Bottle cage

PDW stands for Portland Design Works who as you can probably guess are based in Portland. We're talking US of A here though for the makers of this The Bird Cage bottle holder - not on the coast of Dorset.

Since 2008 the guys at PDW have been coming up with various bits and bobs to customise your bike from bar grips, to racks, mudguards and plenty of things in between. They've now turned their attention to the humble bottle cage.

A bottle cage has one simple job to do, and strangely enough we found that this Cannondale Evo Carbon Cage wasn't really up to it.

A well designed cage will permit easy insertion of the bottle, hold it firmly in place when riding and prevent the bottle ejecting over rough ground. And then allow easy removal when you need a drink.

A simple task then, but one that Cannondale's Evo doesn't quite manage. I just didn't get on with this cage. As nice and sleek as it looks, it's flawed in several ways.

Shining like a National guitar amongst their clutch of carbon and composite bottle-cages is Arundel's Stainless Steel cage.

Made from polished 4.2mm stainless tubing it's artfully bent into the same trademark mandible shape as the rest of the Arundel range, and then welded to a stamped embossed spine to fix it to the bike, the lower mounting hole of which is ovalised to allow for any Friday afternoon bottle-boss placement errors.

The Cirrus Pro Carbon from Forza is light, strong and looks the part, as well as keeping bottles secure and quiet.

It's a full carbon monocoque build, weighing in at a shade over the 28g quoted (30g on my scales) which makes it a very light bottle cage, if not the absolute lightest available. The pleasingly clean, simple aerodynamic lines and low key silver graphics will quite happily adorn any carbon frame, without detracting from its looks.

The SKS bottle cage adapter is perfect if you have a fixie without bottle cages. I think this one will prove a permanent feature on my 1950s Holdsworth which has just had successful bottom bracket surgery and a respray.

'If it ain't broke, don't fix it', right? Well the Vincero Design Stratus20 bottle/mount system thinks it can improve on the traditional model with a cageless magnetic system. It certainly makes for a nice party trick at the cafe stop, but is it really a better option?

The Arundel Dave-O carbon-fibre cage is fairly light and it holds onto your bottle securely without any road buzz.

Despite the castle featuring prominently in their logo, Arundel come not from the fortified yet sleepy Sussex town but from Fort Worth in Texas where they create a small range of cycle bits and bobs but mostly bottle cages, the Dave-O being one of the carbon offerings plucked from their quiver of eight models.

Anyone tried the Vincero Bottle Cage?

Looks pretty minimal and sleek, which would fit my bike perfectly.. 16g, and not too expensive either (for bottles and magnets)..

http://www.vincero-design.com/products/edge16/

Blackburns Swerve bottle cage is a sleek, simple looking item, Blackburn say that "the new Swerve Titanium cage pushes the limits of bomber strength and feather weight". How nice can a bottle cage be?