Magicshine Monteer 12000 (!)

I hope it makes a thunk sound when you turn it on, like a spotlight in a film. Will wet trails dry in front of you and insects instantly turn to a crisp under its beam?

How much light is too much?

Part of the fun of night riding, is it not being daylight

A quick flick through MBUK and they have given it the top spot in the lights test.

One thing I like about this 12k monster is there is also a low setting with a very long run time. So often these lights get ever brighter but still offer the same run times as before. Thereby ignoring those times when you want a light you could use commuting or for long distance.

I have their 3500 which is ridiculously bright, I can’t imagine what this will be like! Paired with a helmet light I’ve never felt I needed more for night time fun 🙂 

Given 3500 is incredibly bright, how bright is the helmet light to go with it? I reckon something that bright probably doesn't need any other supporting light, but it will come down to the light pattern - that bright will be fine looking ahead, but if the trail suddenly turns, if the light spread doesn't flood the sides then it isn't going to be much use, but would the helmet light help if it isn't a similar brightness? I'd have thought it would be hidden by the bar brightness.

Part of the fun of night riding, is it not being daylight

This^

One thing I like about this 12k monster is there is also a low setting with a very long run time

And this^

I kind of like riding in the dark because it's a bit different. Now that all modern lights are more than adequate I never run anything on full power and I enjoy not having to manage the battery.

I'm the same, but my level of brightness that is suitable is probably 5 years ago...think my brightest light is 1600 lumens and it is never used on full power. Never had the need for anything brighter, but the brighter stuff does seem to have a 'poor' burn time - no doubt due to the power needed for the brightest setting, much more sensible to drop the setting down a notch or 2 and still have a very right light, but a much improved run time - handy for mechanicals or injuries that cause delays.

(rubbish sleep last night and I appear to be thinking sensibly this morning)

Night riding about being stealthy and as unnoticed as possible, flood lights aren't for me. That and I much prefer all-in-ones, had enough of stupid cables & heavy battery packs over the years. I'd go as far as to recommend the Halford's advanced 1800 light over anything like this, but each to their own.

Damn just seen the price, I thought Magic shine was supposed to be cheap?

A riding buddy has a 6500 and has to lead every ride because it's so bright it casts huge shadows if anyone rides in front of him.

Damn just seen the price, I thought Magic shine was supposed to be cheap?

The discount is built in to the RRP. It's Black Friday next month.

Big lights have always been a bit divisive, like ebikes, fat bikes and singlespeeds. They have their place and are not for everyone.

Night riding for me is about using the time i have available to ride, so not always just about the experience of riding at night. Also, I feel a bit safer being able to see as much as i can in the daytime, maybe less prone to an off.  But lots are less clumsy than me or just prefer just having enough for the trails they ride.

As long as folk are enjoying themsleves. 🙂

A riding buddy has a 6500 and has to lead every ride because it’s so bright it casts huge shadows if anyone rides in front of him.

This is a problem with bright lights. if you ride in a group, lower the power and follow the leader (and ask eveyone to turn their silly bright rear lights off)

I like the idea of the cut off beam, now that single LED's can churn out thousands of lumens it makes far more sense to have a dipped 'road' LED and a trail one.  Won't stop people blinding drivers with a MAXX-D, but at least if it's available and becomes a more common feature that's a good thing.

Only problem is STVZO doesn't recognize other modes so you can't have a hi/low beam approved or a flashing mode on the rear.  It'd be nice if manufacturers could come up with a superwide million lumen flood bar light and an integrated 300lumen road beam.

Agree that fundamentally anything over 2000-3000 lumens starts to get silly. You've already lit up the area nearby more than enough, you don't need to see a hundred meters ahead even on a wide open DH track like the top half of Fort William, an no amount of light can break the laws of physics and fill in the shadows.  Then when you then dive into the woods, that 5-figure lumen lamp that could pick out a pothole at half a mile is now reflecting off trees a few bike lengths away.  You can run them in low modes and get a long battery life, but then you may as well have just bought the heavy 8-cell battery pack and a lighter light.

@DickBarton the helmet light I use is a joystick (1200 I think?!?). The 3500 is bright enough for normal trails, and I often have just that on, but I find the helmet light really useful for bigger drops (5ft plus) and gap jumps. Maybe that’s just me but I like the combination!

The Lumens arms race kind of killed group night riding for me. Leading a group of riders around a loop, where everyone else had way more powerful lights can be really dodgy when it gets technical. My current setup is a Lumicycle bar mounted lamp that at full power puts out 1300 lumen for about 5 minutes before dropping back down and I'm waiting for my new-to-me 1000 lumen Joystick helmet light to arrive. I don't think I ever put the Lumi on full though as the glare back from the trees can be blinding to my shonky old eyes!

I can't imagine anyone running a 12000 lumen light unless they intend riding solo all the time!

C.

I'm not good enough to outrun my 2000 lumen, though i can see why silly power/longer run times are attractive

@steamtb - as much as I'm moaning about it, last year I did have a helmet light on as well as the bars light - bar light was running at around 1200 lumens and the helmet light was about 900 lumens. It seemed to work very well as the light throw from the handlebar was absolutely fine until you got to the corners and then you'd turn and be in darkness for a second or 2, the helmet light filled that gap easily.

I think it worked well as the light output from each was similar so the less brioght helmet light wasn't drowned out by the bar light. If I was running 3600 on the bars, then I suspect anything below 2000 wouldn't really make any difference (and 2000 is ridiculously bright as well).

All just thinking as I'm not prepared to spend that amount of money on stuff to find out if I'm right or not as I'm perfectly happy with my set up...I tend to be the back rider anyway, so don't really have issues with brighter lights behind me (they are handy to remind me how slow I actualy am!).

Prior to the 8000 I'd been running something 1500lumen on the bars and about 1000 lumen spotty as a helmet light. it worked very well, until my helmet light died and I couldn't find anything to replace it with. it was a light head unit with remote battery. meant there was very little weight on my head so I barely noticed it. the ones I tried were just a bit too noticable, plus, I was quite happy to lose the remote battery on the helmet light.

Tried a couple of c2500 lumen lites, and they either were nice and floody, but rubbish for dark fast tracks to the trails, or too spotty.

I admit, I really would be happy with the monteer light distribution and about half of what it dishes out.

However, the 12000 is a step up. I can't think how this light won't reflect back off trees and cause more problems than it 'solves'. There does need to be a point at which the light output becomes unusable. I'm reminded of torchy's review of the cateye Volt 6000 'The light on the ground a few meters ahead is so bright, it produces a snow blind effect and it takes a few moments for the eyes to adjust to the relatively dark distance'

this is speculation of course, it may be a gamechanger (for some), and likely headache for group riders.

I've been product testing the light for the last few months. Whilst I can say the output of the light is amazing, sadly there is no thunk like when the flood lights get turn on in the prison yard with a prison inmate escaping.

The sharp cutoff must be from that middle lens, which seems to put all its light via the reflector (rather than direct through the LED).

The Lumens arms race kind of killed group night riding for me. Leading a group of riders around a loop, where everyone else had way more powerful lights can be really dodgy when it gets technical.

Do the ppl you ride with, not know, you can turn them down, there no way I'd ride my light on a setting more powerful than the guy in front. Have ppl lost even common sense or are they just down right rude nowadays on group rides?

12,000 lumens. Pffft. Think I'll hold off til they bring out their 25,000lumen lights - turn waterlogged winter mudfest trails into dusty trails leaving behind trail of raging wildfire as I pass through the woods.

I do not like lights with separate batteries after an experience where one fell off on a small drop and plunged me into darkness.

I remember riding with magic shine lead acid lights in the early 2000's and then progressing to a Light & Motion ARC Li-Ion in 2003ish, if I can remember correctly it was £450 ish and a massive 700w of power which really made the trails come alive.

That's £786 in today's money, for a mere 700 lumens!

At full RRP, the Monteer 12000 is 4 pence per lumen. I'm sure there will be cheaper lights out there, and even this one I doubt many will buy it at full RRP.

Lights are probably one of the few things where improvements can be quantified.