RAM X-Grip vs Clamp-Style Motorcycle Phone Mount

If you ride a motorcycle with a phone on the bars, you have probably stared at the two families of mounts and wondered which one is actually worth the money. The spring-loaded X-Grip from RAM MOUNTS holds your phone with four rubber-tipped fingers. The clamp-style holder squeezes it between two jaws, sometimes with a squeeze latch, sometimes with a thumb screw. I have run both kinds over the last couple of riding seasons, including a few 600-mile days down to Myrtle Beach, and I can tell you the difference shows up fast once the pavement gets rough. My first clamp mount came from a dealership parts counter, and it worked fine for about a month of short rides. Then on a wet October morning on I-79, I looked down and my phone had sagged sideways in the jaws, the screen angled toward the tank bag. I pulled over, tightened the thumb screw with a dime, and it did it again before I hit the Ohio line. That was the day I started shopping for something better. A phone mount does not have to be exciting, but it has to be boring in the right way: you should never have to think about it. The clamp mount made me think about it every single ride.

Short answer: the RAM MOUNTS X-Grip is the one I trust on my 2019 Indian Chieftain, and it has been for two riding seasons now. It holds the phone better through vibration, it lets you see the whole screen, and it gets the phone off the bars in one motion when you park. The clamp-style mount is cheaper and fine for around town, but it rattles, blocks part of the screen, and makes you fiddle with a latch every time you want your phone. I am not here to tell you the clamp mount is garbage, because it is not. It is a tool for a different job. But if you ride distances, if you navigate with your phone on every trip, or if you have ever been at mile 400 wondering whether your phone is still where you left it, the X-Grip answers that question. Here is the full comparison, with the numbers and the days that made up my mind.

	RAM X-Grip	Clamp-Style Mount
Grip on the phone	Four spring-loaded rubber-tipped arms hold the phone at the corners	Two jaws squeeze the phone edges, pressure depends on the latch
Screen visibility	Open X design leaves the whole screen visible	Jaws cover part of the screen edges, buttons can sit under the lip
Phone removal	Squeeze the four arms and lift the phone straight out	Release the latch or loosen the thumb screw, then slide the phone out
Vibration handling	Rubber caps absorb a good share of engine vibration	Rigid jaws pass vibration straight to the phone
Price	Costs more, backed by a lifetime warranty	Usually cheaper at the counter
Best for	Touring, long days, rough pavement, all-day navigation	Short rides, spare phone, budget builds

Where RAM X-Grip Wins

The X-Grip wins on the road because of the way it touches the phone. Four spring-loaded arms with rubber caps grab the four corners, and the open middle means you see the entire screen. On my Indian Chieftain, the engine vibration is constant at highway speed, and the rubber caps knock the edge off it. The phone stays put on grooved pavement, expansion joints, and the rumble strips on the shoulder of I-77. I have never once looked down and found the phone tilted or loose. The one time I thought it had moved, it was the phone's screen saver changing. That is the kind of confidence you want when you are scanning for a gas station at 70 miles an hour.

It also wins on convenience. When I pull into a gas station, I squeeze the four arms and lift the phone out with one hand. No latch to find, no thumb screw to spin. The RAM MOUNTS X-Grip comes with a U-bolt base that fits rails from half an inch to 1.25 inches in diameter, and the medium double socket arm lets me angle the phone exactly where I want it. The included tether is a nice belt-and-suspenders touch for rough roads. I use it on long trips and forget it is there. The first time I installed it, it took me maybe twenty minutes in the garage, most of that deciding where on the handlebar I wanted it. Once the U-bolt was snug, I have not touched it since.

The numbers in the listing match what I feel on the road. RAM rates the holder for phones from 1.875 inches wide up to 3.25 inches, with a maximum depth of .875 of an inch, and the base clamps rails from half an inch to 1.25 inches in diameter. My phone, an iPhone in a slim case, sits well inside those limits. The weight capacity is listed at 2 pounds, and my phone is nowhere near that. The arm is 3 inches long, short enough that the phone does not wobble in the wind but long enough that I can bring it up and over the clutch reservoir. The whole thing weighs 326 grams, about what a full water bottle weighs, so it is not adding meaningful weight to the bars. RAM also lists it as fitting everything from an iPhone 13 mini up to an iPhone 15 Pro, which means if I upgrade my phone next year, the mount will not care. RAM even includes a small tube of glue for the rubber caps, which tells me they thought about the caps coming loose after years of use. I have not needed mine yet, but it is in the garage with the spare tether.

The real test came on the Myrtle Beach run last spring. I left Pittsburgh on a Thursday morning with the phone in the X-Grip, running GPS all the way down I-77 to the Virginia line, where I stopped for the night. The next day I finished the run into South Carolina, and the phone never moved a quarter of an inch. I checked it at every fuel stop out of habit, and every time it was exactly where I left it. On the way home, I hit a construction zone outside Roanoke where the pavement was chewed up for maybe three miles, and the X-Grip held through all of it. I cannot say that about the clamp mount I used the season before.

Rain is the other test. A wet glove on a wet phone screen is bad enough without the mount moving underneath it. The rubber caps on the X-Grip keep their grip when they are wet, and the open design lets water run off the screen instead of pooling against a jaw. I rode through a full downpour on the way back from Myrtle Beach last year, the kind where you pull your collar up and just accept it, and the phone stayed put and readable the whole time. That is when I stopped being a skeptic.

The tether deserves its own mention. It is a short cord that connects the phone to the mount, so even in a worst-case get-off, the phone does not become a projectile on the road. I use it on every long trip. It takes about ten seconds to hook up and you never notice it while you ride. On a bike, ten seconds for that kind of insurance is a fair trade.

Where the Clamp-Style Mount Wins

I will give the clamp-style mount its due. It usually costs less at the counter, and for a spare phone or a short commute it does the job. The jaws grab the phone firmly, and the latch is simple enough that you do not need instructions. If you only want a phone on the bars for a twenty-minute ride to work, the clamp-style mount is a reasonable way to spend less money. My first one came with a little rubber pad that sat between the back of the phone and the back of the jaws, and on smooth pavement it worked exactly as advertised. I rode with it for a month before the vibration started working the pad loose.

The clamp also wins on one specific job: holding a phone that lives in a thick protective case. The X-Grip arms have a width range of 1.875 to 3.25 inches and a depth limit of .875 of an inch, and a chunky case can push right up against those limits. A clamp-style mount with adjustable jaws will usually swallow a bulky case more happily. If you never take the phone out of a heavy case, that is a real point in the clamp's favor. I have a riding buddy who runs his phone in a rugged case for work, and the clamp mount on his bike has never complained about it. The X-Grip would probably hold it too, but it would be working at the edge of its range, and I would rather run a mount in the middle of its range than at the edge.

What I could not get past with the clamp mount was the small stuff. The jaws covered the volume rocker on the side of my phone, so every time I wanted to turn the music down I had to either stop or reach down and poke at the edge of the screen. The latch sat right where my left thumb wanted to be when I rolled the throttle on, and more than once I bumped it and felt the phone shift. On the worst day, a gust of wind caught my jacket and I knocked the phone with my elbow; the jaws held, but the phone twisted in the rubber pad and I had to pull over to straighten it. None of that is a dealbreaker on a short ride. On a 600-mile day, it grinds on you.

The day that settled it was a hot July afternoon on the way back from a weekend ride. I had the clamp mount on the bars, the phone loaded with directions, and about an hour from home I noticed the phone had slid down in the jaws far enough that the home button was under the lip. I could not reach it without taking my eyes off the road, so I rode the last stretch with the screen half covered and my patience gone. When I got home I ordered the X-Grip that night. I have not run a clamp mount on my bike since. I should say the clamp mount did not fail dramatically. It just wore me down, one small annoyance at a time, until I did not trust it anymore. That is the quiet way bad gear fails: not with a bang, but with you checking it at every red light.

There is also the spare-phone argument. If you keep an old phone as a backup, or you want a mount you can move between bikes, the clamp-style mount is easier to live with. The X-Grip is a buy-it-once-and-forget-it piece of gear. The clamp mount is a buy-it-cheap-and-use-it-when-you-need-it piece of gear. Both are legitimate. I just know which one I reach for when the trip is long.

Who Should Buy Which

Buy the RAM MOUNTS X-Grip if you ride distances, ride on rough pavement, or use your phone for navigation on every trip. It holds better through vibration, shows the whole screen, and comes off the bars in one motion. The lifetime warranty means you buy it once. I have had mine for two seasons, and it has been on every ride, including both Myrtle Beach trips. The first season I treated it like a test. I checked the phone at every stop, I pushed it with my thumb at red lights, I ran it through a couple of downpours. Two seasons in, I have stopped checking, and that is the highest compliment I can give a mount.

Buy the clamp-style mount if you want the least expensive way to hold a phone on a short commute, or if your phone lives in a thick case and you never take it out. Just know what you are giving up: more vibration, a partly covered screen, and a latch to fiddle with every time you park. For my money, the X-Grip is worth the difference, and I say that as someone who likes to save a buck. I spent most of my working life in a steel mill, and I know the difference between paying for quality and paying for a name. The X-Grip is the first kind.

There is a safety angle too, and I do not apologize for bringing it up. A mount you have to fiddle with is a mount that gets fiddled with at speed. I have caught myself more than once poking at a phone that had shifted, and that is exactly how you end up in the wrong lane or the wrong conversation with a state trooper. The X-Grip has never once made me want to touch it while the bike is moving. That alone is worth the difference in price, before you even get to the vibration and the screen visibility.

One more thing worth saying: the X-Grip is not for everyone. If you ride a dirt bike or an adventure bike through serious off-road stuff, you might want a mount with a full cradle and a locking mechanism, because the X-Grip holds the phone at the corners and a hard enough hit can pop it free. RAM sells a locking cradle for that job, and I would not talk you out of it. And if you never use your phone on the bike, you do not need either one. The best mount is the one that suits the riding you actually do, not the riding you talk about at work on Monday.