REVIEW | Brompton Water Bottle Holder Dom Monkii Cage with Clip

REVIEW | Brompton Water Bottle Holder Monkey Cage with Clip - You can purchase the Brompton Water Bottle Holder Monkey Cage with Clip here

The Brompton is the perfect bike for me, here in Toronto, and living in an apartment. My usual rides are a leisurely 20-40km each, 3 to 5 times a week, 200 - 400km/month in the summer, along smooth and bumpy and potholed roads, some gravel sections, and ravine paths. I have tried so many water bottle holders over the years that I’ve lost count. I can put my hand on three right now in the cupboard, unused because the clamping to the bike wasn’t good enough, or the cage didn’t hold the bottle tightly. And for the last few months my refreshment has been taking up valuable space in the pannier which is rigged with a Trigo bracket onto the adapter block on the front of my Brompton. So I needed another refreshment holder.

Lo and behold, out of the blue I was invited to review a Bromptonic product of my choice. Due to my experience mentioned above, I chose the "Dom Monkii” water bottle holder. The deal was that I did not have to pay for the product, I will not receive any financial payment for this review, and I am free to say what I want.

The DOM Monkii arrived in one parcel containing two boxes. The larger of the boxes contains the Monkii “cage”

(photo #1 with a flask) which has a velcro strap and friction pads to hold the water bottle. The holder comes with two loose mushroom shaped knobs which can be screwed into the cage bosses of a regular bike, but are not required for the Brompton. The smaller box contained the Monkii “clip”

(photo #2), an adaptor for where you don’t have cage bosses on your bike, as is the case with the Brompton. It has two mushroom shaped knobs onto which you slide the cage. The clip (photo #2) is easily mounted with two 3mm hex screws to the steering or seat post of the Brompton. Also included with the clip are two rubber fittings to reduce the diameter for the top of the tapered Brompton steering post, if you want to mount it higher up, or on a smaller diameter frame. The clip, it should be noted, would not fit on the horizontal mainframe of a Brompton, which is too large a diameter.

The cage (photo #1) with the bottle semi-permanently held in by the velcro strap and two rubber friction pads, is inserted into the post-mounted clip by holding it off-vertical and sliding it onto the top knob on the clip, then straightening the bottle and sliding it down onto the lower knob. It's a quick “tilt - slide up - straighten - lower” movement to slide onto the clip, is very secure, and becomes automatic after a little practice.

The velcro strap on the cage has the advantage that the bottle is very firmly held to the holder and doesn’t rattle at all when installed into the clip on the post. It also means that you can use almost any bottle in the holder, up to the specified 1.5 litre limit. The Brompton ride can be bumpy, and using my strap-on or my clamp-on holders I have had water bottles pop out of the holder when I hit a bump or pothole. To my delight I found I can also use the Monkii with a very slender Thermos, which I could not do with most other holders, because it wasn’t held tightly. I usually carry a Gatorade bottle, or my Thermos flask with ice water or coffee, as appropriate for the season. The Monkii cage can also hold a larger bottle, up to a specified 1.5 litre limit. It does not quite hold a large square container, such as a 2 litre milk carton, but that’s what the bag up front is for!

I’ve been testing it out for a few weeks now, and the bottle or flask has held firm on all terrain. The moulding of the parts is of good quality, with no burrs or vulnerable parts that I can see as obvious weaknesses, so I expect it will last a long time. This Monkii cage retains the bottle firmly and is easily accessed and replaced. The arrangement