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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