Fabric Cageless Water Bottle - First Look
Fabric, based in Somerset, UK, is a relatively niche company offering a range of saddles, grips and handlebar tape. Although this is a small line up of products, every one of them has some kind of special twist, from their carbon saddle engineered by Airbus, to their lock-on grips which they claim to be the lightest available.
Their latest product to hit the market is a cageless 600ml water bottle. Instead of using a traditional cage and bottle, the Fabric bottle has small studs that screw into the frame mounts. The bottle itself has moulded recesses that mate to the studs, simple. Fabric have essentially revived an idea that was around in the 1930s. It’s a surprise no one has brought it back to market sooner as the whole package is not only a simple design, but is light and the price tag is reasonable in comparison to traditional cages out there. The mounts and bottle weigh 73 grams in total, the mounts are small and leave your bike with a clean look, and will be priced at a competitive $20 USD / £11.99 when it lands on the shelves in August. fabric.cc
Small dimples in the recesses help grip the studs.
73 grams. Weight weenies will be delighted.
Fabric admit there are a couple of downsides to this new bottle, namely that in racing situations when you might need to grab a standard bottle from a feed station - the standard bottle won’t be compatible with the Fabric mounts - and they have also acknowledged that their product isn't as fast as a standard bottle to remove and replace, which can cost you precious milliseconds when against the clock. According to Fabric however, the future holds a few more options - externally insulated bottles, graphics that coordinate with frames and won't rub off, aerodynamic shapes, and tools or pumps that fit to the same studs. Fabric doesn't believe their product will replace your standard bottles, but it will be a great alternative.
Pinkbike's Take:
 | Mounting a standard cage is not a complex mechanical procedure, but the Fabric mounts are incredibly easy to fit, especially with a multi-tool as there is no cage restricting access to the bolts. I had no issues with bottle security, although it requires a bit more of a yank to release the bottle compared to a standard cage, and a little more thought to put it back. Its light weight will interest certain folk out there; the lightest carbon cage I could find was 38 grams compared to the 3 gram studs, of course the recessed bottle is a bit heavier, but together they tipped the scales at 73 grams. The old adage of "light, cheap and strong - pick two" may have been disproved by Fabric. Over the last couple of months, this bottle has garnered more attention than any $7000 superbike or fresh product I've had, one guy even had a wad of cash in his hand trying to buy it off me at a trail centre car park! It's clearly a crowd favourite from the off. - Paul Aston |
Author Info:
Must Read This Week
Sign Up for the Pinkbike Newsletter - All the Biggest, Most Interesting Stories in your Inbox
PB Newsletter Signup
www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0_Gv3Gzs7Y
What kind of trails were you riding?
I'm skeptical that this is anywhere near as secure as a traditional cage, except maybe on cross country trails.
It would be great to have extra carrying capacity on long rides where water is scarce.
@paulaston - could you do a long-term report on how bottle grip holds up under wear & tear before Fabric launches the system in August?
Vincero have been around for 5 years and offer 500ml/750ml bottles and a magnetic carbon mount which looks far cleaner.
I.E. Make the bottles shaped to fit the frame they are being placed in.
This is a great idea,the only problem (aside from the ones in the article) is that in lighweight carbon frames the bottle cage mounts are a very sensible area (thin layers of carbon). I've seen a few frames broken or with the bolts ripped from it's slot with normal cages. If this system requires more force to use...anyway,nice to see some out-of-the-box thinking.
My verdict after 6months of hard use: 1-Star (out of 5). Fabric's bottle system simply isn't up to offroad use. I had high hopes that this would be a clean, simple solution to shorter rides where I didn't want to wear a Camelback. Here is why Fabric fails: 1) these bottles fall off. They simply launch off my 5" trailbike on moderately rocky XC trails. I've been "fortunate" enough to find the bottle again so I have enough water to finish my ride, but you simply can't rely on this system to keep water on your bike when you need it most. 2) The nozzle: the nozzle has a wide mouth & large silicon diaphragm like the Camelbak bottles, this means the bottle picks up as much dust & mud as you can find with your front wheel. The diaphragm also "puckers" meaning it opens up like a flower, allowing grit to accumulate *inside* the bottle. Fabric needs to make a traditional push-pull nozzle w/ a center plug like the specialized widemouth if they want to sell these to dirt riders.. 3) Force of insertion/removal combined w/ short bottle & non-adjustable studs. This bottle cleared the shock on my SC 5010, but sits so low on the XL frame I have to slam my dropper post just to reach it. When I do, it requires so much force to yank it off, that it's almost impossible to drink while holding a line on narrow singletrack, & putting it back on is even worse since you have to take your eyes off the trail for several seconds to locate the studs & ram it back on. Simply put, you have to stop the bike to drink from this thing unless you're on a smooth, mellow jeep road.
2: The nozzle does accumulate a bit of dirt, i find holding the bottle on its side and squeezing it a little clears it, and i only loose a few ml's of water.
3: You might want to drink your juice while you meander along your moderately rocky xc trails, but if your going so slow you can go one handed you might aswell stop for a few seconds, you'll make the time back up when you have both hands on the bars again.
I race enduro, hit the park, & drop pirate DH tracks, but clearly The rest of us need to bow to a dude w/ a 'tude as rad as yours.
Try riding that "enduro" bike uphill some time, you'll have time for a drink. Mine drops all the time, even on mellow terrain, that's the point. Since you seem so cozy w Fabric, ask them if they'll warranty my crappy bottle & get back to me. Poor design or poor quality control. Till they reach out to me offering a new bottle I couldn't care less: done with this POS.
If you'd just stuck to reporting & reflecting on facts, you might have realized that, unlike every bottle cage on the market, Fabric's bottle & stud design has zero room to adjust for tolerances in bottle boss placement. That's a design flaw. I've tried the Fabric setup on two other bikes w/ variances in boss placement of +/- 1.5mm. One held slightly better, one let go even more often. I stand by my OP as a "caveat emptor" for those who don't want to deal with a product that can't handle real-world variations in boss placement. If Fabric has enough faith in their product to reach out & drop ship a new bottle, I'd be willing to test it & post a follow-up. Otherwise, I've spent more than enough time on this failed, $15 experiment.
Good point about the boss placement, not something i'd be aware of, you know, since im posting about my experience, on my bike.
vincero-design.com/shop
Not having to line up two slots is better and the magnet adds a bit more retention.
They need to beat $35 for 115g to be competitive with conventional bottle & cheap carbon cage.
-What a great price, I can save 20 grams !! "
Hard to believe anyone on Pinkbike hasn't seen it yet...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPVRU7jSYkQ
Not really a new thing I guess, the monkii solution has more options.
Cycling bottle $20 reasonable
road.cc/content/review/58334-vincero-design-stratus20-bottlemount-system
It looks good but not very easy to use while riding (find the bottle cage is easier) and, less important, I would fear that friction wear my frame's paintjob (bottle full of mud...).