Bike Water Bottle Cage (Tall) V2

Motivation

I wanted a bottle cage that could hold relatively tall bottles securely, be relatively lightweight, and be easy to print (ie. without a lot of steep overhangs). I started with this design but felt it looked too bulky, and the ribs needed to be quite thick to provide enough grip. I attempted to solve that issue in this design by adding a lot of smaller ribs, giving the cage a ‘mesh’ or ‘net’ look that is also indicative of its 3D-printed nature.

Details

The cage is designed to hold standard 73mm outer diameter bottles, but I also designed it to work well with my bottle cage storage container. The ‘depth’ of the holder is 135mm (~5"), tall enough for taller, 24oz (~700mL) sport bottles.

The design separates the ring part of the cage from the end stopper, and requires drilling through some sacrificial bridges to fit a M3x20 screw and locknut (see the previous design for assembly). There is also a variant that doesn't have the screw/nut features and can just be glued together. Note that in testing I have found the screw version is more robust than the glue version.

Printing Tips

• I recommend printing these in something like ABS or PETG for their superior mechanical properties compared to PLA. If you print these in PLA there is a higher chance of the stopper snapping off if you hit a hard bump that jostles whatever is in the cage, and the PLA will also creep over time, loosening the cage's grip.
• Increasing the time under “Slow down if layer print time is below” will slow down the print, but may reduce curling on the overhanging corners.
• Make sure your bed adhesion is sufficient, or add a brim. For this particular design, it can also be useful to sink the model down in Z ~0.1mm or so to have more surface contact area.
• For better aesthetics, you can set the seam location to ‘aligned’ or ‘rear'.
• Recommended slicing setup: