[phazer]

after watching the show American Chopper were they made a bike for the cell buckle company, i thought i would buy the cell buckle and put it through the ringer and find out if it was a gimmick. i purchased the 7/8"-1" model to match 7/8" bars and it came in black, was made of thin plastic and has a rubber coating on the area where it wraps around the handle bars. THE RIDE, while riding on the roads the cell buckle seemed to stay in place well and i had no issues seeing the screen of my droid3 smartphone. however, when i started down those bumpy new england back roads the cell buckle was not stable enough and bounced back and forth roughly. as far as the trails go, the cell buckle turned out to be a huge pile o' crap. i went to a local electronics shop that sold cell phones and asked if i could have a dummy phone they used for display pourpose. while on the trails the cell buckle could not hold on to the cell phone and it actually fell out several times. so when cell buckle says that there unit holds any phone or gps unit they are dead wrong. i think that for the cost of $29.27 shipped, the build quality was very low, they plastic is just too thin. the rubber does hold it in place on the bars though, that part did not budge. all in all i think the cell buckle gets 1 out 5 stars. if they came out with a version two that was made of thicker plastic or a metal reinforced unit, than the concept would be awesome. i tried to mount the cell buckle so it was under the bars but that limited the ability to make left turns. it hits the tank and could be a safety issue.

rearshot

front shot

side shot

these rides i took while evaluating the cell buckle were taken in early december. in about 45*-50*F

 

[kelly b]

Yeah, RAM Mount!

 

[phazer]

Yeah, RAM Mount!

not sure what you mean.

 

[admiral]

At least you tried. "RAM Mounts" is a company that sells/makes mounts for such things as cell phones, gps etc for motorcycle handlebars and various other vehicles.

 

[Rainman]

Yeah, get a RAM. I've had mine for a few years now and it has NOT moved while holding my heavy GPS unit. Thanks for the write up though. I appreciate you taking the plunge so we all don't have to. I'm sorry it didn't work. The concept is spot on, but like you said, its just not heavy duty enough. By the way, what bars are those? They look really nice.

 

[PalmStateCrawler]

Yeah. Ram mounts are awesome on trails. Bite the bullet and spend the $50. You won't regret it!

 

[phazer]

Yeah, get a RAM. I've had mine for a few years now and it has NOT moved while holding my heavy GPS unit. Thanks for the write up though. I appreciate you taking the plunge so we all don't have to. I'm sorry it didn't work. The concept is spot on, but like you said, its just not heavy duty enough. By the way, what bars are those? They look really nice.

there renthal 7/8" atv handlebars, they are actually for the yamaha YFZ450 and i paid $59.99. the grips are also renthal and they are kevlar reinforced dual compound motocross grips, paid $15.99 for those. got them both at motorcyclesuperstore.com last week the bars were on sale for $49.99 but im not sure if the sale is still going on.

 

[Retrofit]

Ram mounts are the best as they are interchangable. use the mount in your truck to campground, take it out and use on bike while there, then put it back into truck on way home and move to car to go to work. I have two hard mount balls in my Suburban (A piller and center dash) two balls on TW and three suction cups for wife or rental car. mounts include GPS (oregon 60and nuvi) Camera and spot tracker. I can swap in and out depending on need (nuvi for trips and oregon for offroad or geocaching or spot or camera for adventure driving) best part is once you get committed to the ram mounts (buy in is high to begin with) you only need to buy the bracket needed for that new electronics, the arms and ballmounts are reuseable. one thing to watch is amazon. when a package (suction cup, arm and mount) is discontiued, they sell them way cheep. who cares if the mount isnt for your GPS (throw it away) when garmin etrex stopped selling, amazon wiped out their ram inventory for bike mounts (go figure) and when the magellan (something) became discouniuted the price of the hard mount kit was cheaper than just the ball alone. (think i spent 8 bucks for the entire bike kit and maybe 5 for the boat/airplane hard mount) I dont recal when i bought 3 suction cup kits, but was the same thing, got the kit, threw away the plastic electronic mount and keep the rest.

 

[tophat]

nice to know about amazon blowing their kits out

 

[evan]

Ram mounts are great! Have one on my quad and one on the tdub. just move my gps over to which ever I'm using and plug it in. Had a cheapie no name on tdub and it broke first ride I took it on.

 

[bikerjosh]

x(whatever lost count) have had ram mounts for gps (3 different units), a spot, and camera mounted on my rollbar etc. Work great and haven't broken even in instances of running out of talent (crashing).

josh