I will be traveling quite a bit this summer on my bike.  I have used a handlebar mount for my GPS before; however, my fiance has my GPS for her work travels this summer since she does not have GPS navigation on her phone and I do... I have a Lifeproof case, and I have an Otterbox Armor series case for my iPhone 4S.  I have seen mounts for the Lifeproof case out there, but I don't think I trust the mounts as much as the case, and a majority of the reviews aren't the best for the mounts. 

Has anyone come across mounts for the Armor Series cases? I would trust the Armor series on my bike much more than the Lifeproof anyway; however, I have lap swam and powerbocked with both cases and they perform excellent in the elements either way.

There are flaws with each case, but I'm mostly concerned with the best way to mount them.   There are good and bad reviews regarding both cases, but neither has failed on me, and they do what they are supposed to do for me, so I feel comfortable with this application.  I put this in Odds and Ends to anticipate some off topicness, So if anyone is curious for themselves about the cases, I'll certainly answer no problem.  Just try to keep from bashing apple vs. android, and stuff like that, we've all been there before and there is never agreement anyway.

Any ideas on mounting the Armor series on my bike, or better mounting options for the Lifeproof? 



- Bboy

A friend of mine made his own for his evo 4g and his honda.
IF you dont need pretty it's worth a shot.

I will try and get pics from him but he bought a otterbox style 2 part case and a spare plastic back part (not otterbox brand, maybe Seidio?). Then he dremeled 4 slits in the plastic part. Then He ran regular hardware store hose clamps through the holes and around the bars. Then he has his phone in its case, but if he wants to mount it to his bike he pops it out of the plastic and into the one on his bike.

Not sure if his case is waterproof or not, but it has to be close, all posrts have rubber plugs and there is a plastic screen covering built into it.

I like the simplicity of that, but I'm afraid it would be hard to find a back to one of these cases... or another that I would trust.

I did find these at RAM mounts that might do the trick, and many of the RAM mounts have good reviews.

http://www.revzilla.com/motorcycle/ram-mounts-stem-mount-finger-grip-cell-phone-kit

- Bboy

I too have been in the market for a phone mount but cannot use a handle bar type mount.

I've been considering one of these...this is an alternative to a handle bar mount.  You can get various attachements to fit phones, GPS etc

http://tinyurl.com/ox5dbya

Quote from: Thomps991 on May 26, 2013, 04:59:42 PM
I've been considering one of these...this is an alternative to a handle bar mount.  You can get various attachements to fit phones, GPS etc

http://tinyurl.com/ox5dbya

^^^^ $100?

Hell no. 

Ram mounts, the easiest, and best store bought available

Agreed on the ram mounts. ive used em on multple occasions. w/o a single problem.

Quote from: weedahoe on May 26, 2013, 02:14:44 PM
I too have been in the market for a phone mount but cannot use a handle bar type mount.

Been looking into stem mounts.  They seem to be pretty sturdy mounted there, and are still pretty visible.  I feel like the gas cap mounted or other type of tank mounts would be too far under my field of vision.

- Bboy

Edit: Needing to buy one this week, so if anyone has any more persuasive words to share, I'm listening! 

How would you use a stem mount when our stem has a solid bolt through it?

LMK what you buy and how you like it because I need/want one also

Yes, didn't look close enough at how they actually mounted till about 20mins ago... just thought the idea of mounting it there would be perfect, but probably won't work for our bikes 

But I'm looking into others ways besides handlebar mounts which I'm trying to avoid... need to stare at my bike for a bit lol.

- Bboy

Im not feeling bar mounts either as then you might turn they might make the device come in contact with something. At least in a stem mount it would turn in one place rather than swing with the bars.

Of course, you could always take out the bolt in the stem, center drill and tap/thread it and then use a bolt to mount the device stand in place

I was wondering that myself... how would that hold up you think?

- Bboy

It would hold fine. I would drill and tap 1/4-20 since it is a common thread size. Use one or two rubber washers between the mount base and the top of the stem for cushion. Ive got one or two stem bolts myself and might try this route.

Scratch that. I just looked at a spare bolt and the checked it and it is just under 10mm OD. You wont be able to drill and tap that  with a bolt I feel to be large enough to support what we want to do.

However, we could fab a mount to go under the bolt and hold it that way.

That'd probably pretty easy to do too... Ideas are flowing right now
... I'll have to check around my garage this evening and see what I can come up with

- Bboy

Check this out

http://www.ebay.com/itm/190640317749

http://www.ebay.com/itm/171045511229

I ride with a tank bag quite a bit so that 2nd one would not work for me but that first one could be mounted under the stem bolt or maybe even behind the gauges. If you have a smoke windshield like me, that would be better IMO.

I figure I can make a bracket that extends out a little and mount it like that first one under the stem bolt, and then mount a RAM mount to the bracket.  I would trust the RAM mounts over time vs the chinese ones... and my phone with the otterbox armor case is pretty heavy too (like 3/4lb), so it would have to hold that up.

I'll have to look and measure for clearances, but I think it should work, or a variation of the sort anyway.

- Bboy

So its pretty simple.  I just bent a straight piece of steel (like the kind they make corner brackets out of) about 3/4 inch wide and 6 inches long. Drilled a hole to fit under the stem bolt, and another hole 1/4-20 at the other end of the bracket.  I will attach the ball camera-type mount to the end of the bracket into the 1/4-20 hole, and put the RAM mount on that ball mount.

I took pics on my camera, but forgot my SDHC card is flubbed and I can't get them off... shoulda just taken em with my phone, but now I can't till tonight.

So, one angled bracket and a ball mount is all it took!  ... I don't have the ball mount yet, as that is coming with the RAM mount, but I don't forsee any issues once the mount arrives. 

The only thing about mounting from the stem bolt is that it will have to be 'tall' enough so I can still fit the charger into the bottom of the phone and above the tank, but should be simple enough to take care of regardless.

Here is a quick mock-up from the side view of what the bracket will look like mounted up with the RAM mount.


- Bboy