What saddle are you using?

Adamo Racing II

What about this from Profile as it seems with that saddle you have a longer distance to reach back.

But this from Xlabs seems like it is the best option.

Zip ties work just fine. My saddle is almost all the way slammed forward so no room on the rails, so I actually drilled two holes at the very back of the saddle itself to run zip ties through it.

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IG: idking90

...couple more....
Speedfil R3


Minoura SBH-80

Great company, great saddle.. one bottle. expensive as all heck but is the only seat that has worked for me for long distance TTing.

http://www.dashcycles.com/saddlesr/tt9

for my Adamo, zip ties actually worked better than any 3rd party mount, and seemed more secure.
For integrated bottle mounts, Specialized Sitero works great (I'm selling mine if you're interested, just dm me). It has oversized oval rails which don't fit on my new bike's clamp. I've gone with the Dash TT9 now which also has a single bottle mount- seems great so far but I've hardly had a chance to use it. But honestly if you like your Adamo, just zip tie a cage using 4 zip ties.

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Are you ready to do an Ultraman? | How I calculate Ironman race fueling | Strength Training for Athletes |

Is this for racing or training? I had the profile design option and it is fine for training. But the cheap sport-top water bottle handups at races do not fit well in there. It is really tough to get one of those bottles jammed back in after you have consumed some of the water.

Delta Sonic & X-Strike

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/Howie Nordström

I guess we also need to know what bike.

Here is a link to a DIY setup that Jesse Thomas used at Wildflower last year, I think he still uses a similar setup. Popular ST zip-tie method with room for atleast a PitStop. I like the rubber band used to keep the bottle in place:

http://triathlete-europe.competitor.com/2013/05/06/pro-diy-bike-modifications-jesse-thomas-specialized-shiv

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________________________

My Website || Twitter || Instagram

Zip ties. Light and cheap.

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ECMGN Therapy Silicon Valley:
Depression, Neurocognitive problems, Dementias (Testing and Evaluation), Trauma and PTSD, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)

This question seems to come up very regularly. I suppose if you don't need to remove your cage very often (or at all), the zip tie solution is sufficient. I've never liked it because I like being able to swap out a one-bottle holder for a two-bottle holder. This is fairly easily achieved with the Tacx unit (which holds one or two cages). Depending on your saddle/seatpost arrangement, it may require a bit of patience with a Dremel tool to get a custom fit, as it did with my Fizik Arione 2/P2 seatpost. I bought two units (they're cheap), which allows me to switch quickly between a one- or two- bottle setup without relying on (and continuously replacing) zip ties.

If you could wait a couple months we are actually coming out with a new alloy single carrier (very solid & sturdy mount) as well as an aerodynamic storage bag. Aerogeeks talks about the 2 products on their site. The carrier is the Delta 400 and the bag will be called the Aero Pouch 300.

If you wanted an immediate solution the Delta 225 and a mini bag strapped to the bottom of it would work or an X-Strike to carry a couple CO2s.

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Candice Turner
CEO
XLAB - Aerodynamic Triathlon Accessories
Dawn to Dusk - Off-road Specific Storage Accessories
http://www.XLAB-USA.com http://www.dawntodusk.bike

Top marks for the Aero pouch, clever use of space.

Thanks sharkbait_au! Appreciate the kind remark. Looking forward to getting it out to everyone very shortly :)

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Candice Turner
CEO
XLAB - Aerodynamic Triathlon Accessories
Dawn to Dusk - Off-road Specific Storage Accessories
http://www.XLAB-USA.com http://www.dawntodusk.bike

Will that bag be large enough to hold an inner tube?

Zip ties are great. Make sure your cage is tight or you'll launch that bottle every time.

I also like the Delta series from XLAB. I raced the Delta 300 on my P3 for a while and it was great - much less fuss to set up than my previous zip tie solution (though not quite as tucked away either).

Yes! It looks small, but here is a couple of pictures of the clincher setup. 2 tubes, 2 CO2s, an inflator, 2 tire levers and a tool kit.

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Candice Turner
CEO
XLAB - Aerodynamic Triathlon Accessories
Dawn to Dusk - Off-road Specific Storage Accessories
http://www.XLAB-USA.com http://www.dawntodusk.bike

WOW. Nice product. I may have to replace my ghetto fabulous home made solution.

Sorry to barge in here.......

Hi Candice I am using one of the Delta Xlab mounts on my road bike so that I can add a third bottle for long self-sustained routes. On these adventures I am not as concerned with aero qualities as I am getting from point A to point B with no opportunities to refill. For the moment I have replaced the typical seat bag with the smaller Xlab pods until I can figure out how to get another small seat bag attached, but I need to free up the cage for the third bottle. You mention using a mini bag strapped to the bottom. I have the Xlab mini on my TT bike and have tried to attach it, but could not get it to work out. I may not be creative enough for your idea. Any suggestion or links to pictures would be helpful. Thanks

The bag or the pod contains a mini tool, tire tools, 2 CO2 and tube. So not a lot of space needed. I can get the Xstrike for the CO2s to free up some space as well.

Aerodynamically, the key is getting the bottle right up against the back of the saddle. This almost always provides a significant savings in drag (5-10 watts). The moment the cage/bottle moves away from the saddle, and I'm not talking a large distance here, a significant increase in drag is created (5-10 watts). Therefore, best practice is to not use a mount, but to strap it on with zip ties.

We'll be testing strapping bottles at different angles very soon and plan to make the data public.

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Jim Manton / ERO Sports

Zipties are your friend.

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-Alex

Did you experience any damage to your Cervélo seat post with the strike?

I saw a thread where one seemed to have been significantly damaged. There were a lot of pics, and the way the bolt is tightened down just didn't look great. I did see a Strike at the expo of the event i did last weekend and am reconsidering it as a neat solution… I saw the guy with the damaged post used another saddle clamp in place of the bolt/washer setup. That looked good, but in general the Strike looks to be a lot of money for something that is very basic. If it came with a better method to clamp the mount in the seat post, it would be an easy decision.

I do like the setup you have.

No issues for me. I'd be very interested to see a picture of the damaged seat post and X-Lab's response to the issue. In the bottle is a sports drink concentrate that I take a pull from ~2x / hr. The BTA gets refilled with water at the aid stations.

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/Howie Nordström

take a look at this thread

Yeah there are actually a couple methods we have seen strapping a Mini Bag with a Delta on the back.

Best method where it attaches to the seatpost. This athlete put some longer velcro on the top to make it go completely around the seatpost.

This athlete strapped the top strap onto the cage. Although it works, it puts a lot of pressure on the arm of the Gorilla cage and we don't recommend it as it could very likely snap the arm. As soon as the Aero Pouch 300s are available this athlete will be switching :)

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Candice Turner
CEO
XLAB - Aerodynamic Triathlon Accessories
Dawn to Dusk - Off-road Specific Storage Accessories
http://www.XLAB-USA.com http://www.dawntodusk.bike

Thanks Candice

What if I got the Stealth Pocket 100 and flipped it up vertical using the two Velcro straps to the seat post with the tapered in pointed down and the headset strap around the saddle rails?
Seems like that would work. It may look odd, but on the longer journeys in the middle of nowhere vanity doesn't really matter a whole lot :-)

edit: or I suppose I could just attach the Stealth Pocket in its intended location if having something on the top tube doesn't bug me too much :-)

Love the look of that Candice, question, does the Aero Pouch 300 have to be over a Delta type carrier, or can I use that with my ziptied Gorilla cages?

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-Alex

You might try the Mezzo Bag. The straps are nice and long, easily goes around the wide aero post of my S5. Holds a ton, but can shrink nicely with the strap that wraps around the center of the bag. I will use this bag by itself, or if it's a long training ride and I want two bottles behind, I'll hang it under a Carbon Wing with 2 cages attached.

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-Alex

That particular customer's issue was involving the Delta Sonic & the seat post, nothing regarding the X-Strike (the CO2 holder). In regards to the damage, although there was no definitive conclusion (due to not hearing back from the customer after our suggestion of getting a replacement seatpost), the customer's seat post looked severely worn, much different to the multiple seat posts we have in house, and therefore the level of wear could have assisted in the Delta Sonic becoming loose. Cervelo is very good at replacing cracked seat posts. Feel free to peruse the thread that the poster above referenced. With our experience if you have a seatpost that looks like the ones I posted you will have no problems.

We are working on a solution to enhance the sturdiness of the mount, but this is more of an enhancement, it is not required. We have a few top pros that use this carrier and have had zero complaints on cracking seat posts. We actually started selling Delta Sonics mid-2012 and have only had a couple complaints on cracking. Most of which we concluded were for either severely worn seat posts or what looked like hitting it with your leg due to mounting/dismounting. We were able to tell this from the direction at which the crack appears.

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Candice Turner
CEO
XLAB - Aerodynamic Triathlon Accessories
Dawn to Dusk - Off-road Specific Storage Accessories
http://www.XLAB-USA.com http://www.dawntodusk.bike

Top tube is definitely the best place for the Stealth bag, but you can also do your first suggestion. Before we came out with the new bag we recommended a Rocket Pocket with a similar setup.

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Candice Turner
CEO
XLAB - Aerodynamic Triathlon Accessories
Dawn to Dusk - Off-road Specific Storage Accessories
http://www.XLAB-USA.com http://www.dawntodusk.bike

The bag is meant to be bolted down, there are no straps on the bag, so yes it has to go over a Delta type mount. We are still performing some rugged life testing on the bag and will suggest adding zip ties to the testing, but I doubt it will come about that we actually formally recommend it as we have seen over and over again zipties breaking and you end up losing the whole lot.

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Candice Turner
CEO
XLAB - Aerodynamic Triathlon Accessories
Dawn to Dusk - Off-road Specific Storage Accessories
http://www.XLAB-USA.com http://www.dawntodusk.bike

Thanks
I did a quick web search for images and found a few bikes with the Rocket Pocket XL mounted on the seat post and saddle rails. I think it looks pretty good and should serve my needs.

Cool. Yeah depending on what you want to store back there will decide the right bag. For Rocket Pocket you can fit a tube, levers, CO2, Inflator & Patch kit. The Rocket Pocket XL will fit a tubular ture, levers, CO2 and inflator.

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Candice Turner
CEO
XLAB - Aerodynamic Triathlon Accessories
Dawn to Dusk - Off-road Specific Storage Accessories
http://www.XLAB-USA.com http://www.dawntodusk.bike

Hi Candice, thanks for the info. It is my opinion that the clamping system employed by X-Lab isn't commensurate with the product cost, hence I'll look at a different option right now. Whilst pro endorsement is great, they often have different requirements to amateurs, i.e. less of a focus on durability. A knock mounting/dismounting is probably an unfortunate reality.

Once again, thanks for the feedback.

And appreciate your opinion, everyone has their own!

The Delta Sonic design was in coordination with Cervelo and with the concept that we had at the time we chose the best material, stainless steel and the bend is rather difficult to do. Thus the cost. In regards to pros and durability, from my memory without looking at the actual orders, Caroline Steffen and Rachel Joyce have had their model for about a year now. The only thing we switched out was the cage because we changed the look of it. I referenced the pros because of the number of races that they do, the amount of training they do, the travel wearing on the product and that these products are a path to earning a living. Not saying an age grouper doesn't do this, but it is a good example.

One thing XLAB takes pride in is durability, stability of mounts and reliability. To this day I see people using our Saddlewing that we introduced in the early 90s and 1st/2nd gens of our Carbon Wing, even flatwings! We bring in thousands of pieces of hardware a month because we care about the type of hardware that is used. Often times people come up to us and say "I should have bought XLAB in the first place". That is why we are here, to help our customers so they do not have to worry about losing hydration and we can continue to support them for years to come.

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Candice Turner
CEO
XLAB - Aerodynamic Triathlon Accessories
Dawn to Dusk - Off-road Specific Storage Accessories
http://www.XLAB-USA.com http://www.dawntodusk.bike

I purchased both the Stealth Pocket and the Rocket Pocket XL. I posted some pictures here (sorry I have not cut and cleaned up the Velcro straps yet).

http://thecyclingaddiction.blogspot.com/...10/xlab-options.html

I have not decided which bag to use behind the seat post yet. Both fit nicely even though they were not intended for that location.

There you go! Nice overall race setup. Let us know which one you decide to use!

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Candice Turner
CEO
XLAB - Aerodynamic Triathlon Accessories
Dawn to Dusk - Off-road Specific Storage Accessories
http://www.XLAB-USA.com http://www.dawntodusk.bike

Candice, I am really interested by the Aeropouch 300. Any ideas when this will be out? Also, I currently ride a sitero saddle with a bolted saddle on the integrated mount, will I be able to use the Aeropouch 300 (say with an xlab bottle cage bolted to the sitero).

thanks for the feedback

I am expecting that we will release it in about another month. Just doing some refinements to it. As far as mounting the pouch with a Sitero saddle, let me check on that and get back to you.

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Candice Turner
CEO
XLAB - Aerodynamic Triathlon Accessories
Dawn to Dusk - Off-road Specific Storage Accessories
http://www.XLAB-USA.com http://www.dawntodusk.bike

I don't have time to read through this whole thread, so I apologize if this is repetitive...

The key to single bottle placement is to get that bottle as close to the saddle (and, therefore, your arse) as possible. This will almost always result in a reduction of drag as it fills the wake you're leaving behind (no pun intended). Zip ties are great, but both Xlab and Speedfil mounts can get them close too.

The moment that bottle moves out from the saddle, another cylinder is placed in the wind thereby increasing drag. Same goes for bottles hanging between your extensions on the front. If it's out away from the head tube, well, you've just created two head tubes. No good. Up against the head tube...very good.

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Jim Manton / ERO Sports

crap, so what you are saying is the Xlab Carbon wing is like dragging a parachute behind you?

PS after IMAZ I will be giving you guys a call, I need to get refit, and following your posts on ST has me convinced that you guys know what you are talking about...

Not necessarily. You just need to set up as close to the saddle as possible. Two bottles, which we really haven't tested enough of (we tend to take them off only to put something else back on), tend to be more benign for some reason - neither a help nor a hindrance. I plan on conducting some more extensive testing on all of this with several different riders in the very near future.

Now, if only there was some place I could post all our independent test data both using the Alphamantis system and the wind tunnel. If only some web site could be planned for the future that might allow you to filter through theses results to help you make informed decisions. If only...:-)[/img]

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Jim Manton / ERO Sports

Im assuming that is a tease for a new site, of course that didnt stop me from scouring your site to try to find it...

I did check the twitter feed, and started to follow. Already looking forward to a fit!

Assuming one will be using three bottles, a BTA bottle for hydration, a second bottle for flat repair and a third bottle for hydration what in general would be the more aerodynamic solution assuming a Cervelo NP3. A bottle on the downtube and a bottle tucked in tight behind the saddle, or no bottle on the down tube and a dual bottle setup behind the saddle?

Dual bottles behind the saddle. You want to make sure that they are as narrow as possible, not widely spaced behind the saddle.

I saw one pro testing two BTA bottles (placed back to back), so that might be another option.

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ECMGN Therapy Silicon Valley:
Depression, Neurocognitive problems, Dementias (Testing and Evaluation), Trauma and PTSD, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)

Candice, any idea of the ETA for the new aero pouch 300?

Hey frenchieTT, I thought the bag was further along then it actually was. Our first prototypes didn't meet the 110% quality we want in a ground-breaking new product. As of right now I can tell you we are doing further internal testing on a new unit. I will make sure to keep everyone updated as it gets closer to shipping. I can assure you this pouch will be worth the wait and I am not basing that off my bias views, but the reactions I have received from the media, consumers & our athletes!

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Candice Turner
CEO
XLAB - Aerodynamic Triathlon Accessories
Dawn to Dusk - Off-road Specific Storage Accessories
http://www.XLAB-USA.com http://www.dawntodusk.bike

Thanks for The feedback. It is looking like a neat storage solution which I would love to try before next race season.

We will certainly do our best to get them out as soon as we are able to do so! Thanks for your support and glad you like the look of it!

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Candice Turner
CEO
XLAB - Aerodynamic Triathlon Accessories
Dawn to Dusk - Off-road Specific Storage Accessories
http://www.XLAB-USA.com http://www.dawntodusk.bike