Magicshine MJ-818 rear light

Here's an experiment to make better use of all that light output. I used some silicone to stick a plastic ring round the outside of the light, the light is diffused through the ring and you get much more side visibility. The end is open so the LED is still in plain sight from a decent angle behind.

I'll get a picture in the dark so you can see how the light is scattered, it looks pretty good actually.

I think I pulled up behind one of these this morning. Couldn't see a thing for a few seconds, the same time it took to go through the flashing cycle.

There is bright and there's sunglasses time, sorry but aiming bright lights at car drivers eyes ain't going to increase your safety. SMICSFYBL "Sorry mate I could not see for your blinding light." Or maybe YBM, "Your light blinded me!"

I think I pulled up behind one of these this morning. Couldn't see a thing for a few seconds, the same time it took to go through the flashing cycle.

There is bright and there's sunglasses time, sorry but aiming bright lights at car drivers eyes ain't going to increase your safety. SMICSFYBL "Sorry mate I could not see for your blinding light." Or maybe YBM, "Your light blinded me!"

I've been using this with the 808 front light for nearly 3 years with no reliability issues despite some real soakings - though it's usually on my guard equipped utility bike. It is undeniably bright (think car fog light) which makes it great as a daytime / dusk/ dawn light and necessitates the downward angle but it does have flaws : the fiddly switch, the untidy cabling but for me the main ones are the flash patterns which are too slow and seem like an afterthought. It's worth getting as an addition if you already have a magicshine front light but not as a light on its own.

I've had this light with a Magicshine 872 for the last two years now - excellent set of lights that I feel protect me when I commute in the dark.

I agree with article and other commentators that the light 'faces' down when mounted. Considering how bright this thing is, I actually prefer it as I don't want to blind the motorists behind me. In my case, I also angle/rotate it so that it's sorta facing toward the road so it lights up.

My bugbear with it, is the fiddly switch which I no longer use as I just disconnect the battery from the Y-Cable when I don't need to power them both down. Cabling is a major pain on the bike with the bulky battery which is not a problem on my MTB but it just annoys me on my road bike.

Having said that, I am now looking for both integrated USB rechargeable lights for the Road Bike if only to get away from the cabling mess/annoyance so if there was a magic shine light with this output - I would buy it.

A 10 quid Smart 2x 0.5W light is even more than you need in terms of light output - and at least it has an easy-to-use button as a mode switch and an adjustable mount made of solid plastic, not some funny rubber fitting. It's perfectly visible from the sides too.

This whole arms race in lights department is just silly. Such a high light output only makes drivers more distracted and nervous instead of making cyclists safer. The same goes for most front lights nowadays - manufacturers only care to sqeeze more lumens out of them instead of focusing and shaping the beam properly. Idiotic.

Yup, I've got one too, in the southern hemisphere. I put the battery under the seat, so run a short lead to the back light and a longer one to the front.

The magnetic switch is fiddly, so I keep turning it in the same direction to get the different flashes (& till it turns off).

The angle is slightly down, so I put a small folded over piece of inner tube under the lower edge to bring it up to horizontal.

Good light which I run during commuting hours, even if it's not dark.

I've had a couple of these, and like lequin and the reviewer, found the switching to be a bit odd at first (and two of them disintegrated internally but were replaced by Magicshine UK), but the brightness and battery life is fantastic, and the red puddle of light on the road behind is superb.

The issue is that the bezel moves a magnet set within it past a magnetic switch; if the bezel gets dirty (which it does, because it's over the back wheel...), it sticks and eventually turning it ends up turning the insides, which sooner or later rips all the wiring to bits.http://road.cc/sites/all/modules/smileys/packs/Yahoo!/frustrated.gif

The solution I found was just to use a magnet (I use one off a Cat Eye SL-LD100R, but any will work) to swipe past the side of the light to turn it on (I don't bother switching it off, just unplug the set as I keep my battery in my bag). Doing that my current one is coming up for 3 years old and still going strong.

But yes, like the review says - great light for the money!

Bought one of these when they first came out, but after 6 months it began playing up and was very temperamental switching it on and then by 8 months it fell apart internally and the lens assembly detached. The internals, now I could examine them, had a coating of road salt and grime on them, so obviously sealing wasn't up to much and, having worked in lighting for many years, the internal design of this light is crazy - it looks like a nice idea when your just thinking in a idea way, but it is a design that will fail by design because you have to turn the whole light mechanism in order to switch the light on and off.

I had to fall back on using my small Smart rear light for a few days and then I bought a Cateye TL-LD1100 and so far am very happy with it

I've got one, and use it as a fog light or on busy roads in daytime. It's too bright for use as a general light in darkness, particularly if you're aiming it straight back.

Any number of decent rear lights will get you seen. This just pisses people off.

I have one of these. Angle is fine on my seatpost. In any case the light is fantastically bright, so even if it does point down factionally it'll prevent glare for other road users heading towards you.

I use this light every evening for my commute. This includes a 2 mile stretch of unlit single carriageway that is often used by foreign lorry drivers with a trailer full of Nissan cars bound for mainland Europe. Without fail every one of these drivers to date has given me an extremely wide berth when overtaking, usually by taking the whole of the opposite lane.

Can't say fairer than that!

The angle on the seat post is all wrong - light points down.

Looks nice though.