Purchased this as a gift and installed 2 on my daughter�s brand new gravel bike.
We did some punchy/rough rides together and she never lost a bottle and they look great.
The side enter/exit is critical since she�s 5� 3�, so it�s not a large frame triangle to navigate.
She loves these compared to her past cages on her prior gravel bike.
Full transparency, I�m partial to Elite cages: I have 2 on my ORBEA Orca OMX that have never failed.
Getting through a hot summer in So Cal, water bottles including podium chill would last maybe an hour before the contents was warm. Enter Bivo - no more warm water as the insulation allows the water to stay cold for an easy two hours if not longer. And it's painfully easy to clean. It's pricey, but unless you drop it (it dents easily) it's likely the last one you will ever need. The 21 oz size is pretty big so make sure you have enough room; otherwise go with the 17 oz size.
I've used various Elite products for years, always happy with the purchase, though they do tend to be pricier than competitors. I bought these to pair with a speedy Italian bike that I wanted to trim with Italian bling.
Based on about 25 hours of road riding, this holds various bottles of standard diameter well and even hitting some hard bumps I'm confident I won't be losing bottles. If anything, the weight-saving design with the thin, angled arm may work too well, catching on any indented bands on some bottles.
One general concern with carbon cages over plastic or metal is the flexibility versus fragility. There's enough flex in this to accommodate slightly different sizes/styles of bottles, and other than the potential catching on indented bands, I find it is reasonably forgiving when trying to return the bottle when riding by feel, imperfectly aligned.
So I used these to carry a running shoe each during a 30 adventure race in WV - probably not what they were designed for, I think, but they still did the job. The constant hammering of the trails caused the tightening screws to work loose over time, but once adjusted they were back to normal. I imagine on a more gentle tour type ride, this would not happen. They are super sturdy, the straps really held my shoes in place, not worried about loosing them, so all good really. When I took them off, there were some marks on my forks so maybe using some sort of tape under the attaching straps would be a good idea if you're worried about the look of your forks. All good though.
