My twins (14) are getting into night rides with me and I need to set them up with a decent set of lights – I spent £240 on mine last year but I can’t afford two more sets of those!

Need 2.5 hours of runtime for the riding we’re doing….

Anyone got any suggestions?? I guess I could (if I had to) go up to £100 a set at a push…..

😀

i got this

they even threw in little rear light for me too . .

Magicshine MJ-808E – 1000 lumens so plent bright enough for anything. I was out last night with mine and I can honestly say I don’t know why I would need more light.

Only £79 but you can spend more if you want a longer life battery.

http://www.magicshineuk.co.uk/products/Front-Bike-Light-Magicshine-MJ-808E

Get some of these from

MTB Batteries

Absolutely top notch for the money. When you use them you’ll end up asking yourself why you’ve just paid £200+ for your set. I know I did!

There’s magicshine copies on Deal Extreme if you want – I go my 900 lumen, 3hr run time light for £28 delivered.

If they are running a single light each I would recommend the Magicshine MJ-872, come in at about £90 each but give a much better spread of light.

The smaller lights (MJ-808 and Cree T6 clones) tend to be a bit ‘spotty’ in comparison.

I’d go with 2helmet mounted xlm torches off DX, along with 4 batteries and a charger you’re looking at about £35 delivered. Bright as you’ll ever need for descending at full pelt on full alast way longer than 2.5hrs if you switch to med beam for the rest of the ride

Get in touch with mtb batteries. I got two sets for mayhem this year. Brilliant light. Beam pattern is really good. 3 hours on full. Brilliant service to.Less than £200 for both sets too. Smudge is on here. He’s the guy who sells them. Get some.

I got 2 of mtb batteries lights and an extra battery if your interested in buying them send me an email

Not sure if he still does them or is even in business but Spoke Shirts used to do some. Utter crap and even worse service to back it up.

I need to get a new battery/light and smudge is where I’m heading when I do splash some cash.

Smudge at mtb batteries. good quality and value and a decent chap

Have a read,
torchy the battery boys big list of bike lights

Thanks for all of the mentions 8) The V2 is reviewed in this months MTBUK (out today) managed to get a 4 out of 5. Very happy, but slightly gutted we didnt get a 5. but thats the high standards we work to, we will aim to get the 5 in our next review 🙂

Any questions please feel free to email me, we also have a V2twin coming out in the next month or so.

As for ordering, I have a fairly large stock, so any order placed will be 99% of the time posted out the same day – if before 3pm – excluding weekends and bank holidays.

Thanks again for the mentions.

Smudge

£100 a set? Sorted- 1 MJ872 each, on the head. No need to match them with a bar light, they give good spread and range solo. You’ll probably get 2.5 hours at full blast but it’ll be a little tight, they have useful lower power modes too though. Still the best budget light by far, IMO.

Not a bad idea to get a backup light as well though in case of crash damage/forgetting to charge batteries etc- cheap torch maybe.

The XML Magicshines are pretty bad- very powerful, but too tight-beamed, turned every ride into a game of chase-the-dot. Not nice. The old P7 version was a far more useful light. Beam pattern is at least as important as power.

Merlin cycles doing good deals on Hope lights at the moment. Got myself a vision 1 for £54, seemed rude not to.

Deal Extreme ones are awesome for under £30 but if you can’t wait then MTB Batteries offers the Magicshine copy for under £60 or the new one for £90. Bargains all round!

Another MJ872 vote here. Along with a cheap torch for backup.

Mind if I do a mini hijack? Considering something in a similar price range but it must have an immediate on/off switch (ie no need to cycle through modes or long-press or whatever) that’s easily operable with gloves. I have other criteria — one of which is half decent runtime, so that’s the torch-style ones out — but that one seems to be the killer. Anyone know of anything?

Search on ebay for cree xml 1600 lumen. I bought one of these as a spare/helmet mount when my Exposure MaxX D started getting unreliable (again!), £28 posted and I’ve all but given up on my £200+ light (it only gets used on the commute really). The Cree thing is bright, perhaps a little too much of a spot, but he’ll, remember biking on 10w lights? They are a bargain, and service is great too. A friend had one that took a dislike to a river and the fella from eBay replaced it no questions.

@Bez – some of the magicshine ones have a “hold down button until off” type of thing. Not quiet instant off (maybe half a second) – but you dont have to cycle through modes. Does that count?

Bez, our V2 if you push the button in for approx a second it will switch off, (easy with gloves on) and if you want an extended run time I can build you a custom battery to suit at little extra cost.

Please email me if you want to know nay more information.

Smudge

Hm, tempting, cheers Smudge. I’m after something to accompany my dyno light as a road main beam, so it really needs to be instant-off. I was going to build something to wire up to the dynamo (which would be ideal — no runtime constraints) but realistically I’m not sure I’ll get round to it.

Id be speaking to Rob Dean then. His Dynamo experience is second to none. masterclass

Deal Extreme prices are incredible but what other kit and how much effort is required to secure them to your helmet and bars? Was thinking about 2x Magicshine 808’s for this purpose.

Smudge do you have or could get any more V1’s in?

So has there been no big new LED breakthrough since last ‘season’? People still seem to be talking about the same stuff as last time around.

Magicshine sell a suitable helmet mount. It’s not perfect tbh- the velcro’s a little weak so it took a bit of effort to get it fitted right. But once that’s done it worked a charm.

I would not personally buy 2 MJ808s now- I’d suggest you buy one better light, that’ll not cost very much more but will absolutely outclass the 808s.

I use these http://www.roughrideguide.co.uk/off-road-mtb-light-pack.html

Only really need one, but i went crazy and got one for the helmet too 🙂
Absolutely amazing fun. The glowy green eyes are cool too.

Got some of the last years models up for sale now if you fancy?

went with some ioutdoors or somesuch – similar to some magic shine types I think on amazon for £36. they’re OK.

Thanks for the recommendation smudge

@ Bez – I’d love to help out, but don’t have the time to make custom setups for everyone’s needs. What you want is possible to make, however, if you already have a dynamo wheel and a “low beam” light but no great surplus of spare time, I’d recommend getting yourself the new Exposure Revo dynamo light. You could use a mechanical switch to cut the power to the light from the hub, which would turn the light down to running on the minimum standlight power alone (which I believe is a around about half power), to give you a “dip” mode, but still leaving you enough light to see potholes, ice, puddles even when moving at speed. You could even switch the power between the Exposure Revo and your current commuter light, should you wish to run both lights to give you a choice between one or the other.

I don’t believe the Revo, as I have tested it, has a full kill switch, but I used an on/off with the main power (which I spliced into the light myself) to do the same as it was clear that it was too bright to shine at car drivers on full power, unless I tipped the beam downward significantly. I now no longer get flashed by oncoming traffic!

[hijack] smudge, when are you expecting to have the 2000 lumenator and mtblaser in stock, and do you have an idea on price? Pretty interested! [/hijack]

Velocipede.
I can fit your Kids up with a helmet light each for about your budget
as have a few Troutie minis I am selling off at. the moment

mmmm