Solved: Recommend rear hydration systems

Equipment
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I’m on a 2021 Specialized Diverge. I have two smaller bottles in cages in the frame triangle, but I’d like to carry four bottles total. Seems to me that mounting two cages behind the saddle would be ideal.

My saddle has metal rails, if that matters, and I’m open to other ideas though I think I prefer the two-cages-behind-saddle strategy. I’d like to be able to use larger one-liter bottles back there, and bottle retention is definitely a priority.

Which solution would y’all recommend most highly for this purpose?

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Years ago I bought one of these:

https://www.xlab-usa.com/products/dual-rear-hydration.html

for my Selle SMP Drakon seat. Also picked up Gorilla XT bottle cages. Works great, not cheap but super solid and happy.

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keep in mind not all saddles are compatible with this.

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Seems like XLAB is a good option for this. I wasn’t aware of them, thanks.

Looks to me like their “Turbo Wing” dual-cage product works well for what I want to do if I use two of their Gorilla cages, and that one should fit any saddle (thanks to @Joelrivera for the note of caution).

I’m not looking for cheap… like @WindWarrior, I prefer “works great” and “super solid and happy”. Unless someone has a better idea, this looks like just what the doctor ordered for me.

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in that case, xlab and gorilla cages will definitely do the trick!

Maybe the Turbo will. But the super wing (the one I had) doesnt work with ISM saddles.

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My biggest piece of advice here is to avoid vertical WB holders, as they tend to eject bottles more frequently than angled holders.

X-Lab definitely makes quality holders.

The Rib Cage from Specialized is also a great cage…never lost a bottle from one of them, ever.

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Had the thought that it’d be great if someone made a pressurized 4L hydration system made to fit within the frame triangle so I wouldn’t have to carry four bottles… then had the thought that maybe someone had made that kind of thing… then ran a quick search on DuckDuckGo and it turns out someone has:

Now I’m torn as to which is a better long-term solution. In the end, I bought both the CrankTank and the X-Lab Turbo Wing, and will test them to see. I drink nearly all my on-bike nutrition, so getting this issue right is important to me.

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Triathlon Bike Accessories Under Saddle Bottle Holder Dual Water Bottle Cage Mount - Behind Seat Mount Only (Cages NOT Included) https://a.co/d/9AdrI39

This is what I use. It’s true that it will eject bottles. Learned the hard way. I use some lezyne cages that are unnecessarily tight now no more issues

I use this for a 4 1L bottle set up. works well

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