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Project Any Road: King Cage Kargo Cage Quick Review

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King Cage Kargo Cage

Catch up on the Project Any Road build here.

I have used King Cage stainless bottle cages for few years now.  I had a pair of Iris cages on my commuter, and their standard stainless cage on my roadie.  Their performance has always been nothing short of perfect.  They even hold my Kleen Kanteen 20oz insulated bottle (full of coffee) with no issues, and only slight marring to the stainless bottle.  At Interbike 2012, King Cage was showing a new Kargo Cage designed to hold a small bag with a minimalist flat pack contained inside.  I ended up with one in the parts bin and it has found a welcome home on the Project Any Road rig.

Roll through for the breakdown.

King Cage Kargo Cage Contents

The cage is the same as their stainless steel affair with the additional of two bands on the rear designed to snuggly constrain a nylon bag.  The bag comes in either a road version, or a mountain version that will fit a 29er tube.

King Cage IB12

I have the mountain version here because that’s what they sent over.  I prefer it however, as the option to move it to any bike in the stable is nice.  I have it stuffed with a CO2 inflator and cartridge, one 700c road tube, two Park Tools tire levers, a patch kit and zip ties (not pictured), and there’s still room for something like a set of Fix It Sticks.  Most regular multi tools won’t fit, however.

King Cage Kargo Cage

In use, the bag has yet to eject on its own free will.  It fits very snugly into the bands, but still manages to be easy to install and remove.  Should you decide you don’t want to run the cage, there are two straps fitted with buckles and metal grommets that will allow you to bolt it directly to the bottle bosses (they buckle to the ends, and then fold behind the bag to hold it down).

King Cage Kargo Cage Profile View

This product fits in great for the rider that prefers a minimalist pack on their bike.  It’s been a great fit for my commuter as well.  I carry all the stuff to fix just about anything on my bike in my backpack.  But at lunch, or on runs to the coffee shop etc, I don’t ways need the backpack.  The Kargo Cage’s redundancy is nice in case I find myself with a flat on one of those rides.  Part with $45 plus shipping and you can own one.

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Rob
Rob
10 years ago

Love it! The saddle bag on my commuter partially blocks my rear light and this will solve that problem.

ChrisW
10 years ago

I love seeing innovative ways to attach stuff to my bike, thanks for posting this.

someguy
someguy
10 years ago

I have the 29er version of this. Since I can’t fit a small multi-tool in with it, it’s basically worthless because I still need a seatbag. It just needs to be bigger and it would be sweet. Maybe I just need those fixit stick thingies, but for now I’ve gone back to regular seatbag.

Smaller frames with two bottle cages are a problem too- the cages/bottles will interfere with each other.

Sam
Sam
10 years ago

Have you tried it on a mountain bike? I run a dropper post and have been looking for an alternative to a saddlebag, but I’m not certain how secure this system would be on rough trails.

Wolfie
Wolfie
10 years ago

Awesome. As one who believes that the bike itself should carry all of the necessary tools for its own repair and still retain the look of the simple machine that it is… I totally applaud this. This plus a small SciCon seat bag and I would be totally covered.

tzed250
tzed250
10 years ago

How does a multi-tool not fit in there?

MaLóL
MaLóL
10 years ago

speedsleev.com that’s all you need. this one is like destroying a perfect king cage, also it looks ugly, and a bit… unnecessary, to say the least.

NDE
NDE
10 years ago

I’ve used this on my Mtn bike for over a year. I have it packed to the brim so getting it in and out is a bit of work. I keep a 29er tube (back up for tubeless), tire levers, mini pump, and some missing links and extra chains. I still keep a saddle bag for my CB multi-tool and a small first aid kit. Also my bike has three bottle mounts so this one is on the under side of my downtube and I have had not problem keeping it in place.

Padrote
Padrote
10 years ago

The speedslev thing isn’t special. You might as well use an underseat bag, which I detest, because I had one slowly rub a hole in my favorite bib shorts.

I like the king cage idea but I’m afraid it won’t fit on either of my mountain bikes.

edubfromktown
edubfromktown
10 years ago

Great idea but definitely fails on two water bottle mounted 21″ MTB frame for me. There is ~1/4th inch clearance between two water bottles mounted with standard cages :/

Ajax
Ajax
10 years ago

[deleted]

Allen
10 years ago

Nick,
Thanks for the write up. The Kargo Cage is a joint venture between http://www.tallacdesign.com and King Cage. There are a number of really small tools (for example Leyzne) on the market that make a complete kit. On the http://www.tallacdesign.com website you can find photos showing what fits into the Kargo bag and a PDF fit chart you can print out to confirm it will fit on your bike frame. It takes some time and work to get it all to fit into the Kargo Bag but these are the tools and supplied you access infrequently. Thanks for the support

Robert
Robert
8 years ago

This is a brilliant design, but does not hold up to normal use. I have had two titanium kargo cages fail at the welds, leaving them useless. It appears that the welds are grinded to make them smooth, but then there just isn’t much material left, so it’s not much more than a quick tack. It took almost a year to get a replacement for the first one, which failed after a 2 months of normal use. The second just failed today after using it for 4 months. Again, a great idea, but don’t waste you money. Maybe the steel version is better.

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