10 Wheels, great example! It looks like you used a short piece of 1" PVC conduit and ziptied it to your trunk bag. That's exactly why I'm a big fan of the DiNotte/MS mounting system. If you have a little bit of conduit, mounting options are only limited by your creativity.

I have mounted the conduit under the rack on the rear-most stays. That seems to work very well....

I only have the one Dinotte.
I move it from one bike to the other.
I like it high, Eye Level for cars behind the bike.

For the price it looks like a winner to me - even if people make good arguments that the Dinotte lights are better.

I've been looking at more beefy tail lights and will keep this baby in mind. By the time next winter comes around I'm hoping that there will be a few more reports on these to help me confirm my decision.

Many thanks to all who have reported their experience. It really helps give the rest of us an idea of what to expect before laying out the cash.

Now I would like to beg someone with the magicshine and the PBSF or Dinotte to shoot some vid with them side by side so we can all see how much of a difference there is. Or if someone has a link . . .

I'd like to see the Radbot 1000 in that comparison.

I have the Radbot 1000, PBSF and the MS tail light, but not the Dinotte. I will try to get a video. The Radbot is in the middle of the three brightness wise, and clearly not as bright as the MS light. Judging by the way the MS is lighting up the backs of street signs in my mirror, it is much, much brighter, much further down the road. Not very scientific I know, but it's an observation that we can all relate to.
Has anyone else had their MS tail light switch modes on them as they ride? I've used mine the past two days and I noticed it would switch between the two flashing modes periodically. I figure it's just that the bezel is moving with the vibration.

The Dinotte also lights up signs behind; I can see signs that are 1/4 mile behind me flashing clearly.

The Dinotte won't change modes randomly because it requires a positive button press. Flashlights change modes randomly because they rely on the power being interrupted to change modes. With the Dinotte you can disconnect the battery for a week and connect it back up, and it'll be in the same mode you left it in, on or off, so even if the battery connection gets broken due to bumps or whatever, when it reconnects it'll start doing whatever it was doing before.

Where's that thread about the definition of a Fred? ;)

^^ 10 Wheels rode just under 16,000 miles last year. You?

Just got my MS tail light today. I made a crude not so good video. In the video the red light at the top is my 1/2 watt PB superflash on my helmet and the MS tail light is at the lower one which is on below my seat. I also mounted the battery inside a plastic container zip tied to the back of the rack below the seat as the attached picture show. Here is the video. It seem to be brighter than the superflash but hard to tell in the video. Out on the street with the naked eye it is more obvious. As you can see, the blink mode change from steady to fast than back to steady. It also seem more brighter from the side at closer distant than the superflash. There was several cars crossing at the end of the block to show how far I went down the street.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffSQXlqwCH4

excellent video! question - when you were coming back it looked like you have a front strobe on your head - do you?

so how did you handle connecting the rear strobe to the headlight wiring? some kind of Y connector? any concerns about the rear strobe reducing your headlight's runtime?

Thanks. Some of these picture may show the wiring better. I have the connector comming out of the battery inside the plastic container and they are fed between the container and the rack keeping it out of the way and out of the rain. The Y-connector is at the mounting plate for the rack ziped tie right below the battery container. One wire is run up my post and connect to the taillight and extra wire are coil under the seat. The light mount on the seat with a 3/4 PVC pipe which I cut to 1.5 inch and slit it to slide it into the flat tab that is part of the seat. The other wire of the Y-connector runs along the top tube and extra wire is coiled up under the velcro of the Bento bag. I am in the process of looking for some velcro loog to hide the excess wire on the remaining wire by the Bento strap.

As for run time, I will find out next week. Each of my commute in the morning is 1/2 hour with the front light on high. I can make 6 days of run without having to charge the battery. I will find out by friday just how much less run time my taillight will affect.

The light at the top of my helmet is a 5 led Power Beam light. I used to have a P7 light but it got to annoying when it kept dimming out because of a loose connection. I thing it may have something to do with the aluminum thread on the disk that screw down into the switch and it maybe oxidide or just dirty contact. I also was blinding to many people with it when I turn my head into car approaching from sideway. On top of that, I think I lost an inch of my neck because of the weight from the P7 ;)

Good video. The PBSF seems to change modes at the same time the MS did?
Is that correct?

I notice that too, but it should not have. I had it set on blinking mode and that flash ain't suppose to change blinking rate by itself. I'm not sure is there is a loose battery connection or perhaps an optical illusion created when the MS light changed mode(which the MS does after about 30 sec cycle. After seeing that video, I left the PBSF on in the living room and it kept a constant blinking rate.........weird.....(perhaps that PBSF got jelous and became a "Wanna Be" after checking out the MS) :)

Ha Ha

The MS taillight looks brighter than the PBSF when viewed from an angle, but straight on, it looks only to be a bit brighter than the PBSF. That doesn't bode well for the MS when comparing my PBSF to my DiNotte 400, but I'll have to see it first hand when my MS taillight shows up.

Yes, I walked back a distant by foot and checked them out. The MS taillight is brighter than the PBSF but it not as what I thought it would have been when comparing the power difference. Shinning them on a wall, the MS does flood out the PBSF and that's probaably because it gives out a much greater flood angle of light. MS for sure have a definate advantage from a side view which is nice because PBSF works well only if the light is directly behind the viewer and I think the PBSF loose too much of the light from viewing at an angle such as car just getting off of the freeway and merging into the main traffic in one of those loopy type of ramp. Here in that situation, the MS is better I think. Too bad I don't have a Dinotte to compare it too.

Colleen,

Many thanks for the video and reveiw. It really helps when I, and many others, can't "put our hands" on the MagicShine to be able to get some independent information and comparisons to something we know.

Thanks again,
Scott

Hey all, I just did more video and a pic of the MS tailight flash indoor and outdoor. I guess I was bored today and that's just what happen when I got done with a short morning ride and now waiting for the guest for dinner.

Here's what I got. The attached picture was taken 20 feet away in daytime to show what it looks like in the constant on mode. The bike next to mine belongs to my partner.

There are three more videos I've taken. I tried to give it a fair comparison between the 1/2 watt PBSF and the 3W MS light. In order to do that I mounted them on a PVC tubing. I was more interested in a 180 degree view outdoor to see exactly how much brighter or not, so that's why I did this. One video show the PBSF and MS in blink mode as it turn from face to side.

The second video is with them in the constant on mode. I must warn ya, as it turns out, the PBSF has some kind of super fast cycling rate that it used to save energy or whatever. It tricked the Flip Video shutter and it made the PBSF looks like it was blinking when it is not. After some more thinking, I finally figure out why my night riding video looks different than what my eyes saw with the PBSF in the living room and why the PBSF looks to have changed blinking pattern from far away in that video. I think the slower shutter of the recorder at night may have not recorded properly of the blinking pattern of the PBSF. However since the shutter speed remain same for both lights that were on at the time, the intensity of each light should still be accurate.

The third video was taken witth the lights shining at a door. The upper red dot of light is the PBSF. I kept in on the whole time to show how much the MS can drown it out. I then turn on the MS in constant and blinking mode to show the difference of light intensity. You can also see when the MS light shifting from slow blinking to fast blinking in 30 sec. Then the last 1/4 of the video show the MS in the constant on mode and the light from the PBSF dissapears.

I also tested the bbattery life (ok somewhat tested as I will explain). I had the MS tailight set on mode 1 where it was blinking and alternating the two different blinking pattern. After 24 hours of running, it was still blinking with more hours to go. I finally got impatient and is in the process of testing it on constant mode along with the MS 900 set on Hi. My usual runtime is fairly close to 3 hours before the red light come on. Now I will see if the Tailight on Hi constant on will eat up more battery and just how much less run time I will have. I will report on this in about another 2 hour. (update: the old pack lasted 2hrs and 20 minutes when the red light came on, I lost 40 minutes of runtime from the MS900 with the taillight set at constant on, I might get more out of the new pack). I can live with that since I will use it as blinking and that ought too give me more run time. Also note, the body of the 900 got hot so I place a fan cooling it to the temp that I normally feel it as I ride it in the cool morning air that chills the 900 body down. I still have the partially used up batttery at 24 hrs of usage and will continue just to see exactly how long that four battery with the taillight exactly will last.

As for overall satisfaction, I must say for the price, it is a good deal. I needed a spare battery and charger anyway and it like I got the light at only an additional cost. The three thing I don't like:

1) There is no memory mode. I was going to put it on my helmet with the 900 and just plug the connector and that's that. Without a memory mode, I will have to turn both lights on manually. So instead I chose the handlebar and seat mount.

2) I did have the mode change on me once after about 20 mile. It went from blinking to inner outer light blinking. Not sure why but will road test more to see if this will be a problem or not.

3) Too bad that the battery is huge. If they make it with two battery, they might be able to make it as a self contain unit and can be mounted to the back of the helmet as a stan alone unit without having to deal with an extra batter. I personally think the four battery is a little overkill for the taillight alone. It will be ok if it was to be used along with the 900 but by itself....?

The indoor video is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REIQyDKfFF0

The outdoor blinking is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnnHJp6pcGM

Thee outdoor constant on video is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sw0Pc69p0T8

I finally received my MS tail light, as in Colleen's video, the MS beats the PBSF hands down on intensity. It was a different story against my DiNotte 400 though, the MS has the same brightness as my DiNotte 400 on a steady beam, but at a 5ft distance, the MS made a 1ft circular pattern, were as my DiNotte made a 3 1/2 ft pattern at the same distance. In flash mode, the MS pretty much gets lost in the shuffle against the 400. So far, the MS is a definite step up from a PBSF, and will be a replacement for my current Serfas backup tail light.

I had to make a DIY seat post mounting bracket, as previously stated in another post, the MS would be ideal if one had a seat post that was straight up and down, but that is not the case on my bike since it is angled like many bikes. It looks like the engineers at Geoman goofed on this one by not providing the MS with an adjustable mounting system for angled seat posts, especially if they want to sell it the average cyclist that has little or no mechanical/building skills.

One non-DIY possibility: DiNotte seat post mount sold separately
 

DiNotte does sell their seat post tail light mount separately for $14. I wonder if there will be a DealExtreme copy of it some time in the future.

A short piece of PVC pipe and an O ring should make a good seat post mount that can be pointed whatever direction you need. Should cost about $1.50

I just had my first compliment of of MS taillight. One of my coworker also commute to work on the same train as I. Usually after exiting the train, I am usually the first one to ride down this stretch of residential street that has very little street light. It is a straight stretch of road that you can see clearly for 5/8 mile of unobstructed view.

As I left first he was behind me but seem to have been slower than his usual pace. As it turns out, at work he told me he noticed that I had a different light from the PBSF that I used to have on my rack. I ask him some detail and he inform me that it was much brighter than the PBSF on my helmet from several blocks all the way down to 1/2 miles away. Apparently at a far distant, the PBSF was not noticable at all! On top of that, he told me that the blinking pattern of the MS in mode I looks like some kind of law enforcement light. He then asked info of where I bought it so that he will purchase one in place of his LD1100.

Anyway, the more I use this light, the more I like it. So far I like it more than the PBSF except for the fact that it is not as convient to mount one of the helmet because of the 4 batteries exteranl pack. For now, it seem that I will continue to have the PBSF on my helmet just for that reason.

I am interested to see how this compare to a Dinotte 140 and hopefully someone will do that because I am still considering a Dinotte 140 for my other bike that does not have a MS front light. My suspicion is that from a distant, the Dinotte is much better, but at close quarter, the MS tailight may or may not be more noticable...that shall remain to be tested.