Velo Orange Retro Stainless Steel Bottle Cage

The best looking bottle cage of all time. That is not our claim, it is the consensus of the people who have owned one. The Velo Orange Retro is based on a French bicycle cage design from the 1940s and early 1950s, handmade from a single length of 3mm stainless steel rod and electro-polished to a bright, clean finish. It is the cage that makes riders stop and look twice at a build, and the cage that, once fitted, never gets replaced with anything else.

Handmade from a Single Length of 3mm Stainless Rod.
Every Retro cage is bent by hand from one continuous piece of 3mm stainless steel rod. No welded joints, no pressed connections, no separate parts. If you examine it closely from all angles the handmade character is visible in the slight variations that distinguish it from a machine-formed cage. Electro-polished after forming for a bright, consistent finish that will not rust or flake. The 3mm rod diameter gives the cage genuine structural rigidity while keeping weight at 34 grams.

Spring-Like Overlapping Shape. Holds the Bottle Securely.
The overlapping spring-like form grips the bottle through the natural tension of the bent rod rather than a mechanical clamping mechanism. You insert the bottle exactly as you would in any standard cage, but the spring geometry holds it more securely than most cages at any price. The cage can be gently spread for an oversized bottle or squeezed inward for a better fit with a narrower metal bottle.

With Tab. The Better Choice for Standard Plastic Bottles.
The tab version adds a small retention tab at the rear of the cage that holds standard plastic cycling bottles more securely, particularly on rough terrain where the bottle can work its way upward and out of a tab-free cage. This is Type II in Velo Orange's nomenclature. If you are running standard plastic cycling water bottles, this is the correct version. If you are running taller metal water bottles such as Bivo or Klean Kanteen, the no-tab version is the better choice as the tab can interfere with taller bottle profiles.

Based on a French Design from the 1940s.
The design predates aluminium cage technology, predates carbon fibre cage technology, and has outlasted both as the preferred cage of riders who care about what goes on their bike. The French constructeur builders who developed this form were solving a practical problem with the materials available to them. The result happened to be the most elegant bottle cage ever made.

Pairs with the Moderniste or Stands Alone.
On a Passage Touring or Passage Gravel build the Retro cage is the natural choice alongside a Brooks saddle, Velo Orange Grand Cru seatpost, and polished silver cockpit. On any chromoly steel build where the visual details have been considered, the Retro cage is the correct answer.