Elite Pase Custom Carbon Cage £54.95

Carbon fibre cages have been around for a long while now and whilst they coordinate well aesthetically with many of today’s high end framesets made from the ubiquitous material, some designs have struggled to be anything more than an exercise in vanity…
Carbon fibre with its potentially brittle characteristics can sometimes suffer from failure when an over zealous rider grabs or replaces a bottle.

Bottle dimensions are also not absolutely standard, with small variations, particularly if on the slightly larger side, spelling the end for many featherlight cages. It is this latter issue of slightly oversize bottles that Elite have attempted to address with the inclusion of a small pivot allowing some “open and close” element to their previous Pase carbon design.

This works to a point but ultimately brings a fussy design element to what should arguably be the simplest of bike components…
The underside of the rivets, if you can call them that, on the “hinged link” also look a bit spiky and will potentially scuff your bottles pretty quickly if you get a bad one…

Admittedly, with its flashy chrome highlights, it can spice up the looks of “yet another boring plain carbon bike” but ultimately looks a little tacky if you happen to notice the glue residue on some examples we have seen and factor in the inevitable deterioration of the original lovely glossy finish that happens to cages of this type after repeated use.

Style over substance…maybe, and when you consider a pair costs the best part of £110, I would personally recommend Elite’s excellent Patao 74mm Mag alloy cage which sells for £13.95 each and weighs almost the same without all of the Pase Carbon’s foibles…