I went with the Cygolite Milion 200. It cost a bit more than the magic shine and its not as bright, only 200 lumens. But I like how its one enclosed unit and is much easier to move from one bike to another.
http://media.rei.com/media/cc/404e9e...4920f995d3.jpg

Hub mounted Dynamo and an LED headlight,, battery life is always limited ,
amp/hours and charge cycles until no longer taking a charge
with a generator in the front wheel hub you will always have light.

I have not had such bad luck and have had mine for 2 years now with no issues. The price of the flash light itself has fallen and with the mount, batteries, and charger, I could always just get a new light if it failed. I also have never had the light turn off while going over a bump. It seems robust to me, I've dropped it a few times and it still works.

I have two MTE P7's from DealExtreme and two of these mounts from them as well. Pretty rock solid combo in my experience. I rarely have the two mode P7's cycle if I hit a bump as much as the 5 mode ones did. If I were to hazard a guess about run time I would say it was about an hour or so on high.

http://trailled.com/

Made right there there in Plano with you, Custermustache. I run the 500L model for commute, mountain biking and touring.

I love my Magicshine, I recently had to change the connectors for it.
Having said that, I would like to get a dynamo LED light to run as a back up or when I am going to be riding longer than my battery allows for.

Interesting, that's also my exact setup. I will say that the flashlight has given me a little trouble; the switch got a bit loose and I had to use a pin spanner to tighten it. When it was loose it was cutting out when I hit bumps.

The other issue for the OP to realize is that the runtime on a flashlight will mean that with a 30 mile run, he is going to have to stop and change batteries at least once every ride even in medium brightness mode. With the MagicShine you will easily be able to go the whole ride, maybe even two days (especially if you can do the route on medium mode), on a charge.

It's only an hour one way, so the tactical seems like a good start - though I like the idea of buying one made here in Plano.

OH, sorry, I read that as 30 miles one way, not round trip. Yeah, I'd go for the flashlight.

I bought the MagicShine before I'd tried a flashlight. Now that I have it it's nice to have, but if I lost everything and started over, I'd just go for the flashlight.

Actually I'd probably go for two, one in the bag, just because I think it's always necessary to have at least some backup lighting. Maybe if I couldn't afford it right away I'd hold off, but eventually I'd pick up a spare.

However, I do believe in a really damned powerful taillight. I have a Dinotte now, but for the price of that I could get the Magicshine head AND tail light. It's possible that a Radbot would keep me happy though, they look impressive but I haven't tried one yet.

I must have jinxed myself.

Friday on the way to work the screw that keeps the bracket attached to the light head came loose and the light fell off. Luckily it didn't get down in the wheel and I was able to stop and remove it. It worked fine on the way home. Today, the battery died. It refuses to hold a charge. Sigh.

Note that MagicShine has a new light out. Looks like the same head, basically, but a new battery with a built in voltmeter / gauge and looks totally waterproof (enclosed in a solid plastic case)

My Tactical doubles as an EDC and bike light, it's built tough, waterproof, and stays on without flickering or changing modes over bumps-

Run-time on Turbo (max~200+ lumens) on re-chargeable batteries is over an hour-

I use the Blaze primarily to be-seen and strobe, and to save the battery charge on the Tactical for when I really need it-

http://i390.photobucket.com/albums/o...ba9191/pb1.jpg

I have had good luck with the mi-newt mini. Li-ion and very light weight. They are about $ 80 each and I have one on the bars and one on the helmet.

Good points, but it only takes a few seconds to swap out a battery. I still think that in the end the best bang for the buck is the P7...because it can also be used for its intended purpose...as a flashlight. ;)

Better yet, get both, like us. :D

It is quick, but it's a pain in the ass to change a battery when you can't see your hand in front of your face. I guess if you added a small helmet light to the mix that you could flip on to see what you were doing, it wouldn't be bad.

Holy crap, I knew that state up north was hell, but I didn't know it was that darned dark! :eek:

I have a P7 light, and while it's bright as heck, I don't like it on the bike at all. It's a big, chunky flashlight, and mine tends to bounce around a fair amount because of its size. It also suffers from occasional spontaneous mode-changing on the bumps, which is problematic as well. I likely may have gotten a not-so-good one from DX, but the quality control there is really spotty, especially for long-term use items subjected to elements and conditions.

My Fenix and Terralux LEDs have been bulletproof though and have been my go-to lights for 2 years now. Cheap, light, the FASTEST on/off your bike you can get, and you can easily carry backups.

I'll likely upgradeto the MS soon, but even then, I will continue carrying and likely using the Fenix as a backup or helmet-mount because it's so good.

I was looking for a similar setup recently, as I have to ride about 14 miles on city streets that are pretty dark in places at night. After reading for a while on here, I pulled the trigger on a Magicshine 900 from Geoman. I'm probably going to pick up one of those tactical flashlights as backup for when I need to change a tire or perform any other type of maintenance, as well as have a backup.

I know they are more expensive but I really like my Light & Motion Stella 120. Very small, battery straps to my stem and light has a quick strap for around the bar. Plenty bright for pitch black country roads and the flash mode grabs your attention in town.

Was at Target yesterday and found this and others like it. Hadn't seen those before at Target. Not nearly as cheap as DX, but maybe of better quality (????)

I have a Stella 180 - the Magicshine is much brighter, even on medium.

Here is my DX setup, my commute is an hour and 15 min without a battery change although I do carry charged spares.
Never had a problem with it changing modes on its own .



http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.12060
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.5790
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.1251
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.15342
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.35036

Good as the MS is, using it with a helmet mounted light makes it even better. I use a Terralux on the helmet on high, the MS on the bar on medium, and the L2D on the bars either on turbo or strobe. The 2 on the bars give me a wider illuminated area, and when I use the L2D on strobe with the MS it attracts enough attention that people have actually stopped while trying to figure out what they looking at.

Cygolite Expilion 250, no external battery back, long battery run time, 250 lumens...very bright, 130 grams, self contained rechargeable LiIon battery. I have one and it's the best lights I could have purchased for $119 at Harris Cyclery. This replaces the cheaply made Magicshine that broke about 8 months when the switch failed and the company would do nothing about it, and I know others who had problems with theirs.

Has anyone tried the new Light & Motion Stella 300? It's quite a bit more expensive than Magicshine and other options, but L&M stuff is very high quality and I like the simplicity of the Stella lights. I've got a Magicshine but never use on the highest setting, so I'm figuring the Stella 300 on high would be about the same as the MS on medium.