Trail Rail Adjustable Phone/GPS Cradle Handlebar Mount

I had the pleasure of meeting Vincent Basile and his sister Jennifer from Trail Rail at Interbike in Las Vegas this year. They were promoting their line of high quality, interchangeable mounting systems that they market as being for the serious outdoor enthusiast. I was telling them how I had broken multiple Go Pro plastic handle bar mounts only to see my camera go bouncing down the trail and the thought of my iPhone suffering the same fate was unthinkable. If you’re willing to mount your expensive phone or GPS on a $20 plastic mount then stop reading right now, this is not the product for you. If on the other hand, you’re a serious back country adventurer and your phone and/or GPS are your lifeline, and you’re willing to make an investment in protecting them, then by all means, read on.

I received a package from Trail Rail that included the Trail Rail Adjustable Phone/GPS Cradle as well as a Single Light System which will be reviewed separately. I’m accustomed to getting bike parts in shrink wrap plastic but Trail Rail really went the extra mile:

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The cradle is machined out of a solid piece of aluminum (6061-T6 for you technical types). There isn’t a single piece of plastic on the mount and the manufacturing quality is clearly top notch.

 

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The following photos show it with an iPhone, complete with protective cover, mounted in the cradle. Notice that there is plenty of room to adjust the cradle should you have a larger phone or a bulkier case. I have a backup battery that actually fits in the mount behind the phone. I use it to keep my phone charged on long rides when I’m using the GPS feature.

 

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There is a downside to all of that metal. If you’re sensitive to weight it isn’t light at 8.3 oz (235 grams) when you include a handlebar mount ring but if you’re racing and weight is critical, I don’t expect you’ll be mounting your phone to your handle bars.

Mounting the Trail Rail Cradle

I decided to mount the cradle on my old school Schwinn 4 Banger mountain bike which is affectionately known as Bad Betty since she’s pretty but she’ll hurt you if you’re not careful. The rail is first mounted to the handle bar with four Allen head screws. Once the rail is mounted you can swap out other devices such as a light using a single Allen screw.

After mounting the cradle to the rail, I then made some positioning adjustments to achieve the range of camera angles I was looking for:

There are 5 brackets with 5 Allen screws mounting the phone to the cradle. The phone is very solidly mounted to the cradle as is the cradle to the handlebars so you can take is on rough terrain with confidence. The downside to the mounting screws is that there is no quick release. If you want to take some still photos of the scenery, or your friends, you’ll either need to position the bike to capture the photo or use a wrench to remove it from the rail.

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The mount only holds the phone vertically. I would like the option to mount the camera horizontally as this provides the aspect ratio I’m looking for when shooting video. I was able to rotate the video in post editing but it does end up getting cropped a bit. I used a chest mount (Chesty) for my GoPro camera so that I could shoot the phone during a trail ride. Both cameras are filming at the same time so you get to see just how secure the phone is mounted as well as seeing the view from two different cameras. Keep in mind that the handlebar mount will have more motion and vibration than a chest of helmet mounted camera and you will get more side to side motion as the handlebars turn. The other thing to realize is that the Go Pro has a much wider angle lens than the iPhone showing more of the scene. All that said, the Trail Rail did very well in live action as you’ll see in the following video:

Pros – top quality materials and workmanship, all aluminum, not a single plastic part to break, mount can handle different size phones (with a protective case and even an extra battery), very stable and can easily be moved from a more horizontal position for viewing the screen to a more vertical position for filming, once the base rail is mounted you can switch out the phone mount for other accessories like a light, manufactured in East Hampton, MA.

Cons – it’s heavy (8.3 oz, 235 grams), you need an Allen wrench to attach and remove the phone, the camera can only be mounted vertically which is a downside when it comes to the aspect ratio of the video you are taking, different sized Allen wrenches are required to mount the rail, attached the camera or light to the rail and secure the phone or GPS in the cradle, expensive

You can purchase Trail Rail products by visiting the Trail Rail website at Cellphone Platform

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