This is such a crazy light. A wonderful review as always. I love the amount of detail in your videos. The only flaw is with these heavy mountain bike style lights it really helps to see how it would light up far into the distance or on a trail. Didn’t really get much of that from the “on the road” footage. Thanks again and keep up the good work!
Appreciate the support. Yes, this light is really crazy. I wish the GoPro could capture just how bright the light is, it really feels like turning on a spot light. I'm honestly amazed that this bright of a light is even legal to sell, in the full 12000 lumen mode you could easily blind oncoming traffic.
Good review but I am surprised that you did not compare at least the beam performance of the Magicshine design vs the Lupine SL AX and Lupine Mini Max, given this is clearly an attempt to duplicate the SL AX. The Lupine SL AX has been out on the market the longest. Run time aside I am very curious as to how they would compare in both quality and beam performance.
Good tip, even a basic dot on the cable would simplify it. It's interesting that this light uses a keyed cable design as the older Magichine lights also had a yellow keyed cable while the newer Monteer 6500S / 8000S went back to a round black cable.
$550 is insane. It should have a garmin/wahoo/gopro mount moulded into the top/bottom of it, or threads to accept a screw-in mount. I'd rather have the 1700 with a proper long-throw lens to concentrate all those lumens into a stronger candela beam.
Although I normally also prefer Garmin / GoPro mounts - this is a pretty big headlight so having the bolt-on side mount makes a lot of sense. Lupine lights have a similar bolt option but also have GoPro adapters which I don't think Magicshine offers yet.
Something that I noticed. The Monteer's cutoff beam has far less artifacts when compared to the EVO 1700. In addition, the Monteer appears to have a more even and consistent lighting over the EVO 1700. Maybe I'm wrong, I have never seen either lights in person, but on different videos that I've watched that appears to be the case.
@@vadymvv Plus a huge battery that needs to find a spot on any bike. My thoughts are, if MagicShine needs to send their engineers back to the drawing boards to make an effective cutoff beam light with consistent optics.
Have Magicshine addressed the issue with the mount? There's been a few complaints that it's not wide enough to fit between many stems on mountain bikes. That's a major problem, as this light is primarily aimed at mountain bikers.
Yes, they did include a wider mount than the initial narrow version. At least on my road bike, the wider mount works well. My assumption is all the new lights come with the wider bracket.
@@TheSweetCyclists Thank you! That's great to know. It looks like this light also addresses my issue with the 8000 version.. I didn't like the fixed light output on each mode, unlike the Moon Canopus where it had a variable LED brightness. The 12000 allows you to change the output from 1% to 100% in the app?
Yes, the app lets you adjust the brightness from 1-100% for both the high and low beam settings so you can personalize it. By default you already have 4 constant modes, but if you prefer something between those I would use the app.@@Mapantz1
I see this useful when you are crossing 500km long dessert in a multiple day ride without civilization around. In each other situation it is overkill to have.
I ran a set sitting on a workshop bench at full power . After 30 minutes , the internal cables melted and shorted out . The battery fuse isolated the light cable . It was a hot evening . I suffered from second degree burns to my wrist when touching the lamp housing to move it .
It has a vent and is meant to be used while riding so the cool air regulates the temperature - much the same way motorcycles need to also stay in motion to not overheat. If anything I’m surprised there’s nothing in the manual to warn against using it while not in motion - after all most devices like heavy duty e-bike chargers have built in fans.
No, the battery has more of a square shape so won't fit inside a bottle cage. Magicshine's previous batteries used to have a bolt-on battery holder design that would replace a water bottle cage - I'm hopeful they'll add something similar here in the future.
The thing that annoys me is the mounting for the remote. Why not just make it so it can use the black rubber bands? It took me like 10 minutes to mount the remote with the Velcro. The instructions aren’t clear at all
With the size of this light, I actually like this side mount design as you can put it under a computer and easily adjust the angle. The Monteer has to be flipped upside down if you want to mount it under a computer which also flips the buttons. Note, Magicshine does offer a GoPro adapter so you could use this with nearly any mount.
Great question, here are the measurements and I've added these to the website review as well. Battery: 7" long x 2.25" thick x 2.5" wide. Headunit cable: 24" long. Included extension cable: 36.5" long.
500$+ not cheap. No Matter what you say. Also, you did not mention lenses material. For high output light it's crucial. Acrylic lenses dimed with time a lot. Also, can i pair this with my garmin? For 500$, i dlike to see it, for shure. Also this remote, can it power on ligh from "off state"? Also, can i charge my phon from this gigantic batary? Its such bummer, there is no bottle cage mount clip for this battary. For this size i dont trust any welcro strap on my frame. And, also, eropian style light are good , but fore road ride i i dlike to see high beam mode as options, its not practical have a low light - high power lense.
The $550 isn't cheap, but for 12000 lumen it's pretty impressive. It's far more power than most people need and costs less than lower powered Lupine or Exposure high-output options. [LENS] I'm not sure what the actual material is, it doesn't feel like glass like the Lupine lights have so it's probably some sort of polymer. [GARMIN CONTROL] I don't think the Magicshine work with Garmin light control systems, but I don't have a Garmin unit to confirm that. [REMOTE] Yes, the remote powers the light on from off. You never need to press the button on the light itself if you are using the remote. [POWERBANK] Yes, as with other Monteer lights you can plug in other devices in the USB-C port on the battery to charge them when the light is not being used. [MOUNT] Yea, I'm also surprised they didn't go with a bolt-on mount with such a large battery. The two velcro straps do work surprisingly well though. [HIGH BEAM] The low beam goes up to 2500 so it's quite bright, but unlike the EVO 1700 or Lupine lights there is no beam-cutoff + higher beam.
The 12,000 lm rating for a little over two hours is kind of misleading. You’re not gonna get 12,000 lm for two hours probably not even for an hour and a half. As voltage drops on the battery, so does the lumens. Probably more of a drop rate of several lumens every minute.
We don't have the equipment to measure lumens, but I'm sure you're correct. At 12,000 lumen the light creates a lot of heat unless you are moving fast in cooler temps I think just the thermal regulation safety measures would reduce the power. Other companies like Outbound Lighting have something called "adaptive" modes which will step down the output so you get the initial brightness and longer runtime as it reduce the brightness as your eyes adjust.
i'm pretty sure all these lamps regulate the power sent to the leds inside of the lamps themselves, all the better ones atleast maintain the same brightness independant of battery voltage on the other hand i highly doubt it can maintain 12000 lumen for a long time, i believe it drops down gradually to manage heat, because there's no way such a small light, even with a fan, can dissipate the heat of 100-120W worth of LED's, the best LED's are approx 30% efficient which means it will be generating approx 70W of heat
These big LEDs usually work between 30-32 volts, so clearly they use a voltage booster inside. Generally an LED can create 100 lumens/ Watt, so 12000 lumens would mean around 120W powerdraw. Its got a 144Wh battery, so total runtime would be a bit over an hour. But as the light overheats it probably dims a bit, so the runtime can be longer. The LEDs might be more efficient, who knows🤷🏻♂️
@@BeniKenesei nah they're just XHP70's or similar, they don't need a high voltage what they do however is regulate the voltage down to something useful for the leds and yes, they throttle the power down overtime to not overheat
The battery pack on the Monteer 12000 just attaches using velcro to your bike frame. You just run the two provided velcro straps through the cutouts in the battery pack and around your top tube.
That's a good question. The sharp beam cutoff is only available in the low beam mode which might be why this light isn't StVZO certified. The regulations also do not allow for flashing front lights, so Magicshine would have to disable the flashing modes as well.
@@larserikrst4333well, the cutoff is still not very sharp, there's the strong line, and then theres some sorta fade and it's not even that good, good low beams will appear similarly strong in the distance as up close, even when aimed far in the distance (not as close as in this video) also to be STVzO allowed they need to ship it to Germany, pass their very strict tests, and then modify their product to have a stvzo mark on it this one would fail because of that fade, which is a good thing as thats shit, you want the top of the beam at the cutoff to be the brightest part of the beam (aimed at a wall) and pretty much no light above it to see well in the distance without blinding but still be able to aim it Very far also i kinda dont like this light, the price is ridiculous, the low beam (which arguably is the most important part of a bike light especially if you want it for the road) is not optimal and not wide enough, and honestly not bright enough compared to the high beam, switching back from high beam max mode will make you see less for a while at the price point you're still better off with a Supernova M99 Pro 2 or Lupine SL-(A)X 2023 even if the high beam isn't as bright, atleast the low beam on those are much better in real life
My opinion...here in the states StVZO doesn't count. In Europe with the cut-off you can run it and still not get a citation, you would only have issues or get caught if it didn't have the cut-off.
@@jazzechos1372 it depends, in Germany they really check that, and the beam cutoff of this light isn't anywhere near sharp enough imo, or the design is bad, the brightest portion of the light is not at the cutoff, which is what you really want to throw in the distance besides the more expensive StVZO lights really just have a much better light distribution in general in most European countries you can run lights without a cutoff but it is worse in general as the light distribution often is really garbage, where if you aim it properly it doesn't blind anyone but puts far too much close to you on the road while if you aim an actual stvzo light, at the cutoff will be the brightest part so if it is aimed in the distance the light distribution in general will look the same brightness in the distance as up close, which is ideal the only Chinese light i tested that had a beam that almost is as good as that of an StVZO light is a King Kong MF-200 (€80-90) from AliExpress, and honestly it is almost perfect, but still doesn't have the absolute perfect light distribution where in the distance at the cutoff it is as bright as up close, but comes close to it and is brighter
I'm just using a Rode Wireless Go 2 with the foam cover with voice overs on the riding footage. I did realize my audio levels are pretty low - so my newer videos should be louder as I added noise normalization on the video export.@@PuddyIzzy
Do not buy this light. I have the 8000 and it can't be trusted and has failed me continuously. Cheap cables will not hold up to any outdoor pursuit. Avoid and save yourself the headache, missed rides and getting stranded in the dark.
@Randy2747 well I currently live in the countryside, and it hasn't rained in a while but it's rained twice since I've used it and it seems fine, and the wires haven't seemed to burn up at all, I've ran it at medium brightness for multiple hours with no problems as far as I can tell
Haha a beam cut off… but it has an adjustable bracket. So the cutoff is pointless when I can just maneuver it to point to the literal sky lol. I understand why they TRIED to add a cutoff so we don’t blind others but….. **shrugges**🤷🤷🤷
This is such a crazy light. A wonderful review as always. I love the amount of detail in your videos. The only flaw is with these heavy mountain bike style lights it really helps to see how it would light up far into the distance or on a trail. Didn’t really get much of that from the “on the road” footage. Thanks again and keep up the good work!
Appreciate the support. Yes, this light is really crazy. I wish the GoPro could capture just how bright the light is, it really feels like turning on a spot light. I'm honestly amazed that this bright of a light is even legal to sell, in the full 12000 lumen mode you could easily blind oncoming traffic.
Good review but I am surprised that you did not compare at least the beam performance of the Magicshine design vs the Lupine SL AX and Lupine Mini Max, given this is clearly an attempt to duplicate the SL AX. The Lupine SL AX has been out on the market the longest. Run time aside I am very curious as to how they would compare in both quality and beam performance.
KRRAAZZY amount of light😎.
BTW one can take a bit of nail polish, dab it on the outside of the cable to help align the wire correctly.
Good tip, even a basic dot on the cable would simplify it. It's interesting that this light uses a keyed cable design as the older Magichine lights also had a yellow keyed cable while the newer Monteer 6500S / 8000S went back to a round black cable.
Try an indelible marker....less mess and no wait time.
it's a beast !! good review as always
Awesome product 👍👌
$550 is insane. It should have a garmin/wahoo/gopro mount moulded into the top/bottom of it, or threads to accept a screw-in mount. I'd rather have the 1700 with a proper long-throw lens to concentrate all those lumens into a stronger candela beam.
Although I normally also prefer Garmin / GoPro mounts - this is a pretty big headlight so having the bolt-on side mount makes a lot of sense. Lupine lights have a similar bolt option but also have GoPro adapters which I don't think Magicshine offers yet.
You think $550 is insane? the “lupine alpha light system” thats only 8k lumens is $1,300. 😬
Something that I noticed. The Monteer's cutoff beam has far less artifacts when compared to the EVO 1700. In addition, the Monteer appears to have a more even and consistent lighting over the EVO 1700. Maybe I'm wrong, I have never seen either lights in person, but on different videos that I've watched that appears to be the case.
yeah, and it's 6 times the pprice of EVO 1700
@@vadymvv Plus a huge battery that needs to find a spot on any bike.
My thoughts are, if MagicShine needs to send their engineers back to the drawing boards to make an effective cutoff beam light with consistent optics.
Have Magicshine addressed the issue with the mount? There's been a few complaints that it's not wide enough to fit between many stems on mountain bikes. That's a major problem, as this light is primarily aimed at mountain bikers.
Yes, they did include a wider mount than the initial narrow version. At least on my road bike, the wider mount works well. My assumption is all the new lights come with the wider bracket.
@@TheSweetCyclists Thank you! That's great to know. It looks like this light also addresses my issue with the 8000 version.. I didn't like the fixed light output on each mode, unlike the Moon Canopus where it had a variable LED brightness. The 12000 allows you to change the output from 1% to 100% in the app?
Yes, the app lets you adjust the brightness from 1-100% for both the high and low beam settings so you can personalize it. By default you already have 4 constant modes, but if you prefer something between those I would use the app.@@Mapantz1
@@TheSweetCyclists I hung on a few weeks to buy this, and I'm glad I did! I got a Black Friday 25% off deal.
I see this useful when you are crossing 500km long dessert in a multiple day ride without civilization around. In each other situation it is overkill to have.
Thank you for the review! I got a question regarding the inner portion of the bracket 3:25 measurement on what stem width can it can cater. Thank you!
Great review!
THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR VIDEO.
Could you please compare the 8000 and 12000? Night time video. Debating it
I ran a set sitting on a workshop bench at full power . After 30 minutes , the internal cables melted and shorted out . The battery fuse isolated the light cable . It was a hot evening . I suffered from second degree burns to my wrist when touching the lamp housing to move it .
It has a vent and is meant to be used while riding so the cool air regulates the temperature - much the same way motorcycles need to also stay in motion to not overheat. If anything I’m surprised there’s nothing in the manual to warn against using it while not in motion - after all most devices like heavy duty e-bike chargers have built in fans.
Great review. Does the battery fits in the water bottle bike case?
No, the battery has more of a square shape so won't fit inside a bottle cage. Magicshine's previous batteries used to have a bolt-on battery holder design that would replace a water bottle cage - I'm hopeful they'll add something similar here in the future.
Thank You
The thing that annoys me is the mounting for the remote. Why not just make it so it can use the black rubber bands? It took me like 10 minutes to mount the remote with the Velcro. The instructions aren’t clear at all
Olight is MagicShine, I've got 3 of them... I've got the 3500 lumens headlight
Yes, Olight are rebranded Magicshine lights which usually have slightly less features or more affordable prices for different markets.
GEEZUS, look at the size of that BRICK battery!!! I don't want to add weight to my ride!!!
Don't forget to use "TheSweetCyclists" for a 15% discount off the Monteer 12000 or any other product on magicshine.com
I think it's a terrible mounting idea compared to the Garmin style mount of the Monteer 8000S since those mounts are ubiquitous.
With the size of this light, I actually like this side mount design as you can put it under a computer and easily adjust the angle. The Monteer has to be flipped upside down if you want to mount it under a computer which also flips the buttons. Note, Magicshine does offer a GoPro adapter so you could use this with nearly any mount.
amazing 😮
Is the battery pack waterproof?
Yes, the battery pack is fully sealed so you should be able to use it in wet weather.
I use this on my e bike 4 safety reasons. They know I’m here
Someone can answear this, cant find it. What is the dimension of the battery? Length etc... And how long is the wire from the headunit to the battery?
Great question, here are the measurements and I've added these to the website review as well. Battery: 7" long x 2.25" thick x 2.5" wide. Headunit cable: 24" long. Included extension cable: 36.5" long.
500$+ not cheap. No Matter what you say.
Also, you did not mention lenses material. For high output light it's crucial. Acrylic lenses dimed with time a lot.
Also, can i pair this with my garmin? For 500$, i dlike to see it, for shure.
Also this remote, can it power on ligh from "off state"?
Also, can i charge my phon from this gigantic batary?
Its such bummer, there is no bottle cage mount clip for this battary. For this size i dont trust any welcro strap on my frame.
And, also, eropian style light are good , but fore road ride i i dlike to see high beam mode as options, its not practical have a low light - high power lense.
The $550 isn't cheap, but for 12000 lumen it's pretty impressive. It's far more power than most people need and costs less than lower powered Lupine or Exposure high-output options.
[LENS] I'm not sure what the actual material is, it doesn't feel like glass like the Lupine lights have so it's probably some sort of polymer.
[GARMIN CONTROL] I don't think the Magicshine work with Garmin light control systems, but I don't have a Garmin unit to confirm that.
[REMOTE] Yes, the remote powers the light on from off. You never need to press the button on the light itself if you are using the remote.
[POWERBANK] Yes, as with other Monteer lights you can plug in other devices in the USB-C port on the battery to charge them when the light is not being used.
[MOUNT] Yea, I'm also surprised they didn't go with a bolt-on mount with such a large battery. The two velcro straps do work surprisingly well though.
[HIGH BEAM] The low beam goes up to 2500 so it's quite bright, but unlike the EVO 1700 or Lupine lights there is no beam-cutoff + higher beam.
The 12,000 lm rating for a little over two hours is kind of misleading. You’re not gonna get 12,000 lm for two hours probably not even for an hour and a half. As voltage drops on the battery, so does the lumens. Probably more of a drop rate of several lumens every minute.
We don't have the equipment to measure lumens, but I'm sure you're correct. At 12,000 lumen the light creates a lot of heat unless you are moving fast in cooler temps I think just the thermal regulation safety measures would reduce the power. Other companies like Outbound Lighting have something called "adaptive" modes which will step down the output so you get the initial brightness and longer runtime as it reduce the brightness as your eyes adjust.
i'm pretty sure all these lamps regulate the power sent to the leds inside of the lamps themselves, all the better ones atleast maintain the same brightness independant of battery voltage
on the other hand i highly doubt it can maintain 12000 lumen for a long time, i believe it drops down gradually to manage heat, because there's no way such a small light, even with a fan, can dissipate the heat of 100-120W worth of LED's, the best LED's are approx 30% efficient which means it will be generating approx 70W of heat
These big LEDs usually work between 30-32 volts, so clearly they use a voltage booster inside. Generally an LED can create 100 lumens/ Watt, so 12000 lumens would mean around 120W powerdraw. Its got a 144Wh battery, so total runtime would be a bit over an hour. But as the light overheats it probably dims a bit, so the runtime can be longer. The LEDs might be more efficient, who knows🤷🏻♂️
@@BeniKenesei nah they're just XHP70's or similar, they don't need a high voltage
what they do however is regulate the voltage down to something useful for the leds and yes, they throttle the power down overtime to not overheat
@@BH4x0rAh okay sure. The point is, the LEDs arent driven by the battery directly, so they receive stable voltage.
How do I attach the battery to my bike I'm having issues
The battery pack on the Monteer 12000 just attaches using velcro to your bike frame. You just run the two provided velcro straps through the cutouts in the battery pack and around your top tube.
@@TheSweetCyclists I've sorted it thanks best light I've had
How come it's not StVZO compliant considering its sharp cutoff beam?
That's a good question. The sharp beam cutoff is only available in the low beam mode which might be why this light isn't StVZO certified. The regulations also do not allow for flashing front lights, so Magicshine would have to disable the flashing modes as well.
@@TheSweetCyclists I think it's the flashing modes. The Lupine SL AX (2023) has a 900 lumen StvZO compliant low beam and a 3800 lumen high beam.
@@larserikrst4333well, the cutoff is still not very sharp, there's the strong line, and then theres some sorta fade
and it's not even that good, good low beams will appear similarly strong in the distance as up close, even when aimed far in the distance (not as close as in this video)
also to be STVzO allowed they need to ship it to Germany, pass their very strict tests, and then modify their product to have a stvzo mark on it
this one would fail because of that fade, which is a good thing as thats shit, you want the top of the beam at the cutoff to be the brightest part of the beam (aimed at a wall) and pretty much no light above it to see well in the distance without blinding but still be able to aim it Very far
also i kinda dont like this light, the price is ridiculous, the low beam (which arguably is the most important part of a bike light especially if you want it for the road) is not optimal and not wide enough, and honestly not bright enough compared to the high beam, switching back from high beam max mode will make you see less for a while
at the price point you're still better off with a Supernova M99 Pro 2 or Lupine SL-(A)X 2023 even if the high beam isn't as bright, atleast the low beam on those are much better in real life
My opinion...here in the states StVZO doesn't count.
In Europe with the cut-off you can run it and still not get a citation, you would only have issues or get caught if it didn't have the cut-off.
@@jazzechos1372 it depends, in Germany they really check that, and the beam cutoff of this light isn't anywhere near sharp enough imo, or the design is bad, the brightest portion of the light is not at the cutoff, which is what you really want to throw in the distance
besides the more expensive StVZO lights really just have a much better light distribution in general
in most European countries you can run lights without a cutoff but it is worse in general as the light distribution often is really garbage, where if you aim it properly it doesn't blind anyone but puts far too much close to you on the road while if you aim an actual stvzo light, at the cutoff will be the brightest part so if it is aimed in the distance the light distribution in general will look the same brightness in the distance as up close, which is ideal
the only Chinese light i tested that had a beam that almost is as good as that of an StVZO light is a King Kong MF-200 (€80-90) from AliExpress, and honestly it is almost perfect, but still doesn't have the absolute perfect light distribution where in the distance at the cutoff it is as bright as up close, but comes close to it and is brighter
man these chinese brands understand the westerners would pay crazy money for these
WHY do you keep saying twelve hundred......its twelve thousand!
great channel but you need to work on the sound recording
Is there a specific part of the video with poor audio quality? I'm already using a wireless mic which sounds pretty good to my ears.
@@TheSweetCyclists the sound quality is good! May i ask if you're using* a deadcat or foam cover?
I'm just using a Rode Wireless Go 2 with the foam cover with voice overs on the riding footage. I did realize my audio levels are pretty low - so my newer videos should be louder as I added noise normalization on the video export.@@PuddyIzzy
Do not buy this light. I have the 8000 and it can't be trusted and has failed me continuously. Cheap cables will not hold up to any outdoor pursuit. Avoid and save yourself the headache, missed rides and getting stranded in the dark.
Damn that bad? I just got one for my mountain ebike
I got the 8000v2
@@ironfan998 How is your headlight holding up? Maybe this guy just by chance got defective unit.
@Randy2747 well I currently live in the countryside, and it hasn't rained in a while but it's rained twice since I've used it and it seems fine, and the wires haven't seemed to burn up at all, I've ran it at medium brightness for multiple hours with no problems as far as I can tell
Haha a beam cut off… but it has an adjustable bracket. So the cutoff is pointless when I can just maneuver it to point to the literal sky lol. I understand why they TRIED to add a cutoff so we don’t blind others but….. **shrugges**🤷🤷🤷
TOO expensive!!
First 😊😊