A few years ago, bicycling on one of Tucson’s spectacularly potholed neighborhood streets, I let my attention wander and clipped a nice deep crevasse, which sent me and the bike straight down on my left shoulder. One result was a broken collarbone; the other was the immediate sight of my iPhone cartwheeling across the pavement.
The phone, in its protective case, survived, but I was less than impressed with the Ram Mount clip that had held it with a single spring-mounted tab. Nevertheless I continued using it out of thrift. That early iPhone finally died last month, and I took the opportunity to upgrade the mount.
After a bit of research I landed on the Quad Lock system, which employs a four-way locking cruciform clip secured by a spring tab. You match up the phone’s fitted case tom the mount, press in and rotate, and it locks. The advantage to this is that even if the spring tab is depressed by accident, the phone would still have to rotate through 45 degrees before it came free. It’s significantly more secure than the old mount.
In addition to handlebar mounts (for both bicycles and motorbikes, of course) Quad Lock makes a kit for vehicles, using either a suction-cup windshield mount or an adhesive-backed dash mount. The windshield mount is next on my list.
Quad Lock advertises the security of their mounts by deploying them in sponsored Baja race trucks. But have you ever seen how those things float over terrain on three feet of suspension travel? I’m willing to bet a bicycle ride in Tucson is a tougher test.
Quad Lock is here.
