The arms held the bottles snugly and adapted well around a variety of different bottles. The lower section of the cage feels quite thin and, though this did not occur whilst testing, feels like it could be easily over-stretched. Over the past decade, we’ve reviewed 72 bottle cages here on road.cc and this is far and away the most expensive, costing almost 30 per cent more than the next dearest one we’ve featured. Indeed, all but four cost at most half as much as this one does, and in many cases significantly less.

Now I've given one star to products in the past, and said re value 'Given it utterly fails to achieve its purpose, it must be of minimal value'. I'd argue the Silca cage has fabulous value compared to that light. It's hard to beat the Topeak Feza, in either the 10g road or 12g gravel version. Despite being crazy light, and looking rather flimsy, I've found the G12 model to be dependable, and grip more tightly than far cheaper models. There are lighter ones on the market, just, but you're going to be shopping with boutique brands and spending big dollar to save around four grams. Do bottle cages fit all bottles?

Lezyne Matrix Air Cage

As previous, I'm surprised at people who think they get to tell others how they can and can't spend their money. In the same way, all of us, as consumers, make trade-offs every single day in the products we buy and the services we use – and it seems clear that for many people, in the months and years to come, the actual financial cost will become an increasingly important part of the equation. We rarely see the pros using superlight cages, as often their bikes are under the UCI weight limit as standard anyway, and so adding slightly heavier cages is no big deal and helps them make the legal limit. In my experience, having compiled a fair few pro bike galleries in my time, is that the Elite Custom Race Plus seems to be the most common, though pro riders' choices are often determined by sponsorship than by free will.

The Barnacle by Drj0n Bagworks provides a low-profile mounting option for bottle and cargo cages on the fork, downtube, or other locations on a bike frame. The Barnacle clamp is 3D-printed from durable plastic and comes in nine diameters ranging from 25.4mm to 47mm, designed to fit commonly available downtubes in steel, aluminum, and titanium, and also rigid steel and suspension forks. You can also use rubber strips to help accommodate varied tubes. For example, 45mm with a 1mm rubber strip fits a Fox 34 or a Fox 36 without. On our scales, the Fly Anodised cage weighed in at 21g, just 2g over the manufacturer’s stated weight, much lighter than similar cages on the market. My bottles are not held firmly and they slide in and out very easily. Great for road riding, mayve not ideal for gravel or behind the saddle installation. Not a problem but a charactetistic to be aware of. Overall, this is a very lovely cage, and the Cerakote protection does appear to work. Obviously it's an insane amount of money, and I'm not even going to try to justify the price, other than to say you'll probably never have to buy another bottle cage again (unless you want to get a second). The only possible negative I can draw, other than the price, is that the coating does diminish the visual appeal of raw titanium somewhat. Verdict Fitting the cage to the bike is easy using the pre-drilled holes, and should the tolerances not quite match up the bottom hole is elongated to allow a bit of adjustment.

Features

While we haven’t tested the Barnacle specifically, we have put some miles on the DeWidget G-Funk Clamps, which are the same design and we have no problem vouching for their performance and reliability. Considering that many new bikes are missing a pair of bottle bosses under the downtube, and there’s no such thing as a suspension fork bottle mount, the USB is a good option. It comes in four sizes: 1 1/8-inch for handlebars and seat stays, 1 3/8-inch for steel frames and forks, 1 5/8-inch for 32mm suspension forks, and 2-inch for aluminum tube bikes and 36mm suspension forks. Note that because the cage attaches via a post mount, the nut goes onto the cage and some bottle cages might not work if they don’t have a recessed channel. Functionally though they're no different to plastic or metal cages, and are a little more fragile too, so weigh up what's really important to you before pressing 'buy now'. What are the lightest bottle cages? Once inserted, your bottle is gripped firmly and whether full or empty it isn't going anywhere. I've used it on both road and gravel rides and the bottle has stayed put up against the stop at the bottom of the cage. On test, the Fly Anodised cage’s open design allowed for simple bottle access. The mouth of the cage is sloped inwards which increases the surface area slightly for easier bottle replacement.