Can anyone recommend a phone mount?

meanredspider

Willow 15 wrote:

As for battery life mine has lasted 10 hour rides in the Alps and Everesting.

At the risk of taking this already crazily off-track thread even more off-track, how do you use a phone for "Everesting"? I'm not familiar with the Sony but none of the phones I see have any sort of elevation resolution - in fact they're quite comical.

The Kessock Bridge is great for this because it has a profile you can see and climbs from sea level to about 40m. A Garmin Edge with barometric measurement makes a pretty good fist of matching that profile. A phone, though, is a joke. Unless you just use the phone to count the climbs, any elevation data it gives is likely to be a guess at best. I'm interested to learn how it's done.

Matthewfalle

Could you run strava through your phone and use that?

meanredspider

Matthewfalle wrote:

Could you run strava through your phone and use that?

If that's in response to the elevation question, it's in Strava that I've seen the crazy elevation. Strava through a phone is an estimate of segments too - the only time I used it, I took seconds off a 40s short/sharp climb - the local racing snakes (mates) took ages to get it back. Nothing to do with my climbing skills (because I have none short of being a Diesel engine) but just because the phone only has a rough idea where it is - I bet it started timing late and finished early.

perfectmark

meanredspider wrote:

Willow 15 wrote:

As for battery life mine has lasted 10 hour rides in the Alps and Everesting.

At the risk of taking this already crazily off-track thread even more off-track, how do you use a phone for "Everesting"? I'm not familiar with the Sony but none of the phones I see have any sort of elevation resolution - in fact they're quite comical.

The Kessock Bridge is great for this because it has a profile you can see and climbs from sea level to about 40m. A Garmin Edge with barometric measurement makes a pretty good fist of matching that profile. A phone, though, is a joke. Unless you just use the phone to count the climbs, any elevation data it gives is likely to be a guess at best. I'm interested to learn how it's done.

There are phones which have barometric sensors (latest iPhone being one of them). In fact assuming your phone was made in the last 2 years, it should be a much better GPS device because it also uses Cell Towers and Wifi, plus GLONASS satellites (only some Garmin devices support this) to help get a location.

meanredspider

perfectmark wrote:

There are phones which have barometric sensors (latest iPhone being one of them). In fact assuming your phone was made in the last 2 years, it should be a much better GPS device because it also uses Cell Towers and Wifi, plus GLONASS satellites (only some Garmin devices support this) to help get a location.

Yup - I'm sure phones are getting better - and barometric sensors will definitely help. Without them, the resolution of elevation is poor. I'm just going off typical phone data I see on Strava of friends that use phones. WiFi obviously isn't much help in rural locations. GLONASS is the biggest step forward - my 1000 is so much faster to lock than the 800 it replaced.

I think there will come a point soon that a phone will make as good a sensor as anything - at which point a small, paper-thin screen on your bike will suffice.

mrfpb

I'm happy with my Edge 800, but my latest phone (Samsung A3 - costs around £200) connects to my Garmin ant+ sensors and gives as good results as my old Garmin watch, so I use it for most runs now, as I would take it anyway to listen to music on the go. It also has the advantage of going straight to Strava so I don't need to use Garmin Express and then Garmin Connect in order to get my runs on Strava.

I would not buy a dedicated bike GPS if replacing the Edge 800, unless something comes along with much better functionality than a smart phone (and doesn't require a smart phone to use that functionality).

dodgy

Matthewfalle wrote:

Pane e agua mes amis .......

stueys

mrfpb wrote:

Matthewfalle wrote:

Stueys wrote:

hsiaolc wrote:

Wake up
One hour commute one way thats 2 hour each way. How much do you do? I never claim I am master anything. I just point out 10% drain for one hour hence I can do 10 hour to drain my phone completely. I doubt anyone is riding 10 hour. Even your garmin can't last that long. But did you get the point? No of course you can't.

I don't really have a religious zeal for or against using a phone, but I would add ;
- don't assume battery drain is linear, that's pretty naive and you'll have a nasty surprise.
- many of us regularly do long rides, I break 10 years 8-10 times a year and my usual Sunday training jaunt is 5-6 hours. A phone isn't going to cover that without bringing a plethora of cables and batteries
- a phone doesn't have the sensor coverage that a cycle computer does, my power meters are ant+, as are most people's
- for most of us our phones represent the single method of being tracked or communicating whilst we are out cycling on the roads, personally I like mine to have as much charge as possible and be tucked in a nice safe back pocket

In my view you might be fine commuting or as a 1-2 hour jaunt hobbyist, but cycling relatively seriously still demands dedicated kit.

What's a jaunt hobbyist out of interest? Haven't heard that one before.

Well a hobbyist must mean amateur. Clearly Stuey must be a pro cyclist as he does not consider himself a hobbyist.

What team do you cycle for Stuey?

Shush, don't bust me, Katarina has told me to spend less time on these forums

drwae

I would suggest avoiding the phone mount called 'Finn'. It is a stretchy silicone thing that snapped while I was riding and luckily I noticed before my phone fell out and broke.

super_davo

How about you get one of these?

http://uk.wahoofitness.com/devices/waho ... e-computer

£34 and you can use your phone and whatever app you want, keep it it your back pocket, with the screen off minimising battery drain, and not have to worry about it pinging off and breaking.

pinno

At last, some sanity!

perfectmark

super_davo wrote:

How about you get one of these?

http://uk.wahoofitness.com/devices/waho ... e-computer

£34 and you can use your phone and whatever app you want, keep it it your back pocket, with the screen off minimising battery drain, and not have to worry about it pinging off and breaking.

The problem with something like that is it is too limited and you miss out on most of the benefits of using a phone (like better turn by turn navigation).

The ideal solution would probably be an Apple watch or Android wear type device that you can strap to your handlebars, and then links to your smart phone. Caynon did demo such a device back in 2015, but nothing came of it.

Tashman

super_davo wrote:

How about you get one of these?

http://uk.wahoofitness.com/devices/waho ... e-computer

£34 and you can use your phone and whatever app you want, keep it it your back pocket, with the screen off minimising battery drain, and not have to worry about it pinging off and breaking.

Mine was delivered yesterday, paired up with a Sony E5 nice and easily. Will report back after the weekend on how it got on. Only thing missing for me at this stage is the link up for navigation, but generally I stick to known routes anyway.