Fabric cageless water bottle and mount

Fabric’s lightweight, cageless water bottle system offers a new way to keep your bike looking clean and clutter-free while also dropping a few grams from the traditional bottle and cage setup. The system consists of two studs that screw into your bike’s water bottle bosses and a BPA-free water bottle that mounts onto these studs.

You can adjust the tension of the system depending on what kind of roads you plan on riding. For dirt roads or ‘cross warm-up laps, tighten the studs down so your bottle will stay secure over the bumpy terrain. If you’re sticking to smooth pavement, unscrew the studs a bit so the bottle slides on and off a little easier.

In either case, the bottle is easy to grab with one hand, just as you would with a normal bottle and cage. The return trip is bit tricky, however, and takes some getting used to. We struggled to get the bottle back on the studs without looking down each time, even after several weeks of using the system.

The 600-milliliter (20.3-ounce) bottles feel sturdy and are easy to grab thanks to some ribbing along the sides where your hand naturally grasps it. The bottle is a bit stiffer than the typical Specialized-produced water bottles that you probably have stacked away in your cupboard, and it require a stronger squeeze when drinking.

The lid secures tightly to the bottle and the nozzle opens and closes by pushing or pulling up on it. Inside the nozzle is a soft silicon flow fitting that regulates the flow of water in and out of the bottle. On one of our bottles, this piece detached from the nozzle and we nearly swallowed it mid-gulp. It’s tough to get this piece securely back in place so we had to replace the lid with a new one to keep the bottle functioning properly.

The full Fabric system — including bottle, studs, and screws — weights in at an impressive 75 grams. Each stud weighs less than a gram each and the 600-milliliter bottle is just 68 grams. Compare that to a traditional setup with a lightweight carbon Aerus cage, bottle, and screws and you’ll save nearly 30 grams per bottle. Sure, that’s not ride-altering weight savings but for riders looking to eke out every last advantage, Fabric bottles are an easy upgrade.

We found the cageless design to be especially useful for cyclocross practice and racing when we wanted to carry a bottle with us on warm-up laps but didn’t want to race with a cage. Instead of installing and removing a normal water bottle cage for each race, Fabric’s cageless system allowed us to carry the bottle when we wanted it and then remove it on the start line, leaving plenty of room in the bike’s front triangle for shouldering our bike.