28 January 2019

New bottle cages


My old carbon Eline cages on the Sky Blue Parlee had both broken over the past few months, one in November and the other over the year-end. These super light cages served me well -- I have another two on the Ti Travel Bike that are still functional. They grip bottles well, and have lasted at least 5-6 years. They did not start service on the Parlee, but were transferred when I built it up.

I tried to epoxy them together, but that did not hold. So I stopped by Nalshima in Tachikawa yesterday to get replacements. I found some slightly heavier Eline cages there, with rubberized plastic surface, far cheaper (on closeout sale -- only one of each in stock). I replaced them in the parking lot outside the shop, did a "KonMari" -- thanked the old ones for their service and handed them to a Nalshima staff member who had come outside to ask if I needed tools ... and who even filled my water bottle. What service!

I also bought a nice Cateye rear light that goes well on a seat stay, uses traditional AAA batteries (I don't want another USB item to charge during rides, should last several nights on a single set of batteries on the "solid" instead of flashing setting, has an "auto" feature that should turn on when I ride in tunnels, and will replace others that have failed or are no longer reliable.

Some will say "what's this, the bottle cages do not match"! 
My answer: True, but my bottles do not match either, so if I keep them full, no one will notice. The price was too good to refuse. And one of them can double as a third "under downtube" bottle cage on the Ti bike in a pinch.

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