Putting a phone in a mount on your bike works fine, but it’s not great. The biggest problem is you run the risk of damaging the phone’s camera. I wanted a map and media controls easily accessible without strapping my phone to my bike. A wild idea became a reality: What if my bike had an Android Auto display?

Why Not Just Mount Your Phone?

If you’re reading this, there’s a very good chance you’re wondering why I wouldn’t simply put my phone in a bike mount. That’s what most people do, and I did it for a long time, too. There are a couple of problems with that setup, though.

First, smartphone cameras are susceptible to being damaged if they are firmly strapped to something that vibrates. Apple warned about this back in 2022, but it’s not just iPhones. Any phone with a camera that features optical image stabilization (OIS) can be damaged when strapped to a bike or motorcycle.

The tiny components that enable OIS to keep videos steady and photos in focus don’t like being jostled around a bunch. When your phone is loose in your pocket, the entire thing can move as one. But a phone that’s strapped tightly to a bike or motorcycle frame is going to have every bump channeled directly into it.

The second reason is more of a personal preference—I’ve never liked interacting with a phone UI while trying to ride my bike. I don’t want to be unlocking a screen and scrolling through apps just to do a few very basic tasks. It’s clunky and probably dangerous.

The Idea: Android Auto…But For a Bike

With those concerns in mind, a random idea popped into my head one day. I had recently bought a portable head unit with Android Auto and CarPlay for my old truck, and I realized something similar would be pretty cool on a bike.

There are essentially two things that I need from my phone when I’m biking: navigation and music controls. To avoid camera damage, I could use an old phone with Google Maps and Spotify installed as my “head unit,” but that wouldn’t fix everything. The phone would need a data connection somehow, and it wouldn’t solve the issue of phone UIs not being great for driving.

Android Auto is the perfect solution because it’s essentially just a display for my phone, which I can keep safely in my pocket. But how does it work?

How It Works and What You Need

The first thing I did was look for small portable head units on Amazon. The smallest I could find was 5-inches, which is still pretty big for a bike. Plus, it would need to be plugged into a power source. That’s no good. So what about that old phone idea again?

Thanks to an Android app called “Headunit Reloaded,” it’s possible to run Android Auto on a “dummy” phone and wirelessly connect to it with another phone via Wi-Fi Direct. After some minimal setup, all you have to do is open Headunit Reloaded on the dummy phone, tap a button in the “WiFi Launcher” companion app on your main phone, and you’re up and running.

I was honestly amazed at how well this all worked. It really is exactly the same as using Android Auto in a car. Now, I’ve got a simplified interface with Google Maps navigation and music controls front and center. To complete the setup, I 3D printed a Quad Lock mounting system for the bike and phone.

There are a couple of limitations with Android Auto in the context of a bike. Mainly—this should have been obvious to me—you can’t get biking directions on Android Auto. That being said, I’m very happy with this setup. This was one of those wild, random ideas that ended up working exactly as I envisioned it.