Excellent water bottle cages - cheap
 

I've gone through a few different water bottle cages, mainly aluminum and steel versions. However, I've found my favorite. It is not only the lightest and most flexible, its one of the most secure and cheapest.

I paid $5 at ....







wait for it








Wallmart

Its called the 50Strong water bottle cage made from plastic (yes, but if you think about it, it is the perfect material for this application: weaker than any frame material so any hits won't break the frame with an accidental hit to the cage, flexible, lightweight, cheap and won't corrode or mar frame)

https://www.walmart.com/ip/50STRONG-...Black/38389221


I highly recommend these made in the USA cages!

What is going to hit the water bottle cage? I’ve never ever had that happen, nor have I ever heard of it happening.

I had one similar to that, but probably different, and it broke. Somebody put a young child on my bike. She stood on the water bottle holder, and that was the end of it. It didn't break from carrying bottles.

I like bottle holders which can take various sizes of bottles. For example, I can put a 1.5 liter bottle in my bottle holder. The one shown above, can probably do that too, as the plastic is flexible.

Wouldn't look good on my bikes. Does sort of resemble carbon if you squint....

Yeah, plastic/nylon works. I had a pair of the Arundel Sport version of their Dave-O bottle cage on the bike for a little while, til replacing with CF editions. Many of the plastic ones out there like the Wally linked version look like takeoffs of the Arundel design fwiw.

Except that carbon fiber frames are really nothing more than plastic. :innocent:

where's the Bling?
 

The bling will be still in your wallet with the money you saved

When loading multiple bikes on a bike carrier I've bumped bottle cages

You've hit the bottle cage hard enough to break the frame?

I've used 50Strong cages on a couple of bikes for two years. They work fine on the downtube -- just enough tension to hold the bottle but easy to use. Enough colors to suit most bikes.

However the 50Strong cages lacked sufficient tension to reliably hold my 24 oz bottles on the seat tube -- hard jolts on pavement or gravel would dislodge the bottles. So I switched both bikes to different cages with more tension on the seat tubes only. Those cages -- Tacx and some brand I don't recall -- had a little too much tension to easily grab and replace the bottle on the downtube.

So now I have mismatched bottle cages to go along with my mismatched bottles, and mismatched color accents in cables and bar wrap.

Curious I was just about to pull the trigger on these. Figured I should read the entire post. Now I see this. What kind of bottles do you use? Could that have been the problem. Trying to finish my gravel / cx bike and need some cheap cages.

Despite the cost, I love Arundel cages. I have one set of Dave-O cages that have been on their fourth frame. The first two frames they were on broke in crashes. Sure, they were $50 each, but they've lasted for a very long time, and I've never lost a bottle with them.

Over the years, I've tried other brand cages - largely to try to save money - and I usually end up replacing them with Arundels.

On my vintage road bikes I use vintage cages , mostly Reg . On my wife’s new Electra Townie ebike we had Trek put a plastic handlebar mount with an insulated Camelback bottle . She likes the set up and the plastic seems strong enough.

Meanwhile, I spent ridiculous, indefensible $120 on a set of King Cage titanium cages for one of my bikes. It turns out they're probably my favorite cages ever and are worth every penny.

I use Cameback Podiums. They are excellent and fit securely in the 50strong. Also they aren’t hard to get the bottles out of the cage when riding. I use the 50strong on both the down and seat tubes

My wife is using the Podium for dirt and the Bontrager handlebar mount and loves it. Easy for her to access while riding and she likes her water cold and that seems to work for her.

I have the Planet Bike button cages on a couple of my bikes. $7 currently on various sites.

I've had some plastic cages, but I find that some bottles are slightly off-standard sizes, so with metal cages I can flex the arms a bit to get a tighter/looser grip on the bottles as needed.

https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/00...g?v=1536877168https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...382d8a0387.jpg

and broke frames?

Thanks for the idea, do you ride rode, mountain, gravel? I have found the cheaper plastic ones are ok but if my bottle is slightly different they don’t spread much and in the cold (over time) tend to crack. The other problem I found with these are some fit fine, then others are very tight and I’ve launched bottles on my MTB and gravel rides. I too added King Cage titanium cages on one bike and after thousands of miles they have not moved one bit. It’s like anything else to me, you get what you pay for in many cases. If you want an inexpensive cage these are real good, but there is nothing wrong with a King Cage IMHO.

My shop has a pair of them in-stock. Every time I am there, I pick them up and marvel at the light weight. But I just can't pull the trigger, especially when the SS King cages are $40 for a pair.

I got these from the LBS for my CX bike. Almost as good as the Specialized ones, but half the price. https://bikesmart.com/collections/bo...cts/domestique

A good water bottle cage IMO not only holds the bottle securely (going back uphill to fish a water bottle out of a ditch gets old quickly), but also doesn't hold it so tight I can't easily get it out when riding (especially on a long hot climb), while being usable without taking my eyes off the road. I never had luck with cheap cages though, and in 2008 or so got a set of Arundel Mandibles (or at least very similar looking). When I got a new bike in 2019 I got a pair of S-Works Rib Cage II's for it, which was purely a cosmetic choice. The Arundels would have worked just as well, it's just the design looked a little dated. Or, possibly, I was just ready for a visual change. :) Sure, the ribs were rather pricey, but relative to a new bike no big deal, and it also let the shop make a little money as well. They went through a fair bit of work to get me a test ride. But sure, relative to having the luck of encountering a cheap one that works really well, it's all just a splurge on cosmetics.

It's been 40 hours since this thread has been started... and nobody has asked how many grams they weigh??? I need to justify what I paid for my water bottle cages in some way.

Honestly, I'm kidding. If they're working for you, good for you!

Large Polar and Camelbak insulated bottles. Both tried to pop loose from the 50Strong cages on the seat tube. No problems on the downtube.

I don't recall trying my smaller non-insulated bottles. It's possible those would hold more securely in the 50Strong cages on the seat tube.