Attaching your phone to your motorcycle is risky business. Every phone mount system out there claims to be the best—but you don’t really know how secure your phone is until you’ve tried it. And then there’s the infamous iPhone camera and its propensity for failing under vibration.
Many riders I know and trust swear by Quad Lock’s products. So I was pleased as punch when the Australian company offered to send over a handful of products to test. I sent Quad Lock a list of five or six items that I thought would work, and they responded by sending a huge box of goodies for me to tear into.
Straight away, the Quad Lock system’s modular nature speaks to the gadget nerd in me. Everything product that they sent me was designed to integrate with the next, creating endless options. But if you’d like to keep it simple, start out with the bike mount and phone case that best fit your needs, then fine-tune your setup with the company’s myriad add-ons.
At the heart of my personal setup is the relatively new Quad Lock Handlebar Mount Pro and MAG Case. Those are augmented with a vibration dampener for the mount, and a colored accent ring and MAG Wallet for the phone case. That’s enough to tick most of my boxes—with the Quad Lock Weatherproof Wireless Charging Head and 12V to USB Smart Adaptor adding wireless charging capabilities to my setup.
All of the parts are ridiculously easy to set up—and that starts with how well-packaged they are. Each item comes neatly boxed, with simple instructions, and every last part you need to install it is included. Every screw uses the same size Allen head and is pre-treated with thread lock, and every box has an Allen key inside.
Products like the wiring charging head even come bundled with multiple USB charging cables in varying lengths and head angles, plus cable ties. Installing and configuring the mounting system literally takes minutes, with no need to crack open your tool kit. It really is idiot-proof.
Quad Lock Handlebar Mount Pro
The Quad Lock Handlebar Mount Pro is a rugged CNC-machined aluminum mount (an upgrade over their base model nylon option) that clamps directly to your handlebars. It takes a one-size-fits-all approach, by using ‘collars’ that can accommodate diameters of 22 mm, 25 mm, 28 mm, 32 mm, and 35 mm. That means it’ll fit anything from regular 22 mm handlebars to tapered bars, and even some oversized options.
Fitting the mount to your bars involves figuring out the diameter at the spot where you want to install it, popping the heavy-duty nylon collar onto the bars, and then clamping the aluminum bracket over the collar. Notches in the aluminum clamp match nubs on the collar, ensuring a flawless fit.
The clamp itself is hinged on one side, with a single fastener on the opposite side to lock it down. Cleverly, the upper edge of the threaded hole in the bottom half of the clamp is countersunk, which helps to guide the securing bolt into place.
An aluminum arm bolts to the clamp to add some height and distance to the setup, with Quad Lock’s patented spring-loaded mounting head perched at the top of it. Both the head and the extension arm can be rotated 360 degrees, with fine teeth clicking them into place. Their teeth and threaded holes are identical, so you can just as easily ditch the extension arm and bolt the head directly to the clamp for a slimmer setup (my preferred configuration, as pictured below).
Rotating the extension arm and head, and rolling the actual clamp forward and backward around the bars, gives you a fairly decent range of positions to place your phone in. You do need to pick a fairly level section of the handlebars though, because there’s no way to pitch the mount left and right without adding Quad Lock’s optional $9.99 Knuckle Adaptor. Quad Lock sells spacer kits too, if you need a little more height at either of the Handlebar Mount Pro’s connection points.
Neither the knuckle nor spacers were needed to run the Quad Lock system on my Triumph Bonneville, nor a BMW F900GS that I had in my garage for a bit. Swapping the mount between the two bikes was easy enough too—although it did reveal that the black anodizing on the aluminum parts is prone to scratching if you fiddle with them too much.
The Quad Lock mounting head uses a simple press-and-twist method to attach your phone, while depressing the lever on the right releases it. Finding the right angle and amount of pressure to lock your phone in place takes a fair amount of practice—but the trade-off is that it feels hella secure once attached.
The Handlebar Mount Pro hides one more crafty feature—a small notch on the inside, filled by a removable rubber plug, that helps with cable management if you’ve added a charging kit to your setup.
[$69.99 | Available in black or chrome | More]
Quad Lock Vibration Dampener
The vibrations from some motorcycles are known to fry the image stabilizers in some smartphones. Quad Lock has a handy list of known culprits on the website, which includes my bike. So I installed the Quad Lock Vibration Dampener right out of the gate.
The Vibration Dampener mitigates high frequency vibrations by using twin ‘chassis’ plates, separated by silicon grommets.
Once again, setting it up is a doddle; remove the Handlebar Mount Pro’s standard head, bolt the Vibration Dampener on, and bolt the original head to the Vibration Dampener. Once again, everything you need is in the box, and setting it up takes less than two minutes.
The Vibration Dampener does add a few millimeters (and some visual heft) to the overall mounting system, and there’s a slight bit of bobbing while on the move. But if the alternative is a wrecked phone camera (I wasn’t about to mount my phone without it to find out), those are worthwhile tradeoffs.
[$19.99 | More]
Quad Lock MAG Case
The Quad Lock mounting system is useless without having something on your phone for it to interface with—so their MAG Case (or one of their universal mounts) is a necessity. I’m that guy who deliberately chooses older, cheaper, and smaller phones (I’m currently using a third-generation iPhone SE), which can make it hard to find a suitable case. Luckily Quad Lock’s range is pretty extensive.
The MAG Case features Quad Lock’s signature twist-mount ring on the back, plus a magnetic ring that works with the brand’s range of snap-on magnetic mounts. Mounting functionality aside, it’s a damn good phone case too.
The design is slim, but buff enough to handle abuse. There’s a soft-touch lining inside, bumpers along the top edge to protect the screen, and an extra protective lip around the camera lens. The phone’s edge buttons are easy to operate, and the charge port is easily accessible.
There’s room for personalization too. I swapped out the magnetic ring for a red one to differentiate mine from my wife’s phone (which uses the same case)—a process that involves popping the old ring off with the supplied tool and clicking a new one into place.
I also added Quad Lock’s brilliant MAG Wallet. Made from a synthetic material that vaguely resembles leather, it’s a spring-loaded slimline wallet that can take up to three cards and attaches to your phone magnetically. It’s also small enough to pop into a pocket when you need to mount your phone to your bike.
The fact that the MAG Case works with both twist-lock and magnetic Quad Lock mounts is a boon if you’re using multiple systems—such as the mount and magnetic head that I’ve set up in my car.
[$39.99 | More]
Quad Lock Mirror Stem Mount
My Triumph Bonneville shares garage space with a small, Taiwanese-made scooter—my go-to for errands and short-range missions. Handlebar space on a scooter is at a premium, so Quad Lock also sent me their new Mirror Stem Mount to try out.
Quad Lock makes more mounts than you can shake a stick at, including a fork stem mount, brake or clutch perch mount, handlebar clamp mount, and a bunch more. The Mirror Stem Mount is their newest, and it saves space by bolting to the same spot that your mirror does.
Unbolt your mirror, use the supplied washer and spacer (which lets you fit it to both M8 and M10 mirror mounts), bolt the Mirror Stem Mount in place, and refit your mirror. The mount uses a die-cast aluminum arm with an offset to put space between it and the mirror. It ends in a gimbal head that offers a range of positions, with Quad Lock’s standard twist-lock mount bolted to it.
Like the Motorcycle Mount PRO, it can be upgraded with a Vibration Dampener (or any other Quad Lock parts). And like its fellow mounting systems, it’s dead easy to set up and use.
[$44.99 | More]
Quad Lock Weatherproof Wireless Charging Head
The Quad Lock Weatherproof Wireless Charging Head replaces the regular mounting head on any of the company’s brackets, making it an all-in-one mounting and wireless charging unit. There’s a USB version that plugs into your bike’s USB socket, or a version that can be wired directly to your bike.
I’ve used the USB version here, which comes with three different USB-A to USB-C cables—including one with a right-angle USB-C plug that helps when mounting the charging head in tight spaces. Yet again, installing the head is quick and easy, with clear instructions and all the bits you need bundled with the unit.
The head itself is constructed from a mix of reinforced plastics and die-cast aluminum parts, with a finned rear aluminum housing designed to help manage heat. The whole thing feels sturdy—but it’s also chunky, especially when mounted on top of the Quad Lock Vibration Dampener. So I’ve opted to only install it when I’m going on longer rides and want to keep my phone charged.
When it is installed, it works just like the regular mounting head; twist to lock, and press the edge of the charging head to release (albeit with a little more force). Once your phone is mounted, you benefit from wireless fast charging (up to 7.5 W with iPhones, 10 W with Samsung Galaxy phones, and 15 W with Google Pixel devices). I haven’t benchmarked the charging time, but I’ve started a long ride with an almost dead phone and ended it with a full one, and that’s all that counts.
[$74.99 | More]
Quad Lock 12V to USB Smart Adaptor
Since my Triumph Bonneville was built before putting a USB charging port on every motorcycle was a thing, the final piece of my setup is the Quad Lock 12V to USB Smart Adaptor. It’s a relatively compact unit, with a waterproof USB port on one side and a standard SAE plug on the other. Plug it into your existing SAE cable if you have one installed, or install the cable that comes with the adaptor directly to your battery.
The unit is, as I’ve come to expect by now, simple to install and use, and comes bundled with everything you need to set it up. The biggest hassle is finding a spot to stick the adaptor and routing the cable to your bike’s cockpit. I managed to find a spot under my seat, and used some adhesive hook-and-loop strips on the unit and my electronics tray to hold it in place.
A three-way switch lets you turn the unit on and off manually, or set it to an automatic mode that only sends power to the USB port when the bike is running. Of course, if the whole wireless charging caboodle is at odds with your bike’s sano handlebar space, the USB Smart Adaptor is a quick way to add a USB port to your setup for regular cable-assisted charging.
[$39.99 | More]
