CATEYE BC-500 Side Load Bottle Cage Review
Side entry solves one specific and very common problem: a frame bag, a small frame or a full-suspension layout leaves no room to lift a bottle straight up.
The verdictA specific fix for a specific problem, and the correct answer when a frame bag has eaten your bottle clearance. Handed, so order the side you need.
A conventional cage needs roughly the bottle's full height in clear space above it. Fit a frame bag and that space disappears, which is why riders adding a frame bag so often conclude they have to give up a bottle. A side-load cage removes the bottle sideways and needs almost no vertical clearance at all.
The same applies on small frames, where the triangle was never tall enough for a full bottle, and on full-suspension layouts where the shock occupies the space. In all three cases this is a ten dollar fix for a problem that otherwise costs you a litre of carrying capacity.
The cage is handed, meaning right-entry and left-entry are separate products, and picking the wrong one puts the opening against your top tube. Which hand you want depends on which side your frame bag zip is on and which hand you prefer to drink with, so it is worth thinking about for a moment before ordering.
Review volume is low because the model is recent, so there is less long-run evidence here than for the ROCKBROS cages. The design itself is long established and the failure mode for any plastic cage is the same: it loses grip as it ages and eventually cracks at a mounting boss.
What works
- Needs almost no vertical clearance
- Solves the frame bag and small frame problem for ten dollars
- Available in both hands
What doesn't
- Handed, so ordering the wrong side is easy
- Few owner reports so far
- Plastic cages lose grip as they age
Buy it if
Riders running a frame bag, or anyone on a small frame
Skip it if
Your frame has plenty of vertical clearance already
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