Thanks for tuning in today we're going to be reviewing the Hornit Trace bike tail light.
Designed to be invisible when the tail light is off and bright when it's on, the
Trace is one of Hornit's latest tail lights. It's a very compact tail light
with a transparent body for great side visibility. You can see packaging wise it is very simple.
it's a square box you have an illustration of the tail taillight on the front
some information on the sides as well as some of the details on the other side.
So we'll go ahead and take it out of the box and go over the specs. Retail price
on this is very affordable it's only 16.95 and it has 15 lumen max output with a rechargeable
micro usb charging port. It has a 200 milliamp integrated lithium polymer battery on the inside
and 300 degree visibility thanks to a transparent body that lights up when it's on. You have four
basic modes of operation multiple flashes and a constant with run times that range from 12 to 72
hours depending on which mode you choose. It has a quick release mount so a little rubber strap
that you can easily hook on and then hook off for round seat posts. In terms of what comes in the box
you can see the box off really nice it has this reinforcement on the inside so it holds its form.
You have the micro usb charging cable it's a little disappointing not to see usb type c
which we are starting to see more tail lights on the market.
Then you have this very small card that actually serves as a divider on the inside as well
that tells you the charge times on the different modes and then tells you how the
power indicator works as well as the operation which is basically on
off and then the different lumens and run times. Now let's take a look at the weight of the Trace
so it's pretty small so we don't expect it to weigh very much so it comes in at 32 grams.
Now let's score the fit and finish of the Hornet Trace tail light. Its a very compact taillight with a
small integrated battery and only 15 lumen output. Now 15 lumens doesn't sound very much
especially today where all taillights are kind of pushing 100 200 300 but for the under 20 dollar
price it's not surprising and has really good run time as well. So you can run this for multiple
hours you have a transparent clear body here and what's nice about this is when you turn it on
it actually lights up the whole thing so if i put in the constant mode you can see
you have good 300 degree visibility so even when you're on the side you can still see the taillight.
That's something a lot of tail light companies forget dual leds so you can see you have two
leds they operate together and then a very simple power button on top. You only have four modes flash
constant variations and a daytime flash as well which is surprising given that it's only 15 lumens
but with a daytime flash jyou have more visibility as it has irregular pattern and it puts out the full
15 lumens while the other modes do lower lumens to extend the runtime. The power button has nice tactile
feel as well and then you have Hornit written on top. On the sides it's just transparent
you have Trace on the other side it's pretty much a square body and then on the bottom you
have the micro usb port it's not usb type c but that's something starting
to become more common these days and then a little rubber gasket so you just push flat and make sure
it's nice and sealed. You have a basic rubber strap mount so you can see it's actually pretty nice
so with cheaper rubber straps you tend to be really thin and tear
but this actually feels well made and it has this double hook design so you can see it has
a hook here and then the back side that'll also go through so you want to put this if you can.
Two holes behind and then you can kind of do that so you can see the front hook goes under
and then the back hook will sit against the other ladder part of the rubber strap so pretty simple.
It only will work on round seat tubes it won't work on an aero because you can see this profile
would kind of flop around but it is rotatable. So you can see it's offset right now for a
rearward angled seat post you can also just rotate this around so just spin it around and that's
great if you want to put this on your clothing. So if you have a little hook you can put that
on there or if you have a saddlebag hook you can flip it again so it gives you a nice flexibility.
Now let's take a look at the output of the Trace there are four different output modes. You have
a regular flash pattern at the full 15 lumen a normal on off flash with five lumens and 27 hours
constant mode with two lumens and 12 hour run time and then a flash version of the same lumen
but with the high 72 hour runtime. So good run time all the way around now at only 15 lumens
this is not the brightest tail light on the market but you can see if you have tree coverage or city
with a little bit of shadows you still have good visibility from a distance and that transparent
body means you can actually see it from side. So if you come up to an intersection other people will
see you. Now in the brighter sun it is harder to see the taillight so we would recommend a stronger
taillight if you do a lot of road cycling but for commuting or city ridings is a great option.
Now do a little comparison between the Hornit trees and other tail lights on the market. Another
more direct comparison is the Fenix BC05R, it's a little 20 lumen tail light that's also a
similar price right around 20 bucks you can see one nice thing about the Fenix it's compact
it has a little battery status checker something we've seen with more Magicshine taillights and
you don't have here. So with the hornet when this is running there'll be a little led on the inside
that'll start flashing if the battery is under 10 percent. With the Fenix you can simply
check it so that's one nice thing we wish the Hornit had. The nice thing about the Hornit though
compared to the Fenix is side visibility. As you can see Fenix forgot about side visibility so you can see at
side angles you can't see anything because of the black body and it doesn't really stick out very
much. With the Hornit they made the body fully transparent so you can see even from high angles
you can see the taillight so that's a really nice thing for nighttime visibility. There are other
tail lights like Magicshine this is a cobb led with 60 lumens. Its quite a bit brighter and it
has a lot more features like a brake sensor which flashes when it detects breaking .
That's a nice feature not always consistent though as a calibration it doesn't really know your speed
it's just based on a little accelerometer on the inside so it can be easily spoofed. Similar design
though a little mount square body the Hornit. You can see more compact versus aluminum trim
so it kind of sits there flush. A lot of tails on the market these days are also a lot smarter too
so you get a lot of smart features like multiple colors and cell phone apps.
So with this one this is the Raz Pro you can actually do multiple colors it has a full app
and can do brake detection bump detection so a lot of interesting features not entirely useful as some are a
little bit gimmicky. It takes advantage of different sensors and again brighter but costs a
lot more so under 20 bucks the Hornit is a very affordable option without a lot of the techie
features. The Hornit also looks a lot like the Bontrager tail light so you can see this is the
Flare. The Bontrager it's almost 60 dollars for the tail light and you can see
much brighter so 90 lumens and has little side windows for that side visibility so instead of
a fully transparent body it has side windows. There is bluetooth connectivity so you can actually check the status
but again a bunch of features you're paying extra for so. If you want more tech features i definitely
have to spend a lot more but if you just want simple tail light. Again taillights are getting
brighter and brighter, this is the Niterider Bullet 200. So again around 50 bucks but 200 lumens
and you can see dual led elements so visible all the way from the back to the front but again
you pay for it. So I think the Hornit is a good compromise between low cost and simple design.
Now let's go over the pros and cons of the Hornit Trace. What we like about it is as a budget
friendly price so it's very affordable at under 20 dollars. You also have that rubber mounting strap
which feels quite durable compared to some of the cheap rubber straps that other tail lights come
with. You have excellent side visibility with that transparent body so it's great
for intersections or if someone comes at you from the side. Some of the cons for the tail
light is the fact that has micro usb charging. Many newer devices have usb type c and at only 15 lumens
it's not particularly bright so there are a lot brighter options but they do cost more. Taking
everything into account would give the Hornit Trace an 8.4 out of 10. It's a great compact and
affordable tail light for urban or city riding. Thanks for watching review don't forget to like
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