b dub 

From time to time I stumble upon TA bottle cages on eBay selling for disproportionately large amounts of money. And this does not seem to be a fluke. Am I missing something?

What makes them so special? Just curious..

rootboy 

They aint making them anymore and they go properly with that Raleigh on your list?

Citoyen du Monde

TA cages were used almost everywhere back in the day and look the part for almost any restoration. There are few modern bottle cages that suit restorations of pre-80's bikes, so the ones that can be found often sell for premium prices.

BTW, even though I love using them on my restorations, I do find that they are not the most resistant to rust, and you will often find them with pickled finish.

Gary Fountain

+1

puchfinnland

its dem cool oldstyle bottle cages with the plastic bits.
just cant get them anymore.

I just finished a bike to sell and I almost was stupid enough to put one on!
I put on a new shiny one so there is no feeling of loss.


I dont know what bottle this fits-maybe some help?
it is a thin one, I got the rack and no bottle so it is very available

JohnDThompson 

Campagnolo "Biodynamica," maybe?

dbakl

TA cages were the standard back in the day.

puchfinnland

the shape is not the same, campagnolo likes to put their name on everything and I dont remember seeing it.

southpawboston

Not only were TA cages standard back in the day, so were TA bottles:

noglider 

It's pretty silly. I really don't give a hoot what my bottle cages look like.

The TA might have invented that design, and many companies copied it for a few years. As a result, it looks as plain as can be to my eyes. That's probably because I "came of age" right around that time.

repechage

That was the version I first used, the TA "criterium" cage. I liked it as it only required one clamp and was all steel. On later bikes I bought the first alloy cages TA introduced as keeping the chrome nice on them was too much effort. And of course, they were "lighter"!
I have been reluctant to spend the big dollars the market tolerates for almost any TA cage now.
I now find myself with a few bikes that need cages, so I am looking around.
One I liked was the Ciussi inox cage but it has crept up in price quite a bit, I have had no bottle marking problems as some have. It looks reasonably vintage correct when the frame has brazed on bottle mounts.

ftwelder

I just love the steel ones. I am not too concerned about ebay prices on French stuff because it seems to be plentiful in this area but they are also a quality product that works quite well and will outlast an alloy cage by 10X.

I think they look nice on older bikes also.


29 289 by barnstormerbikes, on Flickr

IthaDan 

It IS a biodinamica, just not the one linked-

repechage

The problem with many of the TA copies is that they were not of welded construction, but often crimped together. The crimping often did not hold.

bertinjim 

b dub

The steel TA cages were hell for strong - you could actually lift a bike with one. They held bottles really tightly on rough surfaced terrain and roads. As well, they had clear, white and black plastic clips and could be colour co-ordinated with accessories. Lastly, the alloy cages were very light but had the regretable habit of marking bottles and, eventually, sagging under the weight of a full water bottle. Great cages and they remain the only ones I use even today.

bertinjim

Andycapp

+1 and mine is not stamped or marked either.

michael.anger

Did Bianchi use T.A. in the 80s? It looks like it in some older catalog pics (with that black plastic clip) but would they really have used French bottle cages??

Gary Fountain

I have the standard REG (Italian) bottle cage on my '82 Bianchi Campione del Mondo:

michael.anger

Thanks Gary! I just stumbled over REG cages online as well. That's more likely what I see in the catalogs... Beautiful bikes, by the way!

Gary Fountain

Yes, the REG cages do appear in the Bianchi catalogues on the 'Bulgier' site. I love the old TA cages but the REG cages did appear on quite a few bikes and they were quality cages and similar to the TA cages. Being 70's/80's technology, they both suffered from design problems such as loose tops and frames twisting sideways. They are an almost must have item to give your vintage racing bike a period correct feel.

michael.anger

That's what I'm here for I got (what I believe is) a 1986 Nuova Alloro that needs a bottle cage - and in general a whole lot of TLC... but that's for another thread. Thanks again!

dddd

The copies were usually spot-welded or resistance-welded with small contact area, nowhere near as strong as the TA cages that were brazed to the bracket. The brazing was crazy-strong, leaving no failure points (other than possibly the bracket itself from repeated bending).

kohl57

Oh it's Monday and I'll take the bait.

The "big deal" with TA bottle cages (and REG ones, too) is that they are among the essential "little bits" that, to me anyway, make or break a classic racing cycle restoration. As previously mentioned, they were the standard high quality bottle cage of the classic 1970s-early 80s era along with REG ones for Italian marques. And, yes, the bottle is just as essential. In my eyes, nothing lets down a restoration more than modern bottles (those horrid long things) and modern all black tyres rather than beige sided ones. You can find reasonably decent cheap knock-offs, too, which are indeed period correct, too and date from the 1970s as well.

But your bike, your business, of course. Like any hobby, there are evolved conventions and standards which mean only something to those who choose to abide by them.

But there are sufficient number of "passionate for prototypical" folks out there to make these accessories fetch way more money that we think they should.

You can also start a restoration with the bottle and the cage, I scored an original Brooklyn Team bidon about a year before I got a 1975 Gios frame to go with it. Paid $45 for the bottle and about $175 (!) for the frame. And that is what "price" and "value" in collecting anything comes down to: desire and opportunity.

There have been some attempts to make replica bidons but none quite pass muster in appearance somehow.

Peter Kohler
Washington, DC USA

Salamandrine 

Bianchi, like every other bike company of the time, generally did not include a cage with the bike. They were sold as aftermarket add ons. However, IIRC, the top racing model often came with a 'free' bottle and cage, depending on the year. They would have been Italian, not French... Probably REG, Cobra or ALE.

TA was the standard bottle cage in the 70s, and the bottles were common too. IIRC I bought my first one at Thrifty's, believe it or not. TA dominance lasted up until the Blackburn and similar cages came out in the early to mid 80s. Then they slowly fizzled out. The bad 80s era TA alloy cages didn't help.

Salamandrine 

If you saw a silver cage with a black plastic clip that looked like TA, it was probably a Cobra cage. They were more or less an exact copy. TA came with whitish plastic clips. The pricier heat treated (?) alloy cages were black with gold clips. In the 80s a cheaper alloy TA cage came out that was silver with black clips. I suppose if it was the Bianchi USA catalog, could have been one of those.


VeloBase.com - Component: Cobra water bottle cage (type 1)