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Price: £69.99 / $79.99
Max Lumens: 1200
Weight: 165g/5.82oz
Battery Life: 2-12hrs
If there’s one thing I’ve learned from years of being a cyclist, it’s that not all bike lights are created equal. I’ve deposited more than my fair share of lights claiming to be the next greatest and best in beam and visibility at the local recycling centre as they’ve either surrendered to the relentlessness of the Great British Weather, or burnt themselves out. I, therefore, have an extremely high bar when it comes to praising the best budget bike lights.
Promising serious brightness (up to 1200 lumens) and proper weatherproofing, the Magic Shine ALLTY manages to toe the line of a practical bike light without draining your wallet (or its battery), and has specs that rival some of the best bike lights on the market. While its older sibling, the Magicshine RN 3000, cranks out a blinding 3000 lumens, I find 1200 lumens to be the sweet spot for real-world cycling. It’s powerful enough for unlit country lanes and bikepacking trips, but not so excessive that you’re constantly worrying about charging or annoying fellow road users.
For the past few weeks I have been testing out the MagicShine on almost all of my rides. At risk of ruining the rest of the review for you, I think it’s a pretty good light.
Design and set up
I’ll cut to the chase, even in the best bike lights, design hasn’t really evolved too much over the past few years, and the Magicshine hasn’t exactly bucked the trend. Straight out of the box, it’s a ‘torch style’ light, at about 107mm long (4.2 inches), and not too dissimilar to the Cateye AMPP900, just with a few more lumens.
The light is housed front and centre in a sleek rectangle gun-metal silver case. There is a small cut out on the sides that very slightly widens the beam of light and is particularly helpful for the use of the 1200 lumen mode, allowing the triangle to spread just slightly wider than its footprint. Short ‘shark gill’ etchings on either side of the chiseled body give it a bit of an edgy look and distinguishes it from older…
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