Components brand Fabric launches a new cageless water bottle. Revolutionary hydration solution or roadie gimmick? You decide…While most mountain bikers choose to use a hydration pack for their drinking needs, there’s still a place for the humble bidon. Racing, commuting and just-going-for-a-quick-spin-ing are all situations in which you might not want your drink on your back (water does, after all, weigh a kilogram per litre) – and that’s when you reach for the bottle. However, there’s no denying that empty bottle cages are ugly. Fabric thinks it’s come up with the answer: this cageless bottle, er, cage, which weighs less than a traditional bottle and cage, and improves the aesthetics of the bike no end (on that latter point we’d definitely have to agree).

Fabric says that it’s tested the system off-road and found it “keeps bottles secure when traditional cages do not“. There’s also potential to create weird and wonderfully shaped/sized bottles around the system, as the only thing that needs to remain in the same location and shape is the mount. Could be useful for suspension designs that can’t fit a regular bottle and cage into their weird and wonderful spaces, then…

It costs £11.99 for the 600ml bottle and mount kit – so barely any more than a regular bottle – and fits to any standard bottle bosses. Sotck of the 600ml version should be available in Fabric stockists from August, with a 750ml version following later this year.

fabric.cc