Buzz Killers

If you haven't heard by now, the vibrations from your motorcycle are liable to destroy your iPhone camera. Luckily, we've got some smart ways to keep your precious smartphone safe.

Apple recently issued official guidance on the matter, warning that the harsh vibes from mounting your phone to a motorcycle could kill it in a number of ways.

First, by affecting the Optical Image Stabilization, found in phones starting with the iPhone 6 Plus. 

And if that's not enough, it can also wreck your camera by scrambling the delicate on-board magnetic sensors that make up the Closed-Loop Autofocus system, found on yet more iPhone models.

The good news is that we have THREE different vibration dampeners in stock designed specifically to ward off such potential dangers.

First, our favorite - a new entry from Peak Design, which uses a completely integrated silicone-suspension vibration dampener built into each of its motorcycle mount options—its Bar Mount, its Stem Mount, and its modular 1-inch Ram Ball Mount.



This short video with Peak Design engineer Max Maloney illustrates how their integrated vibration dampener works. And yes, we'll give Max a hard time about riding without gloves!

Quad Lock’s Vibration Dampener mounts in-line with most existing Quad Lock mounts and uses a simple set of silicone bumpers to isolate your phone from engine vibrations.



Hondo Garage offers its own vibration dampener—the Buzz Kill—designed to mount to the company’s excellent Perfect Squeeze universal phone mount device.
 
This American-made billet aluminum solution came out before the Quad Lock system, and uses wire rope isolators designed to quell the high frequency vibrations of single-cylinder dirtbikes.



We endorse both solutions, and recommend that anyone considering putting a phone on their handlebars should employ some sort of dampener solution—or else. 


 

Quad Lock, in a statement responding to the Apple announcement, said they are “extremely” confident in their solution, pointing out the extensive testing they put it through before releasing it. Below is a photo showing a special vibration jig used to develop the Quad Lock vibration dampener.

And while none of these solutions eliminates 100% of vibrations, we haven’t heard of any issues with fried phone cameras since we started selling vibration dampeners early in 2021.