Bottle cage sizing - what the... !?

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CreakyCrank
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Bottle cage sizing - what the... !?

Postby CreakyCrank » Sun Dec 17, 2017 6:10 pm

Took delivery of a beautiful Colnago yesterday, the cherry on the top, I thought, was the nice matching Colnago bottle cage attached.
I soon discovered that a regular Camelbak Podium bottle would not fit into it without the aid of a large wooden mallet!
To be quite honest I have never had a decent fitting bottle/cage combo.
Any recommendations for a proper bottle/cage combo ?

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queequeg
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Re: Bottle cage sizing - what the... !?

Postby queequeg » Sun Dec 17, 2017 6:58 pm

CreakyCrank wrote:Took delivery of a beautiful Colnago yesterday, the cherry on the top, I thought, was the nice matching Colnago bottle cage attached.
I soon discovered that a regular Camelbak Podium bottle would not fit into it without the aid of a large wooden mallet!
To be quite honest I have never had a decent fitting bottle/cage combo.
Any recommendations for a proper bottle/cage combo ?
It's a big bugbear of mine too. I bought some Elite Custom Race cages and they are useless for any bottle except the Elite made ones (or bottles of similar dimensions).

However, I have found that the more traditional design of the Elite Paron cages is perfect, and even take the Camelbak Podium Chill bottles very nicely.
'11 Lynskey Cooper CX, '00 Hillbrick Steel Racing (Total Rebuild '10), '16 Cervelo R5, '18 Mason BokekTi

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Ross
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Re: Bottle cage sizing - what the... !?

Postby Ross » Sun Dec 17, 2017 7:26 pm

queequeg wrote:
CreakyCrank wrote:Took delivery of a beautiful Colnago yesterday, the cherry on the top, I thought, was the nice matching Colnago bottle cage attached.
I soon discovered that a regular Camelbak Podium bottle would not fit into it without the aid of a large wooden mallet!
To be quite honest I have never had a decent fitting bottle/cage combo.
Any recommendations for a proper bottle/cage combo ?
It's a big bugbear of mine too. I bought some Elite Custom Race cages and they are useless for any bottle except the Elite made ones (or bottles of similar dimensions).

However, I have found that the more traditional design of the Elite Paron cages is perfect, and even take the Camelbak Podium Chill bottles very nicely.
:?: :?: :!: :!:

I have the Elite Custom Race cages on all my bikes and they fit all standard bidons including Camelbak Podium Chill. Never had a bottle fall out and don't have any trouble pulling bottles in or out.

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queequeg
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Re: Bottle cage sizing - what the... !?

Postby queequeg » Sun Dec 17, 2017 8:29 pm

Ross wrote:
queequeg wrote:
CreakyCrank wrote:Took delivery of a beautiful Colnago yesterday, the cherry on the top, I thought, was the nice matching Colnago bottle cage attached.
I soon discovered that a regular Camelbak Podium bottle would not fit into it without the aid of a large wooden mallet!
To be quite honest I have never had a decent fitting bottle/cage combo.
Any recommendations for a proper bottle/cage combo ?
It's a big bugbear of mine too. I bought some Elite Custom Race cages and they are useless for any bottle except the Elite made ones (or bottles of similar dimensions).

However, I have found that the more traditional design of the Elite Paron cages is perfect, and even take the Camelbak Podium Chill bottles very nicely.
:?: :?: :!: :!:

I have the Elite Custom Race cages on all my bikes and they fit all standard bidons including Camelbak Podium Chill. Never had a bottle fall out and don't have any trouble pulling bottles in or out.
There's a couple of different versions of the Custom Race cages. The ones I got, no matter how hard you tried, you needed a mallet to get the Camelbak bottles into them. Ironically, the slightest bump in the road would see the same bottles get ejected like a spent cartridge from a gun.
'11 Lynskey Cooper CX, '00 Hillbrick Steel Racing (Total Rebuild '10), '16 Cervelo R5, '18 Mason BokekTi

eeksll
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Re: Bottle cage sizing - what the... !?

Postby eeksll » Sun Dec 17, 2017 8:33 pm

my elite custom race also does not fit my camelbak bottles, atleast not without the proverbial wooden mallet.

EDIT: my elite custom race plus also does not fit my camelbak bottles, atleast not without the proverbial wooden mallet.

[I didn't have what I thought I had :oops: ]
Last edited by eeksll on Mon Dec 18, 2017 9:37 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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MichaelB
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Re: Bottle cage sizing - what the... !?

Postby MichaelB » Mon Dec 18, 2017 11:49 am

Camelbak bottles are different diameters between the std and podium chill. Really really annoying ...

lone rider
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Re: Bottle cage sizing - what the... !?

Postby lone rider » Mon Dec 18, 2017 1:13 pm

My elite customs work fine with plain Camelbak's and Chill's and Big Chills.

defy1
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Re: Bottle cage sizing - what the... !?

Postby defy1 » Mon Dec 18, 2017 2:00 pm

Just get some cheapo Carbon ones from China or ebay. Served me well on my road and MTB for years and never faulted

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Ross
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Re: Bottle cage sizing - what the... !?

Postby Ross » Mon Dec 18, 2017 5:59 pm

eeksll wrote:myelite custom race also does not fit my camelbak bottles, atleast not without the proverbial wooden mallet.
That is the exact ones I have, even down to the colour!

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Tim
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Re: Bottle cage sizing - what the... !?

Postby Tim » Mon Dec 18, 2017 6:10 pm

I've got one of those Elite cages and it's also a PITA with plain old "Bottles of Australia" bidons.
The only way I can get a bidon in is to coat the inside of the cage with grease or Vaseline.
I moved the Elite cage to the seatpost position where it's rarely used and replaced it with a $6.00 Exustar carbon-look plastic cage that has served its purpose perfectly for the last six years. Easy in, easy out and I've never had a bottle jump out on rough roads.

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queequeg
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Re: Bottle cage sizing - what the... !?

Postby queequeg » Mon Dec 18, 2017 6:39 pm

Ross wrote:
eeksll wrote:myelite custom race also does not fit my camelbak bottles, atleast not without the proverbial wooden mallet.
That is the exact ones I have, even down to the colour!
These are the ones I have, and they are crap

http://www.elite-it.com/en/node/12744
'11 Lynskey Cooper CX, '00 Hillbrick Steel Racing (Total Rebuild '10), '16 Cervelo R5, '18 Mason BokekTi

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biker jk
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Re: Bottle cage sizing - what the... !?

Postby biker jk » Mon Dec 18, 2017 7:10 pm

Ross wrote:
queequeg wrote:
CreakyCrank wrote:Took delivery of a beautiful Colnago yesterday, the cherry on the top, I thought, was the nice matching Colnago bottle cage attached.
I soon discovered that a regular Camelbak Podium bottle would not fit into it without the aid of a large wooden mallet!
To be quite honest I have never had a decent fitting bottle/cage combo.
Any recommendations for a proper bottle/cage combo ?
It's a big bugbear of mine too. I bought some Elite Custom Race cages and they are useless for any bottle except the Elite made ones (or bottles of similar dimensions).

However, I have found that the more traditional design of the Elite Paron cages is perfect, and even take the Camelbak Podium Chill bottles very nicely.
:?: :?: :!: :!:

I have the Elite Custom Race cages on all my bikes and they fit all standard bidons including Camelbak Podium Chill. Never had a bottle fall out and don't have any trouble pulling bottles in or out.
That's my experience as well. They are tight to begin with but loosen up with use.

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Ross
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Re: Bottle cage sizing - what the... !?

Postby Ross » Mon Dec 18, 2017 8:33 pm

queequeg wrote:
Ross wrote:
eeksll wrote:myelite custom race also does not fit my camelbak bottles, atleast not without the proverbial wooden mallet.
That is the exact ones I have, even down to the colour!
These are the ones I have, and they are crap

http://www.elite-it.com/en/node/12744
They are different to mine, the ones I have are the same as Eeksil linked to.

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queequeg
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Re: Bottle cage sizing - what the... !?

Postby queequeg » Mon Dec 18, 2017 8:53 pm

Ross wrote:
queequeg wrote:
Ross wrote:
That is the exact ones I have, even down to the colour!
These are the ones I have, and they are crap

http://www.elite-it.com/en/node/12744
They are different to mine, the ones I have are the same as Eeksil linked to.
Yep, I couldn't get the other ones when I bought mine, so I tried the newer ones. They work perfectly with Elite bottles, but they just refuse to work with the Camelbak bottles. The bottles were almost impossible to get in, and they would work loose on the bike very easily, so every 5 min I would be hammering them back in.

I got so sick of them I got these ones instead

http://www.elite-it.com/en/products/gb/ ... paron-race

They are perfect. No daft rubber insert.
'11 Lynskey Cooper CX, '00 Hillbrick Steel Racing (Total Rebuild '10), '16 Cervelo R5, '18 Mason BokekTi

eeksll
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Re: Bottle cage sizing - what the... !?

Postby eeksll » Mon Dec 18, 2017 9:29 pm

Ross wrote:
queequeg wrote:
Ross wrote:
That is the exact ones I have, even down to the colour!
These are the ones I have, and they are crap

http://www.elite-it.com/en/node/12744
They are different to mine, the ones I have are the same as Eeksil linked to.
sorry guys, the ones I linked to are NOT the ones I have :oops: . The one I have is the one that queequeg linked to. I actually thought I had the one i linked to initially.

This is the one I have which does NOT fit the camelbak bottles http://www.elite-it.com/en/node/12744

sorry for the confusion / incorrectness.

onto camelbak, I stopped using them, dirt gets in the mouth piece and I get crunchy water.

EDIT: I have one of these too http://www.elite-it.com/en/node/12744 this one does fit the camelbak bottle. But if your used to putting the bottle straight in (as opposed to from the side) they don't work so well.

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CreakyCrank
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Re: Bottle cage sizing - what the... !?

Postby CreakyCrank » Sat Dec 23, 2017 11:39 am

I ordered 2x Elite Paron Race bottle cage ($9.99) & Elite Crystal Ombra bottle($14.99) from Bikebug ( and this is a big shout-out for Bikebug - very competitive prices, huge range and free pick-up from your local branch ).
This combo seems to be a winner with what I would regard as the perfect fit. The Elite Crystal Ombra bottle also fits perfectly into my Colnago cage (which I initially thought was a dud :oops: ) as well as two other brands of cages.
Upon careful measurement (Ombra bottle diameter = 70mm; CamelBak Podium = 74mm) I must conclude that the chubby Podium bottle is the problem so won't be buying these anymore.

The Elite Crystal Ombra bottle makes similar claims to the Camelbak viz. food grade polypropylene, bpa free ...

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