fiataccompli

Excellent news....I'm no lumen expert, so my Taskforce Cree light is my own pseudo-scientific benchmark. I need one of these things!

keesue

Mine seems to be working fine. When I plugged it in after a charge, the light came on for 2 seconds on high then returned to standby with the LED lit in the back. All modes work fine. I compared it to several other lights on friends bikes and it is far superior. The cost per Lumen is very favorable and clinches the deal.

Cornflakes

Thanks for checking it out. I got my light in the mail about 1:30 pm EDT to GeoMan, and by the time I got home from work, 5:00 pm ish, I had an email stating that the replacement light was on the way with the standard 2 day delivery. Even with this minor hiccup, I will have the replacement before the original expected Oct. 6th delivery date.

The light is crazy bright, just the thing I have been looking for at a price that I can afford ( or at least willing to pay). This coming weekend, I will be doing some midnight mountain biking to put the light thru its paces. I don't foresee any problems.I will be ordering another one after I return from my little round trip up the C&O canal.

OBXCycling.com

I've had mine for a few days now and the only issue I have is that my wireless Blackburn computer goes haywire if the light is too close (within 5-6 inches) I spread them apart and all is well.
119mph looks awesome but isn't quite accurate.....especially when I was standing still.

kudude

this is a pretty well known issue with nearly all wireless computers coupled with just about any light that isn't AA powered

specq

Yeah - it also makes my HRM read 0, so I have the choice of either seeing or monitoring my HR (a fairly easy choice to make). This wasn't an issue with the Dinotte 200-L, but all in all, a pretty minor complaint.

Other than that, this thing is great.

kudude

Ok, just got back from my first real night ride with this light. I had it mounted on my helmet w/o the mount -- just looped the ring through. 20 miles, 1;15 of riding with some climbing and descending.

Felt comfortable going 35 on the downhill on an unlit street, hit 47 on the street with lamps. Did most of the ride with the light on medium, and it was still TONS brighter than the two 15W niterider halogens I was riding with at about 1/8th the size. With the light on high it was like a headlight.

I'm sold on this light

tarwheel 

Well that explains why my wireless computer went haywire this morning. I couldn't understand why it was showing my speed at over 100 mph all of the sudden! Funny, I didn't have the problem until this morning even though I have been using the light for 3+ weeks. Perhaps I'll need to find a new spot to mount the light, although I prefer the handlebar.

kudude

I know the handlebar is convenient. You can put it there and leave it, but give the helmet a try. If you're wearing a cycling jersey you can just drop the battery in the pocket. The o-ring goes through a center section of my helmet, and I use one of those velco straps to route the cable straight back.

seeker333

My Cateye Strada wireless seemed to work fine the last 2 rides since mounting on stem within 6" of MS.

The MS charger creates a helluva lot of EM noise in the FM radio band. Can't run radio and charger at same time, from same 120vac circuit. I've had similar experience with most other NiMH and Li chargers, but MS is worse.

ericy

How do you know how fast you are going? And by this I mean that when I ride at night, I can't see my computer display at all, but this is probably because I went for a handlebar mounting for my light, so the computer is in the dark.

Not that I need the computer all that badly, and it is more out of curiosity than anything else that I would want to know how fast I am going .

kudude

I have a $12 wired computer and my light is on my helmet. I HIGHLY recommend the light on helmet. You can look around corners, look over at deer, look away from (or if the circumstance seems to require it, RIGHT AT) drivers.

This light is light enough (hehe) that it's not a big deal to have it on the helmet.

operator

The only thing i'd really like for this light to have especially since it's so bright is a swivel mount.

RapidRobert

I recommend against mounting a headlight on your helmet, when riding on the street. Consider the driver's eyes. You look at anything and it gets your full brights right in the face. Drivers and other cyclists comming toward you are going to be temporarily blinded in their center of vision. Not safest for anyone else on the road. Another diriver pissed off at those bike riders, everyone lumped together.

Also, bike headlights are very small sources compared to most other headlights. That makes a smaller image on the retinas, increasing the energy density there and increasing the localized spot blindness. Yeah, you want drivers to see you, but do you want to distract and disable them temporarily? What about a cyclist in their lane? think they want a temporarily dazzled driver comming up behind them?

I had to offer up a counter to the recommendation for head mounted bike headlights, and hope any more discussion about it will go into A&S. Same with the issue of helmet mounted anything increasing the chances of snagging on branches, or increasing the chances of rotational injuries caused by the helmet in many crashes, or greatly increasing the localized forces in cases of a direct hit there (wonder what helmet makers say about helmet mounted accessories?), and on and on ........

Cyclist0383

My real life experience is the opposite. I've had high beams flashed at me once while using a helmet mounted headlight, and countless thumbs up from drivers who actually liked the light. FWIW my light is aimed at the road, not car windshields.

ItsJustMe

I tried a light on my helmet, and it was disastrous. A big chunk of my ride is over pretty rough gravel road, and I have to weave all over the place to avoid not only holes but washboarded sections of road. The washboard can be worse than holes, but you can't see it at all with a light mounted near your eyes. In fact I'm thinking about building a new mount for the light down really low, just over the wheel, to increase road contrast a bit.

jsharr

I keep my P7 on the bars in a lock block and use another lockblock to mount a small 150ish lumen flashlight to my helmet. Allows me to see computer, shine light into corners, direct a beam at a driver on a side street without blinding them, etc.

I like having a fixed and a moving light source.

ModoVincere

+1

I don't use anywhere near that kind of firepower, as my handlebar mounted light is about 200 lumens, and the helmet light is a little led blinkie, but it works fine for my needs. Being able to shine a light at drivers is very handy. Being able to see the computer is nice, not a necessity, but nice.

kudude

I think this is ideal. Everyone has their specific application and one solution for one isn't a solution for all. In my case I don't worry about washboard sections of the road b/c I ride at night on roads I know like the back of my hand. I like have the ability to aim the beam to deal with curves, animals, drivers, etc. Also, my eyes pivot inside their sockets, so my automatic reaction is to NOT shine the beam at the driver's eyes.

ItsJustMe

If they're roads that CAN washboard (gravel) you've got a lot better memory than I have. I ride 4 miles of gravel each way, and there are hundreds of holes and a dozen washboarded sections that are all over the road in every 50 foot section. And they change from day to day. Even if they didn't change, personally I don't think I could keep track of a hundred thousand holes and a thousand washboarded areas.

kudude

They aren't. Like I said, we all have different applications.

RapidRobert

Good compromise. My recommendation was based on the topic of this thread being the new, cheap higher powered LED headlights that are going to be on the market very soon, with this Magicshine unit being only the first. You won't believe how bright very tiny headlights are going to get!

Laser pointers can now be bought with powers of hundreds of milliwatts. That's dangerous light power, enough to burn your face, not just blind you before you can blink. With batteries, they're the size of a small flashlight now. They are sold, played with by those with absolutely NO training or experience with lasers, and going to be a huge problem when some little white girl gets it and we then have a law named after her for everyone, everywhere and always.

Same with these LED headlights. The energy density goes up FAST when that much light is emitted by such a small source. That light will hurt to look at it, even from a distance. Don't take light for granted. My recommendation is for the future (beginning now), as the power of very small and cheap LEDs is skyrocketing. 150 lumens on your head might not be a problem, but 1500 lumens will be! There's good reason it's against the law to not dim your brights for oncomming traffic.

OBXCycling.com

[quote=RapidRobert;9770397]I recommend against mounting a headlight on your helmet, when riding on the street. Consider the driver's eyes. You look at anything and it gets your full brights right in the face. Drivers and other cyclists comming toward you are going to be temporarily blinded in their center of vision. Not safest for anyone else on the road. Another diriver pissed off at those bike riders, everyone lumped together.
[\QUOTE]

I think that would really depend on where on your helmet you mounted it and how upright you sit. An upright commuter would be much more likely to blind oncoming traffic than a tucked roadie. I have no idea what the MS looks like coming towards me, but I do know drivers see it and lower their high beams. If it were too bright/in their eyes they would flash them instead. Also a helmet mount lets you aim the light wherever you want.
The only real problem with a helmet mount is when your in a pace line and someone ahead of you wearing one turns their head sharply...it looks like they are going down if your not used to it.

Not the Slowest

There is ALWAYS the probability of blinding someone with most bike lights.
If oncoming cyclists coming towards you at night in darkness suddenly turn their lights on, YOU WILL BE BLINDED.
If I am riding with friends at night or a well lit area , I turn my light to low or point down a bit so not to blind someone who may turn around to talk to me. Better than riding 2 across.

Same goes for helmets.

My opinion is that light overkill does not mean you will be safer, but it could help.
Remember, most people are NOT looking out for cyclists or for that matter paying attention when they are in the road driving, walking or sometimes cycling.

agarose2000

I'd love to test one of these MagicShines, but I suspect if you're using them for on-road commuting, the firepower of the HI is way overkill and blinding if you're in traffic'd areas.

I use 200 lumen FENIX-style AA flashlights and I feel like these are near-ideal for brightness in urban commuting situations. With one on bars and one on head, I can definitely go 20mph no problem - I'll never exceed that anyway in true urban commuting with cars around. I would feel very uncomfortable with a light 3x more powerful than what I'm wielding already.

For mtn biking or suburban/country roads, though, I'd love to go MagicBeam, and likely will in the near future.