Lights

[Onetime]

Lumens aren't as important as the marketing folks make them out to be. The quality of the beam goes a lot further to make the light usable.

I swapped from a Gemini unit with all the lumens and much prefer the outbound setup for trail riding.



D

Outbound in the video above, and below is a still from the Magicshine Monteer 12,000 for comparison. I think the difference speaks for itself.

The MagicShine turns night into day.

 

[Ou812]

What are the lumens on the outbound? Like 2000 lumens I think. But they’re not nearly as bright as Magicshine which has lights up to 12,000 lumens and with longer run times.

I had the Exposure Six Pack/Diablo combo prior to swapping over to the Outbound combo. The Six Pack is 5500 lumens, the Diablo is 2000 lumens. The Outbound combo is better in every way, it lit up way more of the trail than the Exposure lights at half the lumens. A friend of mine pushes the Magicshine lights on his YouTube channel since they gave him some cash but he runs a different set-up off camera

 

[aimage]

And here is a still from the Magicshine Monteer 12,000 for comparison.

View attachment 129372
It turns night into day.

I have a 6500 on my lid and an 8000 on the bars. That's plenty of light.

 

[Hobo Mikey]

My lights, can’t remember what they are it’s so long ago since I used them But they were good then with dip facility. The rear light looks huge in photo but in fact it is so small and not round.

 

[kefconstruction]

Finally came over weekend and just fitted
1st impressions are good all packaged neatly etc, came with remote but not really impressed with the mounting system of that!! Bit of velcro maybe need to modify it will update once been out with it

 

[aimage]

Finally came over weekend and just fitted
1st impressions are good all packaged neatly etc, came with remote but not really impressed with the mounting system of that!! Bit of velcro maybe need to modify it will update once been out with it

View attachment 129502

Looks good. Agree re the remote mount. I used a pair of zip ties.

 

[BIG-DUKE-6]

Looks good. Agree re the remote mount. I used a pair of zip ties.

2nd on the remote. First thing I thought of when taking it out of the box. I might mod it to a garmin mount and an extra handlebar clamp that came with the helmet light.

 

[ashleydwsmith]

Hmmm I’m in the same boat at the mo, im looking for lights as my personal circumstances mean I will have to ride at nights more.
was looking at magic shine, are there real world opinions on them? Also like the look of outbound if they are as good as they say they are, especially if they are in the us and I’m uk.
i have a magic shine 1500 lumen which is great and could run on the helmet, but would prefer no batteries.

pictue of change in circumstances

 

[Hattori-Hanzo]

Congrats on the new arrival Ashley.

Since getting the E-bike I've been doing a bit of winter night trail riding.

After some research I decided to go with torches, I didn't want to splash out on expensive bike specific lights just yet as I'm not sure how much use they will get, and having no torches in the house they will come in handy (not only for taking the bins out!)


Not all torches are equal and it's a mind field out there to sort the good from the bad, with high lumen counts being nothing more than a marketing ploy.
Wurkkos and Sofirn are regarded as good quality entry level torches and their lumen claims are generally accurate.
Torches that boast insanely high lumen counts are lying, and that's the same for MTB lights.
While a light maybe able to hit its claimed 5500 lumens at turn on, it can't sustain that level for long without some form of active cooling and most will start to throttle down after only a few seconds, this goes for high end MTB lights too.

Lights with some form of buck or boost driver will sacrifice higher lumens for sustained output, some even have cooling fans to improve this further.

I specifically went for a Wurkkos TS22 for the flood beam and a Sofirn C8L for flood/spot.
Both of these torches can sustain a high level output, good battery life with on board charging, IPX8 waterproof (can be submerged up to a meter), cheap (readily found on sale for under £30 each), and will likely outperform specific MTB lights twice their cost.

I made my own bar mounts as well, but Olight (FB-1 bike mount) make a universal mount that will work with both.

If I start doing more night riding I may add a Wuben X1 which is a flood torch and can sustain 2500 lumens for 3 hours without stepping down as it is actively cooled by an internal fan. Similar performance to the Magicshine/Exposure lights but without the fancy tech, but a fraction of the cost. Thats a crazy amount of light and I'm not sure I'll need it as the current set up is bright.

If you're doing a lot of night riding and you want the quickest, easiest lights to set up and go, then a brand like Exposure or Magicshine is probably the way to go.

But if you want best bang for buck and don't mind a bit of fiddling, go have a look at the Wuben X1 which is often on sale around £120-140

Looks a bit sketchy but it's secure

 

[Canyon Shawn]

Only Outbound lighting for me.

 

[ashleydwsmith]

Only Outbound lighting for me.

Tbf they look great, but for me it’s the after sales that puts me off. With them based in the us and me in the uk it’s a lot of money to spend with minimal support

 

[Canyon Shawn]

Tbf they look great, but for me it’s the after sales that puts me off. With them based in the us and me in the uk it’s a lot of money to spend with minimal support

Their customer support here in the USA is as good as it gets.

 

[guile80386]

Using the Outbound downhill set and I’m very pleased with the performance, especially with the quality of the light without hotspots or artifacts. Less eye strain, you just forget the lights are there.

 

[Canyon Shawn]

No one’s beam pattern is as good as Outbound.

 

[Ou812]

No one’s beam pattern is as good as Outbound.

I agree, I was using the Exposure Six Pack/Diablo combo prior to picking up the OB DH Evo package. On paper the Exposure lights should be better, they’re double the light output on paper. In the trail it was no comparison, the Exposure lights were brighter but I could see more with the Outbound Lights. The beam pattern makes a huge difference.

 

[ashleydwsmith]

I agree, I was using the Exposure Six Pack/Diablo combo prior to picking up the OB DH Evo package. On paper the Exposure lights should be better, they’re double the light output on paper. In the trail it was no comparison, the Exposure lights were brighter but I could see more with the Outbound Lights. The beam pattern makes a huge difference.

Have you had any cause to contact outbound though. My concern is the lack of uk assistance

 

[Ou812]

Have you had any cause to contact outbound though. My concern is the lack of uk assistance

Mine have been through 2 Scottish winters so far with no issues. I’m not concerned if I do have any issues since I know they’ll take care of it, their customer service is among the best in the business.

They are in talks with a UK distributor, at least the last time I talked to them they were. I think they were still trying to make the numbers work with taxes,VAT and customs duties.

 

[Growmac]

Good friend of mine was able to test some Outbound lights and really liked them. Helmet light was especially good, although burn time was only about an hour IIRC. He can't figure out a way to purchase them in the UK yet though, one off imports are prohibitive.

 

[ashleydwsmith]

Good friend of mine was able to test some Outbound lights and really liked them. Helmet light was especially good, although burn time was only about an hour IIRC. He can't figure out a way to purchase them in the UK yet though, one off imports are prohibitive.

Yeah, over £100 to ship with taxes - taking them up to +£400.

Also one hour isn’t long when exposure can run for longer.

 

[Polar]

Have Detour and EVO and my main buying point was "Pass-through" don't know of any other lights with it so burn time in no problem just connect a powerbank from my pocket or backpack and I can ride all night long.
Build quality is superb and customer support unic.
Lumens is a overrated argument beam pattern is more important.

*Just mine experience and opinion.

 

[ashleydwsmith]

Have Detour and EVO and my main buying point was "Pass-through" don't know of any other lights with it so burn time in no problem just connect a powerbank from my pocket or backpack and I can ride all night long.
Build quality is superb and custome support unic.
Lumens is a overrated argument beam pattern is more important.

*Just mine experience and opinion.

But then you may as well just have a light with an external battery

 

[Polar]

But then you may as well just have a light with an external battery

No because I don't want all the cables and external batterie is way more heavy and usually ~2 hours is enough and easy of use just one button.

 

[Ou812]

Yeah, over £100 to ship with taxes - taking them up to +£400.

Also one hour isn’t long when exposure can run for longer.

The batteries in my exposure lights degraded after a year or so, I was only getting about an hour of run time in the high setting. Exposure wouldn’t warranty them either.

Even at £400 it’s still not as expensive as the Exposure lights, my Six Pack/Diablo package was almost £600. I think you can buy just the Six Pack for around £400 now.

 

[Ou812]

Good friend of mine was able to test some Outbound lights and really liked them. Helmet light was especially good, although burn time was only about an hour IIRC. He can't figure out a way to purchase them in the UK yet though, one off imports are prohibitive.

Does he know anyone in the US? That’s how I shipped mine over. They went to my dad’s house, he repacked them and sent them as used with a £50 value. It cost me $25 to ship them and something like £8 in duties.

 

[Prairie Dog]

Another vote for Outbound lights. I have the Evo/Hangover combo and love the beam spread and illumination that they bring to the night. The mounting system is superb.

 

[ashleydwsmith]

Does he know anyone in the US? That’s how I shipped mine over. They went to my dad’s house, he repacked them and sent them as used with a £50 value. It cost me $25 to ship them and something like £8 in duties.

Ooooh this is an idea I have family in the states.

 

[Paulquattro]

Ooooh this is an idea I have family in the states.

Look at that you have just found yourself an importer

 

[fodmtb]

+1 for magicshine , got the monteer 12000. Been faultless this winter. Was lucky enough to beta test this back in the summer before launch. great support and quality build.

 

[micku7zu]

I've recently bought two lights from China:
- 5*P90 LED Bike Headlight 9000mAh from Temu - 25,51 € shipped at home
- Bicycle Light Front 6000Lumen Bike Light 8000mAh from AliExpress - US $25.92 shipped at home

Both of them looks and works identical, the only difference is that one of them has the "Newbowler" logo on it.

Probably they don't have the lumens and the mAh as described, but they are cheap and powerful. I don't have a footage from a run, only when I first tested at home. I will update with a night right footage in the future.

I don't know how reliable they are, I just got them in December and I didn't use them too much.

Check the video attached. It is hard to imagine the intensity from the video, because there is auto brightness correction and that kind of stuff, but I also have a headlight Nitecore NU32 (40€, 550 lumens) and the difference is huge.

The big advantage is that the light is spread, but I don't have anything else good to compare with.

If they are reliable, at 25euro/usd it is a bargain.

 

[Canyon Shawn]

I've recently bought two lights from China:
- 5*P90 LED Bike Headlight 9000mAh from Temu - 25,51 € shipped at home
- Bicycle Light Front 6000Lumen Bike Light 8000mAh from AliExpress - US $25.92 shipped at home

Both of them looks and works identical, the only difference is that one of them has the "Newbowler" logo on it.

Probably they don't have the lumens and the mAh as described, but they are cheap and powerful. I don't have a footage from a run, only when I first tested at home. I will update with a night right footage in the future.

I don't know how reliable they are, I just got them in December and I didn't use them too much.

Check the video attached. It is hard to imagine the intensity from the video, because there is auto brightness correction and that kind of stuff, but I also have a headlight Nitecore NU32 (40€, 550 lumens) and the difference is huge.

The big advantage is that the light is spread, but I don't have anything else good to compare with.

If they are reliable, at 25euro/usd it is a bargain.

View attachment 133078 View attachment 133079 View attachment 133080 View attachment 133081

I’ve been down that road. Believe me, you get what you pay for.