My Long Haul Trucker has a 42cm frame. It’s the smallest LHT that Surly builds, but it still boasts three sets of bosses for mounting water bottle cages. Two sets are located in the usual places on the seat tube and down tube. The third can found on the underside of the down tube. Take a look:

It’s a generous provision. Still, this is a small frame, and clearances are tight. While the primary down tube site will take a 1-liter bottle, there’s only room for a 0.6-liter (20-fluid ounce) bottle underneath. That’s no surprise. But I was annoyed that my seat tube cage wouldn’t accept a 0.7-liter (24-fluid ounce) bottle. Every ounce counts on a long ride, and rewatering places are often few and far between. (I ride in well-watered country, but many local bodies of water are heavily polluted, and public drinking fountains are now all but extinct. As for general stores… Well, let’s just say that Norman Rockwell’s America is long gone.)

OK. That was the problem. But I thought I had a solution. If I could drop the cage just a bit, I’d be able to shoehorn a 0.7-liter bottle into place on the seat tube. The original cages didn’t lend themselves to re-engineering (see photo above), but I found a couple of inexpensive Zéfal cages that were slot-drilled, allowing some latitude in placing the mounting screws. I figured that one or the other would be sure to do the trick. And I was right:

The Zéfal Spring bottle cage (about USD9.00) gave me just enough room to carry a 24-ounce water bottle on the seat tube. And while I was at it, I also replaced my primary down tube cage with a new Zéfal Pulse (about USD8.00). It doesn’t give me any more capacity—the original cage also accommodated a 1-liter bottle—but the old cage was developing ominous cracks around the braze. I figured it was time to retire it.

Was this a lot of trouble to go to for an extra half-cup of water? Yes. But I can remember times when that extra half-cup would have been mighty welcome. After all, as Jerome K. Jerome famously observed, “Thirst is a dangerous thing.” I’ll drink to that. What about you?

 

From the Readers Write Department…

Kirby’s found another solution, and (s)he’s been thinking a lot bigger than I have—upping the ante by liters, not ounces!

I ride a hardtail mountain bike and had problems carrying enough water. The area inside the frame only had enough room for two .6L bottles. Eric at Revelate Designs made me a frame bag and now I can carry two Evernew 2L bladders in the same space. Also, King Cage makes a great product that lets you mount a bottle cage on your stem.

 

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