Bike Mount Bicycle Holder, Taotronics Universal Cradle Rack for iOS Android Smartphone GPS other Devices, with One-button Released, 360 Degrees Rotatable, Rubber StrapFirst off I want to say that despite what the pictures look like; I LOVE THIS BIKE MOUNT, and that the damage to it was my fault and not the manufactures or products.
That being said; as I mentioned I really like this bike mount; it really give me a solid piece of mind when I put it in the grips, and place the bands of the corners. I have a Samsung S5 with a Seidio three piece case on it; so my phone is pretty thick at this point, and as you can see in the picture the grips just barely come over the sides of my phone. What I do is first I place my phone in the grips loosely and then gently press down on the middle of the screen making sure the phone is laying completely on the rubber disk in the middle of the bike mount grips; when it's completely flat against the disk I squeeze the grips a little tighter again my phones sides, but make sure you don't over squeeze the grips cause while they may be flexible over squeezing them can break them. As far as the bands go make sure your phone is equally in the middle of the mount itself so you don't over stretch the band and possibly break them; what I did was place phone in between the grips low enough to where the grips where just below my "power" and "volume" button so I could still access them, and FOR MY PHONE that was in the prefect the position to stretch the band enough to be secure and not feel like they were going to break. That in mind; I've had nothing but fun with this mount, and it hasn't let me down yet. I mainly use it on my road group rides as a means of letting me play my music on my UE Boom without having to take my phone off my hip holster or out of my pocket, and looking at my phone without having to take my eye off the road too much to change songs, or check my riding stats.
Now to explain what I said at the beginning of my review; why I still LOVE this product despite the damaged photos I posted, and how it's not the manufactures fault. I also mountain bike and before I bought this product I saw a couple of reviews that said this was great for mountain biking; when I get it of course I took it on the trails to test it out, and I'll be honest you it death grip my phone like it was suppose through some ton of heavy roots, rocks, humps and bumps. This excellent grip however did come at a cost to me; you see while the phone was properly secure the grips on the handle bars I guess wasn't meant for that type of abuse, and often on the ride I would torque the grips down more and more thinking it would keep the bike mount from slipping down; big mistake there. As you can see in the picture over torquing made the little metal rod in the middle of the handle bar that make the mount grips screw open and close break out of it's housing; in that state the grips couldn't be screwed close, and thus the mount wouldn't stay upright. I'm sooo glad I bought the Canopy 2 Year Protection Plan, and registered the bike mount with Taotronics to get a free 6 months warranty extension; I contacted Taotroincs and told them what happened, and they just asked me for my home address and within a week I had a new one! Thanks