Salsa anything cages?

[harryonaspot]

How large a dry bag are you putting on them? 4litres seems about right. Just curious how others are making them work. Thanks, Harry

[sam.pederson]

I was running those on my Surly cross check. With one allen mount (all I had) and hose clamps. I had a dry bag on each side, they were small I think 5 liters. My rule was nothing heavier than my TI jetboil stove in each of them.

While I think that the anything cages are a fantastic idea, and I am quite fond of Salsa, I have to warn you that both of my anything cages BROKE while riding singletrack. They snapped at where the hose clamps met the forks. I had to bungee them in order to get home.

Now, let's be fair. The salsa anything cages were designed for the Salsa Fargo, which has THREE allen bolt clamps (no need for hose clamps). It is considered out of warranty to use with hose clamps. So I was using them for an unintended application.

I would say DO NOT rely on these cages if you don't have a fargo and are trying to go off road. Yeah I took mine down some serious singletrack and that's how they broke.

If you have a fargo, go for it but try to keep it lightweight.

If not, and you are going for weight balancing, consider these instead:

https://www.revelatedesigns.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=store.catalog&CategoryID=2&ProductID=12

Along with a handlebar bag.

Again, not a slag on Salsa, long live salsa bikes, they are innovators. Just don't use these for unintended usage, or you may suffer consequences.

[bmike-vt]

I have some ultralight OR bags:


Salsa Anything Cage with OR dry sack by mbeganyi, on Flickr

I think they are 5l.
A bit too big.

These Porcelain Rocket bags are sweet - a buddy has a set and I got to have a look:

[adelorenzo]

I picked up a couple at LBS but just looking at them I fear they won't hold up. Was going to try hose clamps on the fork or maybe using one of my frame mounts (2 bosses), but I might not bother. 

[gdillon]

I have been using mine for water.definitely a little worried about breakage, but so far 80 miles dirt riding, one overnighter, and 15 miles singletrack and nothing broken yet. Using a Fargo fork, no hose clamps.

[JReeves]

I too had both of my salsa anything cages fail.  About 30 miles into a trip with under 3 pounds on each of them, they snapped off right behind where the straps run through the cage over the bolt holes.  It's too bad that they aren't a little sturdier... I was using 5L Outdoor Research Durable Dry Sacks and they were a perfect fit, and completely waterproof, which was great for a sleeping bag, or bivy/pad...

[Roland Sturm]

I had 2, both broke fairly quickly last year on TD. zip tied them together and kept a tent in one and other light stuff in the other and they made it till the end without complete failure. Good idea, bad execution/quality. Lousy straps that come with them, too. Lowered my opinion of Salsa.

[sfuller]

I bought some of these but have not really had a chance to use them yet. I'm planning on giving them a shot during the relatively safe confines of RAGBRAI this summer. I'm not planning on putting a ton of weight in them (5L OR Durable Dry Sacks like JReeves with spare clothes, etc in them), but it will be interesting to see how they fare. Hoping to toss some gravel into the three day ride out to the start to give them a bit of stress.

[paxton coyote]

I've been running one on my Fargo off & on with just my Thermorest pad on it in a bag & though they do seem a little light weight I havn't had any issues yet but been mainly on gravel roads, & yes, the straps are'nt the handiest to work with

[Flounder]

It's funny to me when I hear of how people chose to use what amounts to little more than an enlarged bottle cage. One of our customers broke his within a week. Turns out he had about 6 pounds of sleeping pad, tarp, stakes, and other crap in there. Dude!?

I use the OR dry sacks pictured above with good luck. LIGHT STUFF.

[elitheknife]

I think a fair few of the breakages (at least the ones that I am aware of) have come from the cages either getting snagged while riding, or from leaning the bike against them, not overloading.  The welds where the 'wings' meet the spine of the cage are snapping.

The Anything Cage seems like a great design, but just needs a bit of beefing-up, considering lots of folks are bolting these to forks. 

Scott

[adelorenzo]

I can report that one of these cages survived our 8-day trip on the Canol Heritage Trail, where all our gear and bikes got horribly abused and anything that was likely to break, did.

I installed it on the down tube bosses in my frame using 2 of the three mounting point, put in a 5L drybag with spare clothes, and then ran two bomber straps (Backcountry Research Clutch Straps) around the bag, rack and frame tube. So basically the straps were helping keep some of the load on the frame and the cage was keeping everything in one place.

We were doing a lot of hike-a-bike, portaging the bike through creeks, up steep banks, etc. The cage was getting pushed around a lot, for example when carrying the bike on my shoulder. Keeping spare clothes there was handy for quick access.

[sfuller]

Mine survived 10 days and about 750 miles of riding just fine. Mostly pavement, but some gravel/B roads as well. I had two 5L Outdoor Research dry bags in them with my clothing for the week, so they weren't heavily loaded. The bike was layed down on it's side a bunch and the LH cage seems to be no worse for that (so far).  FWIW, I think Salsa's site rates their capacity at 4 lbs.

[gdillon]

It's funny to me when I hear of how people chose to use what amounts to little more than an enlarged bottle cage.

50 oz. water weighs 3.25 pounds.  So really, much of the time the weight is even less.  I've been using mine all summer on a variety of trails with no problems.  The biggest downside has been that water heats up to an unpleasant temperature.  Better to keep water in the frame bag or on the back for keeping cool.

[sfuller]

Gdillon - I saw a bunch of these at the Triple D this year. Fits in an anything cage and keeps things from freezing.

http://www.outdoorresearch.com/en/water-bottle-parka.html

[gdillon]

Hey thanks.  That looks like a "cool" product   

[sfuller]

Update #2 - My right Anything Cage broke right where one of the hoop welds connects to the main mounting portion. Bike slid at work the other day and there's a good chance that the cage took a pop when that occurred. The break looks pretty clean, and it still is solid enough to hold a dry bag with my Nemo bivy in it. I'll take a closer look at it this weekend when I get back from my S24O.

[Slowerthensnot]

have to say i'm not a fan after 4 of them breaking on the divide and one putting me on my face, however i do like carrying small loads on the fork legs, working on a divide worthy fork leg rack on my own design

[jhl99]

Here is something I posted 3 years ago... still going strong, could be scaled up to whatever size is required:

http://www.bikepacking.net/forum/index.php/topic,363.0.html\

**Link to plans of Nalgene is broke... **

[paxton coyote]

I'm thinking of pulling the trigger on 1-2 of these, made from stainless to hold a 40 oz Kleen Kanteen, I bet I can find stuff bags to fit in them to hold small, rolled up items, not sure the stainless Kleen Kanteens would be great for trails as I think they'd be plenty heavy & rattle

 http://www.etsy.com.listing/97102746/custom-stainless-steel-bicycle-bottle