I have recently changed saddles to an Arione (which I love). In the past, I have used an XLab SaddleWing with Elite cages and have never launched a bottle. Problem is, the rear “point” on the Arione doesn’t allow the SaddleWing to fit properly to the rails. Even bending it a bit doesn’t get it out of the way enough to allow the hex nuts to tighten properly.
So I am thinking about picking up an XLab FlatWing and I want to know what you think. I don’t want to launch bottles and am curious if the FlatWing design is more apt to do that. The Elite cages hold the bottles very tightly so I don’t think there should be an issue, but I am curious to hear some opinions.
I have the Flatwing on both my Arione and Arione Tri and it works just fine. No adjustments were necessary. It also sits a little lower behind you, so less drag than the SaddleWing. I use the Velocity Velo cages with the X-lab and have never had a bottle launch, even on some really rough patches of road.
I had a FlatWing with Profile Design Kages on my bike and in probably 5K miles, only 1 bottle launch and that was going over railroad tracks. I did have a problem with part of the FlatWing rubbing the underside of my saddle (San Marco Triathgel at the time) and that is why I removed it.
My frames have NO bottle mounts and the aerobars are too close together to mount a bottle up front! : )
I’ve tried the Zipp cage on the aerobars with a regular bottle in there…works OK. Just make sure you close the bottle before you return it to the cage!
I use the profile design seat post mount. Works fine for me. Have launched maybe 2 bottles since I started using it. Agreed on the Saddlewing - not ideal with the arione.
I’ll echo the others and say the Flatwing works fine with the Profile cages. 1 launch in 2 years going over railroad tracks. Just check the fasteners occassionally, as they can come loose- or better yet, but some loktite on them when you install it.
