Carrying your cell phone on your person most of the time is pretty much a fact of life these days. As much as we might hate it, being connected is expected. During adventure riding it might be piping the music to your helmet via Bluetooth, and for me it is also my camera. This normal light-duty riding I trust my Gore-tex Klim Badlands Pro jacket to keep it dry, but for more demanding riding I want a bit more insurance. On a proper dirtbike I am normally not wearing the Klim Badlands Pro jacket, faster and lighter is the order of the day. I have come up with a quick and cheap insurance package for these times.
Simply put, my system is a Touratech Waterproof Small Document Pouch (PN 055-3210) and a neoprene beer coozie. In this case I am using a Nemo Equipment coozie, because I enjoy their quality sleeping bags, and like me they hail from the fine state of NH. The famed dry bag company Ortlieb produces Touratech’s document pouches in Germany. A nice feature about the waterproof document pouches is that an iPhone touch screen will work through them, my use of a coozie negates this feature, but it is there if you chose to skip the coozie. I use the coozie as a cheap bumper, and to ensure I will always have a way to comfortably hold a cold beer after riding. The lanyard on the pouch also make the phone easier to find in a bag. There is also enough room in the document pouch to slip a trifold wallet along with the phone. Keeping your wallet dry might not sound like much, but handing the casher wet bills is an uncomfortable thing that I am always happy to avoid.
For adventure riding duties I am normally wearing my Klim Badlands Pro jacket, and my phone will be in the left chest pocket. A pretty safe place, but the odd branch will still smack it. I try to have the phone with the screen to my body. The Otterbox case on my phone I am sure can handle that abuse, but I like to think the beer coozie also ads a layer of dust protection. On a proper dirtbike my phone ends up often in by backpack. This sounds safe enough until factoring in the hydration system also in that backpack. It is nice piece of mind knowing that the phone is secured in it’s own dry bag. Some racing will find me with my smaller CamelBak and my phone in a leg pocket. Extra padding in this case is key, since I tend to crash on my legs.
At the end of the day I keep copies of this set-up in my dirtbike helmet bag and in my Klim Badlands Pro jacket. The $14 bucks and a free cozzie is cheap insurance for the piece of mind that your phone is ok. Some problem are expensive to solve, this isn’t one of them. I hope this little chuck of free advice serves you as well as it has served me for the past few years. Good luck out there, have fun, and Godspeed.
-Eric Archambault
