Portal Bike Light

The Portal definitely gives you a more distinct light pattern, I would describe it as wide and narrow. Brighter that the Hangover. Definitely does a great job paired with the Evo. Best of all is the excellent customer service that Outbound provides.

Way can I say…I have been a fan and have owned the Trail combo for a couple of years and still love them. When the Portal came out I was super excited to give it a try …well it doesn’t disappoint. The Portal takes the ordinary to extraordinary. The battery life lasts much longer and the lights are even brighter (if this is even possible)? I kiddingly say I should strap it to my car grill b/c it’s brighter than my headlights. 😁

Phenomenal weight, brightness, battery life, and focus pattern. Not only helps me look ahead with a bright, focused central light, but also gives me great peripheral vision.

Have all three. Love these all in one self contained light and battery in one package. More than once with an old school NiteRider NIMH water bottle mount have I bounced the battery right off the bike, which of course leaves one riding Braille and hoping you can find your battery that richocetted in to the bushes. I prefer the Portal to the Hangover due to more lumens. When in doubt more power. And, although I need light source redundancy, if I had to choose I would go with the Portal solo on the head over Trail Evo on the handlebar, as I like the light to track with my head more than a light to track with my handlebar. I am interested to read here that Outbound is working on a handlebar remote. Personally, I don’t see the need. Never really liked fiddling with it on my older other branded night lights and worry it is just one more piece to complicate a very nice and simple set up. I do like the Portal capability for an action cam prong mount, or the Outbound proprietary secure mount. Overall, I prefer the Outbound designed mount as it is a little more low profile, which reduces wobble, and if on the helmet, drops the height a few mm to reduce impacts from overhanging tree branches when moving at breakneck speed, not. The Portal slight more heft is not noticed on my helmet. I have a relatively new and nicely featured NiteRider single LED beam with a handlebar remote and an external battery. It does not compare favorably to the Helmet intended Portal which has basically the same Lumen and light spread. This now old NiteRider set up is not even close to the Trail Evo for power, light spread, and depth, and again without the bothersome external battery.

Finally got out for a ride using the Portal and its everything the team set out to do: more light (power and coverage) more runtime, along with the great build quality and thoughtful design from Outbound. For shorter rides the hangover still holds its own due to lighter weight so I guess they both have their place. Its super nice being able to pick either depending on what ride I’m heading out on.

So the Portal is my third Outbound Lighting light (Trail, Evo and now Portal) and it is just as fantastic as the rest. I'd been using the Evo mostly by itself as it was brighter than my prior bar/helmet light combo. Occasionally I'd use NiteRider 1200 on longer rides for some additional vision and redundancy but it didn't make that much difference. As soon as I saw the black Friday pricing on the Portal, I pulled the trigger and I'm glad I did. The first ride with it, I was switching back and forth between the Portal and the Evo and then finally both. the Portal was noticeably brighter than the Evo (so much so I had to crank it down to two notches to balance out) but much more focused. It still covered a lot more area than the NiteRider but not (clearly) as much as the larger Evo. Having both together was an absolute revelation. Adding the Portal gave me so much more visibility and depth on the trail. If you don't already have the Evo/Portal combo, you owe it to yourself get them. 10/10 recommended.