BIRZMAN BOTTLE-CLEAT
OXFORD VENTURE JACKET
£99.99
£10.99 SPECIFICATION Weight: cleat 8g bottle 105g • Bottle colours: white or black • Contact: silverfish-uk.com
SPECIFICATION Weight: 110g • Sizes: S-XXL • Colours: Grey or Red • Contact: oxfordproducts.com
Cageless bottle systems are becoming more common – both Fidlock and Fabric have them – and joining the party is Birzman with its new Bottle Cleat. The name is a bit of a misnomer because you actually get both the cleat that fits on your frame and a bottle that clips into it.
Like the Fabric design, the Birzman Bottle Cleat is a mechanical system – the bottle slots into a raised node on the base and then swivels round to engage into a plastic clip on the side.
There’s an audible snap when it locks into place, so you know when it’s engaged, but it does require more of a knack to connect compared to the Fidlock Bike Base, where you can almost throw the bottle onto the cleat and the magnets will catch it.
That said, the Birzman Bottle cleat does have a lot going for it – it’s a third of the price of the Fidlock. You also get two cleats in the box for left and right orientation, but they’re actually the same, so you can just flip them over.
You also don’t need to use specific mounting bolts as required by the Fidlock. These low-profile Allen bolts are needed to create enough clearance when the bottle engages the magnets. These look no different to regular bolts and are easy to lose.
It’s not specified what sort of riding Oxford Products new lightweight Venture jacket is aimed at, but looking at the cut – short at the front, long at the back – it’s more suited to road riding than mountain biking, and that’s because mountain bikers actually need a bit of extra length at the front.
That said, you can totally wear this jacket off-road, and it won’t matter that it’s a bit short if you have a pair of waterproof trousers underneath.
To keep the weight down, this jacket is made from an in-house Dry2dry laminate fabric. This has a 2.5-layer construction, meaning there is a nylon outer skin, a laminate and then a printed inner surface. The latter helps pick up moisture and also protects the membrane.
On the outside, the Venture gets a DWR coating, and this works really well. It also has fully taped seams to keep out the worst rain, but with a breathability rating of 10,000g, the membrane isn’t as good at moisture transfer as the best waterproof jackets, and when working hard I did get quite warm. Getting the layers right is pretty critical.
The jacket does have some decent features, like a fleecy collar, but the detachable hood lacks any sort of adjustment, so is neither under or over the helmet. But the styling is definitely road-biased – to score higher the Venture needs MTB features like a proper fitting hood and a more breathable membrane.
Paul Burwell
The only negative is that Birzman only offers the bottle in a single 650ml size, whereas the Fidlock comes in three sizes and the Fabric in two. The 650ml Birzman bottle fitted into the front triangle of my large Haibike longtermer, but it’s worth trying for size.
The Birzman Bottle-cleat is a fine looking thing, but what makes it special is the weight, low cost and the fact that it doesn’t require specialist mounting hardware.