Biologic Bike Mount for iPhone — Review
As most of the country is still drowning in a blanket of snow, riding your bike is probably a far distant memory for you (unless you live in California of course). But soon enough the first rays of sunshine will break the dark skies and you’ll be joyfully riding down the street, listening to music on your iPhone, until:
*DING*
Text message alert! Should you check? Overcome by curiosity you’ll probably wiggle your iPhone out of that tight jeans pocket, almost losing balance, as a car whooshes right by your side. Even though you know better, this is probably a familiar scenario if you’re an avid bike rider with an iPhone.
What you need is a mount — right in sight — on the handle bar of your bicycle. Surprisingly, however, there aren’t many great choices out there. So, we’ll be taking a look at one of the newest contestants: Dahon’s Biologic Bike Mount for iPhone
The Dahon bike mount ships with two parts: A snap-on iPhone case and a matching mount that you’ll have to install on your bike’s handle bar. Installation is fairly easy with the included allen wrench, even though the instructions aren’t very well detailed. Once the mount is installed, however, all you have to do is place your iPhone into the case, close the lid, lock the latch, and snap the enclosure in and out of the mount as you get on and off your bike.
The case itself encloses the iPhone entirely in a weatherproof case leaving the touch screen operable through a clear, touch sensitive plastic window. Don’t expect to write a novel with the lid closed, however, as you do loose some precision through the plastic, needing to press substantially harder for the iPhone to recognize your inputs. Basic operations such as unlocking the screen, changing a song, or switching to another application, work just fine, however.
In addition the case provides full (weatherproof) access to the headphone jack, home button, on/off switch, and the camera. You can’t, however, operate the mute switch or volume controls. You’ll need to resort to your headset’s volume control buttons instead.
The designers also allowed a little bit of extra “chin” on the bottom of the case, so you can connect the iPhone via USB cable to a battery pack (such as the ZAGGsparq) for extended rides.
The case exterior is plastic, with the inside lined in a thin blanket of rubber for weather isolation and shock absorption. While the design feels mostly solid, the case latch, as well as the headphone jack cover seem a bit flimsy. And while the latch hasn’t given us any problems yet, the little headphone-cover-stub tore off just a few weeks into testing the unit.
What’s really terrific about this enclosure, however, is that your precious iPhone feels absolutely safe during every ride — even on the toughest of terrains. Unlike our experience with most open-case mounts we weren’t even worried once that the phone might go uncontrollably flying off the handle bar. In addition, you can rotate the phone between vertical and horizontal orientation on the fly.
Unfortunately, the designers overlooked to include a plastic window in place of the iPhone’s ambient light sensor. Because this sensor is blocked with the lid closed, the iPhone will dim the screen brightness as if it were in complete darkness, making the screen hard to read in direct sunlight. As a workaround you can disable “Auto-Brightness” on the iPhone.
All taken into consideration, Dahon’s Biologic Bike Mount is the best solution we’ve come across so far. While it’s definitely got some first generation flaws — with a price too steep for a few inches of plastic — it’s absolutely worth the money if you’re an avid biker in need of quick access to your iPhone. And while $50 is in fact a little more expensive than most bike-mount solutions out there, the Biologic mount is the only one we feel comfortable recommending for your iPhone’s safety.
Combined with an application such as Cyclemeter ($4.99 – iTunes link), the Biologic Bike Mount makes for a powerful and versatile bike computer.
You can order the Biologic Bike Mount on Amazon
Pros:
- Solid protection
- Weather proof design
- Touch screen access
- Access to most ports and buttons
- Supports charging cable
- Camera access
Cons:
- Price
- Headphone jack cover tears off easily
- Limited touch screen precision
- Case blocks ambient light sensor
Questions or comments? Let me know: @eierund on twitter.
PS: We’re giving away three download codes for Cyclemeter (iTunes link) courtesy of Abvio. Comment below which bicycle you’ll be riding this summer to enter the competition. (US-Store only. Ends 02/25/2010. Be sure to include your email.)
Order Biologic Bike Mount for Iphone
A nice and necessary offering, BUT first generation or tenth generation, a plastic iphone holder such as this should be engineered to flawless specs and parts should neither be flimsy nor falling off.
This likely costs $5 or less to produce so even with a healthy margin for having little or no competition the $50 fee for “first generation design and production faults” is ludicrous. Abusive even.
Another smarter less greedy company can clean up on this market buy doing the job properly in the first place and charging $25 or less… and that would include the S&H.
There is an awful lot of avid cyclists already with iphones out there just waiting for the right mousetrap… but until we all loose out brains and the value of a $ I for one will continue using a ziplock bag and a back pocket.
Living in hope of a good ( well engineered ) product.
Seems suicidal to ride in traffic with headphones on, you might not outlive the flimsy latch.
I’ll be riding my sweet Schwinn I got at Costco. Apparently you can return most products at Costco no matter how old they are. I saw someone return their bike to Costco and the thing looked like it had been hit by a train and then left out in the snow for a year. It was a sore sight of rust, decay, and cobwebs. Costco took the bike back anyways and I, I mean they, got a new bike.
I want cyclemeter. Ill be riding my new trek 6000 disc mountain bike around this summer on the sunny streets of Venice. I want a biologic case too.
Summer for me includes a sweet ride on a spankin’ new Trek Soho, urban warrior!
That looks awesome. Gonna have to check it out.
Just purchased the biologic and look forward to using it tooting around the streets of TO soon on my Dahon Jack.
Bought it today and tested pouring water on it. Not waterproof i would say. Perhaps it is due to mass production. There goes my money.
Pouring a glass of water on it may indeed not be a good idea. But it does keep the iPhone safe from your occasional summer rain.
How well can you hear music through the speakers? I would rather not listen through headphones while biking. Does the cover diminish the volume?
Using the iPhone for biking demands an additional power supply assuming that you ride more than 3 hrs. The tool does not offer way to attach that power supply (additional accu).
@Mark Hayes: Absolutely correct, the price is ridiculous.
Bought one as soon as they came out. Really happy with it except for one minor problem. Already lost the headphone plug (which is not really an issue as I listen to music on every ride) and I find it challenging at times to successfully insert the headphone jack. Need to use quite a bit of elbow grease and patience.
Still would highly recommend this product to anyone
I’m an avid rider and bought one when it first came out in Sep/Oct 2009. Have ridden in the rain with it–protected the phone quite well, very dry. Have ridden through lots of bumps on my road bike. The mount and holder held up and remained very stable. No jiggle. I don’t use the headphones when riding (that’s just crazy stoooopid), so I needed to have the volume loud enough to hear through the speakers. The foam interior covers one of the speakers; with initial use the sound was quite muffled. Cutting out the small piece that was covering that one speaker resulted in an acceptable volume for me. It still kept my phone dry when riding through rain. Hinge is a bit flimsy but the clasp of the cover is secure (won’t fly open spontaneously). Price is a bit more expensive than other bike mounts for iPhone. Despite these flaws, it’s the most stable and rain-resistant iPhone holder/bike mount that I’ve used so far. Would definitely recommend this to everyone.
designs should be heavily tested to ensure they meet criteria would not expect to buy jeans to find pockets come off or are to small to get hands in so a case that covers the light sensor, muffles sound and the jack cover falls off and a poor catch that even though does its job you would expect something more substancial or trick for the price. if all this is sorted 2nd gen would be awsome
well, I should have believed in some of the reviews I read. On my first time out with my bike I hit a medium sized pothole and the cover popped open and launched my phone across the road… luckily I was able to retrieve it however only to find a smashed glass front. Of course Apple wants $199 to provide me with a replacement. Perhaps BioLogic will send me the $199 for a product that doesn’t hold up under real circumstances? If you were using this on a stationary bike, it should work. If you plan on riding this in the “real” world I ABSOLUTELY advise a rubber band or velcro strap around the unit. Best of luck to you.