Quality phone mount for larger phones
 

I have a Note 8 that I would love to be able to mount on my bike. I bought a Rokform mount and dedicated case based on reviews. It survived less than a month. The plastic "teeth" on the mount broke, luckily I noticed it before going on another ride. The Note 8 is a large phone and no matter which way I travel, I have two rough sections of road at the bottom of steep hills that I have to cross on the way to work. I have considered getting a Quad Lock and gluing the adapter to a case but Quad Lock uses the same kind of plastic teeth to engage the mount. Tried the Bontrager Insta-Mount first, and it failed too.

I don't want a mount that looks like crap but I'm tired of paying $175 deductibles (3 times now) for replacement phones. Any suggestions for a mount that can take railroad tracks and hang on? I am carrying my phone in a pocket now so no need to suggest that.

Thanks!

I have a Moto G7 in a Unicorn Beetle case. I use a MaxMiles XL aluminum mount. I have one my hardtail MTB, road bike and tandem. I have them bolted down with the headset preload bolt. I set the preload and tighten the steering stem to keep it set, then remove the preload bolt and attach the mount.

These mounts have never dropped the phone. Even when I recorded a 21 KPH to 0 event on the MTB. The key thing about the XL version it that the fingers that grip the phone are longer, so they wrap around the case just a little bit. I don't trust any mount that doesn't have a screw down clamp design with fingers long enough to wrap around the phone..

I took a look at Amazon and they list the MaxMiles aluminum mounts as no longer available. They do have a GUB version which I think is the same company, but I didn't see a specification on the length of the grip fingers. In my experience, the long fingers are a must have feature. If they don't wrap around the phone then the phone can come out of the mount.

We have three of the Quadlock mounts on our bikes, and our phones are the iPhone 11 Pro Max, which is pretty big. Looking at the plastic "teeth" on the Rokform vs. the Quadlock, the teeth on the Rokform are both narrower and longer compared to the Quadlock, which would make them more prone to breaking (all else being equal as far as materials and such). My rides aren't as rough/jarring as yours sound, but I still can't imagine what it would take to snap one of the teeth on the QL mount, short of a direct impact from a crash.​​​​​​​
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...0dff9597ac.jpg
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...fc3930bf21.jpg

My telephone mount has jaws that open to 3¼" wide that will accept the Note 8 which is less than 3" wide.


https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1967/...a639ae1a_o.jpg

Now I've more to worry about than just distracted drivers. <grin>

I really like my adjustable GUB mount. The only caveat is that if you don't have a case on your phone (like me) you'll want to cover the metal backplate so you don't scratch your phone. I ordered a 4x6 sample sheet of 3M vinyl car wrap to put on the back and cut the edges and holes out with an xacto knife. You could also probably cover the back with some foam material for more shock absorption (it already comes with little rubber pads for the teeth that hold the phone in place). I also used some Loctite on the screw that holds the plate to the arm just to make sure it won't vibrate loose over time. For ~$20 on Amazon it's a great holder: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07GKT8FBZ/

I like the Topeak mounts.
Lost a bike GPS computer to a broken Garmin style quarter twist
Spend a little more and get a good one, there are several,
but a $40 to $60 dollar mount for a $600-700 phone is good insurance
The only real bargains I would recommend are name brand mounts for older phones.

Have the Garmin QT mounts been problematic or a common issue?

I tether my 830 to my handlebars when I attach it to the mount, but my Varia RTL515 has no way to tether that I'm aware of.

I did not delve into them , but there were several threads referenced on Garmin boards that came up with the searches I did on the Hammerhead Karoo.
These usually referenced the "wings" of the mount failing.

There are a lot of low priced mounts out there, many of uncertain lineage.
If you have seen the shock testing of mounts in action, you want something that wasn't 3D'ed of an unreferenced material.
https://miro.medium.com/max/700/0*uJ8HX_3CHoQsvk23.
Mountain bikes for sure, but I have hit enough potholes in my day that merit attention,
and the last mount failure I had was on unremarkable old pavement.

Many bike computers and accessories lack tether attachment points.
Adhesive anchors are, um, inelegant and need testing, blind drilling could hit circuits or the battery.
Cases with tethers are not available for all models
With $400-$600 computers, $50-150 lights, the $200 Varia, and $$ phones, more secure attachments than rubberbands
and lightweight clips are needed.
Bigly

I agree. When I attached the RTL515 Varia, I backed-up the black rubber band with a zip tie. And I would tether it if I could figure out an elegant way to do so. This is on a road bike and the vibrations from the road surfaces I ride on can vary from smooth to jarring.

FWIW, I've got an iphone 11 (big but not huge). For rides, I got a relatively beefy phone case and applied a Garmin "puck" to the back (attaches with 3M VHB tape, which is pretty darned secure). I stick it in a Garmin-compatible stem mount from one of those Chinese companies that got their name from Anagrams-R-Us. So far this has survived about 1500 miles of road riding.

I've had good luck with the Nite Ize Handleband

https://www.niteize.com/product/HandleBand.asp

https://www.rei.com/media/product/1356640002

They will take a variety of phone sizes. My phones aren't huge, but so far I've never had one fall out once tied down.

The Garmin Quarter Turn mounts were designed for watch sized bike computers. They have issues with anything bigger.
The Varia is not big or heavy.
. I have a 515 and its biggest problem in the amount of seat post it occupies, making bags ,racks ,short riders and trailer mounts an issue.
Teher are under seat mounts and adapters for seat bags that seem to do OK . ADD A TETHER!
The bigger nav/GPS units have a ~2 to 5% breakage with factory hardware, and 3D and off brand stuff even worse.
Not horrific, but how many $4-600$ items do you need to have go sailing to make and impression.

I bought a Chinese bike pump and it came with a phone holder to frame-attach it. I have been using the holder for my phone. It's entirely cast of one piece of silicone rubber. Four stretchy corner straps hold the phone, then there's a cradle under for the bar, and a integral strap that feeds around under and through and hooks like a lot of silicone light mounts. I found them on Ebay for like $8. I had resisted a phone mount because all of the "good" ones look like they hold the phone too stiffly connected to the bike and I was afraid of my phone getting shook to death. Also, anything that has screws, etc can be shaken loose. This one, however, is floppy and soft so I feel like the phone is more shock-mounted and safer. It's been working well. My Samsung A50 is a tight fit, but it works.

It's similar to this: https://www.amazon.com/Bovon-Univers...dp/B07NV55BZT/

I've been happy with my Quad Locks. A little pricey but there are some discount codes out there.

I should update my previous answer. Although the Garmin puck on the back of my phone case has been fine, I've had two Garmin inserts in the bike mount fail in rapid succession from rough road rides. This may be the specific grade of plastic they were made of, or it may be an inherent limitation when dealing with an oversized (for Garmin) device. Not sure. In any case, I'm using a Quadlock now; because a Quadlock bike mount wouldn't work with my aerobars, I'm using a motorcycle mount, which comes with a ⅞" adapter ring. It sits pretty high, and I may try fabricating something so that it sits lower. But the mechanism so far seems to be solid.

Quad Lock products are shockingly expensive so I tried a bunch of cheap mounts. They all gave me various problems. I'm now heavily invested in Quad Lock cases and mounts, even mounts for the family cars. My only regret is not getting them sooner.

My boss said he'd provide me with a new iPhone so I asked for the 12 Pro Max, even though it is huge and heavy. I was just about to buy the Quad Lock even though I couldn't figure exactly which mount would work best. BUT I read a negative review on Amazon which indicated that the center of the mount smashed the back of the phone -maybe the person reviewing was a klutz?? The mount socket on the case is pretty small for a phone of this size and heft, and the case looks like it might allow compression against the center of the phone back if you take a whack on the road, plausibly leading to the reviewer's complaint about smashed phone back ... so now, IDK. The Pro mount seems too far ahead of the bar to me. The stem mount won't work with my Interloc titanium quill stem on my Serotta. The only one that would work is the short mount with the blue side tab.

The Topeak Ridecase TT9869BG says it "works" with the above but I notice that the photos are of a case on a smaller phone. I just wonder if its design looks to be more robust than the Quad Lock.Also, the only mount that they sell seems to put the phone pretty far forward.

You can find negative reviews on Amazon for everything, and sometimes you need to take them with a grain of salt. It takes a lot of force to deform a phone housing. Barring some artificial conditions, there's no way a phone mount could do that—the mount would rotate on the bars before it transmitted that much force to the phone.

I don’t like the phone so far forward either, so I use the out front mount, but flipped around so that it positions the phone right over the stem. I don’t know If that would work for you, depends on the angle of the stem and how far the steerer sticks up.

I have this same setup (iPhone 12 Pro max) on two bikes, 3,000 miles in 4 months, zero problems. Done some very rough gravel but mostly urban roads at fairly high speeds. I cannot imagine the mount failing.


https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...6dde87498.jpeg

You are right @adamrice - you can find negative reviews for anything. My concern was that this phone has a glass back... but also, my concern is just another manifestation of my procrastination - thanks for the reality check.
Thanks for the positive feedback @mschwett on this gear and for the tip about trying to flip the longer Pro mount - much obliged! I'll get this mount in hopes it will work with my cockpit.

take a pic of your stem/bar/steerer area and post if you want some feedback on whether the flip will work!

I measured the stem rise at 22 degrees and bars at 26mm. Or is it 26.2mm. Thanks mschwett !!!
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...0312ad62dd.jpg
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...803dd47066.jpg

looks like it'll work very well. the curvature of the out front mount (not the out front mount pro) should let you get the phone right over the stem and just about parallel to it. strongly recommend the matching case rather than the universal sticky part that you attach to an existing case. should be rock solid.

Thanks again!