Trail Evo Bike Light

Buddy had one on a ride I attended. I was impressed but the high price made me balk at buying one. When my other light went down, I decided to take a chance and buy a "good light". So, I ordered the handlebar mount light to see what I thought.

First, make sure you have a good "fast charge" charging block. I didn't and mine was taking forever to charge. I reached out and they told me to try a better block. Yep, now she is charging like a champ. In fact, it charges up rather quickly.

The mount to the handlebars is amazingly solid. I love how I can clip the light in and out of the mount easily. This is handy if you have to work on your bike. Getting the "right angle" took a few tries. But once you get it right the light is amazing. The best example I can give you is your car headlights. There is no "hot spot". The light is even from the front tire to way out in front of you.

Now for trail use. I've been using the "ADAPTIVE MODE" and it works really well. What this does is the light is on HIGH then as your ride, the light slowly dims to save battery and because your eyes are adapting to the dark and you don't need that bright of a light to see well. (whoever thought of doing this, kudos to you). So you find that you don't need this blazingly bright light after a while. It works great and I recommend using this mode when riding. The light disbursement to the sides is smooth and even and far reaching. In fact, for the trails I ride, I don't see a need for a helmet mount as the side light lets me look around the curves I'm taking with confidence. I paid attention to the other lights on the ride. Most have a "hot spot" and then what is basically "bleed over" to the sides. Not this light. It is a wide far-reaching wall of light. No "spot" of light. No bleed over. Just a nice field of evenly dispeased light (remember your car headlights I mentioned above?) I have to admit that while I was first skeptical, I'm now impressed. The wide even light makes seeing the whole area in front of you easy. After a while, it is basically like riding during the day.

Oh, and I love that there are no cables and I don't have to carry and "extra" battery someplace to run the light. Run times have been great, and so far, I haven't used more than one bar on any of the night rides I've gone on.

We know have three of us using these lights in my club. And I'm betting more people are going to buy them as they are constantly commenting on the lights. Yeah, it is going to cost you a bit. But the warranty and the craftmanship are top notch. Don't be afraid to buy one. I think you're going to love it like I do.

This is my second light, and it's the best bike light i ever had.

Very impressed with how well the handle bar light works that I just ordered the helmet light.
1.Rigid and doesn't bounce around like other lights. Comes with mounting options for 35mm and 31.8 bars.
2.Wide angle of light that illuminates the all the single track not just tunnel vision.
3.Easy to take on and off, and adjust.
4.Again, I like the handle bar light that I ordered the helmet light today 10/24/25
Have already used about 6 times. I should have done the package deal and I ordered my fiancé a set as well.
So don't get left in the dark, light up your nights with Outbound Lighting!!!!
Lights so bright, you can see your mountain biking future!!!
Okay enough with the cheesy ads.
Cheers!

3.

I use the Evo and Portal package for night riding. I do an occasional 4 – 6 hour night ride, so I read the article on the website entitled, “How do I extend runtime with an external USB Power Bank?”

There are great tips in this article – and like the writer expressed, there is no way for them to test every power bank out there. They do, however, recommend that we select a QC3.0-rated power bank from a reputable company such as Anker, Belkin, and RavPower. (I’m sure there are more, but I researched these three).

I bought the RavPower RP-PB1229 PD Pioneer rated at 20,000 mAh, 20W for $45 including shipping. This unit is about the size of a cell phone but twice as thick. The slimmer units were about half the capacity at 10,000 mAh – I may buy one of these for my helmet light.

It has a “Wake Up” button on the side – the article on the site explains about how some units negotiate for power – this one ran perfectly until I ran it dry.

I plugged in the unit to the light with the light off and pressed the wake-up button. The 4 green light bars on the Evo blinked as if it was charging. (It was fully charged, but it does this even with the stock charger fully charged for a couple minutes after sitting overnight). When I turned the light on, it acted like normal and allowed me to switch through the different power settings. I selected Adaptive Mode, and after a few seconds, the 4 bars stayed on solid – just like normal.

The power bank has 4 bars as well – and all 4 are lit when fully charged. After 3 hours, it went down to 3 bars left, and the Evo had all 4 bars as expected. The power bank lasted 6 hours - 5 minutes before the last meter light extinguished. I unplugged it from the Evo (which still had all 4 bars lit) and kept timing the run time. I suspect a little of the internal battery got used during through-charging as it went to 3 bars after only 20 minutes. (6-hours, 25- minutes run-time). The 5% remaining one-bar flash (restricting to Low-Mode) happened at 8 hours-20 minutes. Final light-flashing out-of-power warning came at 8 hours – 41 minutes.

Some notes on the test:
• Test was done using “Adaptive Mode” with both the light and power bank fully charged.
• I tested indoors in a 70-degree room. At Jason’s (of Outbound) suggestion, I ran a small fan over the light to keep it cool.
• The short (thin) charging cable that came with the RavPower unit did not work on the Evo – I used the Outbound cable with no problems.
• The Evo power bars stay green unlike the new Portal, which turn blue during through-charging. I didn’t know this but Jason explained it well – future Evos will eventually get this feature.
• I have not tested the Portal yet with power bank , but that light standing on its own power lasted 3 hours-5 minutes during my testing – exceeding the runtime listed on the website by over 30 minutes.

I rate this as a complete success. My goal was 6-hours of run time and I got over 8 with this particular unit.

I wired this directly to my Ebike light output with a 12 to 5v converter. Works fantastic!

Not only is the Trail Evo the best light for riding before or after the sun (brightest, longest lasting, best mounting setup and best light dispersion) but Outbound Lighting has industry leading customer service. Their founder responded directly to my question, sorted me out, and even sent me a free prepaid return for ordering the wrong light for my need. Thank you Outbound Lighting. You guys rock and I am now a customer for life.