My Vanity and Pretty Tacx Bottle Cages

[sundial]

Shorter bottles should do the trick. I really do like the clean lines of your cages.

[Eden]

I ride a 44cm frame - only short bottles will fit (no matter what cages I use). I tried Tacx cages, but they were much to difficult to remove the bottles from. I didn't have to go to side entry ones, but I did switch to a style that is split all of the way down the front so I don't have to pull the bottle so far out to free them.

[batsheva]

it would be such a shame to remove those water cages - they look so hot!

i ride a 47cm frame and when the water is all gone from the bigger bottle on my downtube, i pour the liquid from the shorter bottle on the seattube into the big one that IS easy to access... it only takes 20 seconds...

batsheva

[smurfalicious]

Okay, I have been assured by my dealer/coworker/wishful BFF (her husband is adamant she needs more friends, but I ride too slow for her and she doesn't eat meat, drink beer or coffee so we have little do but BS at work) that I have not killed my bike. She also reminded me the B2 Bomber is largely carbon and my bike can take gentle hand tightening of bottle cages. Whew.

When I had standard plain old cages, you know the little bent metal ones that are like, $2 it was still a tight fit. I always rock a short bottle and a long bottle, and usually dump the contents of short into long because the long one on the downtube is easier to get to. So for illustration purposes, here are the bottles I have collected, with ya know, some other familiar objects for perspective.



From left to right we have a 24oz Polar Bottle (whose lid reappeared post picture, yay), 24oz Camelback Podium, 12oz of Blueberry deliciousness, 20oz Polar Bottle, LBS bottle of slightly larger than average size, 21oz Camelback Podium, local running store bottle of average size stolen from jerkface old roommate (kind of on accident), and 12oz of hoptastic goodness from Oskar Blues (first microbrewery to can, awh yeah).

I think if I just slit the rubber up front I could get it in and out, but would it hold? If my engineering degree holding roommate wasn't working in Alaska for two weeks I'm sure he could figure something out. There's just no wiggle room in the height adjustment. But, if we redrilled it. Ugh, do you see how much I love these cages? They're just sooooo perfect!

I guess I could rock the TACX on the downtube and something else in the back but no matchy-matchy? Anyone who has seen Candy knows I'm a sucker for aesthetics, and this is THE nicest bike I've ever owned and I want it to look hot, because the hotter it looks the more I want to ride him. He is El Tiburon (not named after the cheesy song by Proyecto Uno, but a that song is about a guy who is always snagging other guy's girls and in some weird way it seems fitting) so he must look fierce!

[hilldweller]

Can you not just drink from the one you can get in and out, and swap them over when that one's empty? Or do have one for water and one for energy drink or something?

[Karma007]

Okay. That just looks hot. If it weren't for having to actually drink out of them...

[lunacycles]

Your bike is designed for Dale's Pale Ale or Bud Light only on the seat tube. I agree that Dale's is one fine brew in a can. No, really, they should have put one of the bottle cage bosses below the front derailleur mount-it usually works well there and still allows for a bigger bottle...but, nevermind...

If you are ready to explore with other cages, you might consider the one made by Velocity. Not nearly so space agey and blendy with the frame, but they have some adjustability in how they attach so you could get it a few mm lower on the seat tube and probably have good access that way. The only side-access cages I have seen don't impress me.

[wackyjacky1]

Your bike is designed for Dale's Pale Ale or Bud Light only on the seat tube.

+1. That will have to be your carb replacement drink.

[smurfalicious]

Your bike is designed for Dale's Pale Ale or Bud Light only on the seat tube. I agree that Dale's is one fine brew in a can. No, really, they should have put one of the bottle cage bosses below the front derailleur mount-it usually works well there and still allows for a bigger bottle...but, nevermind...

If you are ready to explore with other cages, you might consider the one made by Velocity. Not nearly so space agey and blendy with the frame, but they have some adjustability in how they attach so you could get it a few mm lower on the seat tube and probably have good access that way. The only side-access cages I have seen don't impress me.

Ha ha yes indeed that is the answer. If only it was a cross bike, then it would be 100% appropriate. I do, actually, enjoy taking a long ride out to Oskar Blues, chilling on the patio for a burger and beer, filling up water bottles, emptying my bladder and heading home.

I'm just frustrated because my friend I bought it from seems to think it's no big deal that I have to use a "solution" type cage on a 52.5cm frame. Blue is a small company, certainly she can put a bug in someone's ear. This is a totally racey bike, and I plan to race on it so I need two functional cages, and I ideally they should make me swoon. There's a size smaller than mine, what in the world are they supposed to do?

So that said, Camelbak is um, way out. I think that looks so dorky on the road.* Not to mention out on the road, as opposed to in the trees, you're in the sun all the time and those things get HOT! I've lived in BFE, and do most of my riding on BFE roads and there's nowhere so far that hasn't been more than two water bottles away from a quicky mart with fresh, cold beverages. I like to carry different things, and refilling a Camelbak sounds like such a hassle. And I've found that much like eating in front of a TV riding with a Camelbak makes me drink too much. And unlike rural Oregon there a way fewer places to steathfully pee.

Now there is the new Camelback Racebak that is part baselayer, and part Camelbak, but it just sounds like a laundry nightmare if I wanted to use it regularly. However, it might be my crit solution because I am so lopsided that I could take out a whole pack trying to get my bottles. So bad that I might end up going 45 minutes with no water. I've never done a crit, but I doubt that's "just what you do."

*Note I said, "think." This is merely my opinion and nothing to get butthurt over.

[ilima]

Can you not just drink from the one you can get in and out, and swap them over when that one's empty? Or do have one for water and one for energy drink or something?

That's what I do. The bottle on the down tube is the one I drink from. I switch the bottles out when I stop or if I'm riding in a place where it's safe to switch them; just hold one bottle in your mouth when you make the switch.

[fidlfreek]

+1 on the Arundel side entry cages. They work like a dream on my 49cm compact frame.

They come in righty and lefty styles so you can use whichever hand feels most comfortable. And they look SO SO smooth