Magicshine Lights: Thoughts?

[trinitys_mate]

Has anyone had any experience with the lights made by Magicshine? I'm needing a new front light as my lupine is knackered. I cant afford another lupine at the moment and not that sure they are worth the money as I have had numerous problems with the one I have.
I came across magicshine while searching online but have never heard of them. The price for the specs obliterates anything else I have come across (1600 lumens x120mins rt for £129.95). OK I wouldn't expect super quality but for a 3rd of the price of a Lupine would it be worth taking a punt on?

http://www.magicshinebikelights.co.uk/index.php

 

[Chuffy]

There's a review here - http://road.cc/content/review/28095-magicshine-mj-816-led-front-light and some potentially useful comments below the line.

You don't say where you want to use the light. Off-road the Magicshines will be fine (albeit with flaky reliability) but on-road they are a primitive nuclear weapon. The beam isn't well focused and you're likely to blind oncoming traffic. They are cheap, but you get what you pay for.

I'd be inclined to go for the Lumicycle LED3Si. It's more expensive (200 quid) but is bombproof, has better optics, better run-time and Lumi offer good customer service.

 

[Master50]

I have 1 and some friends have them too. Most report satisfactory results. I use mine on my helmet with an HID on my bars for MTB.
Don't like it as much on the road as the beam is raw but most bike lights have lousy road manners in terms of beam shape and cut off toward oncoming traffic. Bike lights can cause momentary blindness in drivers. I'd hate to cause that because I forgot to not look into their eyes with my helmet light is on.
Over here they are 1/10 the cost of Lupine which are mostly well over a grand. Magic shine are under a hundred for some.

 

[trinitys_mate]

Thanks for the reply. Its for road commuting, 90% of my ride is on well lit roads but my work is situated in farmland so I have to navigate a poorly lit lane and at a couple of points no lights at all with really bad road surface plus lots of cow poop! If I had one of the brighter ones I would probably only use the lowered settings for most of my rides to save the battery and the aforementioned blinding of drivers. Oh and my commute is about 30 mins each way.

 

[trinitys_mate]

Just thinking; do the single led units flood the same as the triple and quad led's or do they create more of a beam?

 

[liftman]

I have been using a night rider for a few years now. It has been great. Easy to charge, dependable, etc... It doesn't have a real long battery life but I charge it about every third day for my 45 minute morning commute. Good luck.

 

[Martin318is]

Magicshine - they were amazingly cheap when they first hit Australia a few years ago but now they are creeping up into more 'normal' pricing. The problem with that is tha the quality is not equivalent to the more expensive offerings.

Have heard that you need to turn them off when stationary or they overheat. People have been seen with water inside their light units. Batteries are not always weather resistant (depends upon the model and supplier).

Their problem now is that for about $80 or so more in Australia you can get Ay-up lights. excellent lightweight dual head units with a huge collection of mounting options included in the basic price. Excellent customer support and good reputation.

The attitude with magicshine amongst the people I know is that you buy it knowing it will die and get a second one happily because its cheaper than niterider (for example).

 

[durianrider]

You can get magic shine delivered direct from Hong Kong for less than 80$ a set. They worked great till I burnt out the lamps from leaving them on whilst reading. They are light and cheap and of good quality for the money.

I have a Nite Flux P Mini at the moment. Its the lightest light on the market with that much power. Very 'SL'. Comes with a wireless remote for the bars that is so light you think that it wouldnt work but it does perfectly.

http://niteflux.com/Products_Pmini.aspx

If you can afford the best then the Nite Flux is worth the money. If your on a tight budget then the magicshine will suffice. Dont get sucked into paying 220$ for it though when its 80$ online delivered.

Its a bit like Shimano Sora does the job but why not have the best when you can get it? When it comes to lights, quality makes a difference for sure.

 

[dsut4392]

Has anyone had any experience with the lights made by Magicshine? I'm needing a new front light as my lupine is knackered. I cant afford another lupine at the moment and not that sure they are worth the money as I have had numerous problems with the one I have.
I came across magicshine while searching online but have never heard of them. The price for the specs obliterates anything else I have come across (1600 lumens x120mins rt for £129.95). OK I wouldn't expect super quality but for a 3rd of the price of a Lupine would it be worth taking a punt on?

http://www.magicshinebikelights.co.uk/index.php

Check out the literally hundreds of reviews on mtbr.com.

I don't own them, but ride with lots of people who do and who are happy with them. One friend has had a battery die a couple of weeks after riding in the rain, but have yet to see an on-the-trail failure (not properly sealed, water got in and corroded the protection circuitry, luckily an open short!). He still went on to buy a couple more units fwiw).

Don't buy from the UK, you can get them from Hong Kong for close to half the price(dealextreme.comis a site I have used and trust, though they can be slow delivering). There area number of different models, the one I would go for is the MJ 808E with Cree XML emitter.

For the price, you won't find anything with comparable brightness, though as others have mentioned the beam isn't great in terms of blinding oncoming road users.