Functionality Wins in Conflict vs. Cosmetics

One of my plans regarding the Bulldog 150cc was to keep it as cosmetically pristine as possible, since one of my other plans is to sell it in a couple of years. Aside from a bike that performs well (due to regular maintenance/TLC and upgrades to its various parts), I want to be able to list a bike that looks good.

BUT!

In this day and age, it's unthinkable to not have a smart phone mounted on the bike somewhere visible from the rider's vantage point. You can use it to navigate unfamiliar routes. You can use it to give you a more accurate estimate of speed than the stock gauges. If it rings, you can glance at it and see whether it's a call you can ignore or a call you need to pull over and answer.

I mounted an el cheapo phone holder on the handlebar, positioned such that it can be constantly charged form the bike's USB port. It worked, but not well. Instead of its edges popping into place around the phone, they had to be manually squeezed, and I was always worried that they'd give way and let the phone go flying. And the thing rattled like hell if I rode without the phone in it.

So I ordered a better one. It's really quite nice. Except that my phone (which is built into a thicker than normal case) won't fit in it.

Thought number three: Get one of those magnetic bags that you just slap on the gas tank. They hold on very well and many come with transparent touch-screen-compatible windows for your phone.

Nope. The bike has a lot of plastic over the tank, such that a magnet doesn't stick.

So, I'm going with a simple sub-$5 waterproof/touch-screen-window phone bag, arriving today.

It has a lanyard that I can hitch around the handlebars so that if it comes flying off the tank at least it won't get very far.

Affixing it to the tank will be a  matter of attaching velcro strip pairs to the plastic tank cover and to the phone bag.

So when I sell the bike, it will either have velcro strips on its tank cover, or whatever residue from those strips I can't get off, or non-uniform tank cover color where some of the bike has been exposed to sun/weather and some hasn't.

I guess the velcro strips might be something I can sell as a feature rather than a bug, especially if I throw the phone bag in as part of the deal.