When we first set our eyes on the CarbonWorks cages we were a bit flabbergasted. How can something so minimal could be reliable, considering often pot-hole littered roads we ride on. After all, a single cage weighs approx 8 grams (CCACHE supplies the treated version). To give you some comparison, the ubiquitous Arundel Mandible comes in at 28 grams and that is considered fairly light already!
Still, we recognise that a bottle cage which cannot hold a bidon is going to be an useless one. The last thing anyone wants is to cause a bidon-ejection crash in a bunchie travelling at high speed,
With the cage in hand, the lack of weight is more apparent than anything else. Secondly, you notice the boutique method of construction. This is clearly, not a mass produced cage. Thirdly you notice by squeezing the cages that it does flex slightly. Definitely more so than say, the Mandible. However, once you mount the cages to your frame, utilising the supplied countersunk bolts, the cages stiffen a fair bit. The cages utilise the frame as a brace to hold shape.
When inserting a bidon into the cage, there is a slight bit of resistance. They definitely do not clamp as tightly as the Mandibles (which are known to heavily scratch up and eventually deform bottles). The result is an easier insertion/extraction motion. This concerned us initially, but after testing the cages on the road for 4000+kms, we have not had a single lost/ejected bottle.
The only thing we would like to point out is the motion for inserting/removal of bidons. Straight in and out. Pulling the bidon out sideways would most likely cause issues with the cage in the long run. The flipside to this is, you are rewarded with a much smoother motion vs the Mandible-style cages, which can prove to be a handful midst-ride, trying to shove a bottle back into a very tight cage.
We also recommend that loctite or similar threadlock is applied to the specific countersunk bolt's to prevent loosening over time.
Finally, the aesthetics of the cages are stunning in our opinion. It is one of the most organic shapes we have set ours eyes on and the curves are always lovely to look at.
