Unstable bottle cage? Look what I've found.

[Globalti]

I found these M5 stainless steel bolts at my local engineers' supplier. Dunno what they are called but they have a wide flat head and are ideal for keeping the bottle cage stable:

 

[Gary E]

It's a flanged Allen screw basically a screw with a built in washer.
It spreads the load a bit so is good on fragile cages but make sure there's enough clearance for the extra width or it can have the opposite effect
Looks good on your setup though

 

[Globalti]

It certainly looks better than the standard black-painted allen bolt (which will go rusty) and a manky old washer found in the bottom of my tool kit.

 

[PaulSecteur]

Any excuse to post a piccy of you new bike!!!

 

[ayceejay]

I must look for those. Is the thread bound to work (i.e be the same). The bolts on my carbon frame would not screw up tight so I took those from a steel frame that were longer and everything is fine. I will need to make a trip to the local quincaillerie.

 

[Globalti]

Yes, I believe the bottle bolts are all M5 thread.

On a carbon frame the bottle cage boss is a rivnut, which is inserted into the hole in the frame then pulled like a pop rivet, so that the side bulges out and holds the rivnut in place. On my old bike, years of wetting with road salt and sticky carb solution from the bottle made the top rivnut oxidise and eventually pull out. This failure was hastened by the twisting when I unscrewed the bottle cage bolts, which although they were stainless had partially rusted in because of the aluminium oxide, which had expanded and filled the thread. Not having a new rivnut to hand I cleaned everything up and glued it back in with Araldite, which seems to be working fine. I got some lanoline from the labs at work and used this to protect the threads on all four bottle cage bolts; grease would do just as well.

I've now got some new rivnuts and have discovered that you can insert them using a spare quick-release and an old axle to pull with. Alternatively you can bodge it using an M5 bolt and nut.

Some rivnuts:

A rivnut being inserted with a bolt bodge, yesterday:

 

[youngoldbloke]

I use copper grease on bottle cage bolts.

 

[Shut Up Legs]

My bottle cage is fine, and has never needed therapy .

 

[ayceejay]

Yes, I believe the bottle bolts are all M5 thread.

On a carbon frame the bottle cage boss is a rivnut, which is inserted into the hole in the frame then pulled like a pop rivet, so that the side bulges out and holds the rivnut in place. On my old bike, years of wetting with road salt and sticky carb solution from the bottle made the top rivnut oxidise and eventually pull out. This failure was hastened by the twisting when I unscrewed the bottle cage bolts, which although they were stainless had partially rusted in because of the aluminium oxide, which had expanded and filled the thread. Not having a new rivnut to hand I cleaned everything up and glued it back in with Araldite, which seems to be working fine. I got some lanoline from the labs at work and used this to protect the threads on all four bottle cage bolts; grease would do just as well.

I've now got some new rivnuts and have discovered that you can insert them using a spare quick-release and an old axle to pull with. Alternatively you can bodge it using an M5 bolt and nut.

Some rivnuts:

A rivnut being inserted with a bolt bodge, yesterday:

Wow