We have a few threads dealing with the outbound (use the search function), and i own it (which qualifies probably for first hand experience). There are two major points of criticism, which i will adress in the following
Runtimes: (point 1 of my critique)
Here are (measured) power consumption of the different modes, the battery has a capacity of 46 Wh
- high 20W,
- med-high 12.5W
- med 7 W
- low 2.6 W.
So in theory one could do the math.... but... The outbound has a voltage-controlled step-down in certain modes, which is imo too aggressive. The high mode is only accessible with a battery voltage above 6.3V (i.e. more then half full, below that it won't stay in high mode, it will switch down to med mode). Same is true if you start the adaptive mode with a battery which is not more than half full. On can override the stepdown to med and can adress the med-high mode, but you'd have to cycle quickly through the modes "low, adaptive, high". The med-high mode can be used up to ~6.3 V cell voltage, and at it often steps down to med mode, but one can force it back to med-high. This is very annoying. One could circumvent this by using the light with a 3S (11.1V) Li-Ion battery, it accepts up to 13V DC.
The light head alone is also available for 140 USD.
tldr: high mode is only accessible for 1h, and only with a full battery. med-high mode can be used for 2 hr+ (with a full battery). i never tried the adaptive mode, but since it's output in the constant phase is below the med-high mode, i guess the runtimes are correct.
However visible brightness differences between the med-high and the high mode are really tiny, so i never use the high mode. Just converts too much battery energy into heat.
Light distribution (Point 2 of my critique)
There is just too much light right in front of the bike, that makes seeing things in the distance a bit hard, as your eyes adapt to the bright spot. One can see this in the Road edition video on youtube from outbound, min 7:45. You still can see things 160ft/50m in the distance, it is just harder, and it gets harder when you have oncoming traffic. On bright gravel, the light blinds in high mode, if you adjust it in a glarefree manner. This is probably due to the fact, that the road edition is also designed as helmet supplement for the trail edition, and then this bright spot is not so annoying. If you adjust the light in a blinding manner the beam shape is wonderfully homogenous.
My recommendation to the OP:
a) If you live in the states/canada: order it, try it, send it back if you don't like (30 days money back guarantee)
b) If you want and need full blast all the time: buy the
lighthead alone and combine it with a 3S (11V) Li-ion battery instead of the supplied 2S (7.2V), so you can circumvent the stepdowns. (It is stated in the specs, that you can power it with max 13V DC)
c) If you don't need the luxurious beam width, especially in front of the bike, take a look at the IXON Space, "only" 500 lm, but 150 lux, and you can see as far as with the Outbound, you can just do it easier for the eyes, as the beam pattern isn't overexposed in front of the bike.
120 EUROS incl. delivery to the states (bik24.com), can be recharged while in use with a power bank.
d) if money doesn't play a role: wait for the Lupine SLX battery version (>600 USD....), announced for summer
Originally Posted by
VegasTriker
[...]Not terribly impressed by the information available from either the Outbound company or the source of the LED in the light. They measure the light output in LUX which is not directly translatable into lumens which most bike light manufacturers use to show the output.[...]
Those discussions about "only lux" values given no proper lumen values given is not helping.
On the Kickstarter page, lumens (well, calculated chiplumens, not measured out-the-front lumens or "
equivalent lumens") are given. The light distribution of the road light is well designed, and it has plenty of brightness, since 95% of all lumens end up on the tarmac (and don't disappear in the air). With a 2x cree xml t6 and a conical lens, you either waste 65% of the lumens in the air or you have a badly overexposed area in front of the bike. We're talking about the road edition,
here is a site that shows how a light for road use is supposed to be designed. Even the Trail edition has a soft cut-off, albeit a higher one. So it is only about light distribution (which you specify either in lux or in cd, see i.e. the FMVSS 108 or UN ECE Rules for automotive lighting), not lumen values. And development of a proper reflector is expensive and time-consuming (15k Euro)
These automotive LEDs are used as they allow much better control of the beam shape than an XM-L2 or an XHP does. Every high powered (properly) glarefree bike light uses automotive LEDS (Lupine, B&M, Supernova). If you want to use an XML-2 or and XHP and get a glare free beam shape, you need a ridiculous big lens/reflector, if you still want to see things in the distance.