Who hasn’t been there – riding along in aero, gaining ground on the guy in front of you, totally in the zone, when suddenly, bam!, you hit a small crack in the road and half the sports drink in your aerobar-mounted bottle splashes all over your face and the straw pokes you in the eye? By the time you can see again, that dude you were chasing down has disappeared into the distance. Foiled again by the bottle that seemed at first like such a great way to get fluids without having to come out of your aerobars.
Luckily, the genius designers at X-Lab have felt all of our collective pain and have provided the triathlon community with another option: The X-Lab Torpedo Mount and Torpedo Carbon Cage. It’s a platform that sits between the aerobars with a standard water bottle cage attached to it. The platform hooks onto the aerobars with velcro straps (or, if you want a tighter fit, you can use zip ties), and the water bottle cage bolts onto the platform. You can use a cage other than the Torpedo Cage, but it’s less aerodynamic and harder to get bottles out. No special bottles are necessary – you just slip one of the bottles you normally use into the cage, and you’re good to go. After trying out several different hydration configurations (rear water bottle cages, conventional aero-bottles, carrying a second bottle in my jersey, carrying one larger bottle in the single cage you can mount on my short-girl-sized bike frame), I discovered the X-Lab at the begining of the 2011 season, and haven’t looked back since. To say that I am in love is an understatement. It’s more like I’m *obsessed.* The X-Lab is simple, it’s effective, it’s lightweight and it looks good on my bike. What more can you want from your bike gear?
What do I like so much about it? For one thing, it’s super easy to get fluids whenever you need them. If you’re riding in the hoods for a long climb, it’s a cinch to pull the bottle out to get a drink. But if you’re in aero for an extended period of time, it’s just as easy to get to your fluids. I also love that you can use regular water bottles, and don’t have to unhook a specially-shaped bottle from your bike for cleaning. During a race you can toss empty bottles and slip the bottle you get from an aid station into the Torpedo (although the race-provided bottles don’t always fit as snugly, I’ve never had a problem keeping them in place). Plus, there’s no need to make a strategic decision about where to put your water versus your energy drink or nutrition – just move them between water bottle cages as needed. For me, what all of these features mean is that I can have a very minimalist setup on my bike – I have just two water bottle cages, the Torpedo and a cage on my bike frame. Simple, effective, light and aerodynamic.
There are a few things to ding the Torpedo on, however. It’s a great system, but it’s not cheap. The platform and the cage are sold separately, and while you can technically use the platform with a water bottle cage that you have lying around, X-Lab says that you get the least amount of drag by using its Torpedo Water Bottle Cage. Since each component costs around $50, it’s not an insignificant investment, especially if you’re not sure if you’re going to like it. In addition, it can’t be used with aerobars that have a very steep curve in them, or bars that are too close together to fit the platform. It also requires a little more maneuvering while in aero to get to your fluids as compared to just drinking out of a straw. I personally find the bottles with straws cumbersome, but some people might find it less distracting than having to take a bottle out of a cage. Finally, if you’re on bumpy or uneven road surfaces, bottles tend to start to slide forward in the cage. It’s usually no big deal – I just slide the bottle back into the cage with my fingertips – but I’ve definitely had a bottle go flying once or twice.
As with all triathlon gear, your nutrition and hydration setup are personal – and what’s optimal is different for different people, depending in large part on your height, body type, bike setup, nutrition and hydration needs, flexibility and bike handling skills. All I can say is that for someone like me, who likes my setup to be as simple and intuitive as possible (and felt that both aero-bottles with straws and rear bottle cages involved too much futzing around while riding), the X-Lab Torpedo has proved itself to be ideal.
Grade: A
Pros: Easy to install and use, aerodynamic, very light (the platform and cage together are just 50g) and great for getting replacement fluids quickly during races.
Cons: Expensive, can’t be used with all aerobars, bottles can slide out and sometimes the bottles they hand out in races don’t fit as snugly as standard bottles, causing some rattling and spillage.
-Lauren
