The best bottle cages keep your water bottles secure without fuss and if they complement the look of your bike, that's even better.
Unless you're looking for something exotic to complement a boutique build (and you've got a huge wad of cash burning a hole in your wallet), most people just want something that does its job of securely holding on to one of the best cycling water bottles without too much fuss.
We've put together a list of our favourite bike bottle holders on the market in 2024, and included a variety of different styles and price points, so everyone should be able to find something to suit their budget.
Jump to the end of this article to read our buyer’s guide to bottle cages, where we explain the differences between bottle cage materials, designs and how to fit one to your bike.
The best bottle cages in 2024
Arundel Mandible DTR
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- Price: £65 / $75 / AU$120
- Weight: 22g
Arundel’s 22g Mandible DTR stands for ‘down tube right’: its recommended position and access side. However, left-handed riders can switch the position with its seat-tube mounted STR sibling.
Made by wrapping carbon fibre over a foam core, the svelte design is far tougher than it looks, and both mounting options pair one round and one slotted hole for limited adjustment.
Bottle insertion is fast and smooth from the side, and the cage grips the bottle well.
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Elite Rocko Carbon
- Price: £28 / $50
- Weight: 27g
Elite’s 27g Italian-made Rocko is a modern version of the popular Cannibal cage, retaining its wide-mouth design and injection-moulded carbon construction that’s far stronger and lighter than fibreglass-infused resin.
Extra-long bolt slots ensure simple fitting, and with such a minimal structure, any bottle can be inserted from multiple angles, quickly centring and snapping into place.
Bottle retention is impressively secure, and it’s a great option for frames with limited internal space and riders in a hurry.
Tacx Ciro
- Price: £16 / $26
- Weight: 30g
The Ciro’s carbon shell and glass-fibre core keep the weight down on this minimalist, decently priced cage.
This cage worked well with all the bottles we tried, Tacx and otherwise. It comes in 20 two-tone, black-and-colour designs and in gloss or matt finishes.
Elegant, effective, tough, light and good value – that’s a lot to like.
Birzman Uncage
- Price: £9
- Weight: 41g
Birzman’s tough 41g Uncage has an unfussy yet attractive design that’s formed from a high-polymer material.
Generous bolt slots ensure easy fitting, and the cage has great rigidity while also boasting enough flex to shrug off daily riding abuse.
Chamfered, angled edges guide all bottles in smoothly, with a solid click signalling complete engagement and two internal ridges keeping a reassuringly firm hold.
A supplied Velcro strap can be used to attach a spare tube and there are levers to a slot beneath the cage, too.
Elite Vico Carbon
- Price: £28.99
- Weight: 27.9g
Angular shapes, and a matt finish makes this cage at home on carbon frames.
It holds a 500ml bottle well, but is a little shaky with a heavier 750ml bottle when compared to other cages.
The slotted back offers 15mm of adjustability, enabling you to find space on your frame for two cages.
The Vico Carbon offers a distinct looks and carbon construction that's not overpriced.
Lezyne Flow
- Price: £12.99
- Weight: 48.7g
An X-Grip design works well on bumpy roads, holding onto bottles with a tenacious grip, though the design means bottles must be pushed directly down into the cage.
The bolt holes have 10mm of adjustability, allowing the cage to be manoeuvred around frame bags.
The cage features a smooth, slick finish, as is expected on cages at this price point.
Topeak Ninja Master+ X1
- Price: £9.99
- Weight: 49.7g
Topeak's Ninja Master+ X1 features two tyre levers that lock into the cage. Though small, they are ample for clincher tyres, but meet their match on tubeless tyres.
The cage is also compatible with Topeak multi-tools.
The retention lip at the bottom of the cage is quite small, with large bottles sometimes breaking past with enough force.
Also tested…
The following bottle cages scored fewer than four stars in our test but are still worth considering.
Blackburn Cinch
- Price: £40 / $60 / AU$90
- Weight: 15g
The Cinch is very light, tight and available in four colours, including this fluoro yellow.
A pair of these skinny cages could trim 60g (over two ounces) compared with a pair of heavier models, so it represents a reasonable mass versus money trade-off for the weight-conscious rider.
In spite of that, we found it just as secure as heavier cages over bumps.
Bontrager Bat Cage
- Price: £10 / $15 / AU$20 / €15
- Weight: 50g
If a bottle cage can ever be environmentally friendly, this simple-looking 50g cage could be it.
Made from nylon pellets created from recycled fishing nets collected in the coastal communities of Chile, the Bat Cage remains one of Bontrager’s oldest products.
With pairs of round and slotted mounting holes, it’ll fit any bike and the high, wrap-around arms and pronounced upper lip provide immense bottle security. However, this means it takes longer to insert and remove a bottle.
Lezyne Road Drive Alloy
- Price: £23 / $25
- Weight: 43g
Lezyne's Road Drive Alloy is a little bit heavier than most, but it does include a Velcro strap and mounts for the Road Drive Mini pump (and works just as well with other, circa 17mm-diameter, mini-pumps).
Bottles are held firmly, but are easy to grab and replace, and the pump fitting is very useful. It also comes in six different colours.
Topeak Dualside
- Price: £15 / AU$30
- Weight: 47g
Available in only two colours, Topeak’s Dualside isn’t that light, but it does have a couple of very neat tricks up its sleeve.
The name refers to the fact that the entry to the cage is slightly ‘offset’, thanks to a flippable frame.
This makes it easier if you always use the same hand to reach for your bottle, and is a real boon for smaller frames, where vertical clearance can be too tight for standard bottle cages.
Buyer's guide to water bottle cages
Bottle cage materials
Plastic bottle cages
Plastic bottle cages tend to be the cheapest and most popular option. They have a low weight and come in a multitude of designs, so you can find one to match your bike.
Carbon bottle cages
The best carbon bottle cages can be considerably more explensive than plastic cages. But these bottle cages save some weight, especially if you want the lightest setup possible. However, unlike metal bottle cages, they can’t be bent to hold a bottle more securely.
Aluminium and titanium bottle cages
Metal bottle cages are the most practical option. They tend to last the longest and you can bend the cage inwards slightly to have an even stronger hold on the bottle. At the lower end of the range, you'll find options in aluminium or stainless steel.
Titanium bottle cages are the cream of the crop, reducing weight while retaining all of the other benefits of metal bottle cages.
What bottle cages do pros use?
You might think that professional cyclists would always use expensive carbon bottle cages – but this isn’t necessarily the case.
Many professional cycling teams use bottle cages from Elite, although sponsorship deals do impact choice.
Bottle retention is particularly important for the pros on races such as Paris–Roubaix, and we often see pros fit a gripper material to their bottle cages to reduce the likelihood of a bottle ejecting on the cobbles.
What’s the difference between side- and top-loading bottle cages?
Most bottle cages are top-loading, where the water bottle inserts from the top and into the cage.
However, there are also side-loading bottle cages where you insert the bottle from the left or right side. These cages are good for mountain bikes where there isn’t necessarily room in the frame to pull a bottle out from a top-loading cage. They are also good if you’re running bikepacking bags, which can take up lots of room in your frame.
Do water bottle cages fit all bikes?
Many bikes have bosses to mount two bottle cages in the front triangle and sometimes with a third mounting point on the underside of the downtube.
Bottle cages are the one thing not to have many standards, with the space between the two bosses being 64mm. So you can be confident that almost any bottle cage will fit your bike.
Certain types of bike are less likely to have mounts for bottle cages. These include some mountain bikes, fixies and old steel bikes.
How to fit a bottle cage
To fit a bottle cage to your bike, you’ll need an Allen key (normally 3 or 4mm).
- Unscrew the bolts from the bottle cage bosses and put them in a safe place so you don’t lose them.
- Some cages allow for vertical adjustment, so position the bottle cage over the bosses where you’d like it mounted.
- Thread the bolts back into the holes and sercurely tighten them with your Allen key.
If you’re mounting two bottle cages in the front triangle of your bike, we’d recommend installing the seat tube bottle cage first because it can be awkward to access the bolts with the down tube cage installed.
Add a little grease or light threadlock to the bolts to stop them from undoing.
After the first couple of rides, we’d recommend re-checking all the bolts are tight because they can sometimes loosen.
