new bike light

Kurt

Kurt

10 kW
Joined
Apr 21, 2008
Messages
962
Location
South Australia
Its time to upgrade the $3 useless led light on my bike .The 1w red flasher on the back is fine but for the front I want something that has rechargeable battery's pref lithium. I also want to be able to see as well as any car lights but also have a low beam like a car to ride in traffic with and I don't want to pay more than my bike is worth for a light. i think the $400 price tag on some bike shop lights is just stupid.

The best I can come up with is this and I am almost sure i will get is this light Magic shine HA III for $120Au has a high and low beam.

specs.
Material: Aircraft aluminium
Finishing: Third grade anodisation
Color: Black
LED: SSCP7
Luminous Flux: 900 Lumens (Manufacturers rating)
LED Life Span: 50, 000 hours
Battery: 8.4V 4.4AH lithium battery - rechargeable
Run Time: Hi - 180 minutes, Lo - 540 minutes
AC wall charger - charge time: 3.5- 4.0 hours
Low Power Warning: 1. red light - low power warning, 2. green light - on
Lighting Modes: Hi - 100% brightness Lo - 30% brightness & flashing (2.4Hz)
Weatherproof Grade: IP65
Size: Φ43*50MM
Net weight (light & battery): 320 grams

ebay link http://cgi.ebay.com.au/MagicShine-900-lumen-bike-light_W0QQitemZ150370318754QQcmdZViewItemQQptZAU_Sport_Cycling_Accessories?hash=item2302c4f9a2&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

Review link were i got the pics from .Comparison with other lights. To see the one I want click on magicshine HA III. I was also surprised my the difference in output of all the bike lights in the review. You can also see what low beam looks like on the magicshine
http://fonarevka.lux-rc.com/

pics from review of magicshine on high beam
8.JPG


High beam behind bike
8.JPG


This last pic is a 3w led for comparison same exposure time on camera

8.JPG


Kurt.
 
I just ordered one of these from DealExtreme.com and it is in "Waiting for Supplier" mode. In other words, they are back ordered. I ordered it about a week ago and so far, no shipment yet. I do trust DX in that they will ship it eventually. I will also post a review and pix when it arrives.

Ambrose
 
I just bought 2 of them. 8)

Didn't want to wait so I got them from the Aussie ebay dude. I've got two of the same Soul P7 LEDs in bare reflector housings/copper base but haven't played with them yet.

I should put all 4 together for 3,600 lumens :shock:
 
Don't blind anybody! :shock:

Ambrose
 
Woah, nice find. Thanks for the link.
 
Let us know what they are like when you get them. When I was looking at them I remember some comments saying they may not be great for use on the road as they have quite a lot of flood that may blind on coming traffic.

Guess you could always rig up something that restricts how high the light shines, without pointing the whole light down.
 
I was thinking about it being to much light for the street as this is where I do 95% of my riding. I was thinking you would just run it on the low setting it only runs at 30% power then. The last thing I want to do is upset oncoming cars as that makes the light useless.

Halogen lights are good value and overlooked they are the only other lights that seam to give off a decant amount of light. That's another option perhaps a 10 or 20w halogen globe running off a cheap lipo battery. let me think I have some lipo packs from my rc helicopter a switch and tig weld up a ss housing for the globe. could probably build it for $20 but at 2amp draw a 5ah lipo would only last 2 1/2 hrs . Perhaps a 10w halogen and 5 hrs run time.

Kurt.
Pic of low beam

8.JPG
 
I run a couple of Cree R2 flasghlights (~250 lumens each) on my bike, which is adequate for my commute, running off a DC-DC from the main battery.
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.16179
Mark_A_W has four R2's in customs housings. His excuse is that he goes off road more, and is going a bit faster than me.

If I was going for the P7's with that sort of beam, I would probably keep them running on high, but rig up some little shade/reflector to stop the light being in car drivers eyes while on the road. Then you still have heaps of light to see where you are going, but don't blind on coming traffic. If you put a hinge on the shade/reflector you could then flip it up out of the way for "high beam" mode.

IMHO if you are forking out for a bright light, you might as well make the most of it.
 
I run Fenix's on my bike. They are very bright. I am only giving about 200 lumens though.
 
Nice find... my NiteHawk is bright enough to be hot but, WOW that is 3-4x brighter and the width of the beam is amazing for peripheral vision.

8.4v 4.4AH - So we could gut it and run it on a 2S2P turnigy lipo pack for 10AH and assume roughly 5hr of run time + the provided wall charger would likely work well enough to charge the turnigy lipo packs...

Could you do us a favor and measure the fully charged voltage (hot off charger) of the LiPo pack it comes with... I am fairly certain it will cut out at 8.2-8.1 but I would like to be sure before ordering one... I suppose it doesn't matter, I'm ordering 2 anyway (1 for my Specialized and 1 for my FS9 which I will swap off with my Segway).

Thanks for the links and the pics!

-Mike
 
adrian_sm said:
Let us know what they are like when you get them. When I was looking at them I remember some comments saying they may not be great for use on the road as they have quite a lot of flood that may blind on coming traffic.

Guess you could always rig up something that restricts how high the light shines, without pointing the whole light down.
Click to expand...

A friend I ride with already has one, it's very good. He said he had a few small issues with the pack or charger not wanting to charge it up. I may hook it up to headway cells anyways or a DC-DC converter. I can't even tell if my 110 lumen NiteRider MiNewt is on if he's next to me.

Dealing with the traffic issue is easy, point the light down. I do this with my MiNewt already so the 5m directly in front of the bike are brightly lit to check for road surface hazards and further alone I can see bigger obstacles or dangers with a bit less light and more time to react.

With this new light I may mount it inverted, under the handlebar to slightly lower the beam height and keep it out of the way.
 
Thanks man and BTW: Love both the bikes, esp the red one... the aluminum battery in the triangle is sweet and clean, very nice (very similar to my blast boxes). The DH looks fast... what's the top speed on your babies?

-Mike
 
mwkeefer said:
Thanks man and BTW: Love both the bikes, esp the red one... the aluminum battery in the triangle is sweet and clean, very nice (very similar to my blast boxes). The DH looks fast... what's the top speed on your babies?
-Mike
Click to expand...

Cheers. Your Rad Bikes are rad. I'd like to get a feel for what the 9C motors are like with some decent power. I've had some fun with the guys at Stealth Electric Bikes who are doing eMTBs like you're doing and tried a few of them out recently here:
http://www.endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=12831

My red bike does about 45 km/h (~28 mph) but the little motor needs assistance most of the time. On the plus side, the no-load speed is over 60 kph so even when I'm going down hills I still get some pull from the motor. Good for commuting! The DH Team frame project hasn't come together yet but I plan to get a full suspension high powered ebike running soon!
 
Wonder if they will ever sell the same unit without the rechargeable battery pack. I'm thinking the majority of that $80 is the cost of the lithium battery. Considering we all ride around with larger and more powerful battery i would buy just the light and run it off my bike battery. The reflector and housing looks great. Much better than something i would hack together using halogen housing
 
ngocthach1130 said:
Wonder if they will ever sell the same unit without the rechargeable battery pack.
Click to expand...

I wish!! I would buy it in a flash without the batteries.

An alternative would be to wire up one of their flashlights with the same LED to your main battery pack. I did this but with two Cree R2 200 lumen flashlights, via a DC-DC converter. Works a treat.

But still looks like a home made hack. Hence me thinking about one of these MagicShine lights.
 
Received today. Already lent one set to a friend doing a 24hr mtb race.

Very nice and no-nonsense kit.

I'm on the train at the moment but will post beamshots tonight if I get time.

Adrian, do you have any other pushbikes? If so, I say grab one of these complete sets because you can swap between bikes easily and you'll want to use it on everything :)
 
p7-3.jpg

[youtube]41jE8nO300o[/youtube]
[youtube]1MgG-ags3x0[/youtube]

No beamshots yet. I'm not a flashlight nerd and have to figure out how to take a decent shot and find a good spot to do it.

There may be even better lights out there, but I can't really imagine needing more then this light for even riding in pitch black.

 
Wow! Very powerful. How hot does the housing get after a few minutes?

Ambrose
 
That's a lot of light. You may want to put "eyelids" on them to prevent the spill from blinding oncoming traffic. (I did that with the MR16 LEDs. )
 
Please every one be cautious with this light, I was one of the first testers before it came out, & on the early models QC was very bad,, swaf in the light, no thermal grease to be found & poorly mated thermal junctions, fake o-ring on clamp & under rated components on the main driver.
Please read:

Very bad news on the light front (DX Bike light )
http://forums.mtbr.com/showthread.php?t=527707

http://forums.mtbr.com/showthread.php?t=520912

http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=232163

I know that some of the problems have now been fixed, but this is depending on the vintage of run...may still have the cheap driver, mine failed pretty quick so if it lasts 10 hours you may be right...

K
 
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