Finally, A Way to Strap Water to Your Bike That Doesn't Ruin the Paint
Tailfin’s new HydroMount lets you add bottle cages to any bike frame without slipping or scratching the paint. A look at why this small accessory is a big deal.
There is a specific, low-level anxiety that comes with strapping aftermarket accessories to a bicycle frame. It’s the friction. You cinch down a velcro strap or a plastic mount onto a pristine carbon downtube or a steel fork leg, and in the back of your mind, you know that a mixture of road grit and vibration is slowly sandig away your clear coat.
I’ve used plenty of hose clamps and makeshift adapters in my time—usually in a pinch before a long gravel trip where I realized I was one bottle short—but they always feel like a hack.
This is why I’ve been keeping an eye on Tailfin. They are a British brand usually known for over-engineering (in a good way) high-end racks and panniers. They have a reputation for obsessing over contact points. Today, they released the HydroMount, and while it’s one of their smallest and most affordable products, it might be one of their most useful.
The concept is simple: it adds water bottle bosses (the standard 64mm spacing) to anywhere on your bike that lacks them. Suspension forks, the underside of a down tube, or seat stays on a frame that wasn't designed for hauling gear.
What makes this interesting isn't the function itself—there are other strap-on mounts out there—but the execution. Tailfin is using their "V-Mount" design here. It utilizes a soft TPE rubber interface that grips odd tubing shapes (oval, round, square) without slipping. More importantly, that rubber acts as a buffer. It protects the frame finish from abrasion, which is exactly what I want to hear before I strap a liter of water to a carbon fork.
They’ve launched two versions. There’s a "Base" model (two straps, holds roughly 1kg/2.2lbs) which is perfect for a standard water bottle. Then there’s a "Full" model (three straps, holds 1.5kg/3.3lbs), which seems robust enough for a cargo cage carrying a Nalgene or a tool roll.
At $28 for the base and $35 for the full, it’s a relatively low-stakes upgrade that solves a very specific headache. It’s nice to see that high-end engineering trickling down to the small, practical bits that make a long ride possible.
