I have heard from a couple different Zero riders of their dissatisfaction with the RAM cell phone mount. The last gentleman I talked to had his cell phone go bouncing down the street, thankfully saved from destruction by his Otterbox case. Trying to learn from others, I went looking for another solution.
A Harley rider I know suggested this:
Quad Lock Bike Mount Pro. It is designed to keep your cell phone secure on mountain bikes. So I figure for a street bike it would be more than enough.
The quad lock system is essentially a spring loaded plastic cam that attaches to a cam socket on the back of your phone. In this picture, the mounting point is bright blue and the cam socket has been glued to the back of my phone case. There are a handful of specialty cases if you have one of the more popular models. It glues with a pad of 3M tape, so it's not coming off the case without a solvent or a crowbar. Mounting the cam to the handlebars is very easy. It uses a couple of rubber o-rings to loop around the bar and attaches to hooks on the base of the cam. It comes with zip ties if you want the extra security, but the o-rings have been rock solid for me.
To mount the phone, you push it down onto the cam and rotate 45
o. The phone will click into place and you won't be able to pull it off or rotate it until you press down on the bright blue ring around the mounting cam (see product link for better view of the ring).
Edit: Or, check out
this other photo I took for the windscreen stuff.
Additionally, you can rotate the phone 45
o in either direction before it locks. So you can mount your phone in either landscape or portrait mode.
On my Zero, the mounting cam doesn't raise the phone up high enough to clear the touring windscreen mounting bars. So I had to mount the cam on the left handlebar where the left mirror used to go. If you don't have one of the stock windscreens, you can probably mount it in the center of the handlebars quite comfortably.
In my case, portait mode is a no-brainer. Mounting it in landscape mode looks like it would interfere with the controls but there actually is enough clearance under the phone to get to the turn signal, high beam & horn with no issue. I haven't tried the hazards yet.
Advantages:
- Physical, not a magnetic mount.
- Landscape or portrait is equally secure
- Quick detach
- Suction mounts available for car windows so you can quick-detach in other vehicles
Disadvantages:
- Fairly pricey
- Cell phone case is a necessity
- Can't use a phone case with a built-in kickstand
