Outbound Lighting Road Edition for Brompton?

[CEBEP]

I like good lights and don't like when bike light beam is designed as flashlight. I understand that lights for mountain bikes and road bikes serve different purpose and I think lights need to be marketed as such. I also like StVZO certified lights not only because they don't blind incoming traffic and pedestrians but also because they put all light where it's needed for the road bike. I spent quite some time searching for a good light for my Brompton. With all above in mind it wasn't easy. STVZO certified lights are mainly available in Germany and are mostly not available for delivery to Turkey. I checked other options form the like of Kreptonine and StVZO certified cat eye models (yes they also exist) but couldn't find perfect option.

Monsters from Lupine and Supernova were insanely expensive with pretty big battery packs that I wasn't sure would fit my Brompton.

And then I came across Outbound Lighting in one of the forums. While it's not StVZO certified, it's designed by the same principle with light cutoff and wide spread. So I decided to give it a try as it also looked like battery pack is not too big and could fit under the frame.

Well, it just came in! While I'm yet to make pictures outside of the beam pattern I'm very happy to say that it fits my Brompton. And it fits perfectly! Gopro mount design by outbound lightening is very smart and ensures low profile while mounted with huge gap between the bag mounted on the front carrier block! Looks slick too. I figured best place for battery will be under the front portion of the frame but will need to see how it will fold this way and if cable will rub it too much.

Beam pattern to the wall:


Even though I took my phone camera to manual exposure which didn't change its still not possible to make picture exactly the same as what human eye sees. You see more light than on these pictures but it would give an impression of beam pattern on the ground. Beam pattern would probably be better if the light would've been mounted on the handlebar. Min and Max settings:





Light on TRIGO bracket using gopro friction mount adaptor on the light:





With mounted battery:









Bike folds with this setup just fine.

 

[cougie uk]

Light looks good. Your bike is stunning. Love that copper finish.

 

[ExBrit]

And then I came across Outbound Lighting in one of the forums. While it's not StVZO certified, it's designed by the same principle with light cutoff and wide spread. So I decided to give it a try as it also looked like battery pack is not too big and could fit under the frame.

How about some links, CEBEP?

 

[CEBEP]

How about some links, CEBEP?

https://www.outboundlighting.com/

 

[ExBrit]

https://www.outboundlighting.com/

Which one did you buy and what did you use to mount it?

 

[CEBEP]

Which one did you buy and what did you use to mount it?

Unless you're not doing trails with your Brompton it's Road Edition. It also includes gopro mount adaptor in the box.

https://www.outboundlighting.com/products/road-edition

There are several mount brackets available for Brompton on Aliexpress, Aceofix, TWTOPSE but I purchased TRIGO which seemed to me the sturdier one

https://a.aliexpress.com/_vZbdHw

These brackets use gopro friction mount which would allow you to use any adaptor for almost any light brand should you wish to change it.

 

[ExBrit]

This is really interesting. I have been looking for a good battery light with a dynamo beam pattern for years. There was one on the market for a while that I tried but it had a crap mount and flew off while I was on a bike path. I even thought about building a small inverter but they're really inefficient. I guess I could have gutted a cheap dynamo light (is there such a thing) and bypassed the rectifier but I never got around to it. This looks like a high quality product with a good mount.

Thanks

 

[CEBEP]

No worries. There are few nice reviews of this light on YouTube. All other points aside dynamo light will never be as bright as high capacity battery lights. Just went outside to make a beam shots only to notice that I forgot my smartphone home. Another day then. But what I can tell is mounting it on the handlebar will most likely give better beam pattern as the way I mounted it it's much closer to the ground. But I plan to upgrade my phone mount which will most probably accommodate whole available real estate on the handlebar. Besides, it will most probably interfere with fold mounted on the handlebar. Mounting on the fork bracket makes it unnoticeable.

Anyways, it folds with full setup just fine. I've added Zefal skin armor protection tape along the area where battery is mount as I've put the cables there which will eventually rub against the paint. May also consider to maybe secure light cable to the fork to make sure it doesn't interfere with fold clip.

 

[berlinonaut]

I have been looking for a good battery light with a dynamo beam pattern for years.

There are dozens of StVZo-conform battery lights on the market but indeed not so many that

1.) play well with the Brompton,
2.) deliver a decent amount of light and
3.) do have a mount that works.

Especially the latter has been a notorious problem for many years. However, it seems the situation is getting better bit by bit. Searching for a really decent battery light I ended up buying a Supernova Airstream a while ago despite the price and the not-so-convincing mount. The light is expensive (but well made), but by far not as good as I would like in various aspects. Just that there was no real alternative for me back then.

In the meantime at least two lights hit the market that I find interesting. If there's a good mount available has to be checked. I do not know any of the two in practice - on paper they do both look interesting:

There is the Leyzene 500 and 550: https://ride.lezyne.com/collections/led-lights-stvzo
And there is the new Supernova M99proB54: https://supernova-lights.com/m99-mini-pro-b54/

Maybe worth a look.

 

[CEBEP]

Beside significant difference in prices and other factors, top models from these brands have low and high beams. Since I don't do trail or touring, high beam was an overkill for me. Outbound Road Edition was my choice here. And currently at USD 175 you get alot of light for the money.

 

[berlinonaut]

Obviously needs differ. For me, living in Germany, a light w/o conformity to StVzO is not a valid option. So this factor alone outrules the Outbounding light. Obviously, in other countries you don't have that limitaton. Regarding the Lights from Leyzene and Supernova the two differ massively: The Leyzene 550 has a RRP of 149$ (with the street price being considerably lower), so it is even cheaper than the Outbounding.
The Supernova on the other hand is super expensive: At a RRP of 579€ I would consider the price pretty outragous. From my experience, the Supernova lights are nice but far from perfect (apart from the Airstream 2 along with the fitting rear light I do own a E3pro togehter with the Supernova dynamo rear light as well) and personally I do clearly prefer the SON lights and dynamos despite the Supernovas being more expensive and on paper having more light output.

The Outounding's technical data state 1500-1600 Lumens which seems very high for a light with a dynamo/StVzO-like pattern. On the other hand lumens are not a realy viable number to judge on lights.
The Leyzene states 290 lumens in low beam and 550 lumens in high beam while being StVZo conform. This still sounds rather high for the low beam, but within reach. Supernova states for low beam 75 lumen / 30 lux in eco mode and 450 lumen / 150 lux in standard mode. High beam is 425 lm/70 lx (eco), 1.150 lm/ 260 lx (standard) and 1.600 lm, 275 lx (max mode). Note that the high beam is NOT usable w/o blinding others.

So I do have my doubts about the numbers of the Outstanding, while it may still be a good and proper light. On the other hand comparison is difficult - in gerneral lux is more reliable here than lumens as stated lumen numbers are often theoretical values or even plain phantasy.

 

[CEBEP]

I didn't buy this light because of lumens as lumens values stated by any light manufacturer don't mean much. I bought it because one of the founders of Outbound was ex front light optic designers for cars. I went through alot of reviews both on the website and YouTube. It's not how many lumens light have, it's how much light it outputs on the road where you need it. And most importantly the beam pattern and area of beam hot spot and how wide the beam pattern is distributer. I've seen some reviews of the stvzo certified lights. While beam cutoff is common feature, the beam spread and hot spot differ significantly. Based on reviews I've went through Outbound Road Edition had one of the beast beam design for my needs. While I didn't have chance to check myself yet the light body made of magnesium dissipate heat very successfully. Another key factor for me was the gopro mount, which I didn't find on most of StVZO lights.

Another few reason why I've chose separate battery light is light weight of the light body. If I would put a huge light with built in battery on the fork mount, it would most probably breake the bracket pretty quick. Also separate battery would allow me to charge the light much less frequent compared to my Fenix light.

Hope this info will help members who consider such option for their Bromptons.

 

[CEBEP]

Leyzene 550 has a RRP of 149$ (with the street price being considerably lower), so it is even cheaper than the Outbounding.

To my knowledge it's an ebike light without battery, so I don't see how it compares to Outbound Rider.

 

[berlinonaut]

To my knowledge it's an ebike light without battery, so I don't see how it compares to Outbound Rider.

I read to fast on the Leyzene Webpage. In this case take the 500 - not that much of a difference powerwise: https://ride.lezyne.com/collections/led-lights-stvzo/products/power-hb-drive-stvzo-500

 

[rogerzilla]

I got a battery B&M Ixon IQ Premium (80 lux) a few years ago, when Amazon were knocking them out for £25. A bit plasticky, especially the mount, and the output does not compare well to a 70 lux dynamo IQ-XS, but ok for what I paid.

I use a B&M Cyo (60 lux, quite old now) on the Brompton. It is very good.