How to shorten the wire of a Magic Shine or clone light
 

I have a Magic Shine clone that I have mounted on a K-edge garmin/gopro mount. I am mounting the Battery underneath my stem. I want to leave the light on the bike, but doing this would leave a very long cord. So I would like to remove a majority of the power cord from the light.

Has anyone ever done this? If so, would it be better to make the cut on the light side or the connector to the battery side of the cable that is attached to the light?

i know i can loop it up and zip tie it, but i was wanting a cleaner look.

thanks

I've struggled with the same challenge, but never did make the cut. If I were to shorten the wire, I would do it on the battery side and leave the one from the lamp as is.

The cable interference is the whole reason I bought the NiteRider OLED 600 when it was on sale at REI.

Shouldn't be a problem. I've replaced the wire on a light before. Just crack open the light, unsolder the power leads, chop the wire to desired length, resolder. 10 minute job. If you need a longer cable again, just solder on one of the extension cords with one end chopped off in place of the original/shortened cable.

This is cleaner than chopping the wire in the middle.

I've done it on both ends. It's all the same. Get some heat-shrink tubing at a minimum to seal it off. If you ride in a lot of rain, you might want to also pot it in silicone or something
edit:
ItsJustMe's answer is better--that will leave the waterproofing in a better state.

had a magicshine for almost a decade now? got it with the the extension wire. moved it from bike to bike over the years. various bikes have used different locations for the battery. as much as I'd like to do a custom install on 1 bike, it wouldn't make sense when moving it to another bike. so is a "clean" install worth any future limitations? for a long time while commuting I used an empty water bottle lined with bubble wrap and covered w 2 sandwich bags & rubber bands. got me thru rain storms & 1 whole winter. now it rides in my rear trunk front pocket. just wrap the wire around the top tube & tuck the rest in the pocket with the battery. if I want to use it with the head strap to work on the car, the battery can go in a coat pocket. maybe you can do a "clean" install while preserving the wire for future use elsewhere?

Just cut and splice, and you can put a toggle switch in while you're at it so that the button light doesn't drain the battery.

I loop the excess and hide it under the fabric flap on the battery pack.

wow, there's an idea!