Review: Tacx Ciro Bottle Cages
Accessorizing the race steed is a methodical process requiring patience and consideration. Bike frames are the starting point of the matchy-matchy process. Wheels and cockpit tend to remain black, but bar wrap and bottle cages can make or break a build. After the new race bike was delivered, the bottle cage hunt commenced.
The Tacx Ciro bottle cages came out on top for a variety of reasons. Under the arm of Garmin, the Tacx Ciro features a lightweight design, twenty colors, and a remarkable price.
Constructed with a carbon shell around a glass fiber core, the Ciro bottle cage is light. Though the website and packaging claim 29 grams, the office scale tracked 30 grams no matter how we situated it. The Ciro cage works best with Tacx water bottles. Being light on Tacx bottles, we went with the old standbys. Tacx followed up to say regular bottles will fit, too, but the Tacx works best. We then experienced the difference as we resorted to twisting the bottles into the cages. There is hardly the likelihood these bottles will be ejected if riding over rought terrain. The Ciro cages are the tightest holders we have ever mounted onto a road bike.
The transaction took longer than normal due to the vast number of colors. Garmin features both glossy and matte cages. Being a predominantly black cage, we struggled to match the orange from the race bike to the two orange options in the Tacx Ciro line. Even the dark blue was entertained for a moment. Ultimately we abandoned the attempts at matching and went with gloss black. When in doubt, black it out. It was nice to have color choices to compare.
A few weeks ago, we were moments away from purchasing two titanium cages in rainbow colorways. Each was an eye watering $85. To outfit the bike would cost twice that, naturally. But then the Ciro bottle cages caught our attention for every reason including the price: $25 per bottle cage. Instead of installing flashy titanium cages, the bottles are now held with a carbon wrapped glass core glossy black cage. The entire gaze returned to the frame colors.
With two road cycling gravel events embedded in our spring calendar, bottle retention is certainly on the list of concerns. There is no interest in becoming one of the riders forced to choose over the loss of a bottle or abandoning a group to turn around for retrieval. Weighing around 29 grams, with twenty color options, and a realistic price, the Garmin Tacx Ciro bottle cages are the perfect road racing accessory. What started as a slow process accelerated into piecing the road riding experience back together with confidence.
