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Just in: Monkii attachment system + video

Easy on, Easy off kit for mounting all sorts of stuff on your bike

The Monkii system is a simple, modular set of bottle cages and storage bags that attach to your bike via the bottle cage bosses. You can carry any kind of drinks bottle, as well as tools or essentials. It's simple to fit and pretty versatile.

Everything fits on to the same attachment system, which is just a couple of plastic discs that you bolt into your bottle bosses. Once you've done that you can chop and change the different bits of the system, which all use a similar mounting plate.

The bottle cage holds your drink with a velcro strap, so it'll fit a wide range of receptacles - here we've lobbed a metal Biologic flask in it. To drink from the bottle (or flask) you pull the whole thing, cage and all, off the bike, have a sip then stick it back on.

So is that better than just having a normal cage? well, if you just use normal bottles in a normal frame then no. But if you're the kind to take a hot drink on a cold ride, or a bottle of wine to a picnic, it's got legs. Also there's a second design of cage that pivots to release; it's designed for frames with tight clearances where there wouldn't be room to pull a bottle free of a normal cage.

The cages are interchangeable with bags too. This one's the Mono, a solid-sided bag that'll swallow your tools, a spare tube, your phone and some food. There's also a tool roll if you like to head out fully prepared.

You don't even have to mount stuff on the bottle cages. There's a clip too, which is designed for people who don't have bottle bosses but can also be used as an extra mounting point. It's designed for the small tube diameters of steel bikes (fixed bikes commonly don't have bosses) but comes with a long bolt to go round wider tubes too.

Like the bottle cage mounts, all the different cages and bags will fit on the clip. Here's the Wedge in situ. And now we can't get the Foo Fighters out of our heads.

http://www.cyclemiles.co.uk/

Dave is a founding father of road.cc, having previously worked on Cycling Plus and What Mountain Bike magazines back in the day. He also writes about e-bikes for our sister publication ebiketips. He's won three mountain bike bog snorkelling World Championships, and races at the back of the third cats.

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14 comments

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CycleMiles | 11 years ago
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Great review Dave and great photos too. Thanks.
. . . . standard bottle cage eh? to go with the monkii system line-up . . now there's a thought, although of course, the monkii cage will hold a std plastic bottle very securely . . . I'll talk to the manufacturers about it. In the mean time though, it's a great system, manufactured to a very high quality and very very light. 36 grams for std monkii cage and cleats. It's a system that's been waiting to be invented for a very long time.

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alotronic | 11 years ago
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Yeah, just need a standard cage too - surely a little click-lock nubbins to stop the cage coming off your mount would do the trick, can't be hard. Otherwise quite like it. One of those I didn't know I had that problem until I saw the solution things.

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CycleMiles replied to alotronic | 11 years ago
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alotronic wrote:

Yeah, just need a standard cage too - surely a little click-lock nubbins to stop the cage coming off your mount would do the trick, can't be hard. Otherwise quite like it. One of those I didn't know I had that problem until I saw the solution things.

alotronic . . . coming full circle, that would work, but before the manufacturer comes out with that, you have a system, that you can still use with your std plastic bottle, pretty much any other bottle, a frame bag, a tool roll and for just £3.75 to purchase extra cleats can be used on all your bikes . . even a frame without bottle mounts e.g. a steel "track" frame or Brompton + + + if you purchase a monkii clip . . . it's pretty cool.

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mikroos | 11 years ago
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Wow, I've just found out that spare studs (called cleats) cost 3,75 pounds. Perfect!

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mikroos | 11 years ago
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Got to say I love the idea. The only thing I'm worried of is that the mounts might get loose after some time but if that's sorted out, then I'm sold on this idea.

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CycleMiles replied to mikroos | 11 years ago
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mikroos wrote:

Got to say I love the idea. The only thing I'm worried of is that the mounts might get loose after some time but if that's sorted out, then I'm sold on this idea.

rowerowy . . it's sorted . . . the mounts don't come loose. It's a very well made, high quality system.

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Jaltham | 11 years ago
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I think the idea is that you take the cage with the bottle when you have a drink?
You attach the bottle to the cage then drink with the "cage" attached? Maybe a specialized bottle could be added to the line?

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dave atkinson replied to Jaltham | 11 years ago
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Jaltham wrote:

I think the idea is that you take the cage with the bottle when you have a drink?
You attach the bottle to the cage then drink with the "cage" attached? Maybe a specialized bottle could be added to the line?

that is the idea but that's more of a faff than just having a standard cage as part of the system. squeezy bottles arent designed to be used from within a cage, and there's a danger that if you squeeze the bottle you'll dislodge the cage. having said that, i haven't tried it yet. I tried the mono bag on the way home though, and it worked a treat.

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CycleMiles replied to Jaltham | 11 years ago
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Jaltham wrote:

I think the idea is that you take the cage with the bottle when you have a drink?
You attach the bottle to the cage then drink with the "cage" attached? Maybe a specialized bottle could be added to the line?

Jaltham . . yep, that's exactly how it works and you can use any drinks container . . . well, maybe not a beer barrel. But your camel bottle, your sigg bottle, your lifeventure thermal mug, your thermos, so your drinks always taste good. YOu can even use your regular plastic drinks bottle if you really want too.

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jollygoodvelo | 11 years ago
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Not a bad idea at all. Useful for full-sussers etc too where the middle triangle is full of shock.

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CycleMiles replied to jollygoodvelo | 11 years ago
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Gizmo_ wrote:

Not a bad idea at all. Useful for full-sussers etc too where the middle triangle is full of shock.

Yep . . . the monkii V cage works a treat with full-sussers or any frame where the middle triangle is small.

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dave atkinson | 11 years ago
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yeah, they could deffo do with adding just a standard cage. the main issue is you'd pull the cage off either taking the bottle out or pushing it back in. you'd need a slightly different mount

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KiwiMike | 11 years ago
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I get it. Owning 5 bikes, it's always a faff to swap bottles/tools etc. I like the idea of one set of mounts common to all, then pick what you want to take in seconds, or nothing at all, leaving the frame almost totally clean.

And swapping stuff with the kids/wife's bikes too. I could see the whole family using this system.

The only thing that's missing is a *traditional* bottle cage, funnily enough - I'm not so sure about the ease of clicking on a bottle/clip combo at 30MPH while watching the road...

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CycleMiles replied to KiwiMike | 11 years ago
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KiwiMike wrote:

I get it. Owning 5 bikes, it's always a faff to swap bottles/tools etc. I like the idea of one set of mounts common to all, then pick what you want to take in seconds, or nothing at all, leaving the frame almost totally clean.

And swapping stuff with the kids/wife's bikes too. I could see the whole family using this system.

The only thing that's missing is a *traditional* bottle cage, funnily enough - I'm not so sure about the ease of clicking on a bottle/clip combo at 30MPH while watching the road...

KiwiMike . . . yep, you got it . . . buy a cage or more or bag or tool roll, extra cleats if you have more that one bike . . . and then take the bits you need for the ride you're doing. . . . Nipping into town . . . then that will be just the tool roll in case you puncture . . . long ride on a hot day with a bar bag . . . well that will be 2 monkii cages with 2 large nalgene bottles, so everything tastes good . . no plastic taste . . . short trip out . . how about 1 monkii cage with a can of beer and a monkii mono with a camera and mobile . . endless fun. Unclipping the bottle and cage on the fly . . . it's a knack . . . just like learning to ride a bicycle.

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