Fork-Mounted Bottle Cage
 

Anyone ever mounted bottle cages to their fork for extra water storage? If so, how? Any photos would be great.

Thanks.

QBP,'Salsa' Fargo put braze ons for 2 more bottles on the back of the fork blades.


retrofit? round fork blades or what?

Ortlieb now has a Bottle cage that uses the same clips as their add on Pockets,
so the back of your packed front Panniers is another option.

I was thinking more along the lines of retrofitting it with hose clamps, just not sure how the clamp-to-cage attachment would look. I'm not running front panniers so can't go with that option, although it is quite clever.

And yes, fietsbob, my fork blades are round.

Maybe something like this? http://www.twofish.biz/bike.html

I have two of these on my touring bike (the frame did not originally come with bosses, and the tubing was too thin to add any without damage).

They're not perfect, but they work. The strap is velcro, so I'd reckon you can cinch it down enough to fit the forks; that said, you might need to do some modifying.

I have one of these gizmos. It works surprisingly well and isn't too ugly. Weighs next to nothing and not too expensive.

http://aebike.com/product/elite-vip-...c9155-qc30.htm

You have to have a pretty straight fork leg tubing section about 80mm long for this gizmo to work. Most all forks, even traditional curved forks, have an adequate straight run near the top of legs.

You may want to use some scrap inner tube rubber between fork leg and gizmo to protect finish and provide extra no-slip friction. Cloth tape (or duct tape) works too.

Hose clamps with rubber liners would likely work best. I use zip ties when adding cages, but with a round fork and no stops to keep the cage from sliding down, that would not work for you.

My favorite place for extra cages is on either side of the top tube. But mine is extended with spacers and a stem riser.

cages with ears above and below hose clamp down nicely,

those without such , you may be able to attach them to a strip of aluminum,
then attach the strip with hose clamps..

It's a bike tour ,not a hand made bike exhibition, so that which works is elegant enough..

I considered this for a while. After seeing some photos of the Salsa Fargo I guess I got a little jealous. There are lots of companies making clamp adaptors that would work (Minoura has several types). After thinking it over though, I decided it would be smarter just to carry a bladder bag instead. It's higher capacity, smaller and lighter than carrying more bottles, and easier to fill. Plus the room on my fork is better server by light or computer sensor mounts.

Thanks for the suggestions. At $1.29 a pop, I figured picking up 2 hose clamps and giving it a go would be a decent way to burn a couple hours on a rainy day.

Here's what I came up with (with my next flat I'll have usable tube to mount to the fork in place of the foam packing paper):

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5098/...8bd9f68c58.jpg

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5213/...4666a437a6.jpg

$.02 would be to use toe straps to hold the water bottle securely to the fork so as to not fatigue the cages.

I use Minoura bottle mount for this job, and still got spack for my DIY light mount. :D

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/_L...0fork%2002.JPG

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/_L...0fork%2001.JPG

This is not my bike, I saw it parked on the street and snapped a photo.

http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=198865

Just one thing to consider if you tour in hot places...
I have found bottles stayed much cooler in panniers than in external bottle cages. I tried the many bottles in cages thing and hated having all very hot water. Since I figured that out I started carrying any extra water in the panniers. The two bottles in the cages still get hot but at least when I stop for a break I have some cooler water. I don't mind stopping and refilling every time I drain two bottles (either from bladders/bottles in my panniers, from a store, or filtered from a mountain cold stream).

I've seen some Nomad Ravens configured that way (bottles on fork). I'd rather just put a high capacity camelback in one of the front panniers with the hose sticking out for easy access.

My companions on the TA did that and said it worked well for them. If filled with ice it stayed cold pretty much all day even in 100F heat. They said the only drawback was that they couldn't tell how much water they had left.

This has worked well for me.

Not on the forks, on the unused rear
disc brake mounting tabs.

Added the pump later, have had a
lot of positive comments about it.

http://img820.imageshack.us/img820/9870/dscf2151v.jpg

Gotta change bottle holders' position a little bit after found that they're a little too far for me.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/_L...0fork%2003.JPG

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/_L...0fork%2004.JPG

because of this, i gotta remove one light mount and lower another below the bottle too.