what bottle cage for underside of down tube on a world tour?

[NATURAL ANKLING]

Hi,
Any underslung bottle cages will be experiencing forces back to front.
You are going to need an additional retention strap et cetera if you're not going to lose to the bottle every time you hit a bump in the road.
Even with a strap of sum description bottle will still ride up out of the cage.
Metal cages find Score plastic bottles quite badly.
If I have to use metal cages then they normally have plastic inserts to be kinder to the bottle.

[willem jongman]

I have different systems for my three different bottles.
1 A Bikebuddy for a 1 litre Trangia fuel bottle under the downwtube. Hanging bottles exert quite a bit more force on a cage, and the BIkebuddy is a more robust system. Also, it is invisible when I don't take a fuel bottle, with just the little pegs for a neater look. The system allows you to fit a quite large bottle because you only have to move the bottle about half an inch to remove it. It has proved very secure, even on truly rough roads.
2 A Bikebuddy on the seat tube for a 1 litre stainless thermos. The thermos is a bit of an odd shape (tapering to the top) but that is not a problem with a BIkebuddy. Again, when not in use the looks are very clean with just the litle pegs on the seat tube. And again, the Bikebuddy systems allows you to use a bigger bottle than you could otherwise fit.
3 A Velo Orange Mojave cage on top of the downtube, to fit the largest possible bottle. I did a tour in Germany in the summer of 2018, and it was terribly hot and I was struggling to carry enough water. This is not a very small frame, but even so I had to look carefully for the best fitting bottle. And I wanted a stainless bottle rather than a plastic one, for cooler and better tasting water. The large Kleen Kanteen bottle is nice and light but with its long neck it would not fit. I bought a Nalgene 32 oz bottle with an On the Fly top. It fits very precisely in the Mojave cage. This bottle has a rather more efficient shape with a short neck. When full, the bottle is a bit big and heavy to use while riding, so I stop when I want to drink. The top is OK, but no more than that, but unfortunately there are no other sportscaps for this wide neck bottle. All in all I am quite pleased with the combination of these three bottles. They do the job, and they look quite good on my elegant custom steel m-gineering tourer.

[pq]

Hi,
Any underslung bottle cages will be experiencing forces back to front.
You are going to need an additional retention strap et cetera if you're not going to lose to the bottle every time you hit a bump in the road.
Even with a strap of sum description bottle will still ride up out of the cage.
Metal cages find Score plastic bottles quite badly.
If I have to use metal cages then they normally have plastic inserts to be kinder to the bottle.

My underslung Ti King cage doesn't do any of this, even after thousands of miles on dirt roads. I've used a strap in the past with cheap bottle cages, but the King doesn't need one. Would perhaps be different with very large bottles, but I don't use them.

[Jdsk]

On my tourer a Sigg fuel bottle sits in its proprietary cage below the down tube. There's a mention of fragility above and the cage has needed some reinforcement.

Cages can be conveniently repositioned with the Topeak adaptor "Alt Position Cage Mount". We now have three of these: simple but effective. One needed a hole to be converted to a slot.
https://www.topeak.com/global/en/produc ... age-mounts

Jonathan

[scottg]

My underslung Ti King cage doesn't do any of this, even after thousands of miles on dirt roads. I've used a strap in the past with cheap bottle cages, but the King doesn't need one. Would perhaps be different with very large bottles, but I don't use them.

Ditto, using the King Stainless version and Arundel stainless, no scoring of the bottles.
Now my ancient REG spring locking cage, they really chew on the bottle.

[NATURAL ANKLING]

Hi,
If the under slung is not going to be accessed more than once a day / not accessed enough to cause bother and you don't have to slide the bottle out but has a clamp of some sort OK.

But my under slung bottles I access whilst on the bike mostly, I pull out the down tube one and hold in my teeth and access the under slung, place this in downtube then reseat the empty into the underslung position...several times a day. And off course I also recycle the seat tube one, that's on the tourer (3) skip trainers (2) down and underslung (mtb older type with only down tube bosses), the road bike only had a down tube bosses so its underslung attatchments for bottle rack, with the normal downtube bosses, frame bag and frame pump restrict the seat tube.

If you are carrying heavy metal and fluid / tool kit then I can see it would probably need clamping as it would move around on bumpy terrain.
For me I need bottle space as I normally ride three hours without stopping, bottle an hour then stop for refill.

[vegan dog]

I went for the Velo Orange Mojave Bottle Cage in the end, as shown here:
https://freshtripe.co.uk/velo-orange-mo ... ttle-cage/

It holds the Klean Kanteen Classic 40oz (1182ml) bottle fine, but I much prefer the Nalgene Stainless Bottle 38 oz. The Nalgene just feels better built than the Klean Kanteen. At you can see from my picture below, it all fits perfectly. I have tested the setup for a few months on very rough bridleways / offroad and it's absolutely solid. I am very happy with this setup.

[GideonReade]

Thread revival. Just to say thanks, really. But maybe I can contribute too.

Contribute: Two of us did a RTW a few years back, both under down tube cages were just Spa's default ally black ones (I'm sure Colin will say Spa don't do "just"). She had a first aid kit in a bottle rocket, I had a Sigg fuel bottle (and a strap). Neither had any problems at all. Very snug, firm fit. Except that I never, ever, used the fuel bottle or associated stove adaptor. Not even in the USA or SE Asia. Carried it for 2 years... I had a bike Buddy on the seat tube, took 2 litre pop bottles, again, no issues although the bottom tab bends a little until the bike's tube supports it, which would mark paintwork. She used one of the TopPeak big bottle things, I think, it was slightly troublesome, but worked.

I notice SJS sell a multitude of devices to help shift a bottle cage up or down from the frame mounts.
https://www.sjscycles.co.uk/bottle-cage ... es/?page=2

If you're not carrying water or fuel but stuff, we found the Cage Rocket more effective than it looks, didn't leak or open, and it's shaped to clear the front wheel. However, it's not as easy to get stuff in and out as the simple not-a-bottle ones.

In retirement (dotage?) and not on tour I have enough time to frequently swap bikes, so I keep one good toolkit/puncture kit in said BB not-a-bottle, and swap it between bikes daily. The bikes each have their own tubes or sealant in the seat pack. I find this way I have a better quality toolkit to hand, and the glue doesn't get to dry out. Does mean I always use 2 bottle cages on every bike.


Thanks, because I was going to post and ask: I want a under-down-tube cage to hold my toolkit in a BB not-bottle thingy, after it bounced out of the very posh conventional bottle cage (the tarty sort with medallions, dunno why). Any bottle cage of the most common open design is really badly configured for that position. But as this is an old, tarty, Overburys, it has to be silver-finished metal. Rulling out all the very effective fibre reinforced plastic hoops. Looks to me like the stainless steel wire ones above would be tops for me, it goes around the upper of the bottle. Or if I decide it's too expensive, the ally Zefal Pulse looks to be mechanically sensible.