Lezyne Matrix Team Bottle Cage review

Lezyne does ten different alloy, composite and carbon bottle cages from vice-like to ultralight. The avant-garde architecture of the Matrix Team delivers a bit of both those performance advantages and will sync with a lot of subtle modern bike colorways too. We have been trying them out to see how they perform when compared to the best MTB bottle cages around.

Specification

The looped cantilever bottle grabber design is pretty common with molded plastic/composite bottles but the big difference with the Matrix Team is that it faces upwards with the apex of the hoop as the highest point, not pointing top-down like a ‘V neck’ jumper. It’s this part of the cage that’s colored too and with nine different subtle or primary options, plus a metallic ‘oily rainbow’ finish for an extra $10 / £8 it’ll appeal to aesthetic spectrum syncers.

The upper and lower sections of the bottle both use short bolt slots for a bit of slide adjustment, but you don’t get bolts with the cage so be sure to buy some if your current frame mounts just have plastic plugs. The fan-shaped bottom stop is deep enough for a good solid stop with a big bottle and the material and deep trough design of the keel give a really rigid baseline to the cage. The upcurve at the top is pronounced for solid engagement with the shoulder of a keg/caddy, the neck of a short bottle or the waist of a large bottle too. Despite the strong feeling, it’s relatively light, too.

Performance

While the graceful arch of the Matrix Team looks a bit fragile it’s immediately obvious that it actually exerts an impressively firm grip on your bottle as you slide it in. It’ll guide into place from a reasonably wide range of angles too, which is always useful if you’re in a hurry on techy gravel or MTB trails. Lezyne’s claims of ‘left and right side loading action’ shouldn’t be taken to mean it's a proper side release cage for a crowded frame though as pulling the bottle sideways actually twists the cage and makes it grab harder. You can’t ‘peel’ a bottle upwards and out like a ‘V-neck’ cage either so if you only ride smooth roads and want the easiest access it’s not the cage for you.

If you’re a back road, pave, gravel or MTB rider who’s sick of backtracking to find your bottle or realizing that the last descent has put you in a drought situation then that extra grip is going to be great news. We’ve yet to disturb it even with a full bottle or an under down tube tool keg either so while it’s not as vice like in its retention as Lezyne’s Flow Cage or Arundel’s carbon design, we’d be happy to use it on any genre of bike without worrying. We’ve given it some good twangs accidentally and deliberately to see if we can distort or crack it without upsetting it either.

Verdict

Lezyne’s Matrix Team Cage definitely leans towards retention over easy release and it’s not a true side loader like they suggest. If you want to stop worrying about losing your bottle wherever you ride without excess weight and with a wide range of classic and modern colorways then this cantilevered cage is a winner. 

Tech Specs: Lezyne Matrix Team Bottle Cage 

• Price: $24.99 / £22
• Weight: 35g (without bolts) 
• Colors: White, Black, Red, Green, Blue, Dark Grey, Matte Tan, Matte Army Green, Neo Metallic (£34.99 / £30)