Best LED Bike Lights

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Night riding requires powerful lighting, and I’ve been lusting over the inexpensive but powerful lights made by MagicShine.  Until now I’ve been using a Princton Tec Apex strapped to my helmet.  This works pretty well, and is easy to attach by passing the straps through the visor.  I want a good handlebar light as the main light, and continue to use the Apex as the helmet light.
Geomangear.com sells the MagicShine lights, and comes highly recommended from customers.  However, when was finally ready to purchase a set from that site, they were no longer available due to battery issues.  I read many complaints about the batteries, so I decided to just buy the lighthead only, and build up my own pack and charger.  The cost difference is small, and I have better quality batteries.
Cost Breakdown:
Part
Where Purchased
Cost
Lighthead, MagicShine MJ-808
Ebay, dapedaler
$47
Taillight, MagicShine MJ-818
Ebay, dapedaler
$30
Battery Holder
$16
Batteries, 4X 18650 Li-Ion
$15
Charger, UL listed (won’t catch on fire)
$23
Battery Case, water bottle
Old water bottle.com
$0

TOTAL COST
$131

 Lighthead: MagicShine MJ-808, 900 Lumen  $46.95


  • I found a seller on E-bay (http://myworld.ebay.com/dapedaler/) who negotiated with the manufacture to have some desirable changes made to the mode settings.  The following improvements have been made:
    1. Plug the light in and it starts in the off position.
    2. Mode sequence –Push the button for Hi, Med, Low, Hi, Med, Low
    3. To turn the light off, push and hold the switch for 1 – 2 seconds (from any setting)
    4. To reach the strobe function, push and hold the switch for 3 seconds (from any setting)
  • Also available from Geomangear for $45, but decided not to buy it there because it doesn’t have the switch mode improvements.

Tail light:
  • Magicshine MJ-818
  • Lightman Strobe
    • $24.99 from swps.com – The Magicshine taillight is bright, but Strobes are still the most visible and eye catching lights.  A strobe powered from the headlight battery would be great, but unfortunately, most strobes are 12V.  I’ve read that the battery life in these strobes is poor, worse than the manufactures spec, such that it becomes annoying to open them up to change the batteries.  Also, having seen one in person, the flash rate is too slow, but increasing the flash rate would decrease the battery life further.  Need to find a 6V strobe.
    • 4X 18650 Li-Ion in series is 14.8V, which would be fine for running a 12V strobe.  However, this adds extra cost
Battery Holder: 18650 Li-Ion 4X Compact Battery Holder Kit  $15.95
  • http://www.luminousdiy.com sells battery holders for 18650 Li-Ion cells.  This means that the cells are not soldered together in a pack, and can be individually recharged, or replaced if there is a problem.  This should avoid the need to replace expensive packs in the future, just because 1 cell is bad
  • Digikey has several 18650 battery holders, but they are through hole mount.  Could work with slight modification, and cheap too.  $2.11 for a 2X holder.  Pictures of the leads.
Batteries: 18650 Li-Ion ~$15 for 4 batteries
There are many options for batteries, and it’s probably best to choose a “Protected” battery.  This means that there is a small circuit inside the battery that prevents short circuit, over-charge and discharge.  DX sells a variety, trustfire, ultrafire, uniquefire… I sure hope that’s not an indication that they will catchfire.
Charger: $?
I’ve read complaints about the included Magicshine charger being a general POS, and possible fire hazard.  Until I buy a dedicated charger, I have a multi-battery type smart charger designed for RC batteries that will charge Li-Ion cells.
  • $22.95 from BatterySpace – UL listed, so it shouldn’t catch fire, unlike the included MagicShine chargers which are not UL approved.
  • $10 from dapedaler on Ebay
  • $10 from Geomangear
  • $65 MRC SuperBrain 992 – high end charger that can be used to charge other types of batteries.  Even has a computer connection to graph the battery stats.  Overkill for this application, unless you need a charger for other battery chemistries too.
Wires and Connectors: ~ $10 I have wires, and can always get some connectors at radioshack.
Battery Case:
  • I’ll just stick everything in an old water bottle, and put a connector where the drinking hole was.  This will be waterproof.  Could fit more batteries in a water bottle too.
  • $11 (inc shipping) BBB Tool Can
  • $11 (inc shipping) Tacx tool tube, available on ebay and other stores
  • $6 – 2 strap Battery Case for Magicshine from dapedaler on Ebay
Total Cost:
  • Headlight only with stock charger – $97.90 or about the same that you can purchase a complete kit for.  Not saving any money, but I can use individual batteries, of hopefully better quality
  • Headlight only with UL listed charger – $110.85 higher quality charger
  • Headlight and Tail light combo with UL listed charger (+$10 for misc. wires not listed in chart at the top)- $140.85

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