Arundel Dave-O Carbon Bottle Cage

The Arundel Dave-O carbon-fibre cage is fairly light and it holds onto your bottle securely without any road buzz.

Despite the castle featuring prominently in their logo, Arundel come not from the fortified yet sleepy Sussex town but from Fort Worth in Texas where they create a small range of cycle bits and bobs but mostly bottle cages, the Dave-O being one of the carbon offerings plucked from their quiver of eight models.

Named after one of Arundel's founders and made from compression moulded carbon fibre, the Dave-O was one of the very first carbon cages on the market, appearing about 10 years ago. Arundel say that despite looking simple they actually aren't that easy to make and cost a lot of money. The carbon is laid up by a delicate hand and then pressed into shape at 1,000 psi and 250 degrees, which might explain why they cost four times as much as your run-of-the-mill bottle-cage.

Fitting to a bike is as simple as fitting a cage can be, with the bottom mounting hole on the Dave-O being slightly ovalised to allow for a bit of wiggle room when fitting to not-quite-standard spaced bottle bosses. Its published weight is 30g but ours hit the scales at 35g so weight weenies might want to take their scales to the bike shop to find the lightest Dave-O on the shelves.

Whatever the weight, you definitely get plenty of security. On the road the Dave-O wraps its arms tightly round a bottle with none of that annoying buzz as a full bidon vibrates happily in the fey grip of an inadequate cage. Even over stuttery tarmac and along B-roads repeatedly ignored by the council there was no threat of bidon ejection, and when mounted on a cyclo-cross bike for extreme rattle-and-hump testing bottles stayed resolutely safe and sound. You can't want more than that.

Thankfully that tenacity doesn't mean it's impossible to remove a bottle when needed. The twin arm design of the cage leaves a large open hole at the top and, combined with a slight flex in those arms, slipping a bottle in and tugging one out is a simple fiddle-free affair, with the slight clunk of the top knuckle gripping the bottle's neck letting you know that your watery cargo is happily home.

As well as this White Out colour the Dave-O is also available in Oil Slick and Matt 3K to match your pride and joy.

Verdict

As a bottle-cage the Dave-O ticks all the boxes... well, both the boxes: it holds onto a bottle no questions asked, and it's easy to get a bottle in and out, job done. It's more expensive than some carbon cages, it's cheaper than others, it's not as light as some carbon cages yet it's more secure than some and whether you think that's the kind of money to spend on a bottle-cage is your very own need vs want discussion. If you've ever lost a water bottle or two due to feeble cages then it's £40 well spent.