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I'm looking for a way to mount two water bottle cages on the seat tube. Is there any way to make this hold two water bottle cages on one bracket / mount point?

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Gregory Schultz
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  • You mean you want two bottle cages inside your frame triangle? Or behind your seat above the tire? – John Zwinck Aug 06 '16 at 23:56
  • If they are plain round tubes you can use clamp-on adapters to mount cages anywhere in the diamond triangle. Unfortunately, however, these don't work well on odd-shaped tubes. – Daniel R Hicks Aug 07 '16 at 02:15
  • I don't think there are any ready-made products that do this, probably because having bottles side-by-side like that on the seat tube or down tube would make them stick out too much. There are a bunch of saddle and seatpost mounted dual bottle carriers. – Nathan Knutson Aug 10 '16 at 23:25
  • @Gregory I edited your terminology. Feel free to revert if I've messed up your meaning. – andy256 Aug 11 '16 at 02:59

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There are lots of clamp-on bottle cages (google link), letting you add bottles wherever you have space on your bike (this is just one design, and not a particularly good one IMO, better to have two clamps):

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Or some clamps that let you mount conventional cages:

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I suggest grabbing a couple of bottles and trying to fit them into the frame.

Also, Advantages of mounting bottle under frame has a discussion of places to get more bottles onto your frame that might give you some ideas. There are lots of clamp-on bottle cages available, so you really can just screw one on wherever there is space.

enter image description here

Finding a single part that will bolt onto your existing mounts is going to be hard. Putting the bottles side by side will make them too wide for you to ride comfortably, so I'm guessing you were imagining something like this?

enter image description here

That's a long, skinny bit of metal, that has to hold a litre or more of water... weighing a kilogramme or more. It's going to be hard to build.

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Móż
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  • Lol! And to be really silly, if panniers aren't required, bottles could be mounted on the front and rear forks. – andy256 Aug 11 '16 at 04:21
  • @andy256 I've seen front fork mounted bottles, but not rear. Unless you count the crazy Polish dudes who are fascinated by riding the CSR, I'm sure I've seen one of them with jerrycans full of water where people might otherwise put panniers. Note that one of those clams is designed to go on the handlebars, and you could also use a clamp mount on the head tube. Oh, and the various seat/seatpost mounts - lots of tri kids use behind-the-seat dual holders. I'm kinda tempted to order some of the clamp-on mounts from AliExpress and experiment, but the extra reach makes me nervous-even 15mm with 1kg? – Móż Aug 11 '16 at 04:35
  • And just for those who ask CSR? – andy256 Aug 11 '16 at 04:40
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    Canning Stock Route. The holy grail of death-wish cycle tourists everywhere. Although I get the impression there are commercial 4WD groups using it now, so it's a lot safer with them there. – Móż Aug 11 '16 at 04:48
  • See – andy256 Aug 11 '16 at 04:48
  • Ohh, I didn't even think about using the top frame to hold bottles. Do you have any recommendations for a water bottle holder? Something I can snap on instead of sliding? Something that has a clamp size (measuring by wrapping around the tube) of 9cm to 12 cm. Also can someone either remove or flag the comments above this as off-topic. – Gregory Schultz Aug 11 '16 at 04:58
  • @GregorySchultz you can flag them yourself. Mouse-over the comment, on the left two little icons will appear. The triangle has the hint text "this comment adds something useful" and the flag has the hint "Flag this comment for serious problems or moderator attention". There's no "I don't really like this comment" option, though. Also, convention is that if you like an answer you upvote it, and if it's "the best" answer you accept it. – Móż Aug 11 '16 at 05:24
  • Plenty of cheap bottle cages can be frame-mounted just with a couple of big cable ties, probably with a bit of rubber (old inner tube?) to provide grip and protect the paint. I've done this a couple of times on bike with no bottle cage screws (or inaccessible due to other things). That clamp-on cage is bad because not only does it have a single clamp, it doesn't even rest against the frame so will move around like crazy when you're getting the bottle in/out without looking. – Chris H Aug 11 '16 at 08:10
  • Loving the image of a bottle in the rear triangle. Who needs a rear wheel anyway......... – Andy P Aug 11 '16 at 09:41
  • @AndyP do read the link old chap, that arrangement works for some bikes. – Móż Aug 11 '16 at 10:15
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Why two bottles? You'll have problems getting both in there unless your seat tube is really long.

Why not one larger bottle?

enter image description here

Or a longer bottle which won't be as wide

enter image description here

Between your downtube and seattube holders you will have 1.5-1.6 Litres of liquid, and more if you use bigger bottles. If ~3 litres is not enough, go for a bigger hydration pack.

Other options are

  • hang one or two off the rear of the seat, (high and aft weight)
  • One behind the seatpost (high and aft)
  • one or two on the handlebars (high and forward weight, plus gets in the way of cockpit, not aero, and weights the steering like a basket)
  • under the downtube ( ++Low and central, but very hard to get to while riding
  • On the fork legs ( bad aero, weights the steering, risk of touching spinning wheel)
  • Frozen one in the middle back pocket - works okay but is still high/aft weight, and its on the rider too.
Criggie
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  • You'll have problems getting both in there unless your seat tube is really long -- Front triangles on most road bikes, fixies, tourers, and mountain bikes (even some of the higher-end duallies, depending on the suspension layout) have ample room for a second bottle on the seat tube. – Jules Aug 11 '16 at 15:30
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I fell over a solution you might be interested in:

the WOLF TOOTH B-RAD 4

It's exactly like @Moz drawing, just irl. See https://bikepacking.com/gear/wolf-tooth-b-rad/ (quite far down) for details

Please notice: i neither own nor know that product in any more detail

user3919935
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