How to mount water bottle cages to your mountain bike for bikepacking:
One rule of bikepacking, never ever carry water on your back. It did take one trip to convince me to place water bottle cages on my forks. Not only do the cages carry bottles, but you can strap anything to them. If you want to strap larger bags just cut the bottle cage down and use straps to secure your bags to the rails of the cage. They could function like these Blackburn Cargo Cages.
Items needed:
- Four 5″ hose clamps.
- Two water bottle cages with extended mounting wings.
- Four thin strips of foam.
- Electrical tape.
Steps:
- Cut four thin strips of craft foam or another material that will protect your forks from the metal hose clamp.
- Measure and mark where your bottle cages will sit. Then tape down the foam in the area of the mounting wings on the cages. Tape over the edge of the foam to create a seal and a cleaner look.
- Test the placement of the cages to make sure the tape and foam aligns with the mounting wings.
- Unscrew a hose clamp and then tighten down over the top wing. Make sure to place the hose clamp screw behind the fork to create a cleaner look from the front.
- Tighten a little past firm. Then do the same for the remaining three hose clamps.
- Once the cages have been mounted, trim the hose clamp if needed.
- Finally, enjoy the weight off your shoulders and ride on.
Pro Tip: Use rubber bands or Velcro straps to secure your bottles to the cages. Singletrack or super fast bumpy gravel roads could make them pop out.
Below are pictures of my mounted cages:
My First Trip with the Mounted Cages:
-thebidon
Cool, it works!!! thanks.. this is really helpful I’ve mounted my anything cage for nalgene bottle using a hose clamp.
Jason, I’m glad you found it useful! Thanks for leaving a comment.
NICE! I’ve been looking for how to do this. Doing the Munda Biddi in WA and there are large stretches of no water so I’ve been carrying 3L on my back … this will be heaps better. Cheers.
Thanks for leaving a comment! One thing I forgot to mention in the post above, the bottles could pop out on singletrack or super bumpy gravel roads if you don’t fasten them in. I use a Velcro strap or rubber bands to loop around the bottle cage and then around the bottle.
I just looked up the Munda Biddi, man it looks and sounds tough, 1000km.. I need to add that to my bucket bikepacking list. 😀
-David
Love the water bottle mounts!
Sleeping under a miserable tarp in the rain sucks. I think you should invest in a light weight tent.
I’m glad you like them!
I’ve thought about a tent but I keep wanting to go lighter and lighter. Maybe if I plan a multi day trip I’ll look into buying a tent. Thanks for leaving a comment!