Nite Ize Squeeze Rotating Smartphone Bike Bar Mount Review: Squeeze System Holds On Tight

For so many years, I’d just try to remember the next three or four turns on biking trips through the city and hope I didn’t miss a side street before I could pull over somewhere, fish my phone out of my pocket, and read the next three or four turns off the navigation app on my phone. I’d start and stop and leapfrog that way across the city. It got old quickly.

That’s no way to bike. Mounting the smartphone to the bike’s handlebars removes the simmering annoyance of constantly pulling over, and it uses a device most of us already have. But for such a simple piece of equipment, an awful lot of the phone mounts on the market are just plain terrible.

The Nite Ize Squeeze Rotating Smartphone Bar Mount ($30) might pack an entire can’s worth of alphabet soup into its needlessly long name, but it’s a solid, inexpensive phone mount. There are just a few minor issues.

In short: The Nite Ize Squeeze Rotating Smartphone Bar Mount ($30) is an inexpensive phone mount that would benefit from a more secure mount to the handlebars. For the money, though, it’s solid enough that it doesn’t rattle or shake out of position. And, the lever mechanism for placing the phone in the mount and removing it actually works better than expected. If you don’t want to spend big bucks or swap a specialty case onto your phone, Nite Ize makes a quality mount.

Read the Best Bike Phone Mounts guide to see how the Nite Ize Squeeze Rotating Smartphone Bar Mount compares.

Nite Ize Squeeze Rotating Smartphone Bar Mount Review

Such Easy Mounting and Removal

I was all set to mock the two squeezable levers at the bottom of the mount that give it its name. But, as soon as I squeezed them to widen the rubber-padded jaws enough to nestle my iPhone 15 Pro between them, I was converted.

I value simplicity in design and tend to turn my nose up at anything that could introduce complexity or fragility. But, the Nite Ize Squeeze Rotating Smartphone Bar Mount ($30) removed all the awkwardness of this otherwise common design, in which a smartphone is held in place by two spring-tensioned jaws.

I’ve put thousands of miles on a bike with a phone mount that had a similar design, minus the squeezable levers. Pulling the two levers apart and then popping the phone between them was always awkward and slightly slower than I’d wanted.

Were I only placing my phone in the mount once per day and then removing it at the day’s end, I wouldn’t care so much. But on any given ride, whether through the city to run errands or on a mountain biking trail, I’m removing and replacing my phone on the handlebar mount a dozen or more times per day. Just removing a little frustration and fumbling with the phone mount adds up when it’s happening that many times per day.

Needs More Rubber

The jaws are rubber-padded, but the rest of the mount is just bare plastic. Would the constant vibrations during cycling cause uncased phones to develop scratches? I wouldn’t want to find out. Even if you had a hard plastic case, I wouldn’t be surprised to see it develop scuff marks over long-term use. My leather case held up fine, but a thin layer of rubber on the face of the mount would’ve solved all these worries.

On the plus side, you can use any case with the Nite Ize. One of my major frustrations with a lot of phone mounts is that you have to use a proprietary phone case. That’s just one more thing to buy.

I measured the jaws extending from 2 3/8″ to 3 11/16″ at their maximum extension. That’s plenty narrow and wide enough for even the smallest and largest smartphones, with or without a case.

The Nite Ize surprised me by being entirely rattle-free. Once I mounted my phone, there was no side-to-side or up-and-down play.

Turning the mount to orient the phone vertically or horizontally is smooth and moderately tough enough, thanks to friction resistance. This prevents the mount from swiveling out of place accidentally due to bumps, vibrations, or gravity. I’d turn it how I wanted, and it would stay where I put it.

Only a Strap Holding It On

I don’t love the rubber strap that holds the phone mount to the bike’s handlebars. Maybe I just have trust issues when it comes to entrusting a $1,000 device to the safety of something that looks like the dog collar from a Barbie toy. It never popped open during testing, but I never felt fully at ease with it. I kept looking down to make sure my precious phone was still with me.

The advantage of the strap is that I could remove the mount from one bike and swap it over to another bike in a matter of seconds. There was no need to go fish out the right screwdriver or hex key. And it fits pretty much handlebars of any diameter. Still, I’d feel better if it were a rigid mount that had less of a chance of popping open if I were to hit a pothole.

Nite Ize Squeeze Rotating Smartphone Bar Mount: Conclusion

Your options for a sturdy bike phone mount at about $30 are fairly slim. Cheap out and buy the wrong mount, and your phone could dance around on all but the smoothest roads or slip out of the jaws that keep it secured.

The Nite Ize Squeeze doesn’t have the most confidence-inspiring mount to the handlebars, but since I experienced no problems with it, I can’t say it failed at keeping my phone secure.

Once the phone was mounted, the slight play in the clamping mechanism disappeared and the mount was rattle-free. For a chunk of plastic, the mount surprised me with how solidly it was built. And I loved that I didn’t need a proprietary phone case to use it. It could be a contender for my favorite overall phone mount, if only Nite Ize could squeeze in a few design improvements.