Wolf Tooth B-RAD 4-Slot Mounting Base

The Wolf Tooth B-RAD 4-Slot Mounting Base is literally the backbone of the Wolf Tooth B-RAD system. It uses the existing water bottle mounts on your frame and lets you add or reposition bottles or bolt on the storage opportunities offered by the B-RAD range. B-RAD stands for Bottle Relocation & Accessory Device, if that helps with any confusion, while being rad, I suppose. It's a flexible system for organising on-bike bottle and accessories storage that can be customised to suit your specific needs.

The B-RAD Mounting Base comes in a variety of sizes (offroad.cc tested the B-RAD 2 last year). The 4-Slot is the largest of the breed, with nine threaded holes for the ultimate flexibility and capacity when bikepacking, touring, commuting or just exploring on two wheels, according to Wolf Tooth.

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It's long enough to mount two small bottles in-line if you wanted, or just multiple accessories, and we all know how much some people just love adding things to their bike.

The 4-Slot Mounting Base is a 12in strip of metal with various slots and holes in it. The slots are there to nestle bottle cage bolts in, to secure the Mounting Base to a frame's bosses, and their length allows you to adjust the mount up and down to suit.

For mounting things to the Base, those nine threaded holes are designed to pair up, spaced at standard bottle boss distance. Want to use an existing bottle cage mount to add extra storage to your bike? Easy. Want to attach extra stuff to your bikepacking fork mounts? No problem.

At 6mm thick the mount is slim enough that it doesn't affect the position of an existing bottle cage a noticeable amount, nor does it look dorky on the bike. Yes, it matters.

As well as handy for hanging extra bottle cages off, Wolf Tooth has developed a whole B-RAD range of mounts, bags and straps to add storage to your bike, and if you're prepared to buy into the system it does work incredibly well. It's great for adding storage possibilities to your bike, and a boon if your bike is lacking the extra mounts or space to carry stuff.

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I found the B-RAD 4-Slot Mounting Base most useful in piggy-backing something like the Wolf Tooth Medium Strap off the bottom of a bottle cage for a secure way of carrying a few bits and bobs on a ride, or for mounting the Wolf Tooth Pump Bag securely and out of the way to an under the down tube set of bottle bosses; that was particularly useful. (Full reviews of both, to come.)

> How to carry stuff on your bike

The Mounting Base comes with an auxiliary foam pad and zip-ties to stop the metal plate from rattling against your frame and damaging it. With the Base secured to the bike at one end and whatever accessory you fancy bolted to the other end, there's enough flex in the system for the Base to clatter against the frame. The pad and the zip-tie are there to stop this, but it feels very much like an afterthought and a bit of a bodge.

Price-wise, there's not really much like this around; the closest thing is the 76 Projects Piggy On Bike Storage that combines a bolt-on mount and strap system that's akin to the Wolf Tooth Mounting Base and Medium Strap and Accessory Mount, but works out cheaper because of its dedicated mount and strap design.

As a way of adding potential storage to your bike, the B-RAD Mounting Base is a good idea, and it does offer a far more secure way of adding stuff to your bike than the plethora of bags and straps you can lash to your bike these days. You'll have to buy into the Wolf Tooth system, though.

Verdict

The backbone of the Wolf Tooth B-RAD system, and it's a solid storage solution