Hi everyone,
I’m part of a small bikepacking project based in France, and I’d love to get some honest feedback on a product we’ve been working on: a modular cargo cage.
The original idea came from something I personally care a lot about: I love when one object can serve several purposes, instead of multiplying accessories on the bike.
So when I started designing this cage, I knew from the beginning that it should be made from several parts and not be limited to one fixed use.
I looked at what already existed in the industry, and apart from removable feet or slightly different shapes, I didn’t really see innovations around modularity. A long time ago, I had seen a large plastic cargo cage that allowed bottle cages to be mounted on the sides, and I really liked that idea.
So I started designing our own cage with modularity as the main goal.
The idea was that it should be usable:
– as a classic cargo cage on fork mounts,
– on any standard bottle cage mount,
– with a removable foot to support a larger bag on the fork,
– and with side extensions, like an extra bottle cage mount.
Today, the cage has two extra mounting points that allow us to attach a side “wing” for a bottle cage. But the long-term idea is that these points could be used for other accessories too. I like the idea of an object that can evolve instead of being locked into one use forever.
Once the design was ready, we made a very small first batch: 20 pieces, mostly to see if people would understand the idea and if the product made sense in real life.
To our surprise, they sold out in less than 48 hours, with only one post on our own social media. That was a huge moment for us. We thought: okay, maybe this thing really has potential.
So we started talking with suppliers, thinking about producing 100, 1,000, maybe even more units eventually. That’s when the idea of launching a crowdfunding campaign came up. We thought Kickstarter could help us introduce the product outside of France and reach people who are actually into bikepacking, gravel and touring.
The campaign has now been live for about 15 days, and it ends in a few days. Despite a pretty modest goal of 1500€, we’re currently at 43% funded.
So now I’m honestly wondering:
Did we get too excited too quickly because the first 20 units sold so fast?
Or is the product interesting, but we simply failed to get enough visibility for the campaign?
I’d really appreciate honest opinions from people who ride, pack gear on their bikes, and use cargo cages.
Does this kind of modular cage make sense to you?
Would you actually use the side bottle cage option?
Thanks a lot for reading.
TL;DR: We designed a modular bikepacking cargo cage with a removable foot and optional side bottle cage mount. Our first small batch of 20 sold out in less than 48h, so we launched a Kickstarter. It’s now ending soon and only 43% funded. I’d love honest feedback: did we overestimate the demand, or did we just fail to get visibility?
by LaGaffe_Bikepacking
23 Comments
Keep innovating and pushing the boundaries. Things will work out. Maybe not this time around, but you will keep learning and growing.
Looking at it, I can’t help but think this thing looks way too flimsy and can easily get stuck on things.
i quite like the idea, but i dont see any usecase for myself.
I love the idea but it looks a bit fragile, maybe instead of it being slightly round have it straight? And a bit thicker supports?
Anyway i would buy it since my setup for extra water is not better than that
I think you have a few things going against you, even though it could be cool.
For me as a bike mechanic, I get a little worried about if I can sell this knowing that over rough terrain leveraging the wight of a large water bottle so far from the mounting points could damage the mounts in the fork? Maybe just a thought, so I would wait to see it be adopted more widely before I sold it to customers.
Also kickstarter and the like have had more and more issues with scam like behavior. And personally I wouldn’t, as there have been too many cases recently when you support a product and then when it’s finished you are charged a bunch more money to receive anything.
Also, there are already a ton of products like this out there right now, bikepacking has become trendy, kind of like overlanding your truck. There are new gear and product companies popping out of every corner.
So it might not be you, it’s just a hard landscape to come into a newly emerging trendy niche of bicycling, while the industry is fucking drowning. I have a lot of industry friends, and athlete friends who have lost their jobs / sponsorships.
i fuck with that
looking great keep pushing
– the limit on many carbon forks, which are increasingly common, is not the actual volume or space, but the weight the eyelets are rated for. possibly make it attachable to the thru-axle instead, so the additional space can actually be used, and your product would be a lot more unique and interesting compared to beeing basically a standard cargo cage, where competition is rough.
-the wing-thing looks like it either will brake if i so much as lay my bike down gently, or worse, rip apart my fork/eyelets with the additional leverage.
keep going, you’re onto something.
I love this idea, I haven’t used cargo cages yet, but last summer I did put 950ml bottles on my fork because I wanted to spread the weight a bit more on my bike, but a pair of front panniers is too much for me.
One thing that comes to mind: are the bottles on the extension wings solid enough? I used basic aluminium bottle cages for my oversized bottles and got speed wobbles because the bottle cages weren’t rigid enough.
It looks like a clever design for sure, no negative feedback except all the screws/ nuts and bolts to bind the add ons to the body are potential failure points.
I’m no expert, but after spending multiple seasons adjusting and fine-tuning my own bikepacking setup for long, multi-day rides, I can really understand and relate to the idea behind your design. Without access to a workshop or heavy equipment, my own DIY solutions went in a similar direction.
That said, I also think this is a very niche necessity, and most people are perfectly fine with what the general market offers. Perhaps a different, less mass-market approach to distribution and promotion would work better for you. There are quite a few custom, small-scale bike equipment makers who sell through Instagram, for instance (as much as I wholeheartedly despise that platform).
Bad idea – that is too big of a lever to put a ~1 liter of water on. This thing will vibrate like crazy and might tear itself apart (at least that’s my reasoning why I would not put it on my bike).
Try showing something other than water bottle on your promotional materials. Like something large, but light (tent, tent pegs, sleeping bag, speeping matt ect.). And put a bag in that cage There is enought places on a bike to attach water on.
This is too much of a lever arm. A quick Google shows that a rigid bike frame can experience 100-200g of force due to a bump.
So to test this out, try putting about 100kg of force on the wing bottle cage. Stomp on it with your full body weight at least.
My guess is this will reveal that the eyelets or the cage frame can’t handle the load.
I like it, but my concern is torque. Full water bottles are heavy, over rough terrain that can cause torque forces on the bolts.
My question is, why not just sell it as a unique unibody design? I have racks, but id still buy these lol. I think the market would still be there if it lost the ‘flexibility’ of being modular. My bag and rack for behind my seat has a grub screw to remove half, as if i ever would. I put a good bit of blue loctite in there and forget about it, but in the beginning it loosened twice forcing me to stop and tighten it. Modular can have downsides too
If it works for you then it’s perfect 👌
Looks good to me. My advice would be to clock some real-world miles on it, ride on all kinds of terrain, stress-test it as hard as you can and document the results and any changes you had to make.
For me the barrier to purchasing this would be kickstarter. If you have the product in-hand and ready to ship within a week or so I might be tempted to purchase it just to see what it’s like. Personally I’d be incredibly unlikely to fund a kickstarter project for a thing that might be ok, might be ready in 6 months, might change design, might overrun on schedules etc etc. I’ve seen numerous things on Kickstarter which I would have purchased if it was actually available but which I just passed on because it’s just not a mechanism which is of interest to me really.
Loctite it if you’re unsure? The thickness of the metal seems good… Steel fastening hardware also seems to have been used, judging by the images only… That’ll hold up well, imo.
Cool idea and it could definitely work but not as designed….as a mechanical engineer who did structures for ~8 years, that bottle wing looks way too flimsy to me. I’m assuming its made of aluminum, not some high tensile steel. Also you are going to want an anti rotation tab on the foot. While you’re at it I would probably widen that foot anyways and add features so you can attach bungees
The bottle cage bouncing around so far away from the screws are going to fatigue those screws.
The bouncing weight of the water may damage the mounts on the fork over time. The weight of the water bottle is essentially a lever, twisting everything as it bounces. Also it’ll catch on any kind of brush or long grass, potentially causing an issue.
Good lawd, how many subs you spamming with this? Kinda shows you have no idea who this is for aside from someone with a bike with fork mounts.