A few months ago, Elite sent us some of their bottles and cages to test out for good measure: the Ultra Light FLY 550. While a bottle and cage aren’t the first place you might look to save weight, that is the goal with both of these ultralight offerings. Funny enough thee were some other incidental benefits to this approach. Read on for the full scoop…
I tested the smaller 550ml version of the bottle, but it’s worth mentioning that a larger 750ml version is also available and both are offered in a multitude of colors as well as official race team versions.
My 550ml sample came in at the 56 gram mark. While personally I haven’t given much thought to the actual weight of my bottles, I could see how an XC racer might.
The Fly Elite bottle features a large screw top and, unlike many of the bottles that I’ve used over the years it didn’t spill a drop. The opening itself offered a ton of flow with little effort required on my part. Perhaps my favorite aspect of the bottle was the fact that it used much thinner plastic. This meant that it is not only a bit more environmentally friendly, but it also is much easier to squeeze. When you’re trying to focus on riding, being distracted by having to squeeze the heck out of a bottle is aggravating to say the least.
As far as the Prism cage was concerned, it’s a full wrap side loading design that’s available in both right and left handed versions. Loading from the side not only makes it easier to pull out and put back, but it also opens up more options for fitting bottles into tighter spaces on smaller sized frames.
At just 30 grams without hardware, the Prism cage is freakishly light – about half the weight of similar styled plastic cages that I’ve used in the past.
While I’m no stranger to side loading bottle cages and tend to prefer that approach, I appreciated that the Prism cage’s upper tab wraps around the bottle further than most, providing a little bit of added security. In the past, I have had bottles shift and even fly out of side loading cages upon even minor crashes , but such was not the case with the Prism.
Elite Ultra Light FLY 550: overall
All in all, I’ve been quite happy with the performance of both of these products. Being a European brand, Elite isn’t the first name that comes to mind when it comes to bottles and cages here in the US, but they take a smart approach to both efforts and are very much worth considering. That this combination is a good way to shave upwards of 50-100 grams without spending too much money is also a nice little bonus.
