Shimano hooks up gravel riders (without knowing it)

Frame bags, like the Revelate Tangle,are rad. They allow you to carry all your stuff for long days in the saddle...totally accesable while riding, centered on your frame... great bags,but, there's one problem, they get in the way of your water bottles.

58 cm Tamland and medium Tangle

Carrying stuff is pretty necessary when doing day-long gravel rides, water is pretty needed too. So, what to do?  Camelback? Sure, it works, but all the weight on your back gets kinda old (and hot). Big ol' seat bag? Okay, but not as accessible. Hmmmm,there must be a better way.

Shimano Bottle Cage Adapter, SM-BA01

Enter Shimano's DI-2.
Shimano had a problem, they made this fancy electronic shifting system but they had to find some where to attach a battery to the frame. Somewhere low and centered.  The perfect area would be just above the bottom bracket, but on smaller frames, the water bottle cages were in the way. What did they do? They produced a bottle cage adapter that allows you to shift your bottle cages up and out of the way of the battery.

Here's where it gets really handy: if you flip the cage mount upside down it allows you to lower your bottle cages...just the thing needed to make a little more room to run a frame bag and still have room to get to your bottles. Installation is simple, just screw the mount into your frame, then screw your cage onto the mount. The bolt holes are slotted, so you have some adjustment on how low you want your cage to go (anywhere from 32mm-50mm).  Also, it comes with some spacers to allow the mount to clear the front derailer. It's a simple and effective design.  A little expensive ($20), but we'll worth it, in my opinion.

Plenty of room!

Thanks Shimano, ya really solved a problem.