Our 2018 Gift Guide provides some gift ideas for the cyclist in your life. Today we look at the Silca Sicuro titanium water bottle cage.
Water bottle cages are an oft-overlooked cycling accessory, but they can become important when you lose a water bottle or have a cage break. Silca offers a titanium product could be the perfect gift to help save cyclists from a few unwanted headaches.
Silca is originally an Italian brand known for their bicycle air pumps. Half a decade ago the original family owners sold Silca to Josh Poertner, a veteran of the bicycle industry in the U.S. and he moved the headquarters, assembly and most manufacturing to Indianapolis.
Over the past five years, Silca has focussed on improvement and perfection of every component category they’ve entered beginning with the floor pump. Read our review of the Silca Pista for a look at one of its pumps.
Does everyone need accessories of that caliber? No, but certainly there is a desire for artisan designed and created tools of the trade.
The Silca Sicuro titanium bottle cage is one of those products that could make a great gift for your favorite cyclist who appreciates good craftsmanship on their bikes.
The Sicuro is one of Silca’s finely crafted products. Silca Sicuro titanium bottle cage and titanium mounting screws
Silca is not the first company to produce a titanium water bottle cage, but with the Sicuro it seeks to improve on other designs.
Silca uses a laser welding process that produces incredibly fine welds and yields no heat-affected zone. Silca can employ lighter materials since there is less risk of failure from the brittleness of a longer weld time or broader weld zone using the process.
Construction of the Sicuro is of 3Al/2.5V titanium, is bent, welded and finally polished by hand. To account for variations of bike bottle mounts, the titanium mounting plate has 20mm long slotted holes.
The welds on the Sicuro show attention to detail. Silca Sicuro Titanium Water Bottle Cage. © C. Lee / Cyclocross Magazine
The cage includes mounting bolts made of 6Al/4V titanium that have small flange-like washers under the head of the bolt. They offer more surface area at the cage mounting hole than a cap screw or machine screw but keep the low screw head profile.
The Silca caps (right) have more surface area than a standard steel cap (left). Silca Sicuro Titanium Water Bottle Cage. © C. Lee / Cyclocross Magazine
That’s quite some attention to detail, but we also note that with the slotted mounting holes, the larger screw surface area is necessary to keep the cage from slipping with a full bottle over rough terrain.
The broad cap screw flange holds the cage securely with the slotted mount. Silca Sicuro Titanium Water Bottle Cage. © C. Lee / Cyclocross Magazine
The Silca Sicuro cage weighs 31 grams, which is quite light. The twin titanium screws are 3 grams total for the pair. For reference, a popular competing titanium cage is 35 grams.
When mounted we found the amount of force to place and remove a bottle in the Sicuro is on par with other cages we’ve used successfully on bumpy gravel rides. We’ve also found that well-designed titanium cages are amongst the most secure thanks to the qualities of the metal when used in this application.
The Sicuro held our bottle, even on rough roads. Silca Sicuro Titanium Water Bottle Cage. © C. Lee / Cyclocross Magazine
The $70 USD price tag of the Sicuro is on par with other competing carbon and titanium bottle cages. That may seem high for an oft-forgotten accessory, but if you hear a lot of complaints about losing bottles and cages breaking, the Silca Sicuro may be the perfect gift.
Silca claims it has put a lot of R&D into the Sicuro. It outlines the durability and retention tests they performed before introducing the Sicuro this year. Silca backs the cage with its 25 year Shield warranty, so you can have confidence that it will perform. We’ll report on how this beautiful cage fares in bottle retention and durability over the course of the gravel season when it begins this spring.
The Silca Sicuro is a bottle cage that will provide durability and make sure the recipient is styling on groups rides next year.
Silca Sicuro Titanium Bottle Cage Specs
Price: $70 USD
Weight: 31g
Material: 3Al/2.5V titanium
Extras: Two 6Al/4V Ti head-flanged screws, 3 grams/pair
Warranty: Silca Shield 25-years
More Info: silca.cc
