no motor?

I've still got my Fenix L2D premium I got sometime around 2008 or so. It was a huge improvement then, coming out when lights were more commonly measured in candlepower instead of lumens. At 185 lumens, it was blindingly bright back then, and now it's dimmer than my backup light. I wonder if it's working some times when I use it now.

01 CAt Man Do

I think you just misinterpreted what DWBH said. You took what he said "literally" as the whole entire field. I only took it to mean the length of the field. Anyway, easy to make a mistake like that, not a big deal. Regardless you chose to respond with a sarcastic comment rather than ask for clarification.

Please forgive me but I'm new to Bike Forums. Already I am seeing many people on Bike forums taking very disrespectful attitudes when it is really uncalled for. That said, it is rather disgusting to say the least.

The reason I believed DWBH post was because I own a single emitter bike light that can reach over 300ft. ( under perfect conditions ....ie.....dry grass surface, low humidity, clear air ) Some of the clone XM-l lamps use smooth reflectors that are very good for throw and have a very intense hot spot, some more so than others. While it did surprise me to hear of a clone lamp doing so well I considered that if mine could reach (300ft.+) another lamp could as well.

agent pombero

Does anyone have any experience with MagicDesign lights? Good, bad? They're bright but I'm worried about buying lights from a guy who basically builds them in his garage.

no1mad 

Do you mean DesignShine lights? I believe that he's a member here and has a backlog of orders.

agent pombero

^ yes. Saw his lights on MTBR and was impressed; am curious about others experiences with these lights.

Chris516

I have the lithium-ion NiteRider MiNewt 600(https://www.google.com/shopping/prod...&ved=0CMoBEMwD), that is rechargeable. NiteRider doesn't sell it anymore, but it is available from other bike retailers that may have it. NiteRider has one that is just as good, the Lumina 650(https://www.niterider.com/lumina-650-2013/).

To recharge either one of them, I can just hook it up to a USB cable connected to my PC. I don't have to worry stupid store-bought batteries. Regardless of either, they both are far brighter, than any LAB headlight I have ever used. If I happen to get caught in the dark, I don't have to worry about being able to see in front of me.

Chris516

The hostility, you have witnessed, is because of the differences. Just like with guns, in general. Some cyclists' will wear a bike helmet(myself included), whereas, some will not wear a helmet. Also, On the road, there are those who 'take the lane'(myself included), ride in the bike lane, and those who won't ride on the road at all. Then there is the difference is the class of rider. Some like myself, have a racing bike. Some have a touring bike. Some have a dirt bike, and some have a cross-trainer. Lastly, Of those that do ride on the road, there are those who luckily don't experience hostility from motorists' on the road. Then there are those that live in areas where, the hostility from motorists' is high.

I would never buy a bike light, from someone that builds them in their garage.

I think s/he is referring to MagicShine.

wphamilton

I don't know anything about the light or the person, but in general ... some guy that knows what he's doing and has a stake in quality versus a factory full of unskilled people who'd rather not be there cutting corners, I'll take the guy in the garage

Xeccon

Stephen Pethelman of Designshine isn't your average garage bike light manufacturer. This guy really knows his stuff. His lights are benchmarks in terms of efficiency and durability. Have you seen another big name or no name manufacturer do a bike light waterproofing test using a blender? I cringe like most guys watching the video. This guy is that confident with his lights. From what we keep hearing, his progressive updates to his customers is outstanding. It takes a bit longer but you get a bomb-proof product.

His build blog is here.

Recumbentracer

Thanks Leonard! It was a couple of years ago now when I was trying to come up with a catchy name for the "brand" and lamenting the fact that I couldn't even start cutting a piece of metal for the price of an entire Magicshine system. I wanted to emphasize the thought that went into the design of the light, which led to name and tag line...

"DesignShine - It's not magic, just good design!"

Admittedly kind of corny, but it just seemed to stick.
Cheers!

DntWorryB.Happy

What are your warranties like.

When mine breaks i'll save up for something. Will give you a shot after seeing your comparison photos

01 CAt Man Do

Chris....having been on the planet for a number of years and dealing with the public on a day by day basis I've learned there is little reason to justify rudeness unless someone has first been rude to you. Misunderstandings are very common-place but rarely justify a rude response.

If I was going to illustrate this using an analogy I would say it's like the two people driving on the road; One just goes along and rides with the flow, paying little mind to people cutting him off or making sudden unexpected turns. The other gets behind the wheel and immediately adopts the attitude, "Get the hell out of my way". He hits his horn at the drop of a hat, he curses every time a car pulls in front of him. Yes Chris there are differences in behavior, some good some bad. We all have them. Some times there needs to be a gentle reminder that* being patient and kind is better than being grumpy and harsh. ( * otherwise known as being civil ) This is especially true in public forums. Acting like a horses behind rarely helps you make a point even if you're right about something.

....sorry but this made me laugh. Yes, if I was building lights in my garage you would not want to buy from me. On the other hand once you take a good look at the Designshine lights you will quickly see that not only would you buy one but you would love to own one.

Burton

And maybe you're taking things waaaaay too seriously. Or do you expect that everyone has to fill their posts with smilies so you can tell if they're really being hostile or not? Personally I'm neither particularly hostile nor even particularly competative, but I do like facts and useful information and in public forums thats turning out to be incredibly difficult to evaluate. Some posters are too inexperienced to give an accurate description of a product and some have a vested interest in promoting something because they're trying to sell it someplace else - without telling you that of course. There are a few people on these forums that do excellent reviews and put a lot of effort into them. They're few and far between and underappreciated.

So - I own a 20 year old halogen headlamp that can light up stop-signs 4 blocks away. I also have a $20 Blackburn that'll do the same thing. But in reality that says more about the effeciency of retro-reflective materials that their outputs since neither one puts out enough light to effectively light up the road more than 20 feet in front of me. (Bet if I didn't include that little detail it would've given you a completely different impression.)

Which is why I spent a number of years checking out and riding with a number of different lighting systems. And to date have been disappointed with everything marketed specifically to the cycling consumer. Mostly because I managed to drown all of them because I actually do have to commute in heavy rains. And since I work in the bicycle industry and have attended the Expocycle exhibitions as a buyer for a number of years - I'd like to think I'm aware of what's commercially available. Which also means I could chose to distribute those cheap Chinese clones if I really thought they were worth selling.

Of course I realize not everyone has my requirements, so personally I have no problems when someone posts a comment like "It's the best light I've owned to date!" .... or..... "It's plenty bright enough for my uses!"

But when someone posts comments like "It lit everything up like daylight!" ... or..... "It's just as good as those lights costing almost a thousand dollars!" .... or in the case of the poster in question here "It lit up the whole field!" ........ sorry if I can't take it too seriously. Really. And my apologies if you find my posts offensive and disgusting. Would a smilie help? I'm afraid I'm not much into IM, texting and other things where those are commonly used and if that's what it takes to clue you in ..... suggest you just skip my posts. I won't be offended - honest! But maybe at some point you could explain why you think your response to my post was really any different than my response to the poster in question - particularly since you didn't bother quoting the other half of it. Pretty please?

On my defense - I do happen to like bikes and am actually pretty customer oriented. And if that doesn't show up in this forum - it does show up in the fact that the shops I'm affiliated with are all doing progressively better every year in spite of the current economic situation - and in spite of the fact that lots of other shops in the city are having a rough time.

Burton

So how do you feel about Bill Gates initially starting Microsoft out of his garage?

I personally liked the lights and wanted to buy a few. Unfortunately when I contacted the seller - he was making these in such low production runs (35 at the time) that he couldn't keep up with orders. That was over a year ago and I haven't heard from him since so had to come up with something else. Which I did.

01 CAt Man Do

Hostile? who mentioned hostile? ( certainly not me ) ...Am I taking things too serious (?)( < your question) Not me said the flee. I do understand that some people like to use sarcasm on a regular basis ( and do so with little thought ). As such there isn't necessarily the intent to be hostile or rude. I made my previous comment because some people don't know how their sarcasm comes across to others on something like a "printed" public forum. Misinterpretation is quite common.

I sometimes use sarcasm myself but usually in jest. Believe me, I've had a couple people misinterpret my comments as well ( and they let me know about it ). In such cases I've had to apologize and explain what I was really trying to get across ( because I really don't want to offend ). I now try to limit sarcasm on forums simply because it is so often misunderstood. It took me a while to learn this lesson so I figured why not spread the love around. If you decide to criticize the person because they didn't understand your comment it's almost like throwing gasoline on a fire in an attempt to make it go away.

I regularly disagree with other people's opinion ( Hey, who doesn't). How you go about disagreeing makes all the difference in the world if your goal is to make someone else reconsider their previous opinion. Now if that isn't your goal then I suppose it really doesn't matter and I'm wasting my time writing this. However I hope I'm wrong about that.

Anyway, time to move on. I made my point and you've made yours. Sorry if I couldn't address everything you talked about but you do talk about a number of things...too many to address. To me being civil to others as they give their own opinion was the more important issue at hand, whither you agree or disagree with what they are saying.

Burton

So welcome to BFs! Afraid I can't radically change my personality or sense of humor - the result of working too many years with lots of Brits who, although terribly sarcastic, are hardly ever serious and lots of fun to work with.

And in case you missed it - the dimensions we were discussing were pretty much the regulation sizes for a football field and the idea that one little bike like lit up the WHOLE field had me on the floor in stitches. Sorry - couldn't help myself!

fietsbob

I made a long term investment, rather than a Quick Bang bargain.

DntWorryB.Happy

The goal of head lights are to be seen, and to see things you should avoid.

Yes, i was able to see across the field and saw that nothing was there. Why is that so hard to believe?

Never claimed it was stadium quality lighting. I just said it lit up the field.

Burton

If the light does what you want it to - lets not argue about semantics. Obviously your expectations of lighting up a field are different than mine and we're allowed our differences.

But because people have different expectations and language is somewhat subjective - pictures do help a lot. And from personal experience, an iPhone gives a pretty reasonable representation - equivalent to an exposure of 1sec at f4 and ISO 100 which is reasonable too if younhave a camera with manual settings. I don't find the 4 second exposures used by MTBR light reviews to becat all representative myself.

So please - feel free to share some pics!

DntWorryB.Happy

I don't have an iphone.

Tried with my xoom and it doesnt like night photos. Unless im doing something wrong