Blog

Aug 27, 2023

Milkit Hassle’off multi

Carefully considered toolkit designed to save rides This competition is now closed By Alex Evans Published: August 28, 2023 at 2:00 pm Swiss brand Milkit’s Hassle’off is a bike-mounted all-in-one

Carefully considered toolkit designed to save rides

This competition is now closed

By Alex Evans

Published: August 28, 2023 at 2:00 pm

Swiss brand Milkit’s Hassle’off is a bike-mounted all-in-one multi-tool, puncture repair kit, and tube and pump holder.

Mounting using either your frame’s dedicated accessory bosses, or where your bottle cage normally fixes, a bottle cage can then be mounted to the back of the Hassle’off so you don’t have to choose between one or the other.

Weighing 138g, including removable pump and tube Velcro strap, the tool costs €99.95.

Within the tool’s waterproof case (108x48x17mm) is an 8mm Allen key with 6mm, 5mm, 4mm, 3mm, 2.5mm and 2mm bits, and a Torx 25 bit.

The bits stow within the 8mm key’s ends, staying in place using magnets. Colour coding – dark and light silver – indicates which bits fit together.

Made from stainless steel, they should resist corrosion.

A tubeless tyre repair spear comes with a pre-installed plug.

The spear has a small magnet to store unused bits when you’re using other ones, to avoid them getting lost.

Three additional plugs are included; two thick and one thin. These are stored within a spring-loaded scissor/knife.

A tyre lever – that acts as the Allen key’s carrier – has a magnetic chain-link storage slot. It’s also the lever and holder for the chain breaker, which clips into place, snapping home with a magnet.

A 30cm Velcro strap attaches to removable bars on the tool’s case using a sliding mount. Two mount positions are present, one on the ‘narrow’ side, the other on the tool’s ‘thick’ side.

Attaching the Hassle’off to the bike is simple; its main bolts are secured in place using locking washers, so they don’t fall through the tool when it’s face down.

The Velcro strap’s sliding locking mechanism keeps it in place on either bar, and is relatively easy to remove.

However, the blanking bolts of the strap bar’s secondary position – which is on the case’s ‘narrow’ side – have T20 Torx heads, so they can’t be removed using the supplied T25.

Its strap is long enough to secure a tube and pump, or if your pump has its own carrier with a bottle cage bracket, it can be fitted to the secondary mounting point on the Hassle’off.

The tools are packed tightly and logically into the case, preventing them from rattling.

Each tool has its own dedicated position, so removal and re-installation is simple and easy.

The Allen keys and puncture repair spear (with pre-loaded plug) can be accessed without removing other tools, speeding up the most common repairs.

The tyre lever is stiff and robust enough to tackle removing and installing tough-casing enduro tyres, but if your tyre and rim setup is particularly tight, a secondary lever will be necessary.

Thanks to the modular, magnetic design, the Allen key’s bits are easy to swap and replace, but also stay put in the driver.

With sharp edges, illustrating impressive quality, rounding bolts is highly unlikely.

Thanks to the driver’s extended lever size, compared to most other multi-tools, removing or installing chunkier items such as pedals or cranks is possible.

The extensive choice of popular bits means you’re unlikely to get stuck trail-side unless you need a crosshead or flathead screwdriver, which are the most notable omissions.

A compact design, and proximity to the tyre lever when used as a lever, means the chain tool is a bit fiddlier to use than the Allen keys. That said, it’s fine for trail-side emergencies.

The puncture repair spear’s handle is large enough to exert significant force without hurting your hand, and the pre-installed plug means fixing a hole without significant air loss is more likely.

Additional plugs are a nice touch and are stored tidily within the scissors.

The scissors are also neat, but a simple flick blade would have been just as functional, and potentially saved some weight and cost.

Thanks to neat packaging and design, with plenty of mounting options and additional scope to attach more accessories, the Hassle’off’s case is impressively versatile.

Stowed tidily within it, commonly used tools are quick and easy to access. The remaining arsenal of pieces are just as easy to access, and reinstalling everything in its correct position isn’t challenging.

Each tool feels well-made, and features such as magnetic holders for unused Allen bits add to the quality feel.

A lack of screwdriver bits could be frustrating for some riders, although the scissor tab could be used carefully as a flathead bit.

The 138g all-in weight is impressive given the scope of the tool, but at just under €100, it’s not cheap.

If freeing up space in your cycling backpack is high on your priority list, the Hassle’off delivers, offering an all-in-one package for most trail-side fixes that bolts directly to your bike.

Senior technical editor

Alex Evans is BikeRadar’s senior mountain bike technical editor. He started racing downhill at the tender age of 11 before going on to compete across Europe. Alex moved to Morzine in the French Alps at 19 to pursue a career as a bike bum and clocked up an enormous amount of riding. Hitting those famous tracks day in, day out for eight years, he broke more bikes than he can remember. Alex then moved back to the UK and put his vast knowledge of mountain biking to good use by landing a job working for MBUK magazine as features editor. Since working for MBUK, Alex’s focus has moved to bike tech. He’s one of BikeRadar’s lead testers and knows how to push bikes and products to the limit, searching out the equipment that represents the best value for money. Alex is also a dedicated eMTB rider, and still dabbles in racing of a sort, doing his best to top the Strava leaderboard on the steepest, gnarliest and twistiest trails the Tweed Valley has to offer – just for fun, of course. Alex is also a regular on the BikeRadar YouTube channel and BikeRadar podcast.