Personally, and thanks to the Runkeeper app I take my iPhone with me on all of my bike rides. This serves two purposes, one being that the app allows me to track my route and overall progress, but I also have some comfort in knowing that I have a way to get in touch with someone just in case something goes wrong.
Given that, I generally carry my iPhone in the back pocket of my cycling jersey, which is convenient, but is also leaves me without easy access to any controls. It also leaves it pretty much wide open should it decide to begin raining — and anyone living in Florida will tell you, the rain can come and go quickly.
Now, thanks to a new product from Dahon, those two issues may soon come to an end for me.
Dahon has recently unveiled a handlebar mount for the iPhone that is both waterproof and shockproof. And of course, being on the handlebar, it will allow me to have access, or at the very least to keep an occasional eye and make sure the Runkeeper app does not shut down for any reason. Additionally, the mount will allow the user to swivel the iPhone 360-degrees.
Unfortunately, it looks like I will have a little while to wait before this becomes available. According to Dahon, it is expected to hit the market sometime in January, at which time it will retail for around $60 bucks.
[Wired via modmyi.com]
September 22nd, 2009 at 9:05 am
Saw that Jason tweeted about this post so I came to check it out.
Like you, I always carry my iPhone in the back pocket of my cycling jersey, but I ALWAYS put it inside a ziplock bag. The ziplock bag doesn’t stop me from interacting with the phone (touches work through the plastic), but keeps it completely dry when the rain does show up. I highly recommend it while you are waiting for this new case to become available.
I like the idea of this case, but one of my concerns is the ability to connect an external battery to the phone while it is mounted. I’ve gone on some longer rides where the internal battery just doesn’t cut it so I had to have an external battery pack on the phone. I haven’t looked hard at this case, but I’m guessing connecting an external battery wouldn’t work while in the case. The only other thing I’m curious about is the mount – will it work with my larger diameter handlebars?
September 22nd, 2009 at 10:41 am
So it’s shockproof… I wonder what they mean by that. Are they talking about the usual bumps you get while riding? Or would this mean that I could attach my iPhone to my mountain bike? What happens when I take a spill?
For $60 it looks like a great accessory to have for those of us to spend lots of time on 2 wheels.
-mjt
September 23rd, 2009 at 8:51 am
Like Kevin, the issue is how they deal with battery life. I cannot ride without my Mophie Juice Pack limpeted onto the iPhone. If they can build in secondary battery or room for the Mophie etc., then I’d be interested. It would help to kill off my nagging interest to “invest” in a Garmin Edge 705.
September 23rd, 2009 at 10:17 am
Unfortunately, it does not look like an external battery is going to be an option, and I agree that is a problem. I often get home from a long ride and have little to no power left. But part of my issue is that I am often running two apps (Runkeeper and RssPlayer).
Hopefully something in regards to an external battery power will also come up, in the meantime I am thinking this seems to be a decent option and likely one that I will purchase.
In regards to the handlebars, I was also curious on that. I primarily ride a tri bike and would have to secure the mount in a little different than you see on the video due to the arm rests for my aero bars.
Hopefully it will work out, if not my jersey pocket has been doing a decent enough job so far. And thanks for the baggy tip, so obvious, not sure why I never considered that in the past.
October 13th, 2009 at 8:55 am
Ellis is one of 55 HOG members on the outing, mostly white-collar types with secret lives as bikers–and total devotion to their Harleys. “It’s the imagery, the mystique,” says Ellis. The group was gearing up for a huge national rally of HOG chapters in July: 20,000 owners were expected to ride into Atlanta for a three-day party to mark the start of Harley-Davidson’s 100th anniversary celebration. Some would be hard-core guys with big tattoos and bad tempers, the sort who once typified the Harley customer. But most would be playing hooky from $78,000-a-year jobs (the average salary of today’s Harley customer), riding $16,000 motorcycles (the typical cost of Harley’s biggest bike, a cruiser), and pledging fealty to an open-road cult that doubles as a $4-billion-a-year company.
January 30th, 2010 at 10:40 pm
But the 2 things all 20,000 harley owners share in common are a preference for image over performance, and they're all fat.