Supacaz Fly Cage Ano

The Supacaz Fly Cage Ano in a bling! Oil Slick finish has brightened up my ride.

I must admit I’m a bit conservative when it comes to bottle cages. It’s either a nice discrete black or, if I’m off-road, something metallic that I can bend. Why do I bend my bottle cage? Well it’s to keep my bottle in the cage and not bouncing out, down the trail! So putting on a pair of light-weight Supacaz Fly Cage Ano aluminium cages had me a little concerned.

Supacaz was started back in 2012 by ex-pro Anthony Sinyard who wanted a little 80s colour on his bike. The company produces shoes, grips, bar-tape, cages and apparel. I reviewed their Super Sticky Kush bar-tape last year and thought I’d try the Fly Cage Ano.

Features and colours

The Fly Cage Ano range comes in ten colours from plain and simple black, through bright neon and ends up with Oil Slick. The cages are stamped from a single piece of aluminium, which is then anodized. My Oil Slick version was definitely on the bling side of the range and is the most expensive. It shifts through gold to deep purple as you look at it. Minimalist Supacaz logos are laser-etched into the wings, other than that it’s plain. There are a few flaws in the finish on the inside of the cage. These can’t be seen when using the cage, so weren’t an issue for me.

Although the body is ridiculously thin and light it still manages to be rigid. While I could possibly get the main section to bend if I tried hard, it’s more than stiff enough. Which is impressive for something that weighs 19g! Mounting the cage was simple, with one of the cut-outs ovalised to make locating the bosses on your bike easy.

The wings that wrap around your bottle have a curved lip at the top. This helps guide the bottle in when you’re riding without having to look. A small foot at the bottom of the cage keeps your bidon from shooting out the end.

With its lightweight and minimal design I first restricted the Fly Cage Ano to road duty. I was worried that the rough and tumble of off-road riding would just see bottles being ejected mid-ride. Here it performed as you would expect; bottles went in and out without any drama. What more could you expect from a cage?

Road and MTB approved!

However reading that Supacaz say it’s “Road/MTB Approved” I figured I’d give it a try off-road. I’ve ridden loads of gravel and Mtb races where the sight of jettisoned bottles is common. I put this down to riders carrying large capacity bottles in super-lightweight cages. These often don’t have enough grip to secure the bottle and come the first rocky chute, they bounce out. This is where metal cages that allow you to bend them to grip bottles tighter come in handy. Of course this can sometimes make it harder for you to pull them out!

While I didn’t manage any races during testing, I can confirm that standard 500 and 600mL bottles stay put. Riding down my local trails my bottles stayed where they were meant to be. Accessing them was straightforward, I didn’t need any excessive force to get them out. The anodised finish has started to wear on the inside where the bottle rubs, however the outside the finish is still unmarked. This kind of wear is probably to be expected when you start adding grit to the mix.

Conclusion

Overall I was surprised at how well Supacaz’s cage performed off-road. I had always assumed that super light cages would just flex and release my bottle. However the Fly Cage Ano has changed my opinion. While they’re not the cheapest cage around – and the Oil Slick is the most expensive in this range – they do work. Bottle cages should last you a long time, so maybe you could excuse this as an expensive, but one-off treat? Head over to the Supacaz website for some 80’s colour.