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Suggestion for Stem Head Phone Mount?

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  • September 16, 2014 at 8:48 pm #22384
    vibecy

    Hello,

    I am doing my research into buying a Stem Head Phone Mount & Case for my Asus Padfone 2 (phone dimensions are 137.9 x 68.9 x 9 mm).

    I am looking for something which is sturdy and offers some vibration-dampening. I don’t really mind about weatherproofing, but it’s a plus.

    I have found three cases/mounts which fit the bill:

    http://www.thinkbiologic.com/products/bike-mount-weathercase-galaxy

    http://topeak.com/products/bags/smartphone_drybag_5_bk

    All three confirmed to fit my Padfone 2.

    Does any have have suggestions/pros-cons against these cases, or any other suggestions on how they mounted their phone on the stem securely?

    Thanks,
    vibecy

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Viewing 8 replies - 1 through 8 (of 8 total)
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  • September 18, 2014 at 8:54 am #814597
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    vibecy

    Blue_Brevatto wrote:Whatever

    Blue_Brevatto wrote:
    Whatever you do be wary of anything where the weight of the phone is overhung and therefore creates a significant bending moment within the support bracket. Your preferred option definitely does this.

    I bought one of these
    http://www.sjscycles.co.uk/smart-front-bracket-for-oversize-headset-mount-prod26539/
    to mount a 2W (2xAA) smart light (probably similar weight to a smart phone + case) and it failed in less than 2 months (road use only). Fatigue crack starting from an internal corner located co-incident with one of the bends approaching the headset. On examination there was another crack on the other side that had also opened. Clearly a poor design in lots of ways. But it illustrates just how much vibration comes up through the steerer (this was an AL fork but with 32C tires and no more than 60-70 psi most of the time). But it still failed.

    It IS possible to have a successful design with over-hung mass – Hope and Exposure manage it on a number of their front lights – I’ve never heard of one of those failing. But they engineer their products to last and they have years of experience designing bike-specific hardware.

    Interesting insight Blue_Brevatto, thanks.

    Do you reckon a http://bit.ly/1wrTz7Z or http://www.paulcomp.com/stemcaplightmount.html with a finn would be more stable/not so prone to fail?

    Is anyone around with a physics degree to enlighten us which option is better? 🙂

    September 17, 2014 at 7:42 pm #814595
    0
    Blue_Brevatto

    Whatever you do be wary of
    Whatever you do be wary of anything where the weight of the phone is overhung and therefore creates a significant bending moment within the support bracket. Your preferred option definitely does this.

    I bought one of these
    http://www.sjscycles.co.uk/smart-front-bracket-for-oversize-headset-mount-prod26539/
    to mount a 2W (2xAA) smart light (probably similar weight to a smart phone + case) and it failed in less than 2 months (road use only). Fatigue crack starting from an internal corner located co-incident with one of the bends approaching the headset. On examination there was another crack on the other side that had also opened. Clearly a poor design in lots of ways. But it illustrates just how much vibration comes up through the steerer (this was an AL fork but with 32C tires and no more than 60-70 psi most of the time). But it still failed.

    It IS possible to have a successful design with over-hung mass – Hope and Exposure manage it on a number of their front lights – I’ve never heard of one of those failing. But they engineer their products to last and they have years of experience designing bike-specific hardware.

    September 17, 2014 at 9:43 am #814593
    0
    vibecy

    The reason for damping is
    The reason for damping is using my bike on rough gravel terrains (not MTB-style roads mind you) and using Runtastic as an offline positioning system (no 3G/LTE needed) to know where I am going.

    September 17, 2014 at 9:41 am #814591
    0
    vibecy

    Hi parksey,
    You are correct
    Hi parksey,

    You are correct about the biologic mount – the pictures fooled me :/

    The Topeak has an additional attachment for stem mount, the F66 stem cap fixer (scroll down on the link I posted initially to see it under compatible products).

    The reason I leave Quadlock as a last resort, is the shape of the stem on my bike, which is not cylindrical (more like elliptical) – I tried something similar and did not hold well. I might be wrong with the Quadlock though, who knows..

    September 17, 2014 at 9:03 am #814589
    0
    glynr36

    vibecy wrote:As I mentioned,

    vibecy wrote:
    As I mentioned, I am looking for a stem head cap mount type, please see other products mentioned in my post.

    Only one of the 3 you link to mounds on the topcap of the headset…


    Quadlock and finn are a last option for me – this is the official response of Quadlock regarding vibration dampening:

    Hi,

    Unfortunately the Phone will only remain as steady at the bike itself, as this is connected directly to the stem of the bike and the mount does not offer shock absorption or vibration dampening.

    Please let me know if you have any more questions.

    Thanks

    Which is about right, for a £50 phone case and mount you won’t get anything that’s vibration damping (I can’t see that any case would offer this anyway, it would need to be hideously bulky to offer damping worth having)
    What’s your need/want for damping?

    September 17, 2014 at 8:45 am #814587
    0
    parksey

    So far as I can see, neither
    So far as I can see, neither that Biologic case nor that Topeak one attach to the actual stem cap though? Both use a broadly-similar system to the Quadlock, i.e. a mount which is attached to the stem itself, to which the phone/case is then attached.

    I don’t see how attaching it specifically to the stem cap would offer any greater vibration damping either? With comparatively primitive systems such as this, the damping would surely come from the case in which the phone sits, irrespective of how it is mounted to the bike?

    I certainly wouldn’t consider Quadlock as a last option against those others, as I can’t see how it is deficient? I use one of their universal kits to mount my Sony Z2 to my bike, the adaptor being attached to a Spigen case which allegedly has shock absorption properties. The phone remains nothing but rock-solid, and I’ve had no adverse issues in using it (which would have resulted from vibration) in the near-6 months of daily riding that it has so far endured.

    September 17, 2014 at 5:52 am #814585
    0
    vibecy

    Thank you for your reply!
    As
    Thank you for your reply!

    As I mentioned, I am looking for a stem head cap mount type, please see other products mentioned in my post.

    Quadlock and finn are a last option for me – this is the official response of Quadlock regarding vibration dampening:

    Hi,

    Unfortunately the Phone will only remain as steady at the bike itself, as this is connected directly to the stem of the bike and the mount does not offer shock absorption or vibration dampening.

    Please let me know if you have any more questions.

    Thanks

    September 16, 2014 at 9:18 pm #814583
    0
    MuddyGoose

    Quad Lock.
    Unfortunately they
    Quad Lock.

    Unfortunately they don’t do a case to match your phone but they do have a universal kit – http://amzn.to/1DgkPuI

    As long as you pair the universal adapter with a suitable hard case (polycarbonate or aluminium back) then it will all stay together fine.

    See this page – http://poggiodelre.wordpress.com/2014/07/20/review-of-the-quad-lock-system-phone-mount/ on my blog for more details.

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