edthesped

So I was at REI and saw a Topeak Ridecase system for an iPhone 6 in the clearance bin and grabbed it. I have an iPhone 7 and figured I could dremel the case and make it work. I purchased it, took it home and the more I looked at it the more I realized I like the mount but hate the case. I then found a mount on Shapeways and purchased it but in the end felt I could do better so I made my own mount adapter..

https://www.shapeways.com/product/7J...shop-inventory

2_i 

We use the Ridecase system on Bromptons, because you can tilt the mount so that it stays flush with the fold. I bought the original mount on Shapeways and was unhappy with it due to the porosity of the material that made sliding the mount in and out difficult, marred by hiccups. However I thought that the porosity was inherent to the 3D printing. Are you getting around the porosity somehow? The surface of your mount appears to the eye nearly as uneven as that of the original one on Shapeways.

edthesped

@2_i At this point there's only one other adapter on Shapeways and if it's the one you purchased then I can tell you what the problem with it is and it's not the porosity of the material .. If you still have it look at the slot cutout and you'll notice it's a rectangle. The Topeak is designed to have a beveled slot. When I got it I had to fight to get it to slide in and out of the mount. I then tried a file and still wasn't happy. Also, it has sharp corners which are a bit hard on the hand another negative. I started thinking, I'm an engineer, have access to high end modelling software and I can do better than this. If you still have the one you purchased look at the slot then look at the slot in my rendered image you'll see it looks like the original Topeak so far less friction when attaching then the other... I'd say my mount takes about the same amount of effort as the Topeak. I marked it up by $3 if you want to try it out I have no problem knocking off my markup as my intent isn't to profit from this as much as to be able to cover the cost of printing or shipping for some other ideas I have.

I'm attaching photos to show what I mean but it's difficult to pull out detail on such a small piece. I really don't mean to bash the other guys work but like you was unimpressed enough to pull it off of my case and in my opinion make a proper mount.

edthesped

Here's a video of me mounting the outer shell of an Otterbox Commuter case. You can decide for yourself if it looks too difficult to mount... Sorry all for the picture laden posts.

Also, here's a link for the mount for cost... My only goal is to try to recover some of my shipping costs. The one for cost has a 1/32" wider catch...

https://www.shapeways.com/product/27...shop-inventory

2_i 

Thanks for all the details. This indeed looks easy. I started checking details of the mounts and indeed Topeak is beveled and somewhat complicated. I did not get to the original Shapeways one and it may need to wait for the weekend. In a certain sense, on our side we decoupled ourselves from the mounting dismounting issues for any particular mount as we switched to velcro for attaching and detaching - the original mounts serve only for placing of a velcro covered pad on handlebars or elsewhere. In that way we do not rely on any particular uniform system across bikes, phones and other devices, pouches etc. The system stretches to cars, wrists etc. Topeak I think also had some car mounts but we went ahead our own way. The commercial ones were too rigid, too limited and now we just use pieces from this or that.

edthesped

I went from a Delta case to the Topeak and am always looking for the "perfect" way to mount my phone, I run a Dynamo so my phone doubles as my bike computer and I like to have easy access to it. How does the velcro work, do you glue 1/2 to the case and the other half to something on the bike? I think I'd be too paranoid to attempt to mount my phone only using velcro.

2_i 

We have mounts of one form or another on all bikes and then there are mounts for rental bikes and rental cars and for wrists if your hands hold luggage . Velcro works very well. In fact it holds at times so well that it is hard to detach the phone. The velcro lets you sandwich battery between the phone and handlebar mount. Pouch for rain has its own velcro etc. I'll post later photos illustrating the general idea.

2_i 

Here are sample mounts that rely on velcro, Topeak on Brompton and a quick release mount, out of pieces, for loan and rental bikes. The last is the most important one as phone navigation tends to be critical on foreign territory.

edthesped

Thanks, I may have to look into trying a velcro mount at some point...