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review
2022 Silca Sicuro Black Cerakote bottle cage 8.JPG£90.00
VERDICT:
Seriously attractive, super-tough cage that will probably outlast your bike, but the £90 price tag is astronomic
Subtly good looking
Holds bottles securely
Impervious to marking
Reasonably light
Ridiculous price tag
In this black coating, less sexy than titanium
Weight:
33g
Contact:
At road.cc every product is thoroughly tested for as long as it takes to get a proper insight into how well it works. Our reviewers are experienced cyclists that we trust to be objective. While we strive to ensure that opinions expressed are backed up by facts, reviews are by their nature an informed opinion, not a definitive verdict. We don't intentionally try to break anything (except locks) but we do try to look for weak points in any design. The overall score is not just an average of the other scores: it reflects both a product's function and value – with value determined by how a product compares with items of similar spec, quality, and price.
What the road.cc scores meanGood scores are more common than bad, because fortunately good products are more common than bad.
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- Quite good
- Average
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- Appalling
The Silca Sicuro Cerakote Titanium Bottle Cage is absurdly expensive, but it is a thing of beauty. If you can afford it, or you're mad, or both, then you'll be pleased to hear that you probably won't need another; this gorgeous piece will look like new forever thanks to the highly abrasion-resistant Cerakote ceramic coating.
No, your eyes do not deceive you – this is indeed a bottle cage that costs £90. I think the most I've ever paid for one is £15, and even that seemed ludicrous at the time. So, what does a lot more than most people would probably ever spend on a bottle cage get you?
Well, first of all the Sicuro cage is made from high-quality 3Al/2.5V titanium, and is hand-bent and laser welded in the USA. It's pretty light (33g on the road.cc scales, just over the claimed weight of 30g) and being titanium it's also pretty tough.
> Find your nearest dealer here
Second, it's been further beefed up courtesy of a Cerakote coating. According to Silca, it's 'the world's leading high performance ceramic coating for use in aerospace, military and biomedical applications'.
The idea behind the coating, which is a mere 1 micron thick, is to provide additional protection from abrasion – nobody wants their nice shiny titanium piping getting scuffed up by a gritty bottle, after all. It's said that by protecting the underlying surface, Cerakote also improves fatigue resistance by preventing the titanium from stress cracks.
In Silca's promotional video for the Sicuro Cerakote, it shows the cage being marked by a sharp knife. Only, the marking on the cage isn't actually a scratch, it's metal residue from the blade that's been left on the surface of the Cerakote. That's how tough it is. Once the metal is wiped away, the cage looks new again.
It's an interesting demonstration of the effectiveness of the Cerakote coating. I tried to replicate the test myself with a not-entirely-sharp Stanley blade, and indeed, it did the same thing. After inserting and removing a bottle through a couple of months' worth of grimy weather, I've not noticed a single mark on the cage.
Silca also says the cage should prevent scratching to your bottle, but I'm not totally sold on that – surely if you have some grit in between cage and bottles it'll mark the plastic when it goes in and out of the cage, Cerakote or not? After one particularly wet and muddy ride this winter, both my bottles were scratched from grit. So, there you go.
> Read more road.cc reviews of bottle cages here
Other than its protective qualities, what else is there to say about the Sicuro? It's a good looking cage, with a simple, traditional style. There are two long mounting holes, allowing you a decent amount of adjustment (21mm) if you want the cage to sit higher or lower when fitting to your frame, and Silca's logo takes pride of place just below the top mounting hole. The cage is also available in a rather fetching Copper, which I must admit does look rather good, and Ruby Red.
Bottles are very secure when placed in the cage, and I've not found that it's deformed in any way to give a less snug fit over time – unlike some alloy cages I've tried in the past, which have bent after a while.
And so to value... Alternatives for the titanium connoisseur? Silca's own Sicuro Titanium Bottle Cage (V2) costs £75, so if you don't care about the Cerakote side of things but you want the bling, you'll save £15. Still very expensive, of course.
The King Cage Bottle Holder is an almost reasonable £54.99 by comparison, and features the same classic looks.
> 23 of the best road bike upgrades under £50 – get a better bike on a budget
The Supacaz TiFly Cage, in contrast, is much more extravagant, but still somewhat attractive, and even less at £41.99.
And if you like the bling but need side entry, David tested the now-£69-a-go Arundel STR and DTR cages in 2019.
Obviously, none of these options have the protective advantage of the ceramic coating.
Conclusion
Overall, this is a very lovely cage, and the Cerakote protection does appear to work. Obviously it's an insane amount of money, and I'm not even going to try to justify the price, other than to say you'll probably never have to buy another bottle cage again (unless you want to get a second). The only possible negative I can draw, other than the price, is that the coating does diminish the visual appeal of raw titanium somewhat.
Verdict
Seriously attractive, super-tough cage that will probably outlast your bike, but the price is astronomic
If you're thinking of buying this product using a cashback deal why not use the road.cc Top Cashback page and get some top cashback while helping to support your favourite independent cycling website
road.cc test report
Make and model: Silca Sicuro Cerakote Titanium bottle cage
Size tested: One size
Tell us what the product is for and who it's aimed at. What do the manufacturers say about it? How does that compare to your own feelings about it?
Silca says, "All the benefits of a highly secure titanium bottle cage with a black finish that won't wear away. Other secure cages don't allow easy access to bottles, scratch your bottles, etc, but not SICURO."
Tell us some more about the technical aspects of the product?
Silca's UK distributor Saddleback lists:
Hand-bent seamless 3-2.5 titanium tubing
Ultra-durable Cerakote ceramic finish
Redesigned backplate shape for increased stability
Longer slotted eyelets for up to 21mm of fore-aft adjustment
Weight ~30g
Classic looks to match any frame
25-year Silca Shield Warranty
Rate the product for quality of construction:
10/10
Like a work of art (as far as bottle cages go).
Rate the product for performance:
9/10
Holds bottles securely, and doesn't bend.
Rate the product for durability:
8/10
The cage remains unmarked after months of testing, while bottles seem to still look good too.
Rate the product for weight (if applicable)
6/10
Reasonably light, given its strength and durability, but there are much lighter cages out there for a lot less.
Rate the product for value:
3/10
No, you'll never need to buy another cage again, unless you want two (which you probably will). But it's expensive even compared with expensive cages.
Tell us how the product performed overall when used for its designed purpose
It does exactly what it's intended to: the cage still looks like new. It's also a pretty good place to hold your bottle, I guess.
Tell us what you particularly liked about the product
The finish is pretty amazing.
Tell us what you particularly disliked about the product
Nothing (though I didn't pay for it).
How does the price compare to that of similar products in the market, including ones recently tested on road.cc?
Silca's standard titanium Sicuro cage is cheaper at £75. The King Cage is much cheaper at £54.99, while Supacaz's TiFly Cage is 'just' £41.99. You don't get the benefit of the Cerakote protection, though.
Did you enjoy using the product? Yes
Would you consider buying the product? No
Would you recommend the product to a friend? I don't have rich friends!
Use this box to explain your overall score
It's certainly a statement (albeit a subtle one – not many people are likely to notice it), and though it's mega expensive, you could argue that it's a bottle cage for life.
About the tester
Age: 39
I usually ride: Condor Italia RC custom build My best bike is:
I've been riding for: 10-20 years I ride: A few times a week I would class myself as: Experienced
I regularly do the following types of riding: commuting, touring, club rides, sportives, mtb,
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64 comments
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https://www.bikeradar.com/news/no-22-titanium-mudguards/
$1100 for a pair of titanium mudguards and only 4 comments in 2 days?
I have to admit I've drooled over ti bottle cages but I find it hard to justify the additional expense over stainless steel ones, which just look the same and some of them have cerakote coatings as well. Or you could find someone to do it for you.
Apart from the Silca stamp (and the coating), are these any different to King Ti cages which come in at 2/3rds of the price? Or indeed their beautiful 'Swan' stainless cages which are cheaper still. Ti cages look great on a naked Ti frame...otherwise probably not worth it...
Still, on the brightside...they really exist. It's not like anyone is trying to sell you an NFT one. Yet.
But think of the weight saving, 33g less for the cagem 50g less for the bottle and a whopping 750g less for the contents, you have to spend a lot of money to knock over 800g off the weight of your bike. Probably still not as much as a NFT item though.
There’s nothing quite like a review of a product that comes in at a price point at the very top of the category concerned to spark off a conversation over what constitutes ‘value’ – and here at road.cc we acknowledge that as with beauty, the perception of what makes something good value for money varies considerably.
Over the past decade, we’ve reviewed 72 bottle cages here on road.cc and this is far and away the most expensive, costing almost 30 per cent more than the next dearest one we’ve featured. Indeed, all but four cost at most half as much as this one does, and in many cases significantly less.
Now, as we’ve said previously, price is only one of the things that is taken into account when our reviewers come up with a judgment on whether or not something provides good value – and if you read the review above you’ll see that in reaching the final score a trade-off has been made between what are seen as the product’s plus points, and the cost.
In the same way, all of us, as consumers, make trade-offs every single day in the products we buy and the services we use – and it seems clear that for many people, in the months and years to come, the actual financial cost will become an increasingly important part of the equation.
So long as it doesn’t extend into personal insults or other breaches of the site rules, we don’t have a problem with someone saying that anyone forking out £90 for a bottle cage would have to have more money than sense – it’s clear that it’s a personal opinion.
And while the potential market for such as product at that price point is very small, it does exist – and as has also been pointed out in the comments, the opinion of people who would be prepared to fork out that much for a bottle cage is equally valid – it’s their money and their choice.
That's all perfectly reasonable Simon - but there's only one person on here who seems to want to turn the matter (a review of a bottle cage, for goodness' sake!) into a personal issue, and it's the reviewer who seems to have taken offence: you say "we don’t have a problem with someone saying that anyone forking out £90 for a bottle cage would have to have more money than sense" but Hollis ("Who bloody well cares. Get a life", "crap, antiquated comments", "sick of hearing about it") clearly does have a significant problem with it.
I love Road.cc and am glad to support it as a subscriber, but it's a bit weird that certain posters (you know who I mean) have been allowed to post borderline (actually not even borderline) racist comments and copiously and repeatedly insult others in the comments section for months on end without ever being pulled up on it (apart from one memorable intervention from JS) then suddenly one of the staff descends into the BTL to start a flame war about the price of bottle cages, no?
Someone nicked my bottle cage on a multi-day organised ride (whether from the big coraled area of bikes, or in transit, dunno) - but something else to bear in mind if you're spending lots... It wasn't even a posh one - an old Elite Pave tightenable one, covered in sticky energy drink! But it did have sentimental value...
That's low, even for a thief. Is there a substantial black market for bottle cages?
They did put the bolts back in, which was nice.
That's odd - most opportunistic thieves wouldn't spend the time. I did have a MTB wheel stolen from the train station once and the scrote put some crappy wheel in its place so at least I got to ride it back home.
So not a puncture swap out ?
It was a long time ago, but I don't think so. I was more interested in sneering at the cheap single wall rim when my beautiful artisan wheels had a double-walled rim (looking back, I'd declare that my wheels were cheap too, but that's more a function of how much more I spend on wheels these days)
HexLox.
But then you have just upped the price by £26 per cage, and you'd have to use 5mm hex bots with a rounded head (Ti naturally) as the 4mm bolts can't do the sticky magnet thing.
If I win the lottery I'm having at least two.
I use titanium cages, and they're extremely nice. Compared to the many other cages I've used, they grip the bottle *very* securely while also letting go of it *very* easily when you actually want the bottle to come out. They look fantastic in person (I use King cages, not Silca, but they're basically the same thing and the pics in this article don't do them justice at all). They're durable as hell, don't break, don't lose tension over time.
Would it suit your bike, personal aesthetic, and sense of value? I have no idea. But it is a legitimately functional and premium product, and the price doesn't bother me at all, because it won't have any effect on resetting standards as to what cages should cost in general, and it's not trying to be something it's not. It's just a quality product that stands on its own and won't impede your ability to buy as many five dollar plastic cages as your heart desires.
The way inflation is at the moment, it won't be long before we're reminiscing about the days where you could get a bottle cage for under 100 quid!
I remember when you could go to a sweet shop and get a bottle of coke, a big bag of pick'n'mix and a couple of mars bars and still have change from a quid. Of course they've got all those cameras now to stop shoplifters.
Yeah, those cameras are unfair
Sorry let's be realistic. this is actually not a "thing of beauty". It looks and functions like any run of the mill cheap bottle cage. At the very least one would expect some sort of uniqueness and creativity for the asking price.
Are you saying the Emperor has no clothes? I entirely agree, God knows I'm a mug for most things cycling, as my overdraft proves, but £90 for a bottle cage is several bridges too far.
Exactly. You'd have thought it would be the lightest. But no, pretty bog standard. Then again, there are people with more money than sense...
You mean it doesn't match your judgement of value? Why disparage others who may take a very different view? The cage is very different to 'bog standard'. For one thing, it's guaranteed for 25 years and will likely look exactly like new by then. Most cages look scratched after a single winter of pulling out and placing grit-covered bottles. If you've invested £9k in a gorgeous matt-black carbon bike, maybe as a present to yourself after a significant life event, why not invest 1% of that price for a similarly-high-end cage?
The review covers the reasonable reasons the price is what it is - materials, craftsmanship, finish, plus warranty. It's not a £9 cage with a 1000% markup.
As previous, I'm surprised at people who think they get to tell others how they can and can't spend their money.
Except nobody is doing that. If people want to spend £90 on a bottle cage they're quite entitled to; if other people want to express the opinion that they are mugs for doing so, they're quite entitled to as well. The only person who appears to be telling other people what to do is you, in castigating others for expressing an opinion.
Agree! And Blackthorne's original point was that he disagreed with the 'thing of beauty' part of the review. It looks similar to an awful lot of other bottle cages, for £90 I would want something to look different as well.
Strongly disagree, and I feel like you should know better Rendel (I've been on your side many times in the past FWIW).
I think it's distasteful, and in no way useful to another person, if you insult them about something they've purchased based on the price versus perceived value of said item.
There's a better way of effectively using one's time, that's doesn't stoop to petty insults.
Umm... whom have I insulted exactly? I've simply said that I think one would be a mug to spend this much on the bottle cage, I'm not walking up to people who have this bottle cage on their bikes and telling them I think they're stupid, just expressing my opinion on an Internet forum. If I may say so, you seem to have vastly overreacted to a throwaway comment, if someone wants to buy this bottle cage I'm sure they will go ahead and not give a damn about my opinion; if they actually feel I've insulted them personally by expressing my opinion about whether a £90 bottle cage is worth the money they may be being just a tad oversensitive, don't you think?
Stating that someone is a mug for enjoying spending their hard earned money isn't an insult? Ok, good one.
Leaving aside the assumption that every purchaser's money is hard earned, isn't it possible to hold the opinion that someone's a mug for spending far too much money on something that's overpriced, even if they do enjoy it? The two things are not mututally exclusive, even from a personal point of view; just as an example, last November I spent £180 on a ticket to see England vs South Africa at Twickenham and had a cracking day with my mates, I still felt a mug for paying the ridiculous price, just as I do with some of my more expensive bits of cycling kit. I freely admit it and I don't feel anyone would be insulting me by pointing it out. Maybe I'm just not looking to be cross and offended at absolutely every opportunity. Hugs x
Bro you actually said 'Then again, there are people with more money than sense...'. That's clearly you saying the purchasers of these cages are mentally deficient in some manner, and by extension you're superior. You offer no comparison with similar products or your own experience to back up your assessment of value. I just wish everyone would quit the unfounded HOW MUCH shaming of products and purchasers, where there's a clear premium benefit. It's not your money, not your choice, not your take on value. And me calling you out on it isn't me telling you what to do, it's me exercising my right to point out your lack of understanding, empathy or respect for the choices of others that have absolutely zero impact on you & yours.
Now I've given one star to products in the past, and said re value 'Given it utterly fails to achieve its purpose, it must be of minimal value'. I'd argue the Silca cage has fabulous value compared to that light.
Companies like Silca are constantly pushing the boundaries of performance, and that costs. They make loads of things I wouldn't buy, because I'm happy with what I have for the task at hand and choose to spend my money on other priorities. But there are a number of Silca products that I've purchased myself (the Ti-Torque ratchet set) or reviewed (Synergetic Lube, Grande Tool Roll) that whilst expensive have a fabulous value proposition for me. I don't expect you to agree, just don't run down the company or others because your value judgement differs.
No I didn't, surreyrider said that. You've just spent 250 words castigating me for something I didn't say.
Ha ha! Sorry Rendel! And like you and others have said I didn't say don't go and buy it if that's what you want to do. But like you I don't really think £90 for something that is probably no better than a £10 version is worth it, especially as it has little to make it stand out.
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