Quick Look: Quad Lock Phone Mount With Vibration Dampener
Featuring secure, convenient, vibe-safe phone mounting, even off-road.
Like many riders, we often run a handlebar mounted smartphone for GPS navigation on our adventures. Why? They’re less bulky than a dedicated GPS, we all own a smartphone already, and navigation apps like Gaia allow you to load preset GPX tracks and offline maps for free. In addition, it’s convenient for turn-by-turn directions, listening to music, or taking important calls on the road when used with a bluetooth headset.

The question we always get though is ‘what phone mount do you use?’. For many riders, the thought of attaching a $1,000+ smartphone to the handlebars and trusting it will stay there is a bridge too far, especially when traveling off-road. We’ve been there and we’ve also seen our smartphones get launched in the air when riding through rough terrain using some of the early phone mount systems. But for some time now we’ve been using the Quad Lock phone mount with great success. It uses a patented dual-stage lock mechanism that attaches to the back of your phone securely with either a phone specific case or Quad Lock’s Universal Adaptor with 3M adhesive backing attached to your existing case. Detaching or attaching your phone to the Quad Lock mount is done so with a simple, one-handed push and twist motion, and the snap-in mechanism can’t be unlocked without intention.

Standard handlebar mounts are built with tough glass-filled nylon while the PRO mounts utilize CNC machine aluminum for even greater durability, and the snap-in mechanism can’t be unlocked without intention.
When testing any new phone mount there’s always some apprehension before you build confidence with the device, and our initial feelings using the Quad Lock were no different. We started with basic street rides, then moved on to some pretty gnarly off-road trails. Since we started using the Quad Lock, it’s been mounted on the bars of several of our motorcycles in a variety of terrain — even big whoops and rocky trails — incident free. It’s now at the point where we don’t even think about it anymore.

Yet, wondering if your phone will stay attached isn’t the only fear. Many new smartphone cameras have intricate image stabilization components that can be damaged by engine vibration (don’t ask how we know). While the Quad Lock does seem to have some built-in vibration damping in the materials used, there is an optional ($19.99) vibration dampener that can add even more protection. We decided to get one just in case and it’s easy to install on your existing Quad Lock with just a simple allen key wrench. The phone definitely has more jiggle than before but it’s still easy to read the screen and the small investment is well worth the peace of mind.

And what about the elements? Leaving your phone mounted out in the open in a storm can leave you without GPS navigation in the middle of nowhere. Quad Lock has a solution for that though with its Poncho plastic phone cover. It fits snugly over the top of your phone, creating a water-tight seal from rain and splashes. It’s made of tough TPU, so you can keep it on there for even more impact protection.
All things considered, the Quad Lock is one of the best phone mount systems we’ve tested to date. Giving us even more confidence with the Quad Lock are endorsements from nother-level riders like Chris Birch, Pol Tarres, Ricky Carmichael and more. While it’s not a cheap phone mount by any measure, you can custom configure a mounting solution anywhere from $50 to $120 depending on the options and phone model. For more information on the Quad Lock phone mount system you can check out their website.
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The problem you’ll find is that the vibrations can often destroy the cameras floating and focusing mechanisms on higher end phones. The main camera (like in a iPhone) modules are free floated to reduce hand shake blur in normal photo operations. Longer term mounting on the handlebar, especially off road riding, shakes the cameras beyond it’s limits where the electro-mechanical controls gets screwed up and can’t compensate properly any more. It’s especially damaging if you actually turn on the camera when riding (accidentally or otherwise) because the phone is then constantly trying to actively compensate for shake. After the mechanism is damaged (which doesn’t have any outward physical signs), when you go to take a photo, it doesn’t focus right anymore, and even can make weird mechanical noises trying to focus.
Obviously some mounts transmit less vibration to phone than others, but I went through 2 iPhones 13’s where the camera, would make very rapid clicking noises and take blurry pics after several weeks of being mounted on handlebar mount. On second Apple store replacement under warranty, they told me that they just had a store notice sent to them from corporate that they were getting a pattern of iPhone cameras malfunctioning after being used in motorcycle handlebar mounts. So if nothing else, I wouldn’t tell Apple it was being used on a handlebar mount for warranty purposes!
Hey Adamantine. Thanks for the extra background on the vibration problems. I’ve heard that it is primarily an iPhone issue as well. After damaging the focus on my iPhone a few years ago with a different mount (Hondo Garage), I now try to always use a mount with a vibration dampener to ensure it doesn’t happen again. So far the Quad Lock with Vibration Dampener has worked great with my iPhone 13 Pro and I haven’t run into anyone who’s had issues with their iPhone when using the dampener.