A new titanium bottle cage has come out from Silca, the pump manufacturer.
Ever since I confirmed the announcement on the manufacturer's main site a while back,
I've been checking the Japanese distributor's order site almost every day,
and when it arrived on October 12th, I immediately ordered stock.
↑This is it.
The model name is SICURO (Sicuro).
The mounting holes on the base plate are slotted,
so you can adjust the vertical position to match the frame's geometry.
I compared it with Elite's Tiussi Inox that I use frequently.
(To be precise, it's the Tiussi Inox Gel, which has elastomer in the badge section.
When I wrote about Selle Italia Turbo saddles, I mentioned I'm a collector of them,
but I'm also a collector of Elite's metal bottle cages with adjustable retention.)
When you align it by the bottom position where the bottle sits, compared to the Tiussi standard,
Silca's Sicuro is about the same as when set at the highest position.
In other words, there's maximum adjustment range in the direction of lowering the cage position.
This is tremendously helpful.
By the way, Minura's Duracage also has hole positions roughly similar to the Tiussi.
Regarding the base plate finish,
the manufacturer site images made it look like a pear-grained (rough) finish,
but it's not. It's not a spec change—just my imagination.
I won't say which brand, but there's a certain famous brand's titanium bottle cage
that I have absolutely no interest in, honestly because the finish is sloppy.
The cage section distortion is visible to the eye, the base plate isn't mounted straight,
and the welds are rough, so I never ended up buying one.
With Silca's Sicuro, the finish looked extremely careful from what I could see on their main site,
so I stocked it including my own purchase.
The weld joints between the tube connections and the base.
They're doing remote-controlled laser welding via monitor,
and the finish is extremely clean.
The body is made of 3-2.5 titanium hollow tubing,
and the included bolts are 6-4 titanium,
but these are custom low-head pieces manufactured in-house specifically for this bottle cage.
Compared to the cage body, they have a color closer to stainless steel,
so at first glance I thought they didn't look very titanium-like, but
looking closer, they really are titanium.
The threads aren't continuous—they have a smooth section below the head—
and the rounded finish on the end of the bolt shows meticulous craftsmanship.
According to the manufacturer site,
compared to a standard cap screw (hex socket with cylindrical head),
they secure about three times the surface area to distribute stress.
By the way, these bolts are $12.50 for a set of two from direct sales,
but the Japanese distributors don't have a single-piece sale option.
...After writing all this, I have to say
our current stock is completely sold out. I apologize.
Silca has more than one distributor in Japan, but
there's strangely a large price discrepancy—some places set their retail price
7-10% higher than my distributor.
My distributor's tax-free retail price is ¥8,000 (US$70 in the US),
and it arrived after I ordered on October 12th,
but the distributor's stock is already gone(Why is that?)
and special orders aren't being taken either.
As I mentioned earlier, the manufacturer's main site does direct sales,
but they're also out of stock and currently ramping up production.
Since this is a brand new product, maybe they're prioritizing
sending to distributors in various countries over direct sales.
Way to go, Silca. Even though it's out of stock.
While they don't only make bottle cages,
they're currently running at 14-hour days to keep up,
so they're planning the next batch for the first week of November.
I'll be watching for stock to arrive from my Japanese distributor around that time.
So if you're interested, just wait a little while and
buy from your local shop that carries Silca products.
Bonus
↑This floor pump head, from left in the image:
Hirame horizontal cam, Hirame vertical cam, and on the far right
Arundel's "Hensel" head.
This is actually a part for Arundel's "Floor Pump 1"
floor pump. The Floor Pump 1 has a Schrader head at the end of the hose,
and you attach an adapter like the Hensel to convert it
to Presta. That's how the design works.
With the current Schrader male configuration,
you can't attach it to other manufacturers' hoses, so
I bought a Silca adapter.
The Arundel head, besides Hensel, also has a model called "Gretel",
so the name is likely based on Grimm's fairy tale or Black Lagoon.
The scene where Gretel fires a machine gun in the bar,
I personally think that might be a pun on BAR (bar) and BAR (Browning M1918).
Silca was founded in Italy and is now an American manufacturer,
but the stable spare parts supply has carried over to the new Silca.
This pump head (product name: Disc Wheel Adapter) works with the small windows on disc wheels.
The one in the image is from old Silca,
but the gasket parts are compatible with new Silca.
Though it's changed from black rubber to red elastomer.
This gasket has a tax-free retail price of ¥900 at the Japanese distributor (the one I source from),
but
Tnii has put out a pump head for the same purpose called "Valve Adapter",
and this whole thing is ¥900 tax-free.
Colors come in black and red.
If you don't care about the brand, this works just fine.
If you have a floor pump pre-equipped with one of these for disc wheels
and only use it on TT bikes or fixed-gear bikes, at the personal level
it won't last forever, but it should be good for quite a long time.
There are no spare gasket parts,
but if it wears out, replacing the whole thing isn't something to regret—the price is reasonable.
At our shop we use one of these as the compressor head,
and if we replace it next time, we're planning on going with Silca.
The extras I have—one came from a disc wheel floor pump that I removed for photos,
and both of the ones in the earlier image are my own.
Ever since I confirmed the announcement on the manufacturer's main site a while back,
I've been checking the Japanese distributor's order site almost every day,
and when it arrived on October 12th, I immediately ordered stock.
↑This is it.
The model name is SICURO (Sicuro).
The mounting holes on the base plate are slotted,
so you can adjust the vertical position to match the frame's geometry.
I compared it with Elite's Tiussi Inox that I use frequently.
(To be precise, it's the Tiussi Inox Gel, which has elastomer in the badge section.
When I wrote about Selle Italia Turbo saddles, I mentioned I'm a collector of them,
but I'm also a collector of Elite's metal bottle cages with adjustable retention.)
When you align it by the bottom position where the bottle sits, compared to the Tiussi standard,
Silca's Sicuro is about the same as when set at the highest position.
In other words, there's maximum adjustment range in the direction of lowering the cage position.
This is tremendously helpful.
By the way, Minura's Duracage also has hole positions roughly similar to the Tiussi.
Regarding the base plate finish,
the manufacturer site images made it look like a pear-grained (rough) finish,
but it's not. It's not a spec change—just my imagination.
I won't say which brand, but there's a certain famous brand's titanium bottle cage
that I have absolutely no interest in, honestly because the finish is sloppy.
The cage section distortion is visible to the eye, the base plate isn't mounted straight,
and the welds are rough, so I never ended up buying one.
With Silca's Sicuro, the finish looked extremely careful from what I could see on their main site,
so I stocked it including my own purchase.
The weld joints between the tube connections and the base.
They're doing remote-controlled laser welding via monitor,
and the finish is extremely clean.
The body is made of 3-2.5 titanium hollow tubing,
and the included bolts are 6-4 titanium,
but these are custom low-head pieces manufactured in-house specifically for this bottle cage.
Compared to the cage body, they have a color closer to stainless steel,
so at first glance I thought they didn't look very titanium-like, but
looking closer, they really are titanium.
The threads aren't continuous—they have a smooth section below the head—
and the rounded finish on the end of the bolt shows meticulous craftsmanship.
According to the manufacturer site,
compared to a standard cap screw (hex socket with cylindrical head),
they secure about three times the surface area to distribute stress.
By the way, these bolts are $12.50 for a set of two from direct sales,
but the Japanese distributors don't have a single-piece sale option.
...After writing all this, I have to say
our current stock is completely sold out. I apologize.
Silca has more than one distributor in Japan, but
there's strangely a large price discrepancy—some places set their retail price
7-10% higher than my distributor.
My distributor's tax-free retail price is ¥8,000 (US$70 in the US),
and it arrived after I ordered on October 12th,
but the distributor's stock is already gone
and special orders aren't being taken either.
As I mentioned earlier, the manufacturer's main site does direct sales,
but they're also out of stock and currently ramping up production.
Since this is a brand new product, maybe they're prioritizing
sending to distributors in various countries over direct sales.
Way to go, Silca. Even though it's out of stock.
While they don't only make bottle cages,
they're currently running at 14-hour days to keep up,
so they're planning the next batch for the first week of November.
I'll be watching for stock to arrive from my Japanese distributor around that time.
So if you're interested, just wait a little while and
buy from your local shop that carries Silca products.
Bonus
↑This floor pump head, from left in the image:
Hirame horizontal cam, Hirame vertical cam, and on the far right
Arundel's "Hensel" head.
This is actually a part for Arundel's "Floor Pump 1"
floor pump. The Floor Pump 1 has a Schrader head at the end of the hose,
and you attach an adapter like the Hensel to convert it
to Presta. That's how the design works.
With the current Schrader male configuration,
you can't attach it to other manufacturers' hoses, so
I bought a Silca adapter.
The Arundel head, besides Hensel, also has a model called "Gretel",
so the name is likely based on Grimm's fairy tale or Black Lagoon.
The scene where Gretel fires a machine gun in the bar,
I personally think that might be a pun on BAR (bar) and BAR (Browning M1918).
Silca was founded in Italy and is now an American manufacturer,
but the stable spare parts supply has carried over to the new Silca.
This pump head (product name: Disc Wheel Adapter) works with the small windows on disc wheels.
The one in the image is from old Silca,
but the gasket parts are compatible with new Silca.
Though it's changed from black rubber to red elastomer.
This gasket has a tax-free retail price of ¥900 at the Japanese distributor (the one I source from),
but
Tnii has put out a pump head for the same purpose called "Valve Adapter",
and this whole thing is ¥900 tax-free.
Colors come in black and red.
If you don't care about the brand, this works just fine.
If you have a floor pump pre-equipped with one of these for disc wheels
and only use it on TT bikes or fixed-gear bikes, at the personal level
it won't last forever, but it should be good for quite a long time.
There are no spare gasket parts,
but if it wears out, replacing the whole thing isn't something to regret—the price is reasonable.
At our shop we use one of these as the compressor head,
and if we replace it next time, we're planning on going with Silca.
The extras I have—one came from a disc wheel floor pump that I removed for photos,
and both of the ones in the earlier image are my own.