I took the plunge and bought it - the Sunlight 25.4mm (1") handlebar water bottle cage w/mount. That was the shipped price and it even comes with a couple of pads. I suppose it helps if your bars are not quite 1" in diameter or if you need some extra padding. The unit itself comes with padding already in the mount, so no need for it. The cage is fairly substantial. Not dinky at all.
Here's how it looks like before bolting on. I like the clean look. I've seen others on ebay for $5.99 shipped that don't look quite as nice and there aren't any specifications available to confirm it's the right dimension for my trike's rear seat bar. The 2 day shipping from Amazon was another reason I went with this Sunlite brand.I thought I'd try a Before & After layout for clarity. After all, that's what the photos are intended for. Let's see how this thing looks installed compared to stock.
A shot from the rear shows the clean lines of the Catrike frame. That weird orange thing is my emergency tag. It's got all my info in case anything happens to me on the road - free from my last ALC training ride.
Once installed, it blends in well with the trike. Doesn't look all that funky - at least not yet w/o the water bottle in place.
The look is clean from the front view too. This exposed horizontal bar is also where I plan to mount my rear lights - those are still in the mail en route to me.
The front cage is black too, so it's not awkward. Everything's coming into place. I just hope this thing doesn't annoy me when I'm leaning back. I don't see it being a problem. Accessibility is another thing. I can reach back and Paul showed me how, but I can't imagine it's as easy to get as where I mounted it on my KMX.
The rear shot's not bad either. I had played around with the idea of getting grey ones to match the bike's frame color but ultimately decided to go with the black to blend with the other components on the trike.
Tough to tell what's there and what's not there, eh? Especially from this angle, the cages once installed probably still look invisible....
...or do they? Can you spot it on the rear upper seat bar?
Once I popped in the bottles, I realized I had to readjust the angle. It wasn't clearing the neck rest. Leaning it backwards helps create a more aerodynamic look. Not quite parallel to the angle of the seat frame, but still looks decent.
I suppose it looks as clean as it's going to. Unfortunately, it sits up fairly high. That might be a good thing though b/c then I can reach it more easily.UPDATE: 1/14/12
Boy, practicing putting this water bottle back in its cage while riding is a talent I'm not sure I'll be skilled enough to accomplish flawlessly for awhile. I suspected it would be difficult, but I'm still a bit surprised how hard it really is. I think a big reason may be b/c I angled the water bottles to lean backwards toward the rear of the trike. Perhaps a more upright position would help? Tough to do while still maintaining the clearance w/the headrest.
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