I’ll be honest; I haven’t used a case for my phone while biking before. After using Alt Gear’s DriKASE, I can’t see riding without my phone in front of me. There are many products out there that meet the needs of the biker that wants to put their phone on their handle bars for easy access. There are laughable products and more serious products as well as those from Alt-Gear.com.
First Impressions
Opening up the DriKASE from it’s package, I immediately like it’s size in comparison to the Z-Case. The DriCASE has a sleeker look and feel to it. It looked like it was plenty big for my phone, too. Upon attempting to put my phone in, though, I realized that I was a bit off. My phone fit snugly inside the case. I have a Samsung Galaxy SII and I wouldn’t recommend putting anything larger than 5 inches tall by 2.6 inches wide in this case. You should check your phones dimensions before purchasing this case.
Once I had my phone in the case, I was glad that it fit so well. There wasn’t any concern for it sliding around inside the case or getting crooked on the ride. I kept the pad that comes with the DriKASE in to take up some of the thickness room that my phone lacked. I felt that it kept my phone from moving around in the case and also protected the back of the phone once it was installed on my bike.
I liked the window on the back of the case. I think that it is impractical when the case is mounted on your bike unless you have figured out how to mount your case perpendicular to your riding surface to record videos (or some other inventful use). I can see that it would be nice if you were touring and wanted to snap a picture of something. You could then just take your phone off your bike and pull up the camera to take a quick picture.
Construction
The build of the case feels durable. The seams look to be ultrasonically welded which provide a strong, water tight seal for your phone. The case is made all of plastic so you don’t have to worry about steel pins or screws rusting. This is an important feature here. There are products on the market that have screws to add adjustability to the case and these screws will rust after a while.
This is a fairly lightweight case and I can’t imagine that it would do well protecting your phone in any rough riding situation. If you’re sticking to the streets for a commute or out on the road for a touring trip, I think that this would be a great case. If you’re headed down the mountain and want to keep track of how many miles you’ve descended, I would pick up a different case.
Installation
Installing the case on my bike was easy. There is a Velcro strap on the back of the case that allows easy installation and removal. That’s the upside. The downside is that the case could potentially bang around on the handlebars or stem. I would say that if you have a better stem than I have, you wouldn’t have this issue, though. My stem is an older style with a access for a brake line inconveniently routed through the middle of the stem. I don’t have any cable coming through there now, so I just have an annoying metal riser sticking up from my stem. I presume that this stem is pushing up on the back of the case creating a rocking point.
Check out the video below to see how it looks installed.
Disclaimer: This is not a paid review. Alt-Gear contacted me and asked if I would review some of their gear. This review is as unbiased as a review can get when something new is given to you for free. If you have any questions, feel free to ask.
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