datlas 

Yes, this cheap-ass is thrifty.

Thanks for the comments. Since I ride a Ti bike I like metal cages. Al ones are cheap but mark the bottles. Ti is fly but Ti cages are too pricey. I don't really like CF cages as they cannot bend to adjust for slightly different conditions and/or bottles, so Plan A is try a cheap repair job and Plan B is get a new SS cage.

tomato coupe

Does anyone have suggestions for repairing a broken spoke? I don't want to throw it out if it can be repaired.

WhyFi

For a metal, round-tubed bike, I certainly share the preference for metal cages.

I've never heard that Al cages would mark up bottles in a way that Ti wouldn't.... are you talking about paint rubbing off or something?

big john

I'm amazed by what highly skilled welders can do. When I rode dirt bikes I had a failure which caused the magnesium center case to be damaged by a bearing for the transmission mainshaft. New cases were super expensive but I found a welder who could close the damaged hole (it was about 17mm diameter) down to where it could be machined out to accept the oem bearing. He welded little beads around the i.d. and stacked them to the top of the hole.

Same guy later welded up a hole in an aluminum a/c line from a customer's car. Saved a lot of money using this guy.

What kind of solder are you using on stainless?

big john

Aluminum cages turn the bottle black wherever they contact the bottle. I'm sure you've seen disgusting bottles before?

datlas 

This. Not sure if it's aluminum oxide or something else, but it is a thing.

WhyFi

All of my bottles look like they've been ridden hard and put away wet, regardless of cage. Right or not, I've always attributed the ugliness to abrasion from road grit, and whatnot, as they're inserted/removed from the cages. I can't say that I've noticed chemical blackening, though the Al cages that I have are both black, so maybe that's enough of a barrier?

Unca_Sam

Lead free solder, so tin/silver. No need for the fancy 95% silver electronics solder.

79pmooney

I ride two custom ti bikes with SS King cages. They look pretty darn decent on those bikes and like I said previously, they work. Haven't repaired one yet. (I've been using them since about 2000, replacing my ancient TAs as they tired, then buying more for new bikes. So I have maybe 80k miles with King cages but no tracking on how far any has gone. (But always two per bike, sometimes three once the TAs where replaced.)

SoSmellyAir

Are you trying to goad someone into saying the word "assplode"? If so, voila, you win.

seypat

Let me make sure I'm following the conversation correctly. It's bad to have a water bottle on your bike with black marks made by certain cages. People might see them. But it's not bad to have a DIY, jerry-rigged cage on your bike as long as it doesn't mark your bottles. Who cares, it's only a bottle cage. Is that the message I'm getting here?

datlas 

It’s like a Bob Dylan song. Many interpretations and it’s both shallower and deeper than you think.

datlas 

Here at bikeforums, we put the ass in asplode. Amiright?

JohnDThompson 

I fixed a Velo-Orange stainless cage by slipping a nail inside the tubing at the break and silver brazing it in place. After a little clean up, you could barely tell it was broken there.

popeye

Ebay, free shipping, five bucks and up. Too much energy and time invested already.

Bob Ross

I'm pretty sure King Cages are formed from a single tubular piece of metal, bent to shape and then the two ends are welded together. If I'm right about that there is not an equivalent weak point on the opposite side; the cage has already broken at its one weak point.

[edit: well, okay, the bracket(s) that the mounting bolts pass through are a separate piece of metal welded to this one tube, so those welds are a potential weak point to.]

Which is not to say it couldn't break elsewhere just due to metal fatigue, but that would suggest a pretty indelicate style of drinking on the bike.

datlas 

fixed for quality stainless steel. But I concede your point. Maybe.

seypat

How about a bike ride tomorrow that goes to Lancaster, PA..............to the Universal Cycles store and back. That could be fun and productive.

Bogey Speedwell

I confess, while this makes my inner “tight azz” glow with pride. I think I would just throw it away, by it time I purchased the epoxy/solder/JB weld and spent time finding the right piece to fit it, and then be concerned about it failing. I may as well move on to a new replacement.

79pmooney

For the cost of a little epoxy/solder and scrap plus a little care to do a neat job and maybe a half hour of labor the OP can save $20 and keep that cage out of the trash or recycling (the old mantra - reduce, reuse, recycle; in that order). He gets to have some fun and use that cage with pride. Is that bad?

Oh, and re: aluminum cages - every one I have used to failure has broken and shed the bottle on a ride. The steel cages I have used have been retired or repaired because they broke at one weld but still retained the cage and bottle and (most important) finished that last ride with the bottle - the only reason I carry cages in the first place). They also don't mark bottles. (To me, the marked bottles are a warning that I have a temporary cage; that I need to replace it before it breaks.)

seypat

Or he can gather up what scrap he has and take it to a place like this. You gotta love their catch phrase. Get enough to pay for the new cage. That's what I do with metal stuff like old auto parts, etc. He then would look like a scrap man/dumpster diver/Fred Sanford, though. He might think that look is worse than both marked water bottles or a repaired cage.

https://smithironmetal.com/

seypat

This leads to another question.

How long should a water bottle last before it is replaced? I open mine most of the time by clamping teeth down on the nipple and pulling. I do realize it's a family forum. Surely those get worn out after many cycles of doing that.

79pmooney

For me, that's easy. When the bottle leaks enough that I get electrolyte on the bike from bottles I haven't drank from yet. Cap threading also goes downhill with time. Usually better/ more expensive bottles last longer before they flunk this criteria but not always.

t2p

I've used King titanium cages (on my better bikes) since the 90's - road and off-road

lightweight (28g) - durable - and work very well; never lost a bottle

worth the added expense in my opinion

Trakhak

I bought my last conventional water bottles decades ago. Since then, I've been using 24-oz Gatorade bottles - the ones with the twist-to-open tops. Under two dollars per bottle. They've fiddled with the plastic formulation over the years, with some versions tending to crack after a year or so of use. The most recent version seems as if it'll last forever. The ones I have on my bike currently must be over five years old.

And, of course, you get either the bottle or the Gatorade free, depending on how you look at it. The only problem: most stores no longer carry the 24-oz bottles for some reason.

And I never bother closing the twist top. I figure I'm constantly breathing in whatever gets into or onto the bottle top anyway.