When it comes to bottle cages, I have my favorites. And I have a bin full of extras, so it’s a rare occasion when I actively look for anything new. It took a very specific use case, but I found that the Wolf Tooth Morse Cage’s multiple mounting holes could solve a problem for me. And, likely, you.
When I got my new Pursuit All Road (which I love and mentioned in my Editor’s Choice list), I found that my knee would brush the top of the bottle on the seat tube because it sat very high on the frame.
The Pursuit’s bottle bosses sit quite high, as do many road bikes, likely so that any bottle cage will clear a front derailleur’s band clamp and/or body and/or cage.
Whether this bike’s bosses are abnormally high, or the cage I had on there had its bolt holes positioned to exaggerate that, didn’t matter. What mattered is that it brushed my knee and was annoying.
Wolf Tooth’s Morse Cage Ti (because, why wouldn’t I want the titanium version?) bottle cages have four positions for each bolt, with the two sliding positions giving the holes a morse code pattern (hence the product name… )
LEFT: The other bottle cage I had, note the position of bottle shelf on bottom in relation to the front derailleur clamp. RIGHT: The Morse Cage dropped the bottle by more than 1″.
This let me mount the bottle cage much lower, eliminating the problem entirely.
But maybe you don’t have that problem. But maybe you want to just keep the water weight lower on your bike. Or make room for a small frame bag. Or move the bottle up on the seat tube and slide the one on the downtube lower to it nests underneath it slightly.
Closeup at admittedly different angles that doesn’t truly express the magnitude of improvement in bottle position.
Whatever it is you’re trying to make room for, these (along with their excellent B-RAD adapters and mounting bases) give you more options and flexibility to add stuff to your bike. Or maybe just make the things you have easier to reach, more aerodynamic, or just less annoying.
Oh, and yes, they hold bottles very securely. Not too tight, but definitely snug enough to prevent wiggle or unwanted ejection. That said I’ve only ridden them on my road bike, which sees light gravel on many rides, but I’d feel comfortable putting them on a proper gravel bike, too. (I use side-entry bottles on pretty much every mountain bike, and WTC doesn’t offer one of those.
If you like the idea but want more color, rest easy, Wolf Tooth is constantly adding new colors, some only as limited editions (that seem perpetually available). The Ti cages are $69.95 (33g claimed, 33g on my scale), which is maybe the only reason why you’d opt for the $29.95 (58g) stainless steel ones. The color-Cerakoted cages are all Ti and run $84.95.
