The best bottle cage/bottle combo

[mecheng89]

Good morning, Hubbers.

I cannot seem to find the correct bottle cage to bottle combo. The bottles I buy are either too big for the cages, or they fit snug but are very difficult to retrieve from the cage.

Who out there has found the ideal combo? Keep in mind this is for my gravel bike, so at times I will be going along and the bottle shouldn't easily fall out.

TIA

[Spinnekop]

Arundel Mandible.

Best cage I have ever had.  And most of your bottles fit well.  Elite Fly.  Camelback podium 

[Iwan Kemp]

Bottle: Camelback Podium. TBH I've not had issues with that bottle in just about any of the cages I've used through the ages. Lyne, Specialized, Supacaz cages all seem to gel with that bottle.

[BrentCGP]

Elite bottles with Elite cages, they lock in.

For MTB and Gravel Im on Arundel Stainless Steel and Elite Fly bottles.

Arundel make the best cages period ...

Edited June 20 by BrentCGP
Typo

[PregoRoll]

Ive run Elite Fly bottles and Syncros side cages for years without losing a bottle.

Only issue I have with the Syncros cages is they become sharp overtime and can sometimes puncture the bottle.

[MORNE]

Really want one of those Fidlock jobbies. 
 

But ive never lost a bottle even on an enduro bike using the Lyne cages with cameback bottles. 

[Spinnaroonie]

Interesting topic in that I've always thought it was just a bad bottle design and never considered that it could be the cage. Reason being, is that the bottles that usually stick, are the ones with the sticky print  (Enduren or First Ascent) or just not sized correctly. 

Whereis I feel Elite, Polisport and even Ciovita have designed bidons that never stick in any of my cages.

[Bub Marley]

Elite bottles work perfectly with Elite cages. Im also using Elite bottles with Supcaz cage now and its just as secure.

 

Camelbak bottles are high quality and last forever. However cleaning them are just an annoyance. But the one thing I hate the most is their nozzle system. When i squeeze I want to be able to drink as much as i can and I cant do that with camelbak as so little comes out. Compare that to Elite where the quality is absolutely trash, will get completely scuffed almost immediately. However the cleaning system is the best in the business. Just pop off the nozzle and bobs your uncle. And I can essentially squeeze and drink almost half a bottle in one go. So just for that I always use Elite.

[mecheng89]

4 hours ago, Spinnekop said:

Arundel Mandible.

Best cage I have ever had.  And most of your bottles fit well.  Elite Fly.  Camelback podium 

Beautiful looking, but that price..

[Spinnekop]

6 minutes ago, mecheng89 said:

Beautiful looking, but that price..

I've had mine for over 10 years now across 3 bikes.
So long term worth it.  

But yes, eye watering expensive these days.  

[Frosty]

I would buy these Ritchey cages again, any day.
However, I see they are no longer available, which is a pity.
They work with a large variety of bottles; CAM, Biogen, Camelbak, Elite.

[ChrisF]

The cage on my roadie/gravel bike got stickier over time, to the point where it was very difficult to remove the bottle.

 

I popped in at CWC before an event and out of desperation took a chance on a cheapie MARVEL cage.

 

Few thousand km later it is still very easy to remove the bottle.  I mostly use a USN branded bottle on this bike, but for commuting whatever bottle is nearby.

 

Sure, the vast majority of the time this bike is used on tar, but I done a couple of gravel sections few a bumps here and there.  Never had the bottle even move in the cage.

 

 

For the price well worth a try.

[Bike Dewing]

5 hours ago, MORNE said:

Really want one of those Fidlock jobbies. 
 

But ive never lost a bottle even on an enduro bike using the Lyne cages with cameback bottles. 

I pulled the trigger on two fidlock jobbies.. my only gripe is that the bottles aren’t insulated for those long rides.. other than that they are awesome.! 

[Bike Dewing]

Before the fidlock i had Syncros cages with the insulated 590ml Syncros bottles, so that’s always fit like a glove.. 👍🏻

[mecheng89]

16 hours ago, Spinnekop said:

I've had mine for over 10 years now across 3 bikes.
So long term worth it.  

But yes, eye watering expensive these days.  

I cannot justify just under R1.3K for one cage. The "Looney Bin" model actually looks like a best of all worlds solution, as it's adjustable.

https://bike-addict.co.za/collections/arundel/products/arundel-looney-bin-bottle-cage

Thanks for all the sugegstions so far, everyone.

[bleedToWin]

The elite cannibal cages with the rubber thingy grabs any bottle when not taken straight out. Took me a while to get used to removing bottles as the cage grabs on if you put any sort of twist on the bottle. I suspect that twist motion is also how bottles bounce out as I've not lost a bottle with these cages.