Available from Very & WH Smiths for £21.99
GPS on a bike is such an important asset especially for a new cyclist like myself who finds weaving through London’s streets, similar to being chased down a maze by an angry minotaur on heat. There are many fellow two wheeled brothers and sisters out there who use their expensive smartphone for GPS to get around, so when looking for a bike mount, the key thing to look for is quality.
The PNY Expand Bike Mount is 90 per cent made from hard plastic that is most definitively durable as I found out after a particular incident that had me feeling every human emotion available until we discover fourth-dimensional beings who can teach us to expand that.
The side-placed spring grippers are padded with soft rubber to grip your device for dear life which easily accommodated the 6.1-inch Huawei P20 Pro, using the 95mm width grippers. Considering taller and narrower form factors are en-vogue to go in tandem with 18:9 aspect ratio displays, every smartphone can easily fit the mount.
Two sponge pads are placed on the holder to absorb shocks to the back of your device to prevent knocking the phone off onto the road. Attaching the mount to a bike frame is easy enough, simply turn the screw on the back of the clamp until you can’t turn it anymore. The clamp is cladded with rubber to prevent your phone from swinging like a wrecking ball to your chin. Between the clamp and the holder is a universal joint which allows you to move the phone like a joystick into convenient positions, to suit your riding style.
So, that incident. When going over a pot hole the holder popped off the clamp and my phone met the floor sending it into the middle of the road. Now, the bright side is I found out my phone can take being run over and the mount can take a heavy drop to the floor sustaining no scratches (my phone case, however…). But the fact that the holder popped off in the first place has me anxious to use the mount for future travels. The mound behaved for my trip home from the tennis courts but I was incredibly wary about every speed bump, drain and pot hole – riding at a drunk snail’s pace over them.
The PNY Expand Bike Mount almost ticks every box but failed at the most important task and that’s keeping my smartphone from smacking against the road and getting ran over. Okay, that last requirement might have been added on over the course of the review process but you see my point. I want to recommend the mount, it made my travels for the day incredibly convenient, and made me realise I was in the dark ages asking people for directions. But I simply can’t, not even for £21.99.
