Portal Bike Light provides bright, wide illumination for mountain biking. Helmet-mounted, durable, and designed for night trail rides or your ski adventure.
www.outboundlighting.com
Once again, as a result of direct feedback from our customers (and people on here) we've launched a new helmet-specific light that answers a couple of the common "complaints" we had about Hangover.
"I wish it was brighter". In order to do this, and still have usable runtimes we shoved the highest quality and capacity 21700 cell inside (Samsung 50E) and boosted the lumens to 1600 lumens for the high mode. This pumps out a runtime of 1.1 hours on solid output which matches Hangovers high output, so if you are used to the limitations of Hangovers high mode, then this makes the brightness nearly 40% higher.
We also improved the beam pattern for a stronger center punch, but also a much wider width. Now when it is mounted on your helmet, has the fill of Evo, but a higher punch than Hangover. Some early reviews clearly notice this, which was great to hear.
I'm THRILLED that the new Portal is so much brighter, with more spread, and battery, but barely any bigger or heavier. I couldn't feel any weight difference with the Portal mounted on my helmet vs the Hangover. The side by side difference in brightness, width, and distance is incredible!
"I wish it lasted longer!". Again, in order to do this, we had to shove that big ole battery in there. Since the main complaint was that Hangover died too early when using it with Evo, or for normal 2-ish hour rides, we made sure that Adaptive mode and Medium mode match Trail Evo as much as possible.
Adaptive mode now starts on 1500 lumens and makes it way down to 750 while maintaining a 2.5 hour runtime. With the exact goal of turning on Trail Evo and Portal together on the default mode, and they'll both follow similar profiles and runtimes.
Medium mode is "only" 500 lumens, but we settled on that because when doing our testing really did find that due to the width and beam pattern, that really does "feel" like a medium setting when split between high and low. Since we care more about what the lights actually do on the trail, rather than a spec sheet, that's what we settled on. This also gives a really long runtime, and fills in wonderfully with Evo.
This was a really long, and a really hard project. We tried to source even more from USA suppliers. Now almost all the injection molded parts are done stateside, along with the PCBA's as always. It was a real challenge to keep this light as compact as possible, while being manufacturable at scale. We are still building in our facility in Chicago of course, and will soon be adding more automation to assist.
The optics we tweaked several times, and had to redesign a few parts during durability testing. The result is something that is as bombproof as Evo, but only a few millimeters bigger than Hangover in every direction. Of course it weighs more, 65 grams to be exact, but still sits as close to the helmet as Hangover so the weight difference is noticeable, but not unbearable.
We will have a bar mount adapter kit on the site soon. This means can swap out the interchangeable mount to one that works with our bar mount the mount it on the handlebar. We'll also publish the 3D model for the mount with a blank slate, so you can 3D print whatever adapter you might want if you have those skills!
We sold nearly 1000+ of these in the first few days, and have been really pleasently surprised with the intial response. Definitely feels good to finally have nearly 2 years of work complete and out in the world.
No wireless remotes yet, but thats on our product roadmap.
Let me know if you have any questions or feedback!
Got to ride my normal full night ride last night. As others have suggested, I mounted the light more towards the top of my helmet. The light pattern is great, love it. I moved my mount back about 1.5"
I picked up a Portal and used it for the first time last night and I can definitely feel the weight. I should add that I bought a new helmet for it, as I usually wear a road helmet for everything, and thought a MTB helmet would have a better mounting surface.
Part of the problem may be that I have my bikes set up in a more aggressive position than a lot of trail riders, so the added helmet coverage is a bit awkward with my body position, but it feels like the helmet is really low on my brow. I'll have to try the helmet without the light to see if it's the helmet or the light that feels a little awkward.
Otherwise, the light is great! I got the Trail Evo last year and really love it. Most of my night rides are just finishing in the dark on the tail end of the ride, so it's doable with just the one light. It is nice though to be look further ahead and around corners with the helmet light.
Part of the problem may be that I have my bikes set up in a more aggressive position than a lot of trail riders, so the added helmet coverage is a bit awkward with my body position, but it feels like the helmet is really low on my brow. I'll have to try the helmet without the light to see if it's the helmet or the light that feels a little awkward.
Got my first ride in with the Portal and noticed the same. I was using the same mount point I was using for a very lightweight Magicshine light and it is just too far forward for the weight of the Portal.
I just moved mine back and will see if it helps. I think it might just be the fit of the helmet that's the issue though. It just sits really low on my brow and feels awkward when I tip my head back, as the back of it hits my neck and pushes it forward.
Now that I see how easy it is to remove the mount, I might have to try the light out on my road helmet to see if it's more to my liking.
Also curious about feedback on the portal vs hangover. Are people liking the portal over the hangover light? I would be using it for rocky technical terrain in Arizona, USA.
Hey Matrix - a very unrelated question, if I may: on a post from 2018 you showed a Rockymounts Monorail Solo hitch rack that you had reversed, so the front wheel was on the driver side. The 2024 Solo comes from the factory with the front wheel on the passenger side, and I see no way to reverse this. Did yours come reversed or did you do something to it?
I have the Evo / hangover combo and IMO the hangover is lackluster in intensity and runtime , is the Portal worth buying ? Is it that far and beyond than the hangover??
I have the Evo / hangover combo and IMO the hangover is lackluster in intensity and runtime , is the Portal worth buying ? Is it that far and beyond than the hangover??
How important is wireless to you? If you insist on wireless then the Portal is probably your best option. But if you can live with a wired light I'd suggest an Evo on your bars and Gloworm X2 (keep an eye out for a 40% off sale) on your helmet and you'll thank me later.
evo/hangover works really good, evo/portal works really great! I'd say if you do more lower speed riding the hangover is sufficient, but if the riding is more downhill oriented with higher speeds and tech, the portal would likely be the better choice. I've done some seriously gnarly riding with the evo/hangover combo, but I'm definitely appreciating the portal's extra oomph now.
I have the Evo / hangover combo and IMO the hangover is lackluster in intensity and runtime , is the Portal worth buying ? Is it that far and beyond than the hangover??
Yes, the Portal fixes this issue. I've been running the Hangover for a few seasons and added the Evo when that came out. It's been fine, but when start getting close to the 2 hour mark you really notice it. With the Portal I don't even think about that anymore. I also really like it for the faster downhills. I'll crank it up to 11 and it really fills things in.
Does anyone have a good side by side comparison of the two lights (Hangover & Portal)? The pictures on their website are from slightly different angles, so it's hard to see how much larger the Portal is over the Hangover.
Does anyone have a good side by side comparison of the two lights (Hangover & Portal)? The pictures on their website are from slightly different angles, so it's hard to see how much larger the Portal is over the Hangover.
Just following up to confirm that after moving the light placement back, the weight isn't an issue. Loving the Evo/Portal combo.
One question: I know it's not supposed to be good to always be charging things before the charge runs out, but obviously I prefer heading out into the night with a fully charged light. Is charging after every use a bad idea? Maybe @Outbound can answer.
not outbound, but i am electrochemist. No it is not an issue. Rather avoid empty batteries than full batteries. Li-Ion /Li-Polymer cells do not show a memory effect like NiCd cells did.
However, if possible, let the light - after use in cold temperatures (below 10°C) - warm up to ambient temperature inside before plugging the charger into the light. Charging cold Li-Ion batteries ages them quickly unless the charge is really slow (Teslas heat up their batteries before the supercharger is allowed to push current in the cells...)
1 ride in on EVO/Portal , so far so good , but wish there was another kind of helmet mount ... GoPro mounts , readily avab. easy stick-on , low profile etc etc I get it . But I changed angle of Portal 4-5 times before I found THE angle for my liking , riding position etc etc . After ride I need to swing it back/up to access tabs in order to remove for charging , so Ill have to find perfect angle once more. A removeable but fixed angle (after initial adjustment) mount/interface would be nice.. I know : minor niggle but perhaps something to keep in mind for future helmet lights... cheers
1 ride in on EVO/Portal , so far so good , but wish there was another kind of helmet mount ... GoPro mounts , readily avab. easy stick-on , low profile etc etc I get it . But I changed angle of Portal 4-5 times before I found THE angle for my liking , riding position etc etc . After ride I need to swing it back/up to access tabs in order to remove for charging , so Ill have to find perfect angle once more. A removeable but fixed angle (after initial adjustment) mount/interface would be nice.. I know : minor niggle but perhaps something to keep in mind for future helmet lights... cheers
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www.outboundlighting.com
