Someone was asking why handlebar mount waterbottle cages went out of style.
Well I put a TA on my wifes late 70s black & gold AD Ventnoir for a week long tour in '98. No cage braze-ons on the frame and we didn't want to bugger up the perfect paint job. The bottles kept jumping out of the cage! Any bumps were magnified and the stem acted like a spring to make it worse. Strings, bread bag ties and rubber bands were added to try to keep the bottle in. Also, the cage wants to keep rotating downwards under the weight of a full bottle.
Good ridance.
BTW, the bike was purchased NOS from the Bike Shack in Dubuque, Iowa in 1998. Gold sew up rims, first gen black Durace bits. A much shorter stem was put on to counter the superlong top tube. And the handle bars were diamond wrapped in black and gold to match the flat black paint with gold pinstripping. No, we aren't Hawkeye fans. Ridden one week at ride the rockies and put back on a hook.
Rick Paulos
Dubuque, Iowa.