Free Mapillary bike mount not useful

Contributing and equipment
1

I received my free bike smartphone mount from Mapillary last week. Yesterday I had a chance to try it out with my LG G3. I was a little concerned if the mount would securely hold the phone in place, and while nothing bad happened on this short and slow ride, I’m still not convinced that a big pothole may be able to dislodge the phone from the mount. Anyway, the bigger issue is that I wasn’t able to produce useful imagery because of vibrations. I have wide tires on the bike and went at under 15 km/h, but the app continually displayed “Phone is shaking” and the sequence ended up very blurry: http://www.mapillary.com/map/im/ZYwqargcUElmwD9zFzRUXg/photo

Based on some other threads, I’m well aware that vibrations are always an issue on bikes, but I think it’s worse with this particular mount because of the long lever arm between handlebars and phone. I think Mapillary may as well stop sending out these mounts, as they will not produce useful imagery. Too bad.

2

Interesting topic, since I was just about to order one.
My idea is to mount it around the front bar of our ATV, but if it produces shaky pictures on a bike, I’m concerned about using it on an ATV with a running engine…

Is there any other mount with a vibration reducer, available out there?

And does the free car windshield mount have the same issue?

3

I haven’t had any issues with the free car mount (other than the occasional lack of stickiness). There’s a related discussion about bicycle mounts here: http://forum.mapillary.io/t/camera-mounts-for-bicycle/79/20

4

Can this mount be a good one?

[Amazon.com][1]

Looks very similiar to the “iPow Universal” mount, for us europeans who prefer to order from the german Amazon.

5

I’d certainly have more trust in its capabilities to not eject my phone. I’m skeptical whether it’s going to be better in the shaking department.

6

I received mine a few weeks ago, and on my second day of testing over a rough section of the road around neighborhood, my old Nexus 4 committed Seppuku by dislodging itself from the mount. :crying_cat_face:

That phone served me well, but that mount, as my experience showsm is only good for smooth, city roads unless you make extra effort to secure it to keep your phone safe.

7

I found a way to make the bike mount a bit more stable.

The ball joint is angled at 45 degrees to the phone clamp. If you rotate it the ball joint will be angled 45 degrees in the opposite direction and your phone will be closer to your bike and thus vibrate less.

To do this first remove the ball part of the ball joint. The other side of the ball joint (that’s attached to the phone clamp) has a screw in it. Take it out and the remainder of the ball joint can be split in two and taken of. Put it back the other way around and put the screw back in. now reassemble the rest of your phone mount.

8

Sounds like a clever little hack, have to try it out! How much can you tell the difference between now and then @de_vries ? Or maybe you haven’t had enough time to expansively test it yet…

9

Thanks for that hack. Also curious if you’ve had time to test it yet - maybe you have a link to a sequence with the modified mount?

10

I converted the mount as suggested by @de_vries yesterday and tested it on the way to work this morning. First impression: Doesn’t make much of a difference. The “Phone is shaking” warning was on pretty much the whole time, and the sequence turned out to be almost as blurry as last time. I’m going to retire the mount and would recommend Mapillary stop sending these out. You’re only going to frustrate users and/or encourage blurry imagery. New sequence: http://www.mapillary.com/map/im/nwXRA--M8oy74Uw5o41AdQ