Vincero Design Stratus 24 bottle + Edge 16 mount

Instead of sliding into a cage, Vincero Design's Stratus bottle slots on to a flat, wedge-shaped mount - the Edge 16 - where it's held in place with magnets about the size of 5p pieces. There's one on the bottle and one on the mount, and they're very strong. I cannot see a bottle falling off by accident; it didn't happen during the test. But while this design looks futuristic, the advantages over conventional bottles and cages are minimal – and there are drawbacks.

It's similar to a normal bottle in use. You reach down, grab the bottle, slide it free, and then drink. There's more resistance to overcome as you slide the magnets apart but it won't cause any problems for able-bodied adults.

Putting the bottle back isn't as simple. It's harder to do by feel while you're looking ahead. For while the magnets will snap the bottle loosely into place if they're anywhere near each other, the bottle will only attach securely if you slide the bottle's wedge-shaped slot down over the mount. This is fiddlier than shoving a conventional bottle into a cage, where the 'slot' you're aiming for - the mouth of the bottle cage - is much bigger, and where the rotational orientation of the bottle doesn't matter. I got quicker with practice, but it invariably took me a few seconds to replace the Stratus bottle; it wasn't something I did automatically.

The main advantage of the Stratus/Edge 16 set-up is that there's no cage when you remove the bottle. This means clean lines for those that care about such things. It also means the mount is basically unbreakable, unlike a bottle cage.

Does it hold the bottle more securely? I guess so, but I can't remember when I last lost a bottle from a standard cage - and I use bottles when mountain biking, not just on road. Any half-decent conventional cage is secure enough already.

The Stratos/Edge 16 is useful for frames with limited bottle room, such as small sized bikes or full-suspension mountain bikes. If there's just a few centimetres of space in front of the Stratos's top cap, you can get the bottle on and off; conventional cages won't release until the bottle is pulled further out. Yet even here there's a simpler alternative: a side-entry bottle cage. There's plenty to choose from. I've got a BBB SideCage on my Whyte M109. It cost less than a tenner and it's great.

Weight is more or less a zero sum game: what you save with the minimalist Edge 16 mount, you lose by having a heavier bottle. I compared the 710ml Stratos 24 (fluid ounces, hence the name) and Edge 16 with the 750ml conventional plastic bottle and a Cube HPP bottle cage they replaced. The Edge 16 was 20g lighter (16g versus 36g), while the bottle was 32g heavier (120g versus 88g).

I also tried a Stratos 20 bottle (20 fluid ounces, or 590ml). That costs £8.99 and weighs 110g. A Stratos 24 bottle is £9.99, while the Edge 16 mount is £31.99 by itself. That's not horrendously expensive, but I bought a decent bottle cage from Wilkinson's for £2.99 and even my best bottle cage cost £10. Conventional water bottles, meanwhile, can be had for under a fiver each.

The Stratos bottle is dishwasher safe so long as the temperature doesn't exceed 70 degrees centigrade.

Overall, then: it works. But it's more expensive, a bit more awkward to use, and confers few real world advantages.

Verdict

Magnetic bottle system works fine but it's a solution in search of a problem