since6

I've enjoyed the Nitto water bottle cages on several of my vintage bikes. They are lovely things, here on my 70s Nishiki Professional in a Minora dual handlebar mount.

kohl57

The REG cages with the plastic top bracket are essential kit for 1970s Italian machines. And never mind that the plastic often broke. You gotta have one. Along with the Mariplast bidons with the lid keeper that also twisted and broke off. One of the joys of collecting (and more importantly riding) classic bicycles is coveting, spending lots on and using often defective and poorly made stuff. Indeed, the rare stuff is often also what broke or wore out in the first place.

Bidons have always been collectible on their own and often fetch eyewatering prices especially the early plastic ones from the 1960s; they are far rarer than the more durable alloy ones they replaced. Worse, you'll never find any of this on this side of the Atlantic and with shipping costs from Europe approaching $25-30 alone for a single bottle, these little details are wallet busters.

Peter Kohler
Washington DC USA

Salamandrine 

The beautiful imported French and Italian water bottles were part of the mystique of cycling, at least to a kid in small town America. I still remember ogling them in the bike shop glass display case. They were also an entry most of us could afford. I'm sure I'm not the only one. That's likely partly why the current prices are so high. BITD they were very inexpensive. To racers they were basically disposable, which is part of why they are rare today. I get warm fuzzy nostalgic feelings looking at them, but not so much I'd spend the current market price for one, just for a now useless prop to put on a display bike. If it's worth it to you I respect that though. Agreed that no new bottles look right.

FWIW, Mariplast bottles were my favorite bottles, and I have owned many of them. None of them ever broke at the lid keeper thing. Presumably the plastic was less brittle when they were new.

michael.anger

Thank you all! There is surprisingly much to learn about bottle cages!

79pmooney

TA cages stuck around and stayed in (granted very small) demand for so long because they were one of the best ever for keeping your waterbottle on the bike. The aluminum cages that came about in the '80s were known to shed bottles on hard enough bumps. A properly bent TA never did. I heard (several times over the years) that TA was still making those cages long after they dried u in the US market because pro riders insisted. No, not the names you've heard of. The lowly domestiques on lesser teams who would be far from the team car but had to finish the stage to start the next. For them, a cage that didn't shed bottles could be career saving.

On top of that, really old TA cages didn't break mid-ride. The welds did fail, eventually. But I always noticed this at home. One weld gone. Never had a cage break mid-ride. And I used them for decades and many 10s of thousands of miles. When the source dried up (here in the US), I had to make my old cages go another decade or two until I learned of Chris King's cages.

The crazy TA prices are nuts - now, since you can settle for the excellent SS Chris Kings at $19. But compared to the cages of the 15 years after TA? If keeping your water bottle is a career essential move? Probably justified.

Ben

unterhausen

I'm still using a Reg from the '70s. One advantage of a TA or similar cage over a King is you can clamp it on without any kind of external device. That was necessary back then because most bikes had no or 1 set of braze-ons.

vintagerando

These Nitto cages are super nice.

vintagerando

I have a two late 1960s TA cages that need to be re-chromed. I wonder what that would cost;

Salamandrine 

The 70s TA aluminum cages didn't shed bottles. At least mine never did. They were far superior to the cheap 80s version. Plus they had metallic gold clips. Can't beat that...

Gratuitous pic below, since this is after all a thread on TA bottle cages. Lots and lots of miles on this one, obviously.

davester

What was not to like? They were the standard and they were way sturdier than the completion. You could rely on them holding your bottle and not breaking (unlike the competition).

Fredo76

Yes this is an old thread, but I wonder if any respondents really noticed what the OP was describing.

I was idly wondering about obtaining a TA handlebar cage like the one I had on my '70s Romana long ago, partly because I thought it looked old-school even then. This one:



This particular NOS one with the label still attached is marked down from $275 to $219 now, due to end soon. A used one is listed at $123. I'm sorry, but this is nuts. Damn Darn the self-glorification exercise that is Eroica. A frenzy of one-upmanship that they charge you money to participate! I glanced at the California Eroica web page, and discovered that wearing sunglasses was frowned upon. Not for me. Maybe I'd feel differently if I took part, but I have no desire at this point. And prices like these are what comes of it, IMO.

clubman 

See something shiny, covet it, buy it. Sounds like an average day in the western world.
Thank god I'm running out of money as I get older.

steelbikeguy

The T.A. handlebar cages are great! I bought one back in the 70's, and then picked up a couple more about 20 years ago. The price was closer to $40 twenty years ago. Until someone starts producing replicas, or demand drops, I don't see why the price wouldn't keep going higher. Maybe this will provide the incentive for Nitto to copy the design in stainless steel rod??

I don't do Eroica, but do still use these bar cages on three bikes.



Steve in Peoria

John E

I am with you. Modern cages look "close enough" for my purposes.

1973 Brooks Pro on the 1959 Capo. Still serviceable, plan to put on a different bike. Campag. crankset shown

Old photo. Now has new maroon(!) Brooks Pro, Nervar Star two-ring crankset instead of three-ring Campag., and, by popular request, shortened brake cable housings.

steelbikeguy

That does look good! Glad to hear about the shorter cable housings.
I've used the Minoura adapter that allows a conventional bottle cage to be used on the handlebar, and it's not bad. Certainly better than paying $100 for a T.A. cage.

Still, the T.A. h'bar cage is such a nicely designed item that I'd love to see someone make a reproduction. One neat feature is the use of the raised portion at the forward side of the cage. As shown in the photo below, the bit that sticks up in the front acts as a nice guide when putting the bottle in the cage. By comparison, when you mount a conventional cage on the handlebar, the raised bit is at the rear, somewhat blocking easy access to the cage. Granted, it's not a problem, but the T.A. cage is just nicer to use, and a sign that T.A. was actually thinking about how improve the basic cage. That sort of thinking is probably why they dominated the bottle cage business for so long.



Steve in Peoria

sykerocker 

If you've got that kind of cage, you start looking for an anodized aluminum water bottle with a cork. Which were still available back when I started serious cycling ('70-71), but disappear rather completely by 1973.

vtchuck

I once owned this spring clamp REG cage and insulated bottle. Looks like it was made from Erector set parts.

The spring clamp was apt to pinch my fingers.

uncle uncle

We often overlook the best designs because their form fits so well with the intended function, especially if that design becomes ubiquitous. I was thinking this same thing when I had an 90's vintage Corelle Corningware coffee mug staring in front of me the other day. That mug was probably produce into the 100's of thousands, but the shape just feels "known" when you pick one up. The lines are graceful, without an atom of showiness or fad or waste. I think there would be a case to argue that the TA water bottle cage fits in this catagory. Only when things slide from ubiquity do we pause and give them a 2nd look and thought.