Magicshine MJ-872 LED Cycling Bike Light with Improved MJ-828 LCD Battery Pack, 1600-Lumen, Black

The MagicShineUSA dot com website describes the pattern as a "ball of light," which it is. Not a lot of throw. Not super wide. But the coverage area is the perfect complement to the MagicShine MJ-808 I run as a spot on my helmet. The color temperature is very good, a nice white with no yellow and minimal blue. Heat dissipation has been a non-issue, although my rides have all been in sub-freezing temperatures so far. Form factor is good; takes up minimal space on the bars and the buttons are easy to operate, even with gloves on. Mounting is typical MagicShine, basically an O-ring. It's lo-tech but it works. I was an early adopter of MagicShine products, going back to the days of GeoManGear, and have found them to be reliable, as advertised, rugged, and a good value. The 872 is no exception. This would warrant a 5-star rating if it were a bit less expensive. MagicShine captured market share by offering eighty dollar LED lights when everyone else had six hundred dollar HID units. Knock-offs now undercut MagicShine's pricing and they need to respond.

For the money, I think this is pretty hard to beat. Been using it for about a weak now, so I can't comment fully on longevity, but this thing lights up the trial like the sun! I have the light mounted to an accessorie bar on my handlebars with the battery strapped to the underside of my top tube. Plenty of cable length to place it elsewhere. I've found that I don't really need the fully bright setting but it sure is nice to have if you want it. I rode for about 2 hours last night with a combination of of several brightness settings and still had over 75% charge remaining.Thus far, I'm calling it a win. Hard to pay quadruple the price for something else when this thing works great.Only thing to mention, like others have said...this throws a wide splash of light. If you're looking for extreme distance, maybe this is not the one for you.

Nice light. Very bright and a nice wide beam. I also ride with a 900 lumen Exposure Lights Diablo MKII. Mthe Diablo is a more focused beam and not as "blue."The only thing I might have an issue with is that the battery turns "red" after about an hour on the brightes setting. I'm not sure how much actual time is left at this point, but the battery gauge says it's got about 20% life. I think it would realistically make it maybe an hour and thirty or forty minutes on the brightest (I believe the description says 2.5 hrs. The good thing is that it's still super bright on the next setting down. There are 4 brightness settings.The system attaches to the bike pretty securely, though I haven't gone on any super rough trails. The finger swipe battery gauge is pretty nifty but is hard to swipe on a ride and impossible with gloves on (the lamp itself has a battery level indicator anyway, so no big deal).Overall, I'd recommend this light.

The mount is the elastic band system common to these types of lights. It can easily mount to a vented helmet and the cord is long enough to put the battery in a pocket or backpack. The battery is bulky and heavy so it is not going on the helmet. If handlebar mounted, the battery has a velcro strap to attach it to the frame or stem. I like that it has a digital readout of voltage. I do not know the limit of the battery life since I keep it charged up and have never discharged it completely. The back of the emitter array has a button to select the light intensity. You can adjust brightness from power save to offroad superbright. This button changes color to indicate the battery status. The light can get hot if left on superbright too long and it will automatically dim to a lower, cooler setting. This could be an issue if you are riding offroad and the light dims at a crucial moment. At least it doesn't shut off completely like other LED lights.

The media could not be loaded.  I was skeptical about this light because there are so many cheap lights on the market. I have owned multiple biking lights and have to say for the price this is a great light. I have a similar niterider race 1400 light that I spent $250 on and this thing is just as bright if not brighter. It has a nice pattern and works great for off road night riding. I like how the battery has a charge gauge on it to show how much power it has left. For the price you can't beat this light.

Those are the only two advantages. The battery is HEAVY. The light is a very wide beam which covers most of the road. That's kind of nice, but since the light is so small when you stand up over the bars it shines you in the face.MTBR did a review and the lumens came in around 1200, much less than the 1600 claimed. I've had it for a few months and the battery indicator is losing it's accuracy.You get what you pay for.

I really like the headlight. It gives off great light on the trails and the single track night riding. The bar holder is secure and it has enough power cord to get creative with the battery placement. There are Velcro straps to hold the battery on the top tube. Pretty secure, haven't had any issues with it coming loose. Seems fairly sturdy and should last a long time. Light output is great haven't felt the need to add a second helmet light yet. Battery stays charged for several rides. Usually I can ride a couple 1 hour rides and then throw it back on the charger before the next ride.

This light appears to be well built and the battery attaches very securely with a robust Velcro strap and a rubber pad that goes against the bicycle frame. The battery pack is encased in metal has a 'touch to wake up' voltage display, very fancy. There is no complete on/off switch, as long as the battery is connected there is power drain to the head unit so you have to ride with the battery cable disconnected when the light is not on (it flaps around a bit there's really no good way to secure it). It's a flood pattern and provides decent side visibility but at the expense of some forward throw. Battery life is MUCH less than what they indicated, at full power it will go from Green to Blue (100% to 75%) in just a minute or two after a full charge, and is RED (30% or less) after 35 minutes. There is no way you can get the advertise 2.2 hours of full power run time, even one hour is not possible.PRO:Sturdy construction, wide flood pattern, bright, battery has self-contained voltage readout.CON:MUCH lower run times than advertised (less than half), mediocre throw because of wide beam pattern, no true on/off switch have to ride with battery cable unplugged when not using unless you don't mind drain from running the status LED.REVISED - Upon further testing, I can see that when tested indoors without airflow, the light rapidly overheats and self-regulates its output (and thus current draw), and lasts much longer. I strongly suspect at this point, that Magicshine's published specification is deliberately misleading, since the advertised run time at 'full power' actually represents run time at half power due to the lamp quickly turning itself to lower power. Outdoors in normal conditions for using a bicycle light (specifically mornings and evenings in the winter) there is much more cooling both from cool ambient temperatures and from airflow, thus the lamp is actually running at full output a greater percentage of the time and drawing higher current, thus producing the sub-1hr run time. Because I believe Magicshine is lying about their specification, I've reduced my rating from three stars to two. I think it still merits two stars for a functional flood pattern head that could be used with an alternative battery, for example one that could be put in an in insulated sleeve within a water bottle.