Phillip Zminda Gains City-Biking Confidence After 200 Miles With Quad Lock Phone Mount
Updated
Updated · The New York Times · May 15
Phillip Zminda Gains City-Biking Confidence After 200 Miles With Quad Lock Phone Mount
1 articles · Updated · The New York Times · May 15
Eight months and 200 miles after starting to commute by bike, Phillip Zminda says Quad Lock’s Out Front Mount became the key tool that made city riding feel manageable.
A dropped phone on his first 6-mile commute from Bushwick to Long Island City pushed him to buy the mount and matching case the next day after his phone flew from a jacket pocket into traffic.
Quad Lock’s mount, Wirecutter’s top pick since 2019, kept his phone secure across smooth pavement, rocky industrial streets and rail tracks while giving him a visible map for real-time route changes.
That navigation visibility mattered because traffic, sudden car turns and road work made memorized routes unreliable, letting him focus more on riding safely than on recalling every turn.
Zminda says the mount did not remove the risks of city biking, but it made regular commuting and new weekend routes feel practical enough to become a highlight of his week.
Does mounting a smartphone on handlebars create a more dangerous form of distracted riding for city cyclists?
Are smart bike mounts a tech fix for a problem that better urban planning and infrastructure should solve?