magicshine light

mcowan77

thinking of buying one of these for front of my new road bike.

50-70 % of commute is via unlit cycle paths and back roads late at night/early morning

thoughts please????

thistle_

I have one, although I tend to use it in combination with an Exposure Joystick.

The combination is fine for riding on unlit country roads at night. I think you will be fine with just the Magicshine. The beam spread is quite wide on mine which is perfect for floodlighting tarmac. Excellent bit of kit considering the price.

Are you going for handlebar or helmet mount? With handlebar mount if you turn you can't see ahead, but with helmet if you look away oncoming cars won't see you

niblue

I've got one I use for mountain bike riding and think it'd be a good choice for unlit road commuting.

cat_with_no_tail

I used one of mine (bar mounted) all through winter on the commuter. Works well on low power, then whack it up to full beam on those unlit country roads.
Remember to angle the main part of the beam quite low though. Too high and you'll be dazzling oncoming drivers, which is not a great idea.

vitesse169

I've had one for a few months now, it's great. I commute on the A38 south from Gloucester on a late shift at midnight - if there's no moonlight I put it on max and it lights up the road like day. Best £48 I ever spent....

essex-commuter

Yep, top bit of kit for money. 10 miles of my commute is country lanes and I leave at 5.45am every morning....it's dark in Winter....unless I Magicshine

mcowan77

where did you get yours from??

wots best,handlebar or helmet????

cheers

essex-commuter

Got mine from Dealextreme, wish I hadn't...took forever. Geomangear are brilliant, excellent customer services and genuinely nice guys. I've seen various sellers on eBay but cannot vouch for these.

My commute changes next month, no more country lanes. Am going to sell the Magicshine and use a smaller helmet mounted unit instead. PM if your interested in purchasing.

ince

I got mine from Geomangear too. Little more to buy from that Dealextream but after I read the reviews floating around the net I opted for Geo.

Great light, I have around 6 mile on unlit roads. I have other riders stop me and ask what it was and where to get one from.

gabriel959

I would get a back up light in any case if that one goes or the battery suddenly dies.

cat_with_no_tail

Bought both mine from Dealextreme never had any problems. Sure, it takes a couple of weeks to arrive, but it's coming from the other side of the world.

Of course, if you want it NOW, pay the premium and get it from a UK seller.

As for mounts, Bar mount next to the stem FTW, helmet mount is too easy to dazzle oncoming traffic.

mcowan77

cheers for the replies folks

fury21

Good grief, I hadn't seen the 1400 lumen version :shock:

http://www.geomangear.com/index.php?mai ... cts_id=161

supersonic

It won't be 1400 lumens. Not by a long shot.

cee

supersonic wrote:

It won't be 1400 lumens. Not by a long shot.

and i dont want mickey mouse strapped to the front of my bars.

supersonic

Hehe, it does look a bit comical.

benno68

I had the 900 lumen version which was great...for 4 months and then it died! Ended up buying a rechargable light from my LBS, twice the price but with a one year warranty.

Has anyone checked the charger unit of the Magicshine? I'm sure if used to receive current from the battery as the "on charge" light went on before plugging it into the wall socket, I found that a bit worrying.

I wouldn't buy one again.

cee

Benno68 wrote:

I had the 900 lumen version which was great...for 4 months and then it died! Ended up buying a rechargable light from my LBS, twice the price but with a one year warranty.

Has anyone checked the charger unit of the Magicshine? I'm sure if used to receive current from the battery as the "on charge" light went on before plugging it into the wall socket, I found that a bit worrying.

I wouldn't buy one again.

unlucky maybe..

i got mine at the start of the dark season last year....and its still going strong after using it for commuting to work all winter, plus 2 full battery charges and discharges for night and weekend rides per week.....

that light just shows a connection. nothing to be concerned about.

Runoutofgears

I've used mine since September last year up until about a month ago and it's working fine. I will discharge it and charge it fully a few times over the summer as I sense leaving it for 6 months and then expecting the battery to be A OK might be putting too much faith in my £50 bargin!

One area of concern and therefore requiring extra care is the power connection between the battery and the light which needs to be handled without stressing the cables too much.

I also found a very good mod on the mtb forum using a £4 electron light mount for the fixing braket and posted my handie work on this forum a while ago. Excellent value IMO

benno68

cee wrote:

Benno68 wrote:

I had the 900 lumen version which was great...for 4 months and then it died! Ended up buying a rechargable light from my LBS, twice the price but with a one year warranty.

Has anyone checked the charger unit of the Magicshine? I'm sure if used to receive current from the battery as the "on charge" light went on before plugging it into the wall socket, I found that a bit worrying.

I wouldn't buy one again.

unlucky maybe..

i got mine at the start of the dark season last year....and its still going strong after using it for commuting to work all winter, plus 2 full battery charges and discharges for night and weekend rides per week.....

that light just shows a connection. nothing to be concerned about.

Maybe - but there are a few other forum members who've had problems too:

http://www.bikeradar.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=16013882

cat_with_no_tail

Sure, there are people who have had problems, I'm one of them, my 1st magicshine died on me after about 7 months regular use. Emailed them, sent then a picture of it not working (like they asked) and then sent it back. Cost me about a fiver to send it back and I was without lights for about 4 weeks but the replacement arrived and is working fine.

Some people have a bltch about them, but they are mostly the ones who are trying to justify why they spent 6 times more for a less powerful light.

At £50, you've got to expect Quality control to be a little suspect on some of them, but if something does go wrong, they DO fix it without any hassle.

It's the exact same story with the MD80 cameras.