Looking for a downtube aero bottle for TT use on 2013 madone (wide downtube that is well-suited to aero bottle) to replace standard round bottle.
The Elite Crono seems to be the consensus best option of a lot of not great bottles, with the biggest issue being random splashing out of it when full, and some complaints about it ejecting if not squeezed to backfill air after drinking.
Seems cervelo has a bottle they now sell as universal mount that looks promising and I would hope maybe reflects some learning from problems with others, but I can’t find any reviews of it, esp vs the elite. Anyone used this? Sounds like it’s standard equipment on many of their recent bikes.
Been looking around for an aero bottle i can use daily on my road bike.
It’s beyond me how none of the big manufacturers have released propritary aero bottles yet when they are arguably quite significant when it comes to aero drag and could genuinly be benificial when designed with a sepcific frame in mind.
I mean they whole industry seems to be all about propriatory parts these days and with bottles it would actually make sense but they fail to do so.
The reviews of all existing aero bottles are so mixed that I think step one is can anyone simply make a decent issue-free aero bottle Maybe Cervelo learned from all the complaints on the others - but at $50, I’d have to see some real world reviews first! It seems like it’s a part of the market that is still wide open for innovation.
The more I’ve read, I may just do a BTA bottle on my quick release bars for now.
Now that I have a P3 and really don’t want to put a full width bottle on it, I’m bumping this back to life to see if anyone has tried these, now that they’ve been out a while.
The Elite CX sounds really finicky so I’m curious how the cervelo bottle compares.
Not sure, but I’d be surprised if it didn’t. I think it’s a standard mounting point, just narrower.
But I also saw Giant also has one that seems pretty well regarded for only $15 with a solid slide rail mounting system instead of relying on grip which is a big problem with many of these, so I ordered it. Didn’t see any bad comments about it.
Ah, I misunderstood! Thought you were going to try and fit two bottles but I can see that would be impossible! Thanks for your fast reply. I am going to try and fit two crono elites.
I currently have an aero bottle 500 on my p series which came as stock, yes it looks nice and obviously benefits in aerodynamics but with the overall functionality of it I would much prefer a normal bottle. Can be a pain sometimes getting it back in and I find its quite low down
So I finally got the Giant aerobottle and I’d say it’s a pretty solid option -
Pros:
Very secure mounting rail - (I almost thought too secure) - yet very straightforward to get it in and out - just slides on and off
Impossible to distort the bottle to leave it in a state that it will eject (as I have read the Elite Crono is prone to doing) since mount rail is along length of the bottle - not clamping the bottle
Secure cap - no splashing when closed
Easier to grip than I thought it would be - was thinking it might need some skateboard tape as it’s very smooth, but it was fine today. (maybe on a hot sweaty day it could be a concern?)
The price is right - about $15 US
Cons: (all really minor or expected for an aerobottle)
Base isn’t flat - can’t stand it upright
Relatively small opening if you use a drink mix
13 oz capacity
No mounting screws so you’ll need to buy tapered head ones as shown in picture to allow the bottle to slide on/off - easy to find in stainless at any big hardware store, but no allen heads
It might be a bit more aero to close gap between bottom of bottle and frame - as seen in the Cervelo bottle shown earlier in this thread - the bracket won’t allow (it’s not slotted) - but it would also be harder to reach. X-lab makes an adapter that could be used for this purpose, or could also drill two new tapered holes in the bracket and get part of the way there.
Hi guys, managed to get a couple of the bottles onto the bike. Large frame helped I think.
I definitely prefer these over my Crono’s. They are noticably bigger (about 100ml more per bottle, giving a bit over 1L across the two bottles), they dont pop out when going over big bumps, and they dont splash all over the frame. Recommended.
Also own a S5 in 58cm and got the bottles+cages today. I’m not able to mount them like you did, as the mounting holes do not allow me to have enough space. I already drilled some holes in the cage to mount the cage at the down tube higher, but I still have not enough space…and if I go further, the head of the screws will be in the way so that the bottle will not fit into the cage…
How did you managed it? Did you drilled holes as well?
I did have to make one or two holes but did not encounter any issues after that. What size frame do you have? Mine is a 58cm.
I did the same thing for a fellow s5 owner and he had a 56cm frame but it did not work well as the bottles fouled when in the mounts. I think this indicated that the minimum frame size may be 58cm to make these bottles work together.
I would say, however, that we could have probably dilled other holes to effectively “push the bottle cages higher on the frame.” Have you tried this?
I have one on my p series. Decided that any aero gains are not worth the time wasting faffing about trying to get the bottle to seat back in the cage. The Elite one looks easier to get back in.
I tried to use the cervelo bottles once and said this is stupid. I’m probably going to put normal cages on my p5 for training and just take them off for races.
Just make sure to read all the reviews about how easy it is to get back out on it’s own too
Seriously, I haven’t tried the Elite myself yet, but it seems you have to be very careful to allow the bottle to fully re-inflate after squeezing it or it will eject from the cage - and I’ve seen this happen in real life on a group ride the one time I saw someone with it.
The Giant bottle I showed solves that problem and it doesn’t have the complexity of a tip and click kind of function - but it still requires alignment to slide back onto the rail, and it is not as low friction as a traditional bottle cage.
I may eventually try to dremel the mounting rail to make it slightly less tight as there is no chance it will go anywhere that easily with such a long rail along the length of it.
Maybe Cervelo learned from all the complaints on the others - but at $50, I’d have to see some real world reviews first! It seems like it’s a part of the market that is still wide open for innovation.
