The drill screams to life!
↑This is a Ridley Orion, but because the frame size is small,
it only has a bottle cage hole on the down tube.
Usually in such cases, the down tube bottle cage hole is positioned
lower on the tube instead (to accommodate longer bottles as a tradeoff for being single-bottle,
or to lower the center of gravity),
but when I held up an actual bottle cage with bottle,
the dimensions looked fine for mounting on the seat tube as well.
So I'm going to add a bottle cage hole to the seat tube.
The customer also competes in long-distance triathlons,
so being limited to a single bottle would be pretty tough.
I consulted with the customer about whether to position the lower hole of the bottle cage
above or below the front derailleur clamp/bracket.
Positioning it below would allow long bottles to work on this frame.
Positioning it above is my personal preference—
I want to avoid raising the center of gravity.
To be honest, I don't like the look of a bottle floating in the middle of the seat tube.
On larger frame sizes, the seat height would be higher,
so having the bottle cage too low would make the bottle hard to reach,
but on this frame size that's not a concern.
Also, considering the possibility of mounting an external electronic drivetrain battery
inside the front triangle, sometimes I position the bottle cage hole
from "straddling the clamp" to "above the clamp."
For example, the small size Specialized Tarmac SL2
had holes positioned straddling the clamp,
but the SL3 added electronic drivetrain holes and the position moved above the clamp.
Also, when straddling the clamp,
depending on the hole position on the cage itself,
the mounted bottle can contact the down tube.
That's something to watch out for as well.
This isn't a photo I took myself—I borrowed it from the internet.
This is a larger size Orion,
and the bottle cage holes are positioned above the clamp.
Though that's simply because the frame size is larger.
I'm torn about whether to straddle the clamp. Hmm...
The drill screamed away.
I've positioned it at a location I've carefully thought through.
I've tapped the threaded hole.
At this position, even long bottles will work fine.
The down tube side dimensions are also suitable for long bottles.
If the bottle on the down tube side runs empty,
I think the customer will swap it with the seat tube bottle
and continue using the down tube side for easier access.
So if running two bottles with at least one being a long bottle,
really both sides need to accommodate long bottles for convenience.
On most bottle cages, I position them so the bottle and frame don't interfere.
When straddling the clamp, to avoid interference between the cage and front derailleur clamp,
you need to add a spacer to the cage bolts,
but adding a spacer pushes the cage forward.
I've factored that in too.
This time, thanks to the pump bracket's thickness,
the cage and derailleur clamp aren't interfering,
but that bracket thickness serves the same purpose as a spacer.
In this configuration, I've confirmed that nearly all bottle cages will fit on the down tube side as well.
As I mentioned earlier, when a frame is designed for single bottle cage use,
the holes are usually positioned much lower.
Otherwise the bottle (especially long bottles) would jam inside the front triangle.
Or rather, this frame—given its size, tube diameter, and amount of sloping—
doesn't have such a cramped front triangle that it needs to be single-bottle only.
Which is why it's actually strange that there's no seat tube bottle cage hole in the first place.
Regarding the differences in bottle cage mounting positions,
between the Elite Chiussi and
the Elite Pattao,
the mounting heights look about the same,
but the Pattao has a slot, which provides lots of adjustment range, so
lowering it all the way down looks like this.
For example, this is my own bike,
and I've positioned the down tube bottle cage so low
that a seat tube bottle cage wouldn't fit.
For single-bottle setups, I prefer this kind of position,
and also because I'm not happy with where the seat tube cage hole would be,
so that's how I have it.
↑This is a Ridley Orion, but because the frame size is small,
it only has a bottle cage hole on the down tube.
Usually in such cases, the down tube bottle cage hole is positioned
lower on the tube instead (to accommodate longer bottles as a tradeoff for being single-bottle,
or to lower the center of gravity),
but when I held up an actual bottle cage with bottle,
the dimensions looked fine for mounting on the seat tube as well.
So I'm going to add a bottle cage hole to the seat tube.
The customer also competes in long-distance triathlons,
so being limited to a single bottle would be pretty tough.
I consulted with the customer about whether to position the lower hole of the bottle cage
above or below the front derailleur clamp/bracket.
Positioning it below would allow long bottles to work on this frame.
Positioning it above is my personal preference—
I want to avoid raising the center of gravity.
To be honest, I don't like the look of a bottle floating in the middle of the seat tube.
On larger frame sizes, the seat height would be higher,
so having the bottle cage too low would make the bottle hard to reach,
but on this frame size that's not a concern.
Also, considering the possibility of mounting an external electronic drivetrain battery
inside the front triangle, sometimes I position the bottle cage hole
from "straddling the clamp" to "above the clamp."
For example, the small size Specialized Tarmac SL2
had holes positioned straddling the clamp,
but the SL3 added electronic drivetrain holes and the position moved above the clamp.
Also, when straddling the clamp,
depending on the hole position on the cage itself,
the mounted bottle can contact the down tube.
That's something to watch out for as well.
This isn't a photo I took myself—I borrowed it from the internet.
This is a larger size Orion,
and the bottle cage holes are positioned above the clamp.
Though that's simply because the frame size is larger.
I'm torn about whether to straddle the clamp. Hmm...
The drill screamed away.
I've positioned it at a location I've carefully thought through.
I've tapped the threaded hole.
At this position, even long bottles will work fine.
The down tube side dimensions are also suitable for long bottles.
If the bottle on the down tube side runs empty,
I think the customer will swap it with the seat tube bottle
and continue using the down tube side for easier access.
So if running two bottles with at least one being a long bottle,
really both sides need to accommodate long bottles for convenience.
On most bottle cages, I position them so the bottle and frame don't interfere.
When straddling the clamp, to avoid interference between the cage and front derailleur clamp,
you need to add a spacer to the cage bolts,
but adding a spacer pushes the cage forward.
I've factored that in too.
This time, thanks to the pump bracket's thickness,
the cage and derailleur clamp aren't interfering,
but that bracket thickness serves the same purpose as a spacer.
In this configuration, I've confirmed that nearly all bottle cages will fit on the down tube side as well.
As I mentioned earlier, when a frame is designed for single bottle cage use,
the holes are usually positioned much lower.
Otherwise the bottle (especially long bottles) would jam inside the front triangle.
Or rather, this frame—given its size, tube diameter, and amount of sloping—
doesn't have such a cramped front triangle that it needs to be single-bottle only.
Which is why it's actually strange that there's no seat tube bottle cage hole in the first place.
Regarding the differences in bottle cage mounting positions,
between the Elite Chiussi and
the Elite Pattao,
the mounting heights look about the same,
but the Pattao has a slot, which provides lots of adjustment range, so
lowering it all the way down looks like this.
For example, this is my own bike,
and I've positioned the down tube bottle cage so low
that a seat tube bottle cage wouldn't fit.
For single-bottle setups, I prefer this kind of position,
and also because I'm not happy with where the seat tube cage hole would be,
so that's how I have it.