We love the King Cage Manythings cargo cages for carrying Nalgene bottles, fuel, and Jetboils. Over the years, some bag makers have even adorned these versatile cages with custom bags. But what if you wanted to carry something longer? Well, a few weeks ago, King Cage teased these Longer Thing Cages on its Instagram, and then the brand reached out to John to see if he’d like to check them out. Read on for more…
King Cage’s Talents
For those unaware of what King Cage is all about, I’ll give you a succinct breakdown: making metal bottle cages that are built to last. Ron and his team at King Cage make bottle cages and more from stainless steel and titanium from a small shop in Durango. Over the years, the brand has expanded from its simple bottle cages into a variety of bike-aligned or adjacent wares ranging from key chains to dust pans and more. Check out their full lineup to see for yourself.
My bush-blasted 44 Bikes Ute down in Tassie utilizing the Manything Cage…
Around 2015, King Cage launched its Manything Cage, and then a few years ago, the Minithing Cage. You see where this is going… Each of these offerings is designed to carry items on bottle and cargo cage attachments found on many gravel, mountain, and touring bikes.
The Manything Cage uses three bottle bosses and is sized around 10″ long. So it would only make sense to naturally make the Manything Cage longer, for longer loads. I was lucky enough to get my grubby hands on a pair and take a look at them in person, so let’s check them out.
They’re Just Longer
The Longer Things cage is for longer things. I love King Cage’s naming methodology. They’re the perfect size for those longer items that might not fit between your handlebars on a drop bar bike or that you just don’t have room for on your rack. I found the Longer Things cages to hold a lightweight camp chair and a 48 oz Nalgene perfectly.
What’s great about the Longer Thing Cage is there are four mounting plate locations, allowing you to raise or lower along a 3-pack cargo boss array depending on the item you’re carrying. I like to have weight as low as possible, so on my Black Cat, I have them all the way down, while still having the cage attached to three bolts.
Quick Hits:
- Price each, with two Voile straps: $70
- Weight capacity: 5lbs or 2.2kgs
- Weight: 80 grams without straps
- Total length: 15″
- Thick wall hallow tube construction
- Ti metal mounting plate
- Tig welded
Just like the Manythings Cage, the Longer Thing Cages bolt to your cargo bosses on your fork, downtube, or cargo rack like the Tumbleweed T-Rack. Then, these nifty little o-rings supplied by King Cage with every Longer Thing order keep the Voile straps in place and allow you to feed any excess strap back through.
This ensures the strap’s tail doesn’t pop into your spokes and make that spokey dokey ruckus! You could also use a mini cam strap from a brand like Austere Manufacturing if you prefer nylon webbing over ski straps.
The foot of the Longer Thing Cage protrudes out to catch things like 48 oz Nalgene bottles, camp chairs, tents, or the like, giving the items a secure platform. This ensures they don’t slip down through the ski straps if you forget to really cinch them down.
And if your bike doesn’t have cargo bosses, King Cage can supply these metal clamp bands for $1.50 each that thread through the attachment plate on the Longer Thing Cage and allow you to position them depending on your load. This is a great option for suspension forks. I will say if you use these on a fork or part of your bike where you are concerned about the paint finish being damaged, King Cage recommends you wrap the contact area with heavy-duty tape like cloth rim tape, Neubaum’s tape, or the like. Also, clamping these things to carbon is probably a bad idea in general.
Overall, the Longer Thing Cages feature the same DNA as the Manything Cages and will without a doubt be just as popular this touring season. The Longer Thing Cages are available from your local King Cage dealer or King Cage direct.
