Bottle cages were originally contraptions which were clamped around the handlebars or to the frame of a bike. It wasn’t until the early-1970’s that bottle cage bosses (also known as bottle cage braze-ons) started to appear on elite riders’ frames in the Tour de France, and by the mid-1970’s they became the norm. This resulted in lighter bottle cages as the bottle cage bosses could be attached directly to the frame using just two bolts.
Bottle cage bosses are traditionally 64mm apart and threaded for an M5 (5mm) bolt with a 0.8mm pitch. There are variations, but this is considered to be the standard.
The Spécialités TA bottle cage (1st Gen) is a perfect example of a very popular and traditional 1970s-1980s cage utilising metal rods or tubing which is bent to form a simple and lightweight bottle cage. Exotic variations of this style in titanium followed in 1991 with the King Cage Titanium Cage. But the man who completely broke the mould that same year was Geoff Ringle who decided to use rolled sheet aluminium in order to produce the iconic Ringle H20 Ultra Light bottle cage which became the must have cage during the golden era of mountain biking.
Since then we have probably seen every permutation of bottle cage design with no room left for new ideas. So much so that in 2008 demand for vintage cages led to Velo Orange reproducing 1940s and 1950s style Spécialités TA bottle cages, and in 2012 the Sellution Components released the Ringle H2Faux (as named by us) in response to increasing demand for original Ringle H20 Ultra Light bottle cages.
Elite
Elite Alloy
Elite Fantasy
Elite Titanium Flake
King Cage
King Cage Titanium
King Cage Stainless Steel
Ringle
Ringle H20 Ultra Light
Sellution Components
Ringle H2Faux (Ringle H20 repop)
Spécialités TA
Spécialités TA Alloy (1st Gen)