Detour is the latest handlebar-mounted bike light from Outbound Lighting. Developed by Outbound’s Chicago-based engineering team, with experience in the automotive and LED lighting industries, Detour is designed specifically for road riding, gravel riding and commuting.
The company adds that the new headlight combines the power of automotive headlights together with an easy-to-use interface and durable package. The custom optic design packs a cut-off beam into a self-contained package that is USB-C rechargeable and slim enough to fit in a pocket.
Outbound Lighting’s Detour bike light retails for US$179 and is now available via the Outbound Lighting website.
‘The precise horizontal cutoff beam is similar to car headlights that directs light where only you want it, preventing you from blinding oncoming pedestrians, fellow bikers and drivers. The Detour’s smooth and progressive light field spans the full width of the road from the front of your tyre all the way up to where you are looking.’
“We use the same software and development techniques as major automotive OEMs to finely tune the optics for each product based on use case,” said Matt Conte, founder of Outbound and a former automotive optical engineer.
“It’s literally automotive lighting tech on your bike, which allows us to put all the light where you can actually use it – on the road, rather than throwing light away into the sky. That means we can use less power to be brighter, while achieving about 3 hours of strong output from a super-lightweight package.”
With a bolt-on clamp mount, Outbound’s lightweight Detour light can be secured onto 35 mm to 31.8 mm handlebars. The fiberglass-reinforced nylon mount uses a quick-release mechanism inspired by a camera tripod, allowing the light to be removed with one hand. Also available is an action camera style mount that allows Detour to be slung underneath an outfront GPS mount while maintaining the QR mechanism.
The Detour has a simple user interface that doesn’t require complex button presses. Its soft-touch overmoulded top shell has a single, large button right in the middle for access through a thick winter glove in the dark, with four green indicators to clearly convey mode and battery status.
Daytime Strobe and Nighttime Pulse modes, each optimized for visibility without dazzling in different conditions, are available in addition to constant output modes.
‘High-quality components such as Cree XD16 LEDs and Samsung 21700 cells are coupled with a battery monitoring algorithm to give accurate feedback without interruption, grafted into an industry-first thermally-conductive polymer housing that gets weight down below 150g – lighter than competing products despite having 40% more battery capacity. And if that’s not long enough, riders can extend runtime significantly by Pass-Thru Charging through the USB-C port via any external USB power bank for big rides and adventures.’
