Electronics, Lighting, & Gadgets - Has anyone tried the Magicshine 900 lumen?

MS light received today from Bfer that is selling for 90.00 shipped to US Customers.. He emailed me several times and sent tracking info.. Payment to delivery time was 3 days, very quick..

I received the 5 mode with longer cable.. This light also did not come with velcro strap, but a basic 12 inch pump strap works just fine... If someone is looking for 1 in stock, I would not hesitate to buy here.

http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=595093

The velco strap for battery mounting, or for mounting the light itself? The light mounts with one of the two included O rings. I recently acquired a unit from thesingletrackstore.com that came with no velcro for the battery pack mounting.

That expectation might have been an incorrect expectation on my part - it seems that you can open the battery pack case, wrap it around the top tube, and use a different velcro panel to hang it from the tube. I'm thinking I might want to do some waterproofing of the battery for that setup even if just a sandwich baggie twist-tied a couple of times around the incoming cable...

-brendan

I got my ship notice from Geoman on tues so they are going out now.

I paid for mine over week ago from Geomangear and haven't even gotten a shipping confirmation, only an automated response when I sent an email which says they are shipping as fast as possible (what does that mean?). I feel like I should of bought mine from the Ebay guy too. I only went with Geoman because of the past praise on this site.

10/28/09 GeoMan UPDATE: We have inventory in stock and we are shipping all orders NOW.

He's selling them as fast as he gets them in. And a LOT of people are ordering them. No need to be a total ass.

The battery pack that comes with this is so small it fits easily in my Jandd Stem Bag.. battery dimensions are 1.4" width & Height and 2.8" length I now see how the bag can velcro around the top tube.. I would still add an extra velcro strap for a little extra stability..

Another friend who ordered from Geoman received his today, so it seems they are going out..

I now see how the bag can velcro around the top tube.. I would still add an extra velcro strap for a little extra stability

The battery bag flap is intentionally made long to wrap a TT or stem. It fits snugly with velcro, no external strap is needed.

The 2 external plastic strap loops don't help at all, they get in the way - just cut them off.

Be sure to keep a fire extinguisher handy...

http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/dx-bastid-charger-catches-fire

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v413/spowell/DSC_1632.jpg

Hmm... UK 240v outlets... yeah.

Back from a night ride.. Fully Charged MS gave me 3:32 in High mode.. Pretty impressed..

Its hard to say enough nice things about this light. I've used it for a week now riding in light and heavy rain, under normal street lights as well as an unlit MUP and the light seems to stay dry and hold up well. I must say I almost never use high power because it seems like overkill. Maybe in a heavy rain it could be necessary, but otherwise low and medium seem adequate. I did actually have a jogger comment the other day that he thought I was a car. I am looking around for a suitable black strap to run through those 2 rings to keep things secure. Right now it is great, but I know from experience that velcro can lose its grip as it gets older.

Back from a night ride.. Fully Charged MS gave me 3:32 in High mode.. Pretty impressed..

I used mine with one battery/Y cable/two lampheads

Lasted 1:45 NIce!!!

The MS from Geoman arrived today. Imediately handed it to the wife to checkout, and as you can guess, she promptly pushed the green button as it was aimed 1 foot away from my eye. I wish I could see how good it works, but for now i seem to be partially blind. Wonderful! I'm happy to see it came with the short cable and extention. Just what I wanted~

I'm happy.......

The MS from Geoman arrived today. Imediately handed it to the wife to checkout, and as you can guess, she promptly pushed the green button as it was aimed 1 foot away from my eye. I wish I could see how good it works, but for now i seem to be partially blind. Wonderful! I'm happy to see it came with the short cable and extention. Just what I wanted~

I'm happy.......


+1 Mine arrived three day ago and accidently made myself blind:lol:. I am very happy about this purchase. The best bang for your buck:).

Had some time to play with it, and it is all the light I need for my after work evening rides around the hood.

Quick question about the start up behavior of the light. When I plug it in I get a quick flash then off mode.

But if I unplug it, then plug it back in within a few minutes it starts in high mode? If I wait longer than say 5 minutes before pluging it back in, it goes back to starting with a single flash then off mode again? Seems like a capacitor bleeding power off over time.

Is this normal? I always find dumb stuff like this when testing new electronics! ;) I just can't help myself......

Had some time to play with it, and it is all the light I need for my after work evening rides around the hood.

Quick question about the start up behavior of the light. When I plug it in I get a quick flash then off mode.

But if I unplug it, then plug it back in within a few minutes it starts in high mode? If I wait longer than say 5 minutes before pluging it back in, it goes back to starting with a single flash then off mode again? Seems like a capacitor bleeding power off over time.

Is this normal? I always find dumb stuff like this when testing new electronics! ;) I just can't help myself......

Mine acts the same... although you went a lot more in-depth testing it than I did! I just know that it's more light than I've ever had on a bike before. MUCH better than the Cygolite that I used to have... More light and double the runtime. (Actually... low is more light than the other light on high... and about three times the runtime of the other light on low!)

The MS from Geoman arrived today. Imediately handed it to the wife to checkout, and as you can guess, she promptly pushed the green button as it was aimed 1 foot away from my eye. I wish I could see how good it works, but for now i seem to be partially blind. Wonderful! I'm happy to see it came with the short cable and extention. Just what I wanted~

I'm happy.......

is it random that the kits come with the extra extension cable? or do all the kits come with one from geoman?

is it random that the kits come with the extra extension cable? or do all the kits come with one from geoman?

He told me in a recent email that they all have it now.

Hey folks

I know this has been answered but can't find it now.

a) Is there an idication that the battery power is getting low when riding. Does it go to a low power or just shuts off?

b) When hooked up to the charger what are the color indicators to know IT IS charging and when its done?

Thanks

Hey folks

I know this has been answered but can't find it now.

a) Is there an idication that the battery power is getting low when riding. Does it go to a low power or just shuts off?

b) When hooked up to the charger what are the color indicators to know IT IS charging and when its done?

Thanks

a) The small light on the back of the Magicshine is green when the battery is fully charged. It turns kind of orangeish as the charge starts getting low and then red when it needs recharging. However, I have found that the light will run on low power for a long time once the indicator light turns orange or red.

b) The light on the charger unit should be red when you plug it into the wall socket. When it is nearly charged, the indicator light turns orangeish. Then it turns green when fully charged. In order words, the same as the light itself.

I have one of the older ones (3 mode) and while it has a green/red low power indicator, it doesn't work on mine. It's almost always red, even after charging, but sometimes it turns green for no readily apparent reason.

I've got a couple more light heads coming that should be in the mail today; I'll ride with one of those next week and see if they act any differently.

Has anybody attempted to put a red lens on a Magicshine to use as a tail light?

How did it work out?

DPN

Hmm... UK 240v outlets... yeah.



I saw that too...

Has anyone had any transformer problems using 110V?

These are lithium ion batteries, right? Not lithium polymer?

I worry about transformer failures but I guess they must be pretty safe or we'd be hearing about fires every day...

Thanks,

DPN

Has anybody attempted to put a red lens on a Magicshine to use as a tail light?

How did it work out?

DPN

I believe that I read that someone had, but it would make more sense to use a red LED - just need someone to make one. Word is that Geoman is working with Magicshine (or some mfg) to produce a good taillight.

I reached the end of my return loop and I would guess close to the 3.5 hours on high. Did not notice any color than green. When I shut the light off and then turned it on again in doors , it went red. I'll keep my eyes on this so I can guesstimate when I should swap it to a lower power to leghten the run time.

Regarding the battery charger, I plugged it in about 2. 5 hours ago and still red. Charger is warm (NOT HOT), but battery is cool but is in the pouch.
I will guess this is normal and leave it for another 2 hours or so charging.

Got my MS light kit yesterday, and it was well worth the wait! Even after all these reviews I'm pretty surprised at how bright it is. I took it down a dirt road with no lights at all, and the MS was incredibly bright. In fact, if I'm not riding in complete and utter darkness I doubt if I'll use it on high mode. Medium or Low is sufficient and will give me a longer run time. On High, the center spot is very bright with a good amount of flood all around. On Medium and Low modes you lose the center spot intensity but the flood is almost the same brightness and very effective.

A big thanks to GeoMan, he was quick and curteous in his replies to all of my emails. Very happy with the light, lots of bang for your buck!

Ordered mine today, I have the Cygolite dualcross currently, and will take side by side photos to share here. I have no doubt the dualcross will not be as bright, as it's using two of the old cree emitters.

Joe

I reached the end of my return loop and I would guess close to the 3.5 hours on high. Did not notice any color than green. When I shut the light off and then turned it on again in doors , it went red. I'll keep my eyes on this so I can guesstimate when I should swap it to a lower power to leghten the run time.

Regarding the battery charger, I plugged it in about 2. 5 hours ago and still red. Charger is warm (NOT HOT), but battery is cool but is in the pouch.
I will guess this is normal and leave it for another 2 hours or so charging.

You must have been very close to the end of the runtime. I only got 3:10 out of my battery. When my low battery indicator does anything at all, it turns red at about 3:05, signifying that "unless you're real close to home, it's about to get really dark." I guess it would give me time to stop and put on a backup light, but that's about it.

It takes about 5 hours to fully charge the battery from fully discharged.

The back of my light turned red about 15 minutes before complete shutdown.. I may be possible that they are using better cells with the more current MS lights which is yielding better runtime.. I was surprised at getting 3:32 runtime with mine..

I may do a medium mode runtime test this weekend..

Mine arrived yesterday. Current mentioned configuration including the extension cable. The headlight cable on mine is 18" long and the battery pack cable is just a hair over 9". The extension cable is 40" so total available cable length is about 67". Lots of cable length for most mounting situations it appears.

Finally put one of mine on the bike tonight - what a royal PITA that was. Was trying to use the larger O-ring on a 31.8 bar. Try as I might, I couldn't get it to reach. First, I unscrewed the base so I could slip the O-ring into the front groove without the power cable interfering. Then I pulled until my finger(s) screamed to try to stretch the O-ring enough to reach the rear tab. Tried heating it, to no avail. Grabbed a small, smooth punch to have more leverage. Just about the point where I was ready to slip it on the rear tab, the O-ring broke.

Considering earlier (page 4) comments about how loose the O-ring mounting was, it makes me wonder if they started shipping smaller rings to tighten things up. I ended up threading a cable tie through the front tab and through the smaller O-Ring, then tightening the cable tie enough so that the O-ring would stretch to the rear tab and still keep the unit from slipping.

On the road, the light was much brighter than the Fenix L2D I took along. (Duh) But not as much as I exected looking at pictures posted here. On the "bright" side, there was more spill light than I imagined from the pics so I was pleased with the overall pattern.

I used the Fenix strobe at dusk, and then swtiched to the MS at dark. Once I knew both lighs would last until I got home, I used both. The Fenix did a nice job filling in the close foreground.

If the battery life in the cold (when I use lights the most) is what others have experienced, the light will be just about perfect!

I have 31.8 bars on my roadie and had no problems with the larger O ring.. When attaching, try rotating the light upwards 90 degrees to attach O ring and once attached, rotate the light back down to the proper level.. I think I am used to this because the Trinewt I had required you to stretch the attachment a lot to hook on..

This light reallllllllly needs a mount that lets you swivel it.

<drunk post>

Ok, so I went to a poker game tonight. It was 5 miles away, so it was a good time to test out the new MS light. Can't say how much I am pleased with it...very good lighting all the way. Mostly street light lit roads on my route, but there was a mile or so of complete darkness where this light really shines (like in a magical way!). Even after a few pints the ride home felt a LOT safer as I could actually see where I was going. For less than $100 shipped, this is a pretty damn good light.

BTW, why does it feel like I'm going 25mph in the dark and I'm only going 18?

</drunk post>

Finally put one of mine on the bike tonight - what a royal PITA that was.

I have 31.8 bars and found this method is easy and works well for attaching the o-ring mount.

After attaching the first side of the o-ring to the lamp (under the cable), then set the lamp head on the top of the HB with the lense pointing slightly down.

Pull the loose end of the o-ring under the hb and up the back side of the bar-no stretching is necc. at this point. Hold it there with your thumb.

Then tilt the lamp head back to the loose end of the o-ring (that you are holding with your thumb) using the lamp head and bracket as your fulcrum and lever (instead of yanking on the o-ring). Then slip loose end of o-ring over hook on bracket

^^ Nice tip. I'm game. Anyone know how big the big O-ring is that I broke and threw away? :-)

My MagicShine arrived last week and it was worth the wait! Very bright! Had no trouble getting it mounted on the bar, and I put the battery in a top tube bag (see photo) that I got from REI. Usually carry my digital camera there, but it's perfect for the battery.

The only odd thing I noticed about the light is the SOS mode flashes in 3 short, *4* long, and 3 short. The engineers threw in an extra dash! S-M-M-S? S-O-T-S? Wild!

The only odd thing I noticed about the light is the SOS mode flashes in 3 short, *4* long, and 3 short. The engineers threw in an extra dash! S-M-M-S? S-O-T-S? Wild!
I's a good thing that all the international bodies have retired Morse code, then! Mine does it too, but I don't care. I give the MS a 9 out of 10. Love being finally able to see!

I's a good thing that all the international bodies have retired Morse code, then! Morse code is hardly retired. It's a niche thing now, granted, but it's still used, and I do believe that the higher level radio licenses (I'm not talking about ham radio -- I'm talking about the commercial ones) still require some proficiency in it.

Still, if they got it wrong -- dit dit dit dah dah dah dah dit dit dit -- that would be pretty funny. Not that I understand the purpose of a SOS mode in the first place on a bike light. I'd prefer a faster flash mode, or just get rid of that mode entirely myself.

Seems to me I also remember the announcement a few years back that Morse Code was no longer required for, say, maritime communications. Just another statement that anyone having that knowledge is also officially less required than before. Still know how to ride a bicycle, though.

I'm waiting for a light that has a CB radio built in!

I received my light last week, it is excellent.

Morse code is hardly retired. It's a niche thing now, granted, but it's still used, and I do believe that the higher level radio licenses (I'm not talking about ham radio -- I'm talking about the commercial ones) still require some proficiency in it.

Still, if they got it wrong -- dit dit dit dah dah dah dah dit dit dit -- that would be pretty funny. Not that I understand the purpose of a SOS mode in the first place on a bike light. I'd prefer a faster flash mode, or just get rid of that mode entirely myself.

I agree with you about flashing headlights. There is little to justify them. Just because LEDs are easy to flash doesn't mean it's appropriate for a bike headlight. Flashing headlights are only the result of those marketing LEDs wanting to put another "feature" on the box. The SOS flashing is just an unnecessary marketing tool. The fact they got it wrong just demonstrates how little they care about it.

I disagree about flashing. I think a flash is useful for the purpose of being seen...at least that's been my experience when driving a car & interacting with cyclists. That said, I usually use flashlights (MS should come today) that don't strobe/blink and in any situation where I would actually be using the light (ie, when it's actually dark), the blinking would drive me crazy. I'm fine with incorrect syntax for SOS for the record.

I understand your thought that flashing headlights will get drivers' attention. I suggest it works that way too good. Flashing white headlights demand drivers' attention, selfishly taking it away from everything else in their field of view. That makes a distracted driver, which is unsafe for everyone else on the road at the time, including cyclists who happen to be in the lane with them then.

Flashing white lights, especially very bright white lights like the Magicshine, should be reserved for emergency vehicles only. That's obviously my opinion.

I agree there. I think the very small, Knog/Frog/??? type lights I see, predominantly aimed clearly downward do the task appropriately catching my eye as a driver while not diverting my attention (or blinding me) inappropriately. Sorry, I didn't clarify that & in truth my comments are off-topic anyway.

The very powerful LEDs, like that in the Magicshine, being put into the bike headlight application change many things about it, especially at a price point that puts them in many many hands. Beliefs that drivers really don't see cyclists and that bike lights are too dim to cause temporary blindness are rapidly being made obsolete. Again, my opinion.

I noticed a few weeks ago while using my Taskforce flashlight riding at night that my bike got the attention of divers...or, rather, as I approached intersections, I was clearly getting the same sort of regard as I would riding my motorcycle. In other words, the fact there was a pretty bright light (not shining in anyone's eyes!) visibly caused the driver to make notice & respond accordingly.

Hey, when will we start having fog light sets for bikes? this could get high tech & crazy...fast :)

Flashing lights mean "bicycle." That's one reason to put a blinkie out front.

Not saying a 600-lumen eye-crusher, but something.

Something red blinking away out back -- it telegraphs to drivers what you are.

That's a good thing.

Blinking red on the taillight I totally support! Flashing lights in front has always meant "emergency" untill LED bike headlight marketers started adding it as a "feature". This Magicshine headlight, as good and bright as it is, certainly doesn't need to strobe to be seen by drivers.

Blinking red on the taillight I totally support! Flashing lights in front has always meant "emergency" untill LED bike headlight marketers started adding it as a "feature". This Magicshine headlight, as good and bright as it is, certainly doesn't need to strobe to be seen by drivers.

Oh dude, that's not for being seen...that's for the breakdance session on social bike ride night!

Blinking red on the taillight I totally support! Flashing lights in front has always meant "emergency" untill LED bike headlight marketers started adding it as a "feature". This Magicshine headlight, as good and bright as it is, certainly doesn't need to strobe to be seen by drivers.

That's it. I'm ordering a second MagicShine and I'm going to start wearing my helmet.

The second MagicShine will always be on 'Seizure Mode' and will be mounted solidly on my helmet.

I only use flashing fronts in the daylight. The Magicshine I would only use in adverse conditions, like heavy fog or rain where I wouldn't be confident that drivers could see the light and recognize it as a moving vehicle without the strobe.