Silca Ti cage - $70, really?!?

[mtechnica]

Originally Posted by m4rk540

I just spent $80 on two sours and an imperial stout, tip included. I wish artisanal beer were as affordable as artisanal bicycle components.

Man I buy some expensive beer but $80 for 3 beers even with an excessive tip is more than I’ve spent... lol

[mtechnica]

Also king SS iris cages ftw

[Wakatel_Luum]

King cage - one man show
Silca cage - a team of employees?

Regardless they’re just bottle cages...all overpriced imo...

Ps: I have King Ti & SS on all my bikes


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[pdonk]

I've got the moots blasted cages on my moots, got them as a gift. Would I replace them with the same ones if I needed to - yes.

Ended up going with the ss version for the speedvagen though as the cost to aesthetics was not there for that bike.

I also have the SS Kings on my mtbs, they just look right.

[froze]

I do own a pair of SS King cages, they are nice looking, and they've held up really well, but they do have a fault, after about a season of putting bottles in and out repeatedly they bend, so I have to bend them back to make sure they hold the bottles securely. The best cheapest cages I have are the Bontrager RL, they hold up really well, hold the bottles very securely, fairly light at 39 grams, come in huge variety of colors, and they only cost $20 which for a piece of plastic seems high but they work far better than aluminum cages which suck. I also have a pair of Specialized S Works CF Rib II cages, which I got on sale for 1/2 price otherwise I would have never spent $55 each! They also hold the bottles real securely.

[SlowPokePete]

I've got a lot of King cages....about six ti ones (just bought a new "bottle-lowering cage" direct from them about a month ago), couple Irises, and maybe four more in ss.

I contacted Ron about one of my ti cages that has worn through...yup, a hole in the ti tube.

I pointed out my loyalty to his brand and the number of cages I have bought from him over the past years

After contacting Ron, he asked for a pic, which I sent.

It took him almost two weeks of back and forth emails every few days to finally say "cages are wear items, like tires and drivetrains. What is it that you want?"

I had already clearly told him what I want.

I asked for a warranty, or at least a discount on replacement.

Pretty disappointing.

And really, do people expect a water bottle cage to wear out like a bike tire?

So my thinking is...for an extra $10, you get ti bolts and a real warranty, from Silca.

I get it that Ron is not making a killing selling cages, but at least he should...

*recognize who his competition is (Silca)
*treat long time customers a little better?
*understand that after two weeks of emails a snarky reply is kind of offensive

Next time I'll spend an extra $10 and get the Silca.

Ron should read the Stew Leonard's rule book.

SPP™

[parallelfish]

Originally Posted by SlowPokePete

I asked for a warranty, or at least a discount on replacement.

Pretty disappointing.

And really, do people expect a water bottle cage to wear out like a bike tire?

I believe that your expectations are pretty unreasonable. Of course bottle cages are wear items. A bit of abrasion occurs each time a bottle is inserted or removed. I would not expect a manufacturer, who had not indicated a lifetime warranty, to replace items that I had worn out.

[OtayBW]

I don't know that I've ever seen a bottle cage even come close to wearing out in 30+ years of cycling, so I'm kind of surprised. However, if there's no warranty, I guess it would be unrealistic to expect a replacement. Still, I'm guessing that some kind of 'good faith accomodation' by the vendor might be good from a marketing/PR kind of persective. I don't know the details of all this, so who knows ... maybe I'm just flapping my gums.

[YoKev]

I had a mounting bracket on a second hand Ti King Cage fail.

After a simple exchange of emails, I sent it to Ron and he fixed it for free. I got it back about two months later.

Customer. For. Life.

[froze]

Gee, wearing out a cage is weird, I've broken aluminum cages from repeatedly bending them back to hold a bottle securely and of course AL doesn't like to be bent repeatedly so snap. Most of the reason I replace plastic cages is because they get nasty looking over time and cleaning doesn't do a darn thing so I toss them. I have stainless steel King cages that I've had for roughly 25 years, and during those 25 some odd years I put on that particular bike about 100,000 miles on the cages and they still look fine, no wear, plastic bottle wore out but not the cages. So needless to say I find it extremely odd you wore out your cages...UNLESS you use stainless steel bottles, then maybe those could do that. But like Chris King said, it's a wear item, you got your use out of it now it's done, time to buy another, doesn't matter to me what brand you bought, whatever makes you happy, but don't go blaming Chris King for your failure to be rational.

[nmrt]

What does Chris King have in common with King Cages?

Originally Posted by froze

Gee, wearing out a cage is weird, I've broken aluminum cages from repeatedly bending them back to hold a bottle securely and of course AL doesn't like to be bent repeatedly so snap. Most of the reason I replace plastic cages is because they get nasty looking over time and cleaning doesn't do a darn thing so I toss them. I have stainless steel King cages that I've had for roughly 25 years, and during those 25 some odd years I put on that particular bike about 100,000 miles on the cages and they still look fine, no wear, plastic bottle wore out but not the cages. So needless to say I find it extremely odd you wore out your cages...UNLESS you use stainless steel bottles, then maybe those could do that. But like Chris King said, it's a wear item, you got your use out of it now it's done, time to buy another, doesn't matter to me what brand you bought, whatever makes you happy, but don't go blaming Chris King for your failure to be rational.

[John H.]

I have owned King cages for almost 20 years- I may have my original cages. Don't really know because they all look the same.
A couple years ago I broke one- To be fair, I was bending it because I didn't think it was tight enough.
Then I found a crack in a weld in another- Likely more than 10 years old.

I contacted Ron- He gave me one cage for free for warranty- If I would have pushed he would have given me a 2nd. Instead he gave me a 2nd cage for $10-

He also suggested that I turn the broken ones into bottle cage openers- And directed me to a page that showed how to do this.

I say Ron does get it- Maybe you just caught him on a bad day, or the internet translation of what you wanted did not work out with him?
Tone and intent do not always come out on email.

Originally Posted by SlowPokePete

I've got a lot of King cages....about six ti ones (just bought a new "bottle-lowering cage" direct from them about a month ago), couple Irises, and maybe four more in ss.

I contacted Ron about one of my ti cages that has worn through...yup, a hole in the ti tube.

I pointed out my loyalty to his brand and the number of cages I have bought from him over the past years

After contacting Ron, he asked for a pic, which I sent.

It took him almost two weeks of back and forth emails every few days to finally say "cages are wear items, like tires and drivetrains. What is it that you want?"

I had already clearly told him what I want.

I asked for a warranty, or at least a discount on replacement.

Pretty disappointing.

And really, do people expect a water bottle cage to wear out like a bike tire?

So my thinking is...for an extra $10, you get ti bolts and a real warranty, from Silca.

I get it that Ron is not making a killing selling cages, but at least he should...

*recognize who his competition is (Silca)
*treat long time customers a little better?
*understand that after two weeks of emails a snarky reply is kind of offensive

Next time I'll spend an extra $10 and get the Silca.

Ron should read the Stew Leonard's rule book.

SPP™

[froze]

I looked at those Silca Sicuro TI cages and they look exactly like King ti cages, so I don't see how those will last any longer then King, the only thing you get to do by going to Silca is to test out their warranty when the cage wears out, it could go good or it could go bad for you, let us know. I couldn't find my warranty info on my King stainless cages and I couldn't find it on the internet, but Silca is 25 years.