Carbon Water Bottle Cages

It's really a hard question to answer. $25 is a pretty good price for carbon cages, especially if they are good one's that get good reviews. I see some blackburn one's on amazon for 45 that get good reviews.To me a few ounces isn't going to make a huge difference but if it's only a few dollars more I'd go ahead and pick them up especially if it's $20 (top of your range) vs. $25 for the carbon one's. I'd just check that they aren't discontinued because of problems.

Is it worth it? Well, IMHO, if you're going to go down the road of serious weight reduction on the bike you have to be prepared to spend a fair bit of cash and it all starts with the frame and then goes to wheels, components, and then extras.

buy carbon cages because you think they look cool, or because you are a weight weenie.

They will NOT make you faster.

I have them for the 'cool' effect, but I'll never buy them again. The various water bottles I have fit differently in the cage. With a metal cage, I could bend it slightly to take up some slack, can't adjust a carbon cage.

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Or buy them because you can't bear the thought of defacing the carbon fiber marvel that is your bike with pedestrian aluminum bike cages. Style Man would say, if you have a carbon bike, it has to be carbon cages. Titanium bike, titanium cages. Yes these things do matter.

A well made carbon cage has the right combination of flex to make it easy to use the bottle yet holding it securely (you DON'T want the bottle go flying out of the cage if you hit a bump in the road... especially in a group ride!). Aluminum cages can have this combination as well, but will fatigue over time. To me, this makes carbon well worth it in the long run.

And yes, they do look good on the bike as well.

I have had the chance to make this quip more than once:  "Wow, that carbon cage sure saved you a lot of weight... you lost at least half a pound off your bike when you dropped that water bottle."

Which is to say that some (but not all) models of the carbon cages don't hold bottles very securely.

That said, the carbon cages are pretty.  If the one you are looking at truly holds a bottle securely, then buy it and enjoy it.

Based on this criteria, I had to make the choice between Titanium and carbon. Seeing the red decal color, I chose red-tinted carbon fiber. They do make me faster, but that's only because red is always faster. Had I chosen black carbon fiber, there would have been no speed benefit.

Edited by pitt83 2010-01-25 6:06 AM






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Any time you can add red to your bike you should. It's just more aerodynamic. It's science.

I have carbon cages on my bike - the Arundel Side Winder. I have a smaller frame so I can't use "normal" cages...has to be a side-loading cage due to not having enough clearance to pull the bottle out. Anyways...the cage on my downtube has really taken a serious beating. It sure looked WAY cool when it was brand new and shiny...now, not so much. The finish has been rubbed off from the repeated pulling/pushing of the bottle in and out of the cage. It looks dull and shabby now...and I have no idea if it can be restored back to its original appearance. I paid $40 a pop for mine, but if I had to do it again...I'd probably find a cheaper alternative side-loading cage, like the Ciussi Elite. But $25 isn't too bad, so I'd say if you like the "look" of them on your bike and your bottles fit well in them...go for it.