preferdownhill

I prefer the flexibiity of the smartphones for bike navigating, the only problem is battery life. Right now I have a LG G4 with and extended battery that lasts all day running a lot of apps. I'm thinking about uprading to the LG V20. It looks like the last phone that will have a replaceable high capacity battery since everyone is sealing up phones to make them water proof. Does anyone else have a favorite thats relatively recent?

Steve B.

Instead of worrying about phone battery life, probably easier to just buy some external batteries that charge/power. If you use a h-bar bag, easy to just pop into the bag.

Things to think about are, location of the charging port on the phone and how that works with whatever mount you use as well as being aware that even if it’s a waterproof phone (or not), you can get water in voa the port.

Bigbus

I have an I-7 with a Ram mount alongside a Garmin 650 also on a Ram mount. This works great for me because I like to do a lot of geocaching while exploring new trails. This won't work for someone that's weight conscious, which I'm not. Sometimes I have a 60# backpack with survival gear just for the workout.

bluehills3149

Have you thought of buying a generic phone just for bike use? I just bought a 2015 Motorola Moto E for $30 (new) off Ebay. If I'm on a longer ride and don't want to carry 2 phones, I pop my phone's sim card into it so it works like a full fledged phone but most cycle apps work without data anyway. It is compact, water resistant and has decent battery life. To mount it I use a cheap Garmin phone mount adapter ($3-$5 on Ebay) which sticks directly on the back of the phone and an "out front" handlebar mount ($3-$5 on Ebay).

canklecat

Check out the Moto E4 Plus. Longer battery life and a little better overall performance than my Moto E4, which I've used since December. Both have user replaceable batteries. Decent phones in the low-middle price range. Only 16 GB, but accepts a micro SD card and some apps can be stored on the SD card.

Go for the full price unlocked version if you get one. You can choose your own carrier without restrictions.

I got the Verizon prepaid version of the Moto E4. I was in a rush in December, needed to replace my old phone when a family member was hospitalized, and just grabbed whatever I saw on the shelf at Target. Good phone, good service with Verizon, but it's pretty much locked into Verizon's CDMA service. Even though the phone device itself technically can handle CDMA or GSM with a SIM card swap, in reality Verizon pretty much locks their versions into their network (or their authorized MVNO carriers). Verizon claims it can be fully unlocked with their authorized code and about half a dozen attempts to register with another network, but in reality it doesn't work. I had to buy another cheap ZTE Android phone to try with Simple Mobile's dirt cheap T-Mobile GSM data plan. Not very impressed with either the ZTE phone (sluggish) or Simple Mobile (throttled data plan, despite their claims of 4G LTE speed), so I'll go back to using the Moto E4 soon.

PaulRivers

The Motorola Z-force has a magnet-attachment system that let's you snap an extra high capacity battery on the back.

There was another Moto phone that had noteable battery life as well but I can't recall the name of it offhand.

As others said any phone would work if you just attach and external battery pack to it. I think there are phone mounts you can buy that specifically let you put an external battery in them for this purpose.

revcp 

I agree with the recommendations of the Moto E4 (+ or not, both are good). The battery life is excellent. Note, however, that it's "water repellent", not waterproof (which would be IP67 or IP68 rating), so you will need a waterproof case for it. Good idea, too, if you have the space, to grab one off fleabay for gps and wifi only. But you can get a new one on sale for $120 or so if you want to use it as a phone.

preferdownhill

I've tried charging my phone with external battery while riding. The cable always gets jarred loose, or the phone and battery overheats because of sun exposure and the battery won't charge. I just like the high capacity batteries, at least for now, because I know they work. when I can't get a phone anymore that can use hc batteries, then I'll look at external batteries again. Do you know of a specific phone, cable, and external battery does has a track record of working well together under non-ideal conditions?

preferdownhill

I have a Samsung S5 with two high capacity batteries that I use without sim card for recording rides, and navigating offline maps using ridewithgps or othe map software. I also use it for bluetooth if I'm on a trail that doesn't have any traffic to worry about. My cellphone is a LG G4 with high capacity battery, but if its running low because it didn't charge right the night before , I can turn it off or put in powersaver mode and make calls. If necessary I could move the sim card to the S5 phone. The problem with the S5 is it only has 16gb memory so I only have a few apps on it.

preferdownhill

Interesting, I've wondered if somebody came up with this.

gauvins

You may want to use an SD card to store maps (and IIRC recent versions of Android allow apps to be stored on the external card)

preferdownhill

I have a 128gb sd card with lots of music on it. Generally I only put data on my sd card. like camera photos and podcasts etc. In the past when I've put apps on the SD card, the apps have acted weird I suspect because the SD card is not fast enough.

3speed

Why not buy a spare battery or two for your phone and swap it out when your battery gets low? I think you might even be able to find a charger that will charge the battery without it being in a phone, so you can just plug it in at night to recharge as needed.

Skipjacks

Is that one of the mounts with the 3M sticky tape that holds the back of the phone? Where you stick a clip to the phone which can be removed from the mount on the bike so the phone can be easily taken off the bike?

Have you found the glue pads to be reliable? Doe they really hold? I'm in the market for a new mount and I was looking at these but it seemed like a lot to ask for a sticky pad to hold a phone.

I'm interested in your actual real world experience with it

Skipjacks

I agree with everyone else who says to use a dedicated phone for the bike computer. No need to get the latest iPhone for $1000.

A used phone that's a few Android versions out of date will work perfectly for this task.

My bike phone runs Android 5.1. (Android's worst version) and it's fine for this purpose.

The advantages of having a dedicated bike computer are

• You set it up as a bike computer so it starts all the relevant apps when it turns on. Mine loads the speedomete/odometer app in the foreground, an MP3 player in the background, a weather temp widget on the status bar, and an app that turns the volume keys into song advance buttoms (to control the music without actually going to the MP3 player app) I also have different settings on my bike phone than my real phone. My real phone turns off the screen after 15 seconds. That's not handy on the bike. The bike phone is set to full brightness and stays on unless I tap the power key to turn the screen off.
  
• Speaking of special settings, do you use a lock screen on your regular phone? That's REALLY annoying on a bike computer. You don't want to be trying to meddle with a key code while you're riding. The bike phone can have the lock screen disabled.
  
• I don't have to run all that stuff on my regular cell phone. It just automatically loads on boot.
  
• I have it loaded with maps of everywhere I might possible end up on the bike.
  
• It's replaceable. So if it falls off the bike in the street and gets run over by a semi truck I'm out $50, not $400. Meanwhile my actual phone is safely nestled in a secure bag.

Things to look for in a phone...

• The screen has to be about inches or better or it's hard to see at a glance while you're riding. You don't want to be looking closely at the screen while you're riding. You want to glance at it and see what you need.
  
• Cheap. It's riding in the open air above a hard asphalt road. If it falls, it's probably done. Make sure it's replaceable.
  
• Front facing speakers. This is nice. Not a must have, but really nice if you want to use it for music. Newer phones with front facing speakers can be LOUD with excellent sound quality. Totally eliminates the need for a BT speaker if you're into that sort of thing.

Things it doesn't need to be...

• Waterproof. This is a 'probably' situation. If you are a fair weather rider you don't need a waterproof phone. Yes, a rainstorm might sneak up on you once in a while. For the rare times that happens, take the phone off the handlebars and put it in in a pannier or something. Have a zip lock baggy with you at all times to put the phone in. (Good idea for your regular phone too). If it is waterproof, great. But if you're in a pouring rain how much do you really need to be staring at the bike computer? It'll still calculate your route and distance from inside a ziplock bag inside a pannier even if you're not watching it.
  
• Great battery life. Yes, great battery life is a good thing. If you can find one with great battery life, score! But if you can't, just turn the screen off when you're not looking at it. Tap the power button to turn the screen on when you want to check your millage for 1 second. Also with a dedicated bike phone you can put it in airplane more (GPS will still work) and tweak the settings to make it battery friendly. Even with the screen on constantly my bike phone lasts me 4-5 hours. If I toggle the screen off when not looking at it, it'll last me a week in airplane more running 24/7.

Skipjacks

Another way to go is a rugged phone.

This is my bike computer.

https://www.amazon.com/RugGear-RG710...=ruggear&psc=1

It's not a great cell phone because its' 3G tops, if 3G hasn't been shut down in your area. But Wifi works fine so you can load everything you need at home. GPS works fine.

And its battle proof. Fully water proof. Mud proof. Drop on the sidewalk proof. And I've proved all 3 in real world usage.

It's overkill for a bike computer. But...if you want something that's rugged and will not fail because of a sudden rain shower or it falling off the phone holder into a mud puddle, a truely rugged phone like this makes a reliable bike computer.

The ONLY advantage it has over a regular phone is that it's literally bomb proof. (I said literally. I'm not screwing around. I didn't mean figuratively. I know what I said.) It does nothing else any other Android phone can't.

The down side of 'super rugged' is that it's thick. It's hard to find a handlebar mount that holds it securely. Most have short little arms on the sides that are made to hold a thinner iPhone. This is twice as thick as my LG G5.

bluehills3149

The garmin clip I used on the back of my phone was from ebay seller "clipoo" and was $8 but is no longer being sold. It is very high quality and made from metal with 3m tape on the back. Before the Moto phone I used a big LG G4 phone and hit a big bump and the (detachable) phone back separated from the front and launched the phone into the air. The clip however stayed put with the phone back attached to my bars. If I was buying a clip I would get this or the one in the pic as it has a larger stick area than the other ones for sale. Note I roughed up the back of the phone with sandpaper so it adhered better (try doing this on an expensive iPhone!) . And after the LG episode I looked for a phone that does not have a detachable backface (hence the Moto E).