ItsJustMe

Depends on how you treat your equipment. Mine is still fine. One place in the wire is a little frayed but still working fine. 7 months and about 2000 miles (one season). I'll be taking it off for the summer in a week or so.

It's a way better light than the two DIYs I had before, and it cost less than the HID for sure. More than the halogen, but also a ton brighter, better and lighter.

I know people who are very hard on equipment and break stuff easily; if you're one of them, I'd say yes, the Magicshine isn't for you.

Even if it isn't a good PACKAGE, the lighthead is pretty solid. You can buy just that then outfit it with whatever power source works for you.

If nothing else, what MS has shown is that there's way, way too much markup on name brand lights. It's a clone of the Lupine Tesla, which costs $400. Sure it costs more to make things more durable, but all the Lupine has going for it is a better charger, better wires and connectors, probably a better controller board and a plastic box for the battery. It uses the same LED, and a pretty much identical housing. That stuff should cost about $50, making the light cost perhaps $150, not $400+. There's clearly a ton of price inflation going on somewhere.

Now, all that said, personally at this point I'd recommend P7 flashlights, one of the decent ones like the MTE. They're simple, more durable than ANY light that uses wires, and are totally waterproof. I'd buy and mount two of them. I don't think ANY light is totally reliable and I'd always recommend riding with a backup. For $85 or so you can get TWO MTE P7 flashlights, chargers and spare batteries. Yes, they fail from time to time, but you could buy a new one every year for 5 years and still not add up to the price of an equivalently bright name brand light. And that way you'd be getting a technology upgrade every year.

darkadious

my list is romisen rc-n3, mte p7, or magicshine - well i guess you could add the newer magicshine to the end.

i don't really see a point in getting other lights in between in terms of bang for your buck.

dwilbur3

+1
I've been using an Aurora 2 mode p7 for 15 months now with no issues. My commute is only 45 minutes so the Magicshine just isn't necessary for me.

I'll just use my p7 until it wears out. At that time I'll either buy another one or buy the new improved equivalent. LED technology is moving pretty fast right now. Why spend $500 on something that will be obsolete in a year or so?