jppe

This is very lengthy but it was a very interesting way to spend last Friday evening:

My brother and I several years ago
I got an unexpected phone call from a lady that lived in a very, very rural area in the NC mountains last Friday afternoon. She left me a voice mail message as I was away from my phone at the time. Since she didn't talk with me she also called my two sisters. She said that she found a mobile phone lying in a gravel road near her home and it looked like it might belong to my brother. She looked at the screen and navigated to the emergency/medical link and our names and numbers came up. She was calling to let us know that she had the phone and thought the owner might like to have it back. She lived about 2 hours away from where my brother lives.

My brother is single, does not have a house phone and also rides bikes. In fact, while he is 11-12 years younger than me, he got me into cycling. When she told me what gravel road she found the phone on I knew exactly what route he was riding. However we didn't have any way to get in touch with my brother to know for sure. My sisters thought the worst and started calling area hospitals and the sheriffs office to see if they had any reports of him being injured and getting medical care. This area is very remote and my sisters were worried that if he'd crashed he might be lying unconscious off the side of the road. I felt sure the phone as fallen off of him or his bike but until we were able to talk with him we really just didn't know what was going on.

We called where he works and they confirmed that he was not at work that day. They got concerned and sent another employee to his house. They saw that one of this two vehicles was not at his house and they left him a note to contact me when he got home.My brother is a very rigorous about following a routine that he likes. Knowing that I knew there was a pizza restaurant that he really liked stopping on his way back home from a ride up that way. I called the restaurant and explained to the young lady about the missing phone and if my brother came into the restaurant to please have him call me. They didn't know him but I gave them his name in hopes that if he stopped there he would know his phone had been found and could go back to this lady's house and get his phone.

It was getting late and dark and we still hadn't heard from him. I was close to getting the car to ride up that way to see if I could track him down. I started to think if I knew anyone that lived in that area.

A couple weeks ago I had breakfast with a 94 year old widower in our church. I asked him about his family, where he grew up etc. I recalled that he grew up on a dairy farm about 4-5 miles away from a church parking lot where we parked to ride those gravel roads. He told me that his kin folks still had and worked the dairy farm. I did an internet search and lo and behold the name of the dairy farm came up.........and there was also a phone number!!! I called the number and someone actually answered!!!I gave my story to this very sweet lady about knowing their relative that grew up on the farm, the phone that was found, not hearing from my brother etc. I asked if they would mind driving over to the church to see if my brothers car was still there. If his car was there then we needed to start searching for him. She sensed the urgency and had her husband drive over the church and thankfully his car was NOT there.

That was a relief.In the mean time I realized that my wife was in the mountains and was going to be headed back to the Charlotte area soon. She would be going within 10 miles of where the lady lived that had found my brothers phone. So after several more calls I arranged for my wife to meet her at an old grist mill way off the beaten path. They both arrived as planned and my wife was able to get the phone.They both arrived as planned and my wife was able to get the phone.We finally heard from my brother after he got home later that evening. After he finished the ride he discovered his phone was missing. He had been riding in his vehicle back tracking the route for two hours trying to find his phone. After I'd explained all we had done His comment to me was "If she had left the phone in the road I would have found it"!?!?!?!?!?!?!? That's my brother........He had bought a new bento bag for his top tube and had put the phone in it. Apparently the phone had bounced out going down a fast bumpy section of the gravel road. The good news was he could pick it up the next morning at my house on his way to a College football game. When he came by I showed him my Quad Lock for my phone and how great it keeps a phone out in front of you on the bars. He was running Strava and looked at there the route lines started doubling back from it being a vehicle when found and we knew the exact spot where it had jumped out of the bag.Lessons learned: Always let someone know where you're riding, put good contact information in your phone like he did and make sure your phone is secure!!!

JohnDThompson 

Cool story.

Probably would have gotten run over, more like it. I've found plenty of phones on the road, but never an intact one.

Jon T

I keep mine in its case in the middle jersey pocket. Never have had any problems but the phone is a lot smaller than the pocket.
Jon

Steeljag

Biker395 

I have an iPhone 5C, which is small enough to fit in my seatbag. I try to keep it there, and if it doesn't fit, it goes in one of my jersey side pockets. I never put anything hard in the middle pocket ... the notion being to keep it away from my spine in the event of a crash. Would it make a difference? I dunno ...

jadocs

I put my phone in the left rear jersey pocket, tools are in the middle pocket because it's the heaviest, and food on the right because I'm right handed and it makes it easy to grab something to eat while riding.

caloso

iPhone in left jersey pocket. Never had it come out, even during a crash.

Helderberg

I have a handle bar mount that keeps my phone in front of me and is easily activated to see specs on my Strava rout.
Frank.

WarrenR

Keep mine in a top bag on my rear rack.

noglider 

I use a Quad Lock!

Thank you for the story and the lessons.

daoswald

Middle jersey pocket combined with license and credit card, inside a small zip lock to keep it away from my sweat.

jppe

brandenjs

BobbyG

I commute and wear golf shorts with a belt. My phone goes in a holster with a full belt loop.

Steve B.

jimincalif

LesG

+1 for the quadlock. Quick on and off the bike but, at the same time, not worried about it falling off.

KraneXL

Saddle bag

Rollfast

It's wired to the wall.

Machka 

How do you carry your phone while riding?


Handlebar bag.

Or Quadlock thingy ... if I want to follow Strava.

wphamilton

I only trust jersey pocket, inside the trunk bag, or the inside jacket pocket depending on what's available. I've had one slip out of a backpack pocket that was strapped down tight on the rack, out of pants pockets, and from failing mounts.

Mitkraft

I have three different handlebar mounts on three different bikes. My road bike has a BiKase Handy Andy attached to my Lightning Strike aerobar which puts it right in the middle and out front. On my commuter I have a cheap handlebar/stem wedge shaped bag with a spot for the phone on top. On my mountain bike I have an Escape From Alcatraz Triathlon BiKase DriKase because the mountain bike is more likely to get dunked so having it completely waterproof is handy. I went completely end-over into a muddy water hole at the bottom of a dip, completely submerged the phone temporarily and it was perfectly fine. I hear everyone talking about putting it in the jersey pocket but on top of not liking the extra weight pulling on me (and stretching out my jersey) I don't feel confident that it won't bounce out somehow.

GadgetGirlIL

If weather is cool enough to wear my cycling jacket, then my phone is in a zippered chest pocket. In warmer weather, it is in a zippered pocket on my waistpack.

noglider 

I went through too many cheap mounts. It would have been cheaper for me to buy the Quad Lock in the first place. One of them even broke while I was riding it in heavy city traffic. It tossed my phone onto the ground, and a taxi rolled right by it, almost crushing it. As luck has it, the phone was not damaged. I was very annoyed. I wrote to the manufacturer, and the woman there admitted that they were having this trouble, which made me even angrier.

canklecat

I used to mount my iPhone on a Delta mount, which is very secure and sturdy but not as elegant as the Quad Lock.

But since getting a larger Android phone last December it's always on me, usually in a pocket -- jersey, jacket or pants. I hit by a car while riding last spring and I was glad to have the phone on me in case I was separated from the bike. That can happen very quickly when witnesses or rescue personnel show up. You may not see your phone or bike again for awhile -- although in my case they put my entire bike in the ambulance with me!

And no problem with the phone slipping out of my pocket or being damaged when I hit the pavement. My helmet was dinged and shoulder was broken but the rest of me was okay, including the phone. As soon as I was able to stand I used it to snap photos of the surroundings, car and driver who struck me, etc.

I used to carry a flip phone in my pocket and never had a problem in the three times I crashed unassisted by outside influences.

If I carried a spare phone it would go in my seat bag. I no longer mount a phone on the handlebar. I got a good cheap bike computer for that -- much smaller and lighter, and does what I wanted. If I need to consult the phone for orientation I need to pull over anyway. And I can still hear the phone prompts for Strava segments and voice feedback from my cycling apps to tell me average speed, etc. So I don't really need it mounted on the bike anymore.