Anyone have any experience with these…. Winter draws near.

http://www.magicshineuk.co.uk/bike-lights/magicshine-bike-light-set-mj-816-1400-lumens.php?item=30&category=1&p=1&so=0#

Sometimes referred to round parts, as the "Mickey mouse" light.

Can't recall anyone claiming ownership experience yet though.

Here from DX for mucho less

Anyone tried this? Seems like it might be a slightly better-built alternative to the cheapo warhorse:

http://spokeshirts.co.uk/product.php?productid=16399&cat=0&page=1

A bit cheaper direct from source:

DEALEXTREME

But a bitch to send back. Bought my 1st gen Bastid from DealExtreme, though and it's been fine for a year so I expect it's out of warranty now anyway.

Never had the bastid… I might go straight for the NEW 3 lamp floodlight. I will let you know how I get on of course (do they have WiFi in hospitals?)

Just for info – I got a bastid and more recently a mickey mouse. As a direct comparison the bastid is slightly more focussed – the mickey slightly more floody. On the other hand the brightest part of the mickey beam isnt as bright as bastid.

The main real world difference though – and think about it carefully – is mickey's remote switch. I like it a lot – I can switch between modes without taking hands off the bars, and vary from 100% to 10% with no flashy modes etc. I'm sure others will hate the extra wires. Also the sidelights only mode is much 'friendly' in traffic / where dog walkers are.

The second main difference is the mickey battery is totally waterproof by comparison to the carboard ended bastid.

My bastid (albeit the earlier version) had some issues with the switch changing mode randomely and the cables fraying.

BTW the chargers and batteries are interchangeable (same volts, cables ends etc).

But a bitch to send back. Bought my 1st gen Bastid from DealExtreme, though and it's been fine for a year so I expect it's out of warranty now anyway.

why?
lodge a ticket through their site, once it's been authorised, post via the Post Office, send a pic of the PO receipt, and IME the replacement is sent ASAP.
struggle to see the problem TBH? you've had it a year and it's been fine, and cheap, but if you'd had to send it back, you'd have had to go to the post office? err?

Here you go, I just posted this…

You may want to get yourself comfy with a mug of tea for this post…

I got my Magicshine MJ-816 “Mickey Mouse” special yesterday. Here’s a little history for you and my first impressions….

Since my first foray into night riding (2004???) I’ve spent £££’s on lights. Here is what I’ve owned in the last few years:-

* Trailtech 30W HID – still unbeaten for sheer output, even today, but expensive & not exactly reliable
* DIY setup – 3 x Cree LED jobbie in an after-market torch – worked (just), looked shite and reminded me to stick to my day job.
* USE Exposure Joystick – Neat and excellent lid-mounted choice. The guys at USE know their stuff and I love buying homegrown.
* Dinotte 600L – still my favourite lid-mounted light, albeit a bit heavy.
* Fenix P3D Premium – everyone should have one. Use as a spare backup light. Easily gaffas to a lid in an emergency
* Magicshine MJ808 – first time I spent less than £100 on a light, & I was impressed. Few minor grumbles regarding mounting but for the money no real complaints.
* Magicshine MJ816 – bought yesterday, read on…

I bought the MJ816 from Magicshine UK. The website is sweet, informative, I opted for premium delivery (an extra £10) and got it 9am yesterday morning – all-in-all excellent service. Got home and fitted it last night after charging and playing with it all day at work.

POSITIVE POINTS:-
The item is really nicely presented and comes with a UK specific charger, unlike the one I got from Geomangear last year.

The build quality has improved compared to the MJ808. The soldering is way better (yes I’ve already had it apart – if it aint broken, it soon will be… ;-), much cleaner round the contacts, and the overall finish and fitting improved.

The battery is now contained in a nicely finished and well-sealed aluminium canister protected with a good-fitting protective neoprene drawstring sleeve. This sleeve has an elasticated Velcro strap for securing the battery the frame – I’ve got mine hanging off the top tube just behind the head tube. In motion the battery keeps still, doesn’t swing around and so far is very secure. Overall a massive improvement on the battery & cover supplied with my MJ808.

The remote switch is a really welcome new feature. Nicely made aluminium body with rubber-illuminated button that stays on permanently but draws very little power off the battery. The colour of the button indicates the charge left in the battery. The MJ808 had a similar, if more basic feature, and I never ran-out of juice.

The stepless dimming feature is truly awesome, and very handy for oncoming cars etc.

The head unit itself is much smaller and neater than I first thought. Nicely made with the SSC P7 lens being made of glass, and the outer Cree’s with plastic diffusers. The light throw from the P7 is excellent, and I would also say the colour slightly whiter than my MJ808. The outer Cree LED’s provide excellent peripheral vision.

The main & side LED’s can be dimmed separately allowing true customisation – if you can be bothered.

The O-rings supplied (3) are much better quality this year, stronger with useful tabs to help pulling them over the anchors.

NEGATIVE POINTS:-
When secured to the handlebars, the main head unit oscillates/wobbles, even when secured with the smaller O-rings, especially off road. This causes a strobe effect and can be a real pain in the arse. One thing that could be improved to eradicate this is to widen the base of the handlebar mount – it’s simply too narrow for a relatively wide unit (not helped by the Mickey Mouse “ears”). But you’re stuck with this until they change it in production. What I did do to remedy this problem is to remove the serrated rubber strip on the underside of the handlebar mount and replace with a piece of 3mm thick plain rubber in its place. THIS IS HIGHLY RECOMMENDED and has eliminated 95% of the judder caused by the movement allowed by the serrated rubber fins. You’ll see what I mean when you buy one. No more wobble now using the medium O-ring on a 31.8 riser bar. Joy!!!

1400 Lumens – I don’t think so. My MJ808 (which was rated optimistically by the manufacturer as 900 lumens) was really around 600 – 650 lumens. With all 3 LED’s on full-tilt I reckon you’re close to around 1000, maybe a tad more. But believe me, this is all the light I need for night riding, even with a turn of speed.

Erm…. There are no other negative points.

OVERALL:- For the money – they can’t be beat. Nicely made, great service from UK based supplier, strong light output with excellent spread and colour.

Right, I’ve gone on long enough, best get on with some work…

Here's my update – not much to add over what Velohub posted.

– ordered from DX/Hong Kong direct – it's taken aboout a month to arrive, but I did get email updates about delivery progress/tracking. Cost about £65 – saving of £35 over ordering via UK distributor
– It does what it says on the tin. Floodlight effect – light beam spans to ground just in front of your wheel, about 45 degrees left and right and about 50-60m ahead. That's all I wanted to be honest.
– I agree with the "wobbly strobing" effect you get as the light vibrates over rough ground. I will try the remedies Velohub suggested.
– The battery took about 3 hours to fully charge. Had about 1.5 hours riding and the charge indicator is still green.
– I have battery mounted on top of my top tube just behind the head tube. It was bit fiddly getting the velcro straps tight and secure but it's fairly steady once done. I used the extra velcro loops to tuck away all the excess cabling. I have the button mounted on top of my stem. So there is some amount of loose dangly cable hanging around my head tube, hasn't been a problem so far but it looks a bit naff. Need to work on that.
– I don't think I would helmet mount this, it's shape doesn't really lend itself to that, although if you really wanted to you could ducktape it up.
– I noticed that the join between the centre and the two outrigger lights is exposed – you can see the wires. Possible water ingress problem there – will see if I can silicone it.

– I would say this light IS bright, but would agree it's probably not 1200 Lumens. I compared it with a Heavy Duty torch quoted at 1500 Lumens – and the Torch is far brighter (like a car headlight) – But, the bike lamp does light up enough of the route ahead for you to see what's coming, which is fine.

would I recommend?

At £65 – absolutely.

Anyone tried this? Seems like it might be a slightly better-built alternative to the cheapo warhorse:

http://spokeshirts.co.uk/product.php?productid=16399&cat=0&page=1

A few people from here have bought one from us – seem pleased.

As for the new bastid, the old one was good because you could helmet mount it (like ours). The new one seems like it's got issues on the bars and even if you could put it on your lid, would you? If you did you'd never turn it on in case somebody saw you…..

why?
lodge a ticket through their site, once it's been authorised, post via the Post Office, send a pic of the PO receipt, and IME the replacement is sent ASAP.
struggle to see the problem TBH? you've had it a year and it's been fine, and cheap, but if you'd had to send it back, you'd have had to go to the post office? err?

On the basis it took 7 weeks to turn up in the first place – if you factor that in for a post there and a return trip once they've authorised the RMA (which would be reasonable) that could be 15 weeks downtime. maybe the OP is Ok with spending £20 extra to get it warranty returned in the UK.

I don't think you read that properly, I wasn't complaining nor do I have a problem, just pointing out the possible reality of dealing with an overseas company for an item that has had various people post on here regarding durability.

My battery has now gone due to water ingress, but I'm fixing it myself as it's my fault and I'll make sure it's properly waterproofed after I'm done with it.

On the basis it took 7 weeks to turn up in the first place – if you factor that in for a post there and a return trip once they've authorised the RMA (which would be reasonable) that could be 15 weeks downtime. maybe the OP is Ok with spending £20 extra to get it warranty returned in the UK.

I have to comment as I find your timing logic flawed, as it is a worst case senario, as you must have ordered your unit at the height of last years ordering frenzy to get a Magicshine unit. I have ordered 5 piece of kit from Dealextreme and none took more than 10 days to arrive (with another 5 ordered by friends with the same timescale), so by your logic, it will take say 21 days to turn round (1 day to process). Regardless of that, lots of ppl including the poster above, have reported that they sent DX a picture of the PO reciept and DX aurthorised a replacement straight away, so potentially it'll only at 10days for an RMA.

BUT you point about a UK warrenty is valid, though I think it overkill to pay nearly half again for it.

To be fair, the DX light is currently just under £23 cheaper – I reckon that puts it in the zone of being almost worth paying the extra for the peace of mind, assuming that the UK dealers are rapid with warranty stuff.

To be fair, the DX light is currently just under £23 cheaper

How is that then as DX is £50 and MagicShine UK £80.

…or am missing something?

Like the look of those Spokeshirt ones….but gah…cannot resist £50 less for DX…… 😉

I can only speak from my own (maybe exceptional) experience. Have you ever been caught for import duty also? before the Bastid (which was bought on a whim following good reports here and elsewhere) I bought an iBlasst II as my main as it's programmable for a range of inputs and light outputs – I got stung for VAT and import duty for a not inconsiderable amount which could wipe out any savings if you're unlucky.

I'm looking at the "Mickey Mouse" three gubbin ones:

http://www.magicshineuk.co.uk/bike-lights/magicshine-bike-light-set-mj-816-1400-lumens.php?item=30&category=1&p=1&so=0#

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.36018

$119 on DX, which (according to xi) is £77.20ish, or £99.99 from the UK place. Although I may be being a thicky and getting it wrong.

**edit** never been caught for tax on DX, but I've only bought sub £40 stuff. Did get billed for a set of bars from Jenson, but they were cheap enough that it wasn't a problem.

Cool, then they'll get another go with a replacement battery 🙂

@ £19.65 it's not worth buying the parts to build my own, though I've got a new PCM on the way already. Bit of heatshrink should do the trick, and not falling off in puddles.

Seen both the 900 and 1400 they look well made especially the 1400. Only problem is you cant get from magicshine uk.

Seems they are too popular.

I'm fairly skint – any opinions on whether it's worth spending the extra to get the mickey mouse over the 900?

I paid $99 for mine from Deal Extreme – thats about £65.

maybe they had some offer on at the time… I can see they are now $119 on the web site – thats £77.

yeah, but the 900 only works out at about £50, so that's £27 I could spend on beer.

Does anyone know if the mickey mouse is really that much better as a light, or are you just paying for stuff like having the switch on the bar and the colour change battery meter?

Sorry, i know I'm being a pain…

I haven't used the Mickey Mouse, but the cheap one is as much light as I'd ever need, I doubt you'd be disappointed. It's not as good quality light as the iBlaast if that makes any sense (down to the optics and the iBlaast having 3 emitters) but it is more than enough for full speed night riding, commuting on back roads with no street lighting etc.

Personally I'd take the saving and maybe buy another bastid with a headmount next year if you've any racing ambitions, to fill in the gaps.

Magicshine UK are out of stock of both anyway, which makes deciding easier 😉

!!!! WARNING !!!!

On only it's second off-roader my Mickey Mouse came flying off the bars and was whipping around on it's lead like Bruce Lee's nun-chucks.

I managed to stop and save it before it snapped and flew off completely.

The problem I found out later is a very flaky mount. The main light body is screwed to the mount by a single tiny screw through plastic. I managed to screw the thing back on once home, but now I am worried it's going to happen again.

Does anyone have any experience with this? I think I will need to fabricate something a lot more sturdy, but fabrication isn't my thing. Anyone got any ideas?

WD40…. or was it Ducktape can't remember….

IIRC Trout commented on similar when reviewing the original bastid – eg that it had very few threads holding the mount in place. A longer nut/bolt would sort it out