Originally Posted by
merlinextraligh
1) Who cares about water bottles. They wear out and you replace them, as they get ugly, and grunchy.
2) How can a water bottle scratch your frame? They only touch the frame at the two water bottle bosses. If the paint/finish is scratched off there it doesn't matter, given that it is covered by the water bottle.
1. I do. Why have a cage that rips them up, when you can have a cage that doesn't for the same price? Also, when the paint wears off the aluminum cage (at least the one I was using), it starts to mark everything it touches (i.e. the bottle, hands/gloves, etc) with aluminum oxide.
2. The cage can easily scratch the frame, especially on my older frame that doesn't have raised bottle bosses. I have a mark right in between the bosses to prove it. Once again, price being the same, why not have plastic over metal? That said, I'm certainly not going to spend $20+ for cages.