OSOCYCLO Smart Phone Handlebar Mount

Simon Whiten

Review of the OSOCYCLO Smart Phone Handlebar Mount from Osomount

If you are one of the many people that use your phone as a GPS bike computer, then you need a good mount to keep it in front of your nose whilst you are spinning along. We look at the OSOCYCLO Smart Phone Handlebar Mount from Osomount…

We’ve seen a few such devices and this a different approach to the NiteIze Handleband that Josh tested recently. The most notable difference is just how much extra engineering has gone into this unit. As a result there should be many more options with it but the main result of this is that the phone is held much higher over the bars, much closer to the rider’s face, which is perhaps actually less attractive to many riders?

 
Making it unattractive is certainly a major downside in modern cycling where image is king, and that’ll prove just too much for many road cyclists obsessed with how they look and the aerodynamics of their kit.
 
In my opinion the unit simply fits too high and proud of the handlebar for serious fast road work, but then if that’s your thing, it is unlikely you’ll are looking for a phone mount anyway.
 
So who will use this mount in that case? Well it is ideal for anyone who wants to see their phone’s maps features easily. If you are touring about, perhaps exploring somewhere new, and have a smart phone with a big screen this will make that exploration and any tricky navigation a breeze. It puts the phone literally right in front of your nose and the map or any text on the phone is much easier to see. No more having to scrunch your eyes up at the tiny, far away screen of a handlebar mounted Garmin.
 
And importantly, it is incredibly secure thanks to the dual mounting system…

The Osocyclo consists of a simple plastic handlebar clamp with a ball joint (in turn fitting into the actual phone clamp), which should allow multiple positions but in reality was actually a bit limited in its range of movement. Everything is made of hard gloss black plastic that seems perfectly tough enough, though it has yet to survive any impacts.
 

Above the handlebar clamp and the ball joint, is the phone clamp. There’s a flat bed for seating your phone and two moveable side plates that are under tension from a spring. One side plate has a securing, fastener bolt so you can fix it to a set width. The other side plate then works off the spring to apply tension against its fellow, via the phone, and hold everything still. And as we’ve said, it holds it very tight indeed…

 

 
This is important, but it does seem like a slightly bulky, over engineered solution to holding a phone. However, the over engineering comes into its own when on the move as it really is very secure no matter what type of phone you have and what you are doing. We tired it with the iPhone, the Samsung Galaxy, and a couple of different sized HTCs and it was totally secure in every instance (though we have yet to try getting any ‘big air’ with it). We are told it can handle any phone up to 4 inches wide, which would include the huge Samsung Note series.
 

 
As mentioned much of that security comes from the strongly tensioned clamp spring, which works by applying pressure to the sides of the phone, but for added security there are silicone bands (available in red or black) that grip the phone in the four corners preventing any further movement whatsoever. We haven’t tested it off-road yet but it has handled everything that London roads can throw at it so far.
 
While the clamp looks as if it can impinge on a phone’s side buttons (volume being the most obvious one) and the silicone bands might do the same as well as obscuring some of the screen, in reality, with a bit of custom positioning for each phone, this didn’t prove to be an issue. You can certainly see the whole screen still and operate it as normal.

So it does the job for which it was designed and I think that any cyclist who wants to be able to navigate easily with their phone will like this mount. It is a very good, very practical solution to using your phone as a bike computer. My next plan is to mount it on the cross bike and take it off-road…
 
For many riders, however, it just doesn’t look quite right, just not cool enough, to be mounted on an expensive road bike but, having said that, on the turbo trainer it comes into its own for the hard training cyclist trapped indoors by winter rain and snow.

 
OSOCYCLO Smart Phone Handlebar Mount
 

 
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