Magicshine Monteer 8000S Bike Light review

Introduction:

Magicshine has come a long way since their humble beginnings more than a decade ago. And in the last five years, they’ve been coming out with new, innovative products each season to employ the latest LEDs and technology in their lights.

Related: The Best Mountain Bike Lights for Night Riding

The Monteer 8000s is new this season and it’s the most powerful in the Monteer line that features the 3500, 5000, 6500 and now the 8000s that each indicate their claimed lumen output. The Monteer 6500 won a few awards last year from different mountain bike publications so we made sure to give this new 8000s a proper test.

Our thoughts and experiences in the video above so make sure to view that for our review and riding video.

 

Strengths:

• The beam pattern is wide, bright and clean
• It’s really that bright. 7800 lumens measured in our lab
• 12 hour run time on 1000 lumen mode is very usable
• Form factor and weight are compact at about 600 grams total weight
• Battery can be used as a 10,000 mah portable USB charger
• Aluminum CNC mount is stable and center mounted
• Helmet mount and other accessories readily available
• Sophisticated and simple battery charging with USB-C interface
• Garmin mount type

Weaknesses:

• Wire is too long for handlebar mounting
• No OLED display for light information
• Light head and cooling fins are small for the amount of heat this can generate
• The Spot LEDs can be a little more focused to for greater throw
• 

• Vital Stats:

• 8000 lumens max of output
• Flood light – 4800 lumens max; Spot light – 3200 lumens max
• 10,000mAh battery, USB Type-C charging and discharging
• 100 – 50 – 25 – 10% and Flash modes per light mode selected
• 1.5 to 32 hour runtime from max full beam mode to low but usable mode
• Garmin base, aluminum alloy out front style handlebar mount
• Handlebar mount designed for 31.8mm or 35mm handlebars
• Price: $399.99

• Bottom line:

  This is a landmark light because of a few things but the greatest attribute to note is the quality of construction of the light and the consistency of the beam pattern. Materials are first-rate and it really is a polished engineering piece. The beam pattern is very clean, even, and wide. It is free of artifacts and it doesn’t end abruptly at the edges.

  The brightness is staggering at it is about 3 times brighter than most car headlights. Many will not need this level of brightness so they can save money with the lower-cost options on the Monteer line. But the 12 hours of run-time at 1000 lumen Eco mode is really convenient and usable. It’s a great convenience when one does not need to fully charge one’s bike lights every single ride. And when the situation calls for it, it’s really useful and fun to have 8000 lumens of light at one’s disposal. It’s like having 450hp under the hood. It’s not needed but it’s fun and handy.

  It’s $400 but for the quality, usability, and lumens per dollar, it’s actually a good value.