We all love riding bikes. So by nature, we should all love things that allow us to ride our bikes longer – either once the sun goes down (or before it comes up) and longer into the season. Whether being more visible, more comfortable, or just seeing the trail, there were some exciting electronics on display at Sea Otter that will do just that.
Outbound Lighting
It’s not often that a light will get me super excited, but the Outbound eEVO is not your ordinary ebike light. If you’re riding an ebike, then you’re toting around a big battery by default. So why are your lights not running off that big battery? Along those lines, why aren’t high output headlights for mountain biking that work off those batteries more prevalent?
That’s where the forthcoming Outbound eEVO headlight comes in. Coming this fall, the headlight is designed to plug into Bosch or Shimano ebike systems out of the box, with others in the works. Depending on the motor system, the eEVO will provide up to 2,000-3,000 lumens and adds about 85g to your bike.
To be available in a dual or single-sided mount, Outbound says they’re also working with Wolf Tooth Components to come up with a premium aluminum mount option. Look for more on this one later this season.
Blade Rear Light
First shown as a concept light in 2024, the Outbound Blade is now available for $125. Built with three separate optics, the light has a wide horizontal rear red light, a down-firing red light, and amber side lights, all to make the rider more noticeable. The rear beam is specifically designed so that cars can see it far back, but it won’t blind riders following close behind. The downfiring light is meant to illuminate your legs to use bio-motion to make you more visible to cars, and turns off on the daytime settings since you wouldn’t be able to see it during the day anyway.
The light includes a “massive battery”, which is a user-replaceable 18650 cell to provide an 8+ hour run time – on high with 250 combined lumens! Drop it down to daytime strobe (300 lumen peak) and you get 32+ hours of runtime, or a massive 120 hours on Eco Flash at 125 lumens.
Charging via USB-C will take about four hours on a 5V/1A charger, and the built-in status lights and battery indicator will let you know how much juice is left.
The light will include a new seatpost mount (not shown) that uses the GoPro-style mounting tabs, so you can attach it to other mounts if needed. The Outbound mount itself uses a quarter-turn system to lock the light in place or quickly remove it. Outbound is also working with Sheehy Labs to offer additional mounts.
outboundlighting.com
HotBars Heated Handlebars
While we’re on the subject of Outbound lights, we got to check out the new Hotbars heated handlebars in person which are designed so you can also run your Outbound headlight (or any other headlight) with the battery installed on the bar.
If you missed the launch story, HotBars claim to be the world’s first heated mountain bike handlebar system. Yes, heated grips have existed for decades. But Hotbars make it so you can run any grips you want, and still get that sweet heat relief in the colder months.
To prove it, HotBars founder Clayton Wangbichler had the coolest booth at Sea Otter – literally. With a custom built freezer display case, you could stick your hands inside the freezer to see what the HotBars felt like in the cold. They heat up surprisingly quickly (at least they did at Sea Otter where it was 60ºF), and offer a premium carbon handlebar that you can ride year round after you take off the battery pack and install the plugs for the wiring ports.
Overall, the system was extremely impressive in its engineering and how well throughout the user experience is. You can’t cut down the bars due to the electronics inside, but they come in 8 different sizes to make sure you can find the right fit.
hotbars.com
Smith Forefront 3 Light/Accesory Mount
If you’re looking to put a light on your helmet, you’ll need a mount – like the new light and accessory mount for the Smith Forefront 3. Available soon for $25, the adapter snaps onto the Forefront 3 roll cage and includes a GoPro-style mount and a bar mount adapter.
Lezyne Road Drive 500
Finally, from Lezyne comes a sleek new light to stash under your cycling computer. The new Road Drive 500 packs, you guessed it, 500 lumens into a very thin, credit card-sized case. The light includes a low-profile quarter-turn mount so it can be attached to a Lezyne dual-sided computer mount for the lowest profile, or it also comes with a GoPro-style mount for other options.
The user-replaceable 1100 mAh battery can provide up to 50h of run time, with 500 lumens only reached on Day Flash mode which will run that full 50h. Otherwise, you’re looking at 400 lumens on Blast for 1:30, 150 lumens on Enduro for 4:30, dropping off to Economy, Pulse, and Femto modes. The light is also Infinite Power Pack Compatible, so you can plug it into an external battery source for much longer run times.
The optics are engineered to “see and be seen” which means they project downards even when the light is angled upward to provide enough light to see in front of your tire while also being visible to oncoming traffic. The light is priced at $59.99 and will be available this May.
lezyne.com
