Silca Sicuro Cerakote Titanium bottle cage

The Silca Sicuro Cerakote Titanium Bottle Cage is absurdly expensive, but it is a thing of beauty. If you can afford it, or you're mad, or both, then you'll be pleased to hear that you probably won't need another; this gorgeous piece will look like new forever thanks to the highly abrasion-resistant Cerakote ceramic coating.

No, your eyes do not deceive you – this is indeed a bottle cage that costs £90. I think the most I've ever paid for one is £15, and even that seemed ludicrous at the time. So, what does a lot more than most people would probably ever spend on a bottle cage get you?

Well, first of all the Sicuro cage is made from high-quality 3Al/2.5V titanium, and is hand-bent and laser welded in the USA. It's pretty light (33g on the road.cc scales, just over the claimed weight of 30g) and being titanium it's also pretty tough.

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Second, it's been further beefed up courtesy of a Cerakote coating. According to Silca, it's 'the world's leading high performance ceramic coating for use in aerospace, military and biomedical applications'.

The idea behind the coating, which is a mere 1 micron thick, is to provide additional protection from abrasion – nobody wants their nice shiny titanium piping getting scuffed up by a gritty bottle, after all. It's said that by protecting the underlying surface, Cerakote also improves fatigue resistance by preventing the titanium from stress cracks.

In Silca's promotional video for the Sicuro Cerakote, it shows the cage being marked by a sharp knife. Only, the marking on the cage isn't actually a scratch, it's metal residue from the blade that's been left on the surface of the Cerakote. That's how tough it is. Once the metal is wiped away, the cage looks new again.

It's an interesting demonstration of the effectiveness of the Cerakote coating. I tried to replicate the test myself with a not-entirely-sharp Stanley blade, and indeed, it did the same thing. After inserting and removing a bottle through a couple of months' worth of grimy weather, I've not noticed a single mark on the cage.

Silca also says the cage should prevent scratching to your bottle, but I'm not totally sold on that – surely if you have some grit in between cage and bottles it'll mark the plastic when it goes in and out of the cage, Cerakote or not? After one particularly wet and muddy ride this winter, both my bottles were scratched from grit. So, there you go.

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Other than its protective qualities, what else is there to say about the Sicuro? It's a good looking cage, with a simple, traditional style. There are two long mounting holes, allowing you a decent amount of adjustment (21mm) if you want the cage to sit higher or lower when fitting to your frame, and Silca's logo takes pride of place just below the top mounting hole. The cage is also available in a rather fetching Copper, which I must admit does look rather good, and Ruby Red.

Bottles are very secure when placed in the cage, and I've not found that it's deformed in any way to give a less snug fit over time – unlike some alloy cages I've tried in the past, which have bent after a while.

And so to value... Alternatives for the titanium connoisseur? Silca's own Sicuro Titanium Bottle Cage (V2) costs £75, so if you don't care about the Cerakote side of things but you want the bling, you'll save £15. Still very expensive, of course.

The King Cage Bottle Holder is an almost reasonable £54.99 by comparison, and features the same classic looks. 

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The Supacaz TiFly Cage, in contrast, is much more extravagant, but still somewhat attractive, and even less at £41.99.

And if you like the bling but need side entry, David tested the now-£69-a-go Arundel STR and DTR cages in 2019.

Obviously, none of these options have the protective advantage of the ceramic coating.

Conclusion

Overall, this is a very lovely cage, and the Cerakote protection does appear to work. Obviously it's an insane amount of money, and I'm not even going to try to justify the price, other than to say you'll probably never have to buy another bottle cage again (unless you want to get a second). The only possible negative I can draw, other than the price, is that the coating does diminish the visual appeal of raw titanium somewhat.

Verdict

Seriously attractive, super-tough cage that will probably outlast your bike, but the price is astronomic