Magicshine MJ-906 light set

The Magicshine MJ-906 boasts an output of 5,000 lumens which is pretty impressive for its £119.94 price and with pretty decent burn times it's one to be considered if you want a full light set on a budget.

Magicshine intends the MJ-906 for off-road use so to be fair this is how we'll be reviewing it. Think of it as an accessory to all of those gravel and adventure bikes we've been testing lately. I did use it on the road in its lower output settings but the majority of the testing took place off-road on gravel tracks and on the trails in the woods.

The MJ-906 is a full light set, you get a front, a rear and a wireless remote control which is actually pretty cool.

Let's start with the front.

Five thousand lumen! That's what Magicshine are claiming for the five LED's output. I'm guessing each is supposed to put out a thousand and they've just multiplied things.

Looking at our light beam comparison engine though you'll see that when measured the actual output is slightly less than the Niterider Pro 2800 with, yep you've guessed it, a claimed output of 2800 lumen.

Okay, so we've already halved the brightness but that is still one hell of a lot of light firing around. Unfortunately the MJ-906 doesn't put all those photons to very good use.

Brightness isn't the be all and end all and we've tested many lights with much lower output than this that use reflectors and lenses to really do something with the light that is being generated by the LEDs. The MJ-906 lacks that, it just puts out a blob of light with no focus which really becomes irritating especially when things become technical. There doesn't seem to be any light where you really need it.

Changing modes doesn't help as you are just throwing more random light out there.

The rear has some issues too. The main problem is that the clamp doesn't take into account the angle of the seatpost. LED's can be very bright but unlike incandescent bulbs they're only really effective when they are pointing directly at those that need to see them. Many others like Exposure, Hope or SeeSense have angled brackets that aim the light horizontally.

Both of the lights have plenty of modes. The front has five: 5,000 lumen (2 hours run time), 3,750 lumen (3hours), 2,500 lumen (5hours), 1,000 lumen (10hours) and a flashing mode that lasts for 7 hours.

My pet hate with any front light is having to pass through flashing while scrolling through the modes, but this is exactly what you have to do here. If you are in the lowest output and need to go to the highest for a steep technical downhill, for a fraction of a second everything you can see is like a '90s rave.

The rear has various options from solid through various flashing modes, and they can all be controlled by the included wireless remote control.

I strapped the remote around the hood of the gear shifter so I never needed to move my hands to change the light setting. You get two buttons, the larger for the front light with smaller for the rear and it's brilliant. More lights should come with these remotes as it makes changing the setup so easy.

Battery life was a bit sporadic and I never achieved the full burn times quoted. I got close, say 10% less but sometimes it was further away than that. It didn't do confidence a whole lot of good if you couldn't trust the light for its exact time of departure so I really stayed on the side of caution.

There are some things to praise though on the MJ-906. Its resistance to the elements is impressive. Plenty of my test rides took place on cold, wet and muddy gravel tracks without issue.

And value is really on its side. For all of its faults the MJ-906 is quite cheap for its output and battery life compared to its opposition. Things like the rear light and remote switch are added extras too. The quality of the beam pattern leaves quite a bit to be desired but if your budget is tight there is still a lot to like here.

Verdict

Okay budget off road light but lacks performance of more expensive competitors