When carrying our luggage on the bike, fork loading is undoubtedly a very sensitive issue because the fork itself is an extremely delicate element of our bike. To exploit it in this sense, there are numerous supports on the market to be fixed to the fork to carry bikepacking waterproof bags, the famous Gorilla cage, also more generically called Cargo cage. Today I want to tell you about my experience with one of the best-known products belonging to this family of small fork racks, the Anything Cage HD by Salsa, which I have been owning and happily using for a couple of years now.
In this article
In some articles dedicated to the phantasmagoric world of bikepacking and the bags that "decorate" our vehicle, I have already told you about the main areas where we usually distribute the weights on a trip. Everyone knows the saddle area, the frame area or the handlebar area, but perhaps less known is the possibility of using the fork for carrying further equipment. In fact, there are supports, "cages", made of various materials, larger than most bottle cages and smaller than a luggage rack, intended for mounting on the fork. They are mainly used to carry (on the fork, in fact) small bags, from 1 to 5 litres, in bikepacking, but nothing prevents them from being mounted - with some care - on a gravel bike or MTB. I have listed a few in another article.
Among the many models available on the market, I've been using one of the most known products by the same brand of my Salsa Fargo bike, which is Salsa Anything Cage HD, of which I will summarize the main features including my personal opinion after about 7000 km of use.
Salsa Anything Cage HD: features
- Shock-resistant flexible nylon rack
- Support base for light luggage such as sleeping bag, mattress or ultralight tent
- 3 holes (adjustable height) for fork mounting
- 3 steel threaded screws with flat steel washers
- 2 nylon Salsa Strap to fix the bag to the cage (750 x 20 mm)
- Weight: 149 grams (196 grams including Salsa Straps and screws)
- Max load: 3 kg
- Size: 22 x 11,7 x 8 cm
Salsa Anything Cage HD: my review
After the prototype of the V1, a version 2 catalogued as oversized bottle cage, in 2014 Salsa created one of the best-selling accessories, known and imitated: a very resistant and thick nylon cage, called Anything Cage HD, where HD does not stand for "high definition" but for heavy-duty, the attribute given to exceptional transport, indicative of the capabilities of this modern gorilla cage.
Surely an expense that does not go unnoticed for our pockets "for some hard plastic" - you will say, but I can assure you from personal experience that the 3 kg of max. load declared are all right!
Mounting this cage on the 3 eyelets of the Fargo or of a travel/gravel bike is no big deal and this accessory also offers a variable range of play (from 7 mm, using all three bike eyelets, to 7 cm using only two and exploiting the two upper or lower).
Then there is the touch of class: the very sturdy Salsa Straps (the two straps supplied for each Anything Cage HD), which allow you to secure any dry bag (or the very stylish Salsa Bags) to the fork stem, hugging it firmly. Let's see the mounting and my dispassionate judgment.
How to mount Salsa Anything Cage HD
Most adventure bike, gravel bikes or touring bikes forks are equipped with eyelets designed for mounting luggage racks or supports such as Anything Cage (or similar systems). It is precisely the eyelets (one, two or three) that allow us to fix the Anything Cage HD to the fork. To anchor these supports, all we have to do is use the three threaded screws (sold already slightly impregnated with a dab of Loctite), screwing them into the three eyelets of the fork. If you only have two eyelets, do not despair, you can use them both and fix the Anything Cage by choosing to use the central hole and the lower one (more recommended to guarantee resistance to weight) or the central hole and the upper one.
Once these supports have been screwed on, inside them you can lay your technical material or clothing you want to carry on the road - preferably inside a dry bag or any bag with variable capacity (from 1 up to 10 litres) - and fix the bag with the efficient Salsa Straps, the nylon straps supplied with any Anything Cage HD, 75 cm long and 2 cm high.
The great advantage of these Anything Cages is that the belts are able to pass inside this super-light cage, to go out and hug the fork and then re-enter the loops to ensure a solid grip on your dry bag. The final step to attach a bag to the Anything Cage is to close the Anything Strap accompanying it in the plastic buckle, tighten and fully secure the bag to the support.
My personal advice: once ridden the first kilometres, please check the buckle and the support in general. Probably you'll have to tighten the screws or the straps.
How much weight can I carry on the Anything Cage?
The contents of the bags that I hooked to the Anything Cages ranged from food to my Naturehike Cloud Up 2 tent or my second single-seater Geertop tent, from the Summer Naturehike sleeping bag to the Alpkit jet boil stove. As many argue, bikepacking is an interpretation of the journey using the tools we have available, so there are no rules and there are no right or wrong setups. The only dictate to follow regarding Salsa's Anything Cage HD is to not exceed the maximum weight allowed, if you don't want to have any nasty surprises, damage the fork or, even worse, find yourself a dry bag between the spokes while pedalling!
Anything Cage: price of this fork support
As you well know, bikepacking has considerable costs. In this case, like Salsa bikes and some products from the Bloomington company, it's a big expense. The Anything Cage HD is sold from 40/45$ upwards (online you also have the shipping costs, while at a cycle shop you will probably have a slight price increase). Surely it's not one of the cheapest accessories, but after 7000 km of use, I can assure you that the expense is very valid and recommended, although many do not find the figure for "some hard plastic" justified.
This accessory completes what in my opinion constitutes the basic kit for bikepacking, and can really make a difference in the total volume transported on a bikepacking trip. If you are interested in the topic of fork mounts, please go have a look at this article.
Salsa Anything Cage HD: the final viewpoint?
Definitely positive! Salsa Anything Cage HD, along with VAP Cycling's Butterfly, are my two favourite bikepacking accessories, for their high performance and versatility. Obviously, you have to pay attention to the coupling phase to the fork, being careful not to overdo it with the screw turns - especially if like me you have a carbon fork - to avoid damaging it. Also, I suggest you do some maintenance, especially on the screws, re-threading them with new Loctite every change of season.
I can confirm that I am extremely satisfied with this purchase, which to date has allowed me to carry a good portion of my technical material on the bike and make me enjoy excellent bikepacking moments on my travels. Some might get stuck in front of the price, but I can assure you that after all the weekends and trips made, my Anything Cages still look like new (with a little dust as a lasting reminder of my gravel adventures).
Among the many offers on the market I suggest you consider buying it, even if your fork is not equipped with eyelets: there are valid solutions that allow you to adapt your fork without eyelets to accommodate the Anything Cage: from simple tube clamps used in hydraulics to the most elaborate systems of elastic bands or not.
Let me know what you think and, in case you own the Salsa Anything Cage system, share with us the strengths and weaknesses of this bikepacking product.
