at all on the gravel sections, even with potholes, washboards, and hills.

I ride and drink without ever looking down at my cages. That system looks like it would be tough to replace the bottles without taking your eyes off the road. Pin point accuracy required.

Ditto...#1 downside to these I can see is that you have to orient the bottle for it to fit. That in itself is enough for me to avoid them.

I've got 2 of the zefal pulse plastic cages from walmart...never had any trouble with them and my polar bottles.

In my opinion it looks weird to orient the bottle so it fits.

Bottlecages shouldn't be hard to find, what colors are you looking for

They answered a question nobody asked.

And missed the point that for a lot of cyclists, bottle cages aren't simply for function, but also a design statement - a thing to admire or "de rigueur" on a roadbike.

I've seen them and decided they weren't for me, for the listed reasons.

But if they work for you, that's all that matters.

BTW, how the balance? Do they flip? ;)

Not a problem in practice. The connector things are kind of V shaped, so as long as you get it in the right ballpark, it guides the thing to where it needs to be.

These aren't a permanent solution (for me) because you can only use one particular bottle. But if you put that aside, they work fine in the real world.

Red. But it's not just the color, I want the whole cage to match.

Yep. Bikes look similar. Little details like bar tape and cages can make one stand out from another.

I'm sure it would come with practice but seems like more effort. I know when I place my bottles in my cage while riding, the tip goes in and I can feel my bottle tilted about 40 degrees not directly inline with the cage. I use the bottle to find the cage then guide it in.

With that system, seems like you have to be pretty parallel to find the bosses.

Could be easy enough for some but I don't think I would give it a try, I'm happy with cages. :D

I doubt I'll be trying their bottles but Fabric saddles are amazing.


-Tim-

+1 on the Fabric saddles, but give me a conventional bottle cage any day.

Shouldn't the bottles be "green"? Aren't they a little like free-range chickens?

Couldn't resist.

Ben

I bought a couple of these for climbing challenges (well, an upcoming Everesting attempt). In addition to the self-guiding cut-outs, the bottles are slightly oval to help the rider orient them towards the attachment points. I'm sure you can get used to this system but I haven't yet: they're not for high-speed use and certainly not for downhills, as far as I'm concerned. When you do get slightly caught out by an upcoming turn, my instinct is always to throw the bottle (although I haven't done it yet). I have also launched a few on rough descents. They're probably slightly better than what you would expect, but they are certainly along the lines of what you would expect.

Incidentally, I always thought of them as ornamental, with climbing use a hack/bodge;-)

Please tell me you still rode?

Yea, icky in the shoes, but it's not something I'd skip a ride over if I'd driven that far. Hell, triathletes love that ****.

[MENTION=259065]Dan333SP[/MENTION]

I couldn't find anywhere to buy socks in Twisp, WA, at 5:whatever on a Saturday. But a coffee shop was open. I got an espresso and a handful of napkins. I wrapped my feet up in napkins as well as I could, rode over Loup Loup Pass.

:lol:

I bought a set of these for a Lemond I did a custom build on, primarily because I couldn't decide on a traditional bottle cage that I thought looked right. Fabric now makes these bottles in two sizes: 600ml and 750ml.

I've got about 200 miles on my Lemond using these bottles, so here are my takeaways:

1. Removing/replacing the bottles while riding is more difficult than a traditional setup, but not as hard as you'd think. The ovular shape helps you align the bottle, and the entry slots are wide enough that you don't have to be exact. I'm at the point where I can remove/replace without having to look down. That said, I'm not comfortable enough with these yet to put them on my fixed gear bike.

2. The valve is sufficient, but not of the same quality as a Camelbak bottle. Unfortunatley the bottle opening is sized just differently enough that a camelbak lid won't fit.

3. The more you tighten the mounting studs, the more secure the bottle becomes -- and conversely, the more effort required to seat the bottle. I don't do gravel riding, but I do ride one some pretty rough roads and haven't lost a bottle yet.

4. They're a good solution if you're a weight weenie, or you can't find a cage that you like cosmetically.

Sorry but they are garbage in my experience. They are either so tight that it's a pain to take them out with slippery hands or too loose. More importantly, looking down to put the bottle back in place just doesn't work for me.

They'd be ok on a commuter or when riding casually but if you're doing any hard effort and wanna quickly get a sip and put the bottle back in place, I gotta say a big pass on these.

It's a pity cause I LOVED the idea on paper. I just hated them in practice and couldn't take them off the bike fast enough to go back to my good old tacx cages.

curious about any updates on people's experience with these bottles. Want to mount them on the cross bike as the training/practice/race season transitions so I don't have to constantly be removing cages

This is why I have eschewed aero or other boutique bottle designs. There is a LOT to be said for being able to stick a borrowed bottle in your bottle holder, get a cheap replacement from the LBS or even Wal-Mart if you're traveling, or being able to stick a gas station bottle in the holder.