mornview

Just wondering if anyone can verify how waterproof the Magicshine and/or some of it's other clones available on Amazon are. My wife is taking a night job that will require her to travel some really dark country roads, so we need to massively step up the amount of lumens in her bike light. If it would be possible to do so for under $100, all the better. But we're in a rainy season right now, and snow is coming up next, so I'd like to know that her light will be able to brave the elements.

Thanks!

beatlebee 

I have had no problems with rain, though to be sure my ride sees rain only a few times a year. I have a magic shine from years ago now that is still going strong and I recently bought the rear blinky which is excellent. I really think the MS is great bang for your buck. Plenty bright as well.

ItsJustMe

The lights are fine. It's the batteries you need to worry about.

I ride pitch black country roads all winter for 7+ years now. My favorite light so far is one of the $25 MagicShine clones from eBay (or Amazon) - the one with the shiny (not orange skin) reflector, that makes it very spotty, then put on a "magicshine wide angle lens" to flatten and spread the beam out over the whole lane. This is close to ideal for about $40 or less.

Stick an Axiom Pulse 60 taillight from Performance Bike on the back and you're all set.

I'm currently experimenting with an Ixon Core IQ, but IMO the light from it is merely "adequate". It makes me wonder about Peter White's opinions since he considers this a "very bright headlight." It's just OK. I'm using it because I really do want a full cutoff light, and it's kind of OK, but I'm finding that I'm hitting a HELL of a lot more bad spots in the road than I did when I was running a Magicshine. I'll probably wind up selling it soon.

chewa

I have the copy of the Magicshine MJ808 and use the beam diffuser too. I tend to have the battery in my saddle bag or pannier, but my wife tends to have hers in her bottle cage. She has her battery in a ziplock bag and it works ok.

It rains a bit here in Scotland (really!) and no problems, the lights seem well sealed as does the power connector.

John

mornview

Thanks for the info, guys. Any chance you could link me to the Magicshine clones you're using (there are so many out there). I'm more than willing to pay for a Magicshine, but if I can get that quality at half the price I'm going for it.

ItsJustMe

I don't think you can really get a reliable recommendation among the clones. They just change so fast.

That said, this one looks like about what I got,
New 2000 Lumen CREE XM L T6 LED Headlight Headlamp Bicycle Bike Light Head Lamp | eBay

Just look for one with a shiny smooth reflector, then fit one of these lenses to it:
Wide Angle Lens for MagicShine 808 All Ver CREE XML T6 Single LED Bike Lights | eBay

Note that battery pack is not waterproof. It's easy enough to fix, just put the bag on the top bar with the opening facing back, put a bag around the battery, gather around the wire and affix with a rubber band, put it in the bag with the wire at the top on the pack, pulled down to exit the bag at the bottom of the opening so the water won't run back along the wire.

Or stick it in a peanut butter jar in a bottle cage, or something like that.

chewa

That's exactly the one I got (I bought one each for me and the Mrs) but I got mine on UK ebay. They were £16 each. Bargain. The way I looked at it, if I even got one winter out of them it would still be good value, but second winter now and still going strong. Make sure to get the 4 battery pack.

mornview

Yeah, I've observed that these knock-offs seem to come and go remarkably fast; it had me questioning their quality, but you guys seem to be faring alright.

Any chance you could link me to the battery pack? What is the advantage over the stock battery pack?

Thanks again!

chewa

Just checkon the listing on ebay or Amazon. Some have a 2 battery pack, some 4

ItsJustMe

I've bought a couple of these lights. I've had wires break on me and have replaced them by soldering on new wires, cheaply and easily done by buying the extension cables and just hacking one end off. If I'm careful, a wire will last a couple of years, and replacing the wire costs maybe $4