King Cage - Bottle Cage Failures

On Feb 25, 9:33*pm, Steve Sr. wrote:
Hello,

A while back I put 2 King Cage (www.kingcage.com) stainless steel
watter bottle cages on my regular road bike. About a month ago on a
ride the seat tube cage broke at the bottom mounting bracket weld. Now
inspecting the other cage it is about to fail as well in the same
manner. snip

Did you email (no affiliation) kingcage yet? These are handmade, and
I'll bet you a nickel that the manufacturer will stand behind them.
I've had a pair for about 5 years. Work great.
Have you tried their titanium tire levers? The greatest -- they work
exceptionally well on tight tires.

Best,
Larry

LF wrote:
On Feb 25, 9:33�pm, Steve Sr. wrote:
Hello,

A while back I put 2 King Cage (www.kingcage.com) stainless steel
watter bottle cages on my regular road bike. About a month ago on a
ride the seat tube cage broke at the bottom mounting bracket weld. Now
inspecting the other cage it is about to fail as well in the same
manner. snip

Did you email (no affiliation) kingcage yet? These are handmade, and
I'll bet you a nickel that the manufacturer will stand behind them.
I've had a pair for about 5 years. Work great.
Have you tried their titanium tire levers? The greatest -- they work
exceptionally well on tight tires.

Best,
Larry

well, /my/ king cages were never quite straight. if the op's were
manufactured with the same attention to detail, i'm not sure having the
manufacturer replace them with more of the same is going to do much long
term good.

otoh, sometimes a cheaper option can work well:
http://www.performancebike.com/shop/...tegory_ID=4342

these [mtb] cages are wider diameter tube and therefore stronger than
typical road designs.

On Feb 25, 10:26*pm, jim beam wrote:
LF wrote:
On Feb 25, 9:33 pm, Steve Sr. wrote:
Hello,

A while back I put 2 King Cage (www.kingcage.com) stainless steel
watter bottle cages on my regular road bike. About a month ago on a
ride the seat tube cage broke at the bottom mounting bracket weld. Now
inspecting the other cage it is about to fail as well in the same
manner. snip

Did you email (no affiliation) kingcage yet? *These are handmade, and
I'll bet you a nickel that the manufacturer will stand behind them.
I've had a pair for about 5 years. *Work great.
Have you tried their titanium tire levers? *The greatest -- they work
exceptionally well on tight tires.

Best,
Larry

well, /my/ king cages were never quite straight. *if the op's were
manufactured with the same attention to detail, i'm not sure having the
manufacturer replace them with more of the same is going to do much long
term good.

otoh, sometimes a cheaper option can work well:http://www.performancebike..com/shop...81&subcategory...

these [mtb] cages are wider diameter tube and therefore stronger than
typical road designs.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

I have the Performance stainless MTB cages on all of my road bikes.
No complaints in many thousands of miles. You can usually get them
two for $12 or so.

jim beam wrote:
otoh, sometimes a cheaper option can work well:
http://www.performancebike.com/shop/...tegory_ID=4342

I've been using the road models for ~40k miles... perfect.

wrote:

I have the Performance stainless MTB cages on all of my road bikes.
No complaints in many thousands of miles. You can usually get them
two for $12 or so.

Yes, those are great cages at a good price. At that price there's no
reason to be using aluminum cages with all their problems.

On Fri, 27 Feb 2009 09:29:31 -0800 (PST), Ron Ruff
wrote:

jim beam wrote:
otoh, sometimes a cheaper option can work well:
http://www.performancebike.com/shop/...tegory_ID=4342

I've been using the road models for ~40k miles... perfect.

Good info.

I've got the King Steel cages which are great -- that one from PC
looks good too.

["Followup-To:" header set to rec.bicycles.misc.]
On 2009-02-27, SMS wrote:

wrote:

I have the Performance stainless MTB cages on all of my road bikes.
No complaints in many thousands of miles. You can usually get them
two for $12 or so.

Yes, those are great cages at a good price. At that price there's no
reason to be using aluminum cages with all their problems.

What problems with alumnium cages? I have aluminum cages on all my bikes
(probably over a dozen cages altogether, from Blackburn, American
Classic, Cobra, REG, and others), none less than 20 years old, and no
failures of any type.

--

John )

On Wed, 25 Feb 2009 20:10:13 -0800 (PST), LF wrote:

On Feb 25, 9:33*pm, Steve Sr. wrote:
Hello,

A while back I put 2 King Cage (www.kingcage.com) stainless steel
watter bottle cages on my regular road bike. About a month ago on a
ride the seat tube cage broke at the bottom mounting bracket weld. Now
inspecting the other cage it is about to fail as well in the same
manner. snip

Did you email (no affiliation) kingcage yet? These are handmade, and
I'll bet you a nickel that the manufacturer will stand behind them.
I've had a pair for about 5 years. Work great.
Have you tried their titanium tire levers? The greatest -- they work
exceptionally well on tight tires.

Larry,

Yes, I called King Cage and they will be replacing the unit. I am also
going to include some photos of the break area for them to analyze.

One thing I noticed is that the cage did not seem to hold the bottle
symmetrically. One of the down tubes (the side that broke) has a nice
flat spot worn on it whereas the other side looks untouched.

Best,

Steve

On Feb 25, 8:26 pm, jim beam wrote:
LF wrote:
On Feb 25, 9:33 pm, Steve Sr. wrote:
Hello,

A while back I put 2 King Cage (www.kingcage.com) stainless steel
watter bottle cages on my regular road bike. About a month ago on a
ride the seat tube cage broke at the bottom mounting bracket weld. Now
inspecting the other cage it is about to fail as well in the same
manner. snip

Did you email (no affiliation) kingcage yet? These are handmade, and
I'll bet you a nickel that the manufacturer will stand behind them.
I've had a pair for about 5 years. Work great.
Have you tried their titanium tire levers? The greatest -- they work
exceptionally well on tight tires.

Best,
Larry

well, /my/ king cages were never quite straight. if the op's were
manufactured with the same attention to detail, i'm not sure having the
manufacturer replace them with more of the same is going to do much long
term good.


Mine were not quite straight, either. They mount straight enough on
the bike, and hold the bottles straight enough, but I mean the ends
where they're welded didn't quite match up. Consequently the weld
looks a little bit funky. Also there is heat discoloration on the
tubes near the joint.

At first this kind of disappointed me, but in order to quell any OCD
hangups, I quickly rationalized to myself that these are acceptable
artifacts which may even lend some character to an affordable
handcrafted SS cage; and so far they have been very satisfactory in
service (much better than the Specialized aluminum alloy ones that
they replaced).

otoh, sometimes a cheaper option can work well:http://www.performancebike.com/shop/...81&subcategory...


*If* for some reason the King cages just don't work out for me, I
would probably go next with Blackburn SS road cages, which I have
never used, but did have a chance to fondle in the LBS, and seem very
well made.

these [mtb] cages are wider diameter tube and therefore stronger than
typical road designs.

Functionality should rule, of course, but all else being acceptably
within parameters, I like the aesthetics of svelte bottle cages on my
road bike.

=v= My water bottle cage strategy has changed in recent years.
I've long preferred PETE plastic bottles over HDPE and LDPE ones
because the water tastes better, but now I've taken it a step
further to metal bottles. Which means plastic cages. After
much trial and error (and some dented bottles) I've decided that
Trek's stiff plastic "BatCage" works the best. Cateye makes a
decent soft plastic cage, if you want to go that route.

=v= I bought a great brass bottle made by Sigg and sold in
Europe about 15 years ago. It has a pop-top lid, but the most
crucial feature is that it's indented at about 5.5 inches from
the bottom, which means it can fit into a standard water bottle
cage. I have only recently found this bottle for sale in the
U.S., and with an improved pop top.

The only drawback is that it's got a narrow opening and
it's hard to clean, especially under the ride where that handy
indentation is. :^( Sigg sells special brush for this. )^:

Kleen Kanteen is an eco-themed newcomer made of stainless
steel and with a wide opening. This wide opening and the tops
that fit into it (incuding a pop-top lid) is the best design
I've ever seen, and the bottle is easy to use and clean. It
is, unfortunately, made in China, though supposedly in an
ecological and socially-responsible factory. Only the 18oz
size fits in a water bottle cage. (Hot tip: If you've got
a 2007 Dahon in "sage green," the "moss green" Kleen Kanteen
is the same color. They must use the same ecological/socially-
responsible paint supplier.)

There's another brand out there called Earthlust that's the
worst of both worlds: made in China and with a narrow opening.
In fact it seems to be a cheap knockoff of other Sigg bottles,
the ones without an indentation that'll fit in a cage.

=v= Another nice one is Zefal's enamel-lined aluminum bottle.
It has a nice wide opening and a pop-top lid, but I haven't
seen one of these for sale in years. It's the lightest of the
bunch, but the only drawback is if you drop it, it dents easily
and you can crack the enamel.
_Jym_