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When we developed the Trail Edition back in 2017 we set out to use the same principles from car headlights and bring them to bikes. Focusing not on big lumen levels but rather a high quality beam pattern that is optimized for twisty singletrack.
Over 4,000 customers and counting absolutely loved it. But we knew we could do better. After a year and a half of development we are excited to show you the latest evolution of our best selling light. Trail Evo
[HR][/HR] What did we improve?
To begin, we built on the development of the Trail Edition and Hangover, along with perfecting our unique blended-TIR approach to trail lighting. We spent hundreds of hours in simulation and prototypes to hone in on an even better beam pattern. Wider than the Trail Edition everyone loves, with more peripheral lighting along with a stronger center intensity to see even further down the Trail thanks to a boost in total lumen output. The difference is staggering.
The blended TIR optic uses precision engineering to finely tune the beam shape, eliminating the typical “round hotspot” edges by redirecting portions of the beam to where you need it most, creating a dramatically smoother beam. The surrounding “Light Carpet” around your periphery allows you to see and react to the whole trail and not get “tunnel vision” with harsh edges. The smoother the beam, the less strain on your eyes, the better you can see and the more comfortable your night ride is.
Just as important as beam patterns, is thermal management. When we start pushing big lumens like this, we have to worry about shedding that heat to keep the LED’s in their efficient range. We utilized an incredibly unique way of flowing air THROUGH the light, allowing for cooling air to pass directly behind the LED’s. An industry first.
We then turned our sights to eliminating one of the main complaints most riders have these days. You don’t want to carry around an external battery pack. Which we get, it’s one less thing to lug around and charge up. Thankfully there have been lots of developments in battery technology in the last few years and high density 21700 cells have gotten better and better. So we integrated two of them into the housing of Trail Evo, resulting in a whopping 37.0 watt-hours.
This combined with using new high-efficiency genuine CREE XD-16 LED’s means we can get an incredible amount of light while maintaining 2.5+ hours of usable runtime, without an external battery pack!
Combine the fact that we can run this light at 150+ minutes of usable runtime and you start to wonder what else you could possibly need. Need to last longer than that? We are one of the only bike lights on the market that offer pass-through charging. So you can hook up any USB powerbank you may own and it will supplement the light as your ride goes on. Giving you unparalleled flexibility for your specific riding needs.
[HR][/HR]
Let’s talk about runtimes for a second. The bike light industry tends to like to use the FL1 standard, which rates runtime as the time it takes to go from full brightness to 10% output, an outdated measure that harkens back to the days of using Alkaline batteries, and when you would swap out your flashlight battery…..
But this is 2020. We need to get real about runtimes. Nearly every single light on the market starts out full brightness and diminishes over time, and this is okay. Our eyes adapt to the darkness and as long as the reduction is gradual, we literally cannot tell the difference until reaching about 50-60% of the perceived brightness. Which is why we say that we have 150+ minutes of usable runtime in our standard Adaptive Mode, we aren’t going to call this “high” anymore and have a mode that isn’t actually high…. we made that mistake once.
Here is the expected runtime chart. This should be far more useful then just a single number.
Our High, Medium and Low Modes are SOLID output modes that are designed for the rider that changes the light intensity often. Low and slow for the climbs, maximum output for the fast descent. Medium is the perfect setting when paired with the Hangover on the helmet to get nearly 4+ hours of runtime. Adaptive is for the rider that hits the trail hard right from the parking lot and doesn’t want to think about changing output often. Just set it and forget it and get 150+ minutes of runtime.
[HR][/HR] Outfront Centered Mounting
For a bar light to act like a proper headlight, we need to put it in the best location for a headlight. Out front and centered on the cockpit. For this we developed a durable and easy to use quick release mounting system that has been used for years in the professional camera industry. You simply click the light in and tighten the over-cam, and with one hand can release the light. We designed this to be used easily with thick gloves.
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[HR][/HR] Standard USB-C Quick Charging
Just like with Hangover, we have USB-C quick charging as standard. This allows you to quickly charge the light using anything you might already have. Any USB QC 3.0 compatible external battery pack will work to charge Trail Evo while in use, or before you hit the trail.
With Trail Evo, you can get an hour of runtime in just 30-40 minutes with a compatible QC 3.0 charger, and a nearly full charge in around an two hours. While not as quick to charge as Hangover (single 18650 battery vs two 21700 cells) it is still MUCH faster than any comparable light on the market.
The included customized USB-C to USB-A cable is designed to create a snug and watertight seal around the USB port of the light.
[HR][/HR] American Made Quality.
Like the Trail and Road Edition, these lights are built in America. We work closely with our PCBA supplier in Phoenix, AZ with full-time staff on-site assisting with assembly of Evo. We put a massive amount of engineering work into making sure we can assemble our lights quickly, accurately, and with the highest quality to ensure that we keep production stateside for years to come. Backed with a no-questions-asked warranty and amazing customer service. We want you to be a customer, a friend, and an Outbound rider for life.
[HR][/HR] What is included?
- Trail Evo light
- USB-C charging cable
- 31.8mm bar mount clamp
- 35.0mm bar mount clamp
- Quick release “shoe”
- Choice of orange or black anodized washers
- Hex tool to cleanly install the mount
- Instruction manual
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Here it is guys. This was about a year and a half of development work that was done almost in-line with Hangover, but as we brought Hangover to production we learned a lot of neat optical tricks and processes. We finely tuned and tweaked the optic in simulation with a new supercomputer that I built for this specific purpose. The result is nothing short of awesome.
The CREE XD16 chips are larger than the XQE used in hangover, which meant needing a little larger TIR opening to have the control we wanted, we fine tuned the amount of TIR overlap to get that good balance of peripheral lighting and optical efficiency aiming forward. The blended TIR approach also eliminates any harsh cutoffs that the Trail had, such as near the edge of the tire and the upper horizontal cutoff line. The EVO beam pattern is elliptical-ish, but it is still shaped to have the "light carpet" that Trail did well with.
Thermally, we are pushing way more power than the Trail through a little bit more thermal mass. However we wanted that clean aesthetic look similar to Hangover, but obviously need to shed all that heat somehow.... so what did we do? Just push the air THROUGH the light of course!
You can see the intakes underneath the light, that then pass through several fins that are attached directly to the LED's and exhausting out the top of the light. Providing an unbelievable thermal pathway when in motion at any speed. This built upon the knowledge that we implemented in Trail with the bar mounted scoop, but obviously taking it a bit further. It was a challenge to make this part actually manufacturer-able but we got it done.
The little trickery that we have going on to get some unbelievable runtimes is not only the thermal stability allowing the LED's to operate well above the typical efficiency, but is also the fact that the XD16 chips are a generational leap in efficiency. Get better optics that improve the forward lighting even further, get chips that operate 30% more efficiently, and it's how we achieved having similar run times to an external 4 cell 18650 battery pack, with an internal two cell 21700 pack.
We checked, tested, validated, checked, and tested again all those runtime claims and charts. We learned our lesson from Hangover.
The quick release mount is also something really cool. SUPER robust and extremely easy to use. The shoe that is built into the light is what will be used moving forward with our lights. However there is provisions on the bottom of the light for future mount ideas, such as a gopro tab or even a garmin mount could be printed and screwed into place.
Honestly, it's 1:30am here, I'm dog tired, been going at it for weeks now trying to keep up with orders. Let me know your questions!
https://www.outboundlighting.com/product/trail-evo/
