Silca Sicuro Ti Bottle Cages: Quick review- by Grannygear
Function vs. fashion. Often at odds with one another, these two driving forces in our purchasing decisions can make for some difficult choices. Every so often you can get both for the same price and that is where the Silca Sicuro Ti bottle cage fits in. It is both lovely to look at and, so far, seems to treat me well when it comes to getting a bottle in a and out of there.
I do not have a third bottle mount on the underside of the down tube, a place that is the truest test of holding a bottle as momentum from impacts tends to open the cage and spit out the bottle. In the old days, we used to wrap a toe strap around the underside mounted bottle to keep it in there. Ah, the good old days of toe straps…truly a useful thing to have with you.
But so far the Sicuro cage has shown to have a just right holding force on the bottle, allowing me to pull and place at will. Other advantages? Well, it is not likely to wear out like an aluminum cage where they crack after thousands and thousands of stress cycles. A composite cage might break in a crash. Steel cages make sense but are heavier, are they not? Also, these Ti cages will not mark your bottles like aluminum cages do.
From the Silca website:
Each Sicuro Ti cage is hand-made at our Indianapolis, IN headquarters in the USA using custom manufacturing processes and a state of the art laser welder, the first of its kind in the bicycle industry. Made from ultra-lightweight aerospace-grade titanium tubing, these cages also feature unique slotted mounting eyelets which allow fore/aft adjustability to account for differences in mounting locations from frame to frame.
One of the most interesting (findings) of the testing phase for this product was the effect that cage bolts had on both bottle retention as well as cage fatigue life. Each SICURO Titanium bottle cage comes with two of our premium Titanium Mounting Bolts. Each bolt is machined complete in one operation from 6Al/4V Titanium on a Swiss Lathe. The low-profile flange head design of the bolt distributes load across nearly 3x more surface area than a cap screw and 2x the surface area of a button head for increased rigidity and lower stress.
Why create bottle cages using premium materials and aerospace technology? SICURO Ti cages are part of our Ultimate product line which means we guarantee they’ll last for twenty-five years. We’re able to offer our Shield Warranty on this product because we’re confident that the 3-2.5 Titanium and precise laser welds used to create it will endure. After the bending and welding process, each cage is then polished by hand, sealed and finally stamped with the SILCA shield on the base plate before being packaged and shipped to your door.
The Sicuro also has a generous amount of adjustment in the mounting slots. On my GR250 frame, I tend to have issues with the seat tube mounted bottle getting up into my frame bag. The Sicuro allowed me a bit of grace and that helped enough, dropping the bottle just out of the ‘no-fly’ zone of bottle top vs. frame bag.
I weighed them at 30g each (33g with the included Ti bolts). When you unpack these, DO NOT toss out the little Allen screws that hold the cage down to the box. Yes…Ti screws.
They cost $70.00. Each. Yes. That is a buck and a half for two water bottle cages. I know, I know. But the sexy-factor calls to me in a siren song of silky Ti goodness. On my Lynskey frame it is just flat out wicked cool looking, if that can even be applied to a bottle cage bolted to a bike.
“Dahling, I have to tell you something. And I don’t say this to everybody. You look mahvelous!” Fernando Lamas
And as we all know, it is better to look good than to feel good, although so far the Silca Sicuro cages have done both!
https://silca.cc/products/sicuro-titanium-bottle-cage
NOTE: The Silca Sicuro bottle cages were sent to RidingGravel.com to test and review at no charge. We were not paid, nor bribed for this review and we strive to give our honest thoughts and opinions throughout.
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About The Author: Grannygear hails from SoCal and spent most of his cycling days as a mountain biker from the formative years of mountain biking all the way up to the present day. His day job is in the tech sector, but he has spent time writing about off road 4X4’s, 29″ mountain bikes, and cycling in general. Grannygear and Guitar Ted have worked off and on together since 2009 after a chance meeting at Interbike. With gravel cycling on the rise, Grannygear has been exploring how this genre’ works in SoCal and now does guest pieces for RidingGravel.com in his spare time.
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Drooling. I’m about to order my first Ti frame and I can’t help but think that these cages might be perfect on it. I have the exact same issue with my top tube bag – the seattube cage needs to drop. I ghetto’d the problem but now it’s been solved by both this beautiful looking cage and one from King Cage/Wolf Tooth called the Morse Cage, which I stumbled across last week. Have you seen that/tried that one? Eyeballing the photos I’d guess it has maybe a smidge more adjustability but the cleaner design of the Silca model appeals to me more (I need help – surely more adjustability is more important).
@Jimbo- I don’t think anyone here at RidingGravel.com has tried the Wolf Tooth cage, but comparing visually on-line, I would guess that the Wolf Tooth Morse cage has a bit more range.
It will all depend upon how much range to move that you require.
If you can masterfully make these bottle cages in Indainapolis then why do you resort to China? After receiving my Silca Premio loaded Saddle bag roll, I’m not crazy about Silva thinking they needed to go to China to make a profit. It’s about how much profit and only ROI profit at the end of the day. China is known for labor abuses and yet American businesses are blinded by larger margins. You are better than other companies. The success story to revive a dying brand, the back story teharding quality shows this. Look deeper, get creative, maybe veterans can help, or tie philanthropic payback into product and maybe fix this. Such a shame. China?
Yeah, and at $70 and made in China that’s ridiculous margins. I would pay that if they were made in the USA.
@all….to be clear: “Each Sicuro Ti cage is hand-made at our Indianapolis, IN headquarters in the USA…” As Road Glide pointed out, other items are sourced overseas but these are called out as US made. I confirmed that with Silca just now. Greg, Silca is expecting your order now that we have cleared that up.
gg
Have two Silca Sicuro and a WolfTooth More in ti coming for bike nr 2.
I’m between these cages for my incoming T Lab X3. What are your thoughts after owning and using both?
There is only one acceptable brand of Ti cages, and they’re made by Ron King in Durango, CO. Always have been, and they are $10 less. Josh Poertner should be ashamed of himself – in one douchey move he defames both the original Silca brand and Ron King. That’s