Over the last few seasons, apparel and gear manufacturer Bontrager and its partners at Trek have been pushing the electronics and integration market for cycling utilities. With the Ion 700, they made a strong venture into headlights, and for model year 2015 they debuted an interesting integrated stem for all of their nifty cycling gadgets to be inserted nicely into the stem. While their mounting mechanisms haven’t exactly been perfection, the Cree powered Ion 700 is a fantastic compact light offering an impressive 600-700 lumen for only $100 USD. USB rechargeable, waterproof, and very solid build. The light itself snaps cleanly into the barmount, so you can leave the mount on the bars and remove the light as you please to charge it or even to just use it as a flashlight. The mount is similar to a Garmin’s rubber band mount in its use of an elastic loop to secure the light onto the bars, and unfortunately because of this can be a little limited for bumpy mountain bike use. I was extremely impressed by the Ion’s performance, and though it wasn’t the most stable on the bars, I’m personally very excited by Bontrager’s newest offering in their integration and electronics extravaganza.
It starts with some new iterations of Bontrager’s top model lights. The Ion 700 gets a nice stealth makeover, which might not sound like a good idea for a headlight, but it actually has a very nice look to it. The new Ion 700 RT has the the same power with some added functionality which we’ll get to later.
The Flare, Bontrager’s standard red tail light, gets a revamp with the Flare R, which Bontrager claims they’ve optimized for visibility up to 2km for both day and night with 65 lumens of magical visibility glow power. There’s also the Flare RT, again with the same power and an extra special bonus feature.
All of these lights are USB rechargeable, which means that while they may clog up all of your outlets, you don’t have to spend the entire US military budget on batteries over a season of night rides. Charges are supposed to last as long as 1.75 hours on full power and up to 45 hours on the strobe setting (which admittedly won’t be super useful when riding in the dark), and I’ve never had an issue with being caught unawares by my own Ion 700 leaving me stranded in the dark, thanks in part to its red-blinky-button early warning system for low battery.
This is all great, but what’s got me really excited is the “T” part of the “RT” nomenclature. All of Bontrager’s “RT” offerings are equipped with ANT+ (for those who don’t know, the predominant “bluetooth” of sporting electronics, including Bontrager’s Duotrap and most cycling computers), which might seem a little odd until you see Bontrager’s next new electronic accessory.
All of these lights are USB rechargeable, which means that while they may clog up all of your outlets, you don’t have to spend the entire US military budget on batteries over a season of night rides. Charges are supposed to last as long as 1.75 hours on full power and up to 45 hours on the strobe setting (which admittedly won’t be super useful when riding in the dark), and I’ve never had an issue with being caught unawares by my own Ion 700 leaving me stranded in the dark, thanks in part to its red-blinky-button early warning system for low battery.
This is all great, but what’s got me really excited is the “T” part of the “RT” nomenclature. All of Bontrager’s “RT” offerings are equipped with ANT+ (for those who don’t know, the predominant “bluetooth” of sporting electronics, including Bontrager’s Duotrap and most cycling computers), which might seem a little odd until you see Bontrager’s next new electronic accessory.
This is the Bontrager Transmitr. Looks a little silly, right? Amidst all this simplification, why do we want more buttons on our bars? And hasn’t anyone taught Bontrager’s techies how to spell? Both fair points, but what Bontrager is offering with this might actually be worth the dreaded cluttering of bars. You’ve probably already figured out what it does by its name, so I’ll forego the suspenseful build up. Transmitr is just that: A bar-mounted transmitter to control all of the lights on your bike. Stay with me for a minute: you’re doing a 24 hour team race, have two Ion 700s to see your way, and a single Flare on your seatpost. Suddenly, you notice that all of your lights are failing because you just did the last 15 laps for your team. You hit one button and all of your lights fall to a lower setting, and they last until you can swap with one of your team mates and spend some time charging your LEDs. Maybe not a super common situation, but the implications of this kind of remote integration are pretty cool. Bontrager even says that with a Flare RT, the Transmitr can act as a turn indicator.
I do have to admit that the mount for the Transmitr seems to follow the trend of Bontrager’s generally weak electronic mounting, but the jury is still out on the practicality of this kind of system for mountain biking until these are available for testing. For now, they are definitely toys that are on my Christmas list.
The Bontrager Transmitr will be available at Trek retailers for $69.99. The Ion 700 RT and Flare RT will be available for $159.99 and $79.99 respectively.
I do have to admit that the mount for the Transmitr seems to follow the trend of Bontrager’s generally weak electronic mounting, but the jury is still out on the practicality of this kind of system for mountain biking until these are available for testing. For now, they are definitely toys that are on my Christmas list.
The Bontrager Transmitr will be available at Trek retailers for $69.99. The Ion 700 RT and Flare RT will be available for $159.99 and $79.99 respectively.