Rokform The Bike Mount Kit

Rokform's The Bike Mount iPhone kit is sturdily made and has a really clever mount, but bodged-around design shortcomings make it less desirable.

When you pick up the Rokform The Bike Mount iPhone case the first thing you notice is the feel of quality in the manufacturing. If you're anything like me you would have homed in on the gorgeous bike mount, a beautiful piece of machined aluminium.

The idea of the Rokform mounting system is very clever. Rather than the mount fixing to your handlebars or stem, the Rokform mount fixes to the top of your steerer tube. Putting it on your bike is simplicity itself, you simply remove the top cap from your stem and steerer and screw the mount in its place. Tighten up the screws and the mount feels rock solid. The whole process takes less than 90 seconds.

Moving on to the case: it's made from a hard polycarbonate with fuzzy pads on the inside to stop the case rubbing and wearing away the nice aluminium of your iPhone. The case comes in two parts. Slide your iPhone into the larger part of the case then clip the bottom on. At this point you have a choice, you can use the case as-is, or there is an additional, optional rubber bumper which clips around the front to provide additional protection. Rokform also include a lanyard which can be added to the case with or without the rubber bumper.

Adding the rubber bumper to the case slightly increases the size of it as you might expect but I found it to be particularly useful. The hard polycarbonate case is not particularly grippy, by having the rubber bumper attached I felt more confident that the case wasn't going to slip out of my sweaty palms. The downside to having the rubber bumper on however, is that accessing the mute button on the side of the iPhone is quite a bit more difficult.

The case fixes to the mount in a similar way to a Garmin or Quad Lock system. The Mount has four lugs set at an angle which fit through a corresponding hole on the back of the case. Match the mount with the phone and turn through about 45° and the phone is connected to the mount.

The attachment to the bike mount initially feels quite solid. The secure connection relies on the phone not rotating and coming off again. The Rokform system uses magnets embedded in the mount and case to help hold the case in place. Once the phone is connected to the lugs and twisted, it jumps pretty well into the right position and seems to hold your phone quite securely. The case magnet is embedded in a rubber pad which adds further resistance to the phone twisting off the mount. Rokform also supply and recommend the use of the lanyard in addition to the lugs and magnet for 'triple protection".

As you can tell my first impressions of the Rokform mounting case were good. It does feel and look like a quality bit of kit.

The Rokform system includes windscreen mounts for your car as well as tripod, buggy, jogging and motorbike mounts. I like the idea of different mounting options for different situations as it feels like you're getting more use out of the case.

My first ride out with the Rokform highlighted some design flaws. With or without the bumper, the case offers no weather protection to the phone and it was chucking it down outside. So although I had the case and the mount, my phone spent the ride in my pocket.

For weather protection, Rokform are supplying what they call a "Rok sack". The Rok sack is basically a Ziploc bag which you put the phone in and then attach to the mount; you can't help feeling it's a bit of an after thought. Once the bag is on, using the phone's touch screen isn't nearly as easy as with the Quad Lock or Biologic, both of which offer much better weather protection.

Having done nearly 100km now with the phone mounted to my bike with the Rokform I can't fault it for stability; it's definitely not a wobbly mount. Without the lanyard attached, however, I did feel slightly nervous that a knock on the phone at the right point would allow the case to come off the mount. While the mount doesn't wobble, I don't feel as confident with it attached as I did with the Quad Lock.

With the magnet embedded in the back of the case you start to find yourself sticking to things when it's in your pocket. Keys in my pocket were always attaching themselves and leaning against metal supermarket shelves I found myself attached to them too. Given the proximity of my phone to my wallet in my pocket I'm not sure if I should be worried that it might affect my credit cards or parking tickets.

Verdict

The case and mount are beautifully made but lack of water-resistance makes it difficult to recommend in the British weather