Worth: £49.99 / $59.99
Max Lumens: 300
Weight: 84.5g
Battery Life: 6-200hrs
Rear bike lights, extra so than entrance, have seen little change through the years. LED bulbs have changed filament ones, however when the chips are down most rear bike lights merely shine a crimson mild straight backwards in an effort to ensure distracted motorists discover you.
Sensible options at the moment are fairly ceaselessly seen, with the likes of the Publicity Enhance-R providing brake lighting and ‘Peloton’ mode whereby it dims when it detects a rider behind you in order to not dazzle them. The Knog Cobber vary opts to curve a panel of small LEDs across the mild physique, enormously rising aspect visibility, and right here, within the case of the fantastic Magicshine SEEMEE300, we get a LED bulb pointing not solely rearwards however downwards too.
I’ve been driving out with the SEEMEE300 for the previous few weeks of darkish excursions and have been extraordinarily impressed. It’s bursting with options, has a monumental battery life, nice mounts, and whereas the mode choice is just a little complicated, the modes as they exist are fairly effectively thought out. On high of all that, it’s very moderately priced, which is why it’s been given the nod as the most effective rear bike mild total in my information to the finest bike lights.
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Design and aesthetics
The Magicshine SEEMEE300 is kind of a chunky mild, and one actually not going to be seeing a lot use on the beginning line of any hill climbs. It’s boxy, and each tall and deep. The rear face options two equivalent diameter LED lamps, however one is a wider angle and the opposite extra of a highlight. These are each surrounded by a clear halo which frames the lamp, and offers just a little extra aspect visibility. Thus far, so regular, aside from being just a little on the big aspect.
Nonetheless, if you happen to gaze upwards on the mild from beneath (I don’t recommend doing this whereas driving) you will note a protruding clear hemisphere dropping downwards, encasing a single crimson LED bulb. This ‘Optitracing’ mild initiatives a large cone of crimson mild onto the highway round you, massively rising your illuminated footprint, and as such your aspect visibility too.
The big kind homes a whopping battery for a rear mild. At 1,600mAh it’s twice as capacitous as that of the Knog Mid Cobber, and with that giant measurement, it boasts a monumental 200hrs in its Eco mode. Even for essentially the most forgetful of customers, that ought to see you thru a stable few weeks of commuting between fees, and various evening rides in complete darkness till daybreak.
By way of mounting choices, within the field you get a seatpost mount with a sturdy rubber strap and a saddle rail mount. The seatpost mount has just a little notch in it to permit its use on bladed aero seatposts, although it’s not superb for D-shaped models. The saddle rail clamp merely clips onto your saddle rails and could be very neat. It appears sturdy, however certainly one of my ever-helpful Instagram followers identified that it truly is advisable to safe it in place with the included zip ties. Clipping the lights out and in of the mounts is a breeze, and utilises a miniaturised model of the Garmin ¼ flip mount.
As you’d count on for a rear mild that’s going to be showered with spray continuously except you’re utilizing fenders, it’s IPX-6 rated, which implies it’s tremendous for ‘high-pressure water stream from any angle’. Any larger ranking would permit its immersion, which I feel we will agree is overkill for a motorbike mild. The USB-C cowl is on the bottom of the sunshine, away from any direct spray, and likewise coated by a very stable rubber bung.
Efficiency
For essentially the most half, and within the context that I now have an enormous field of all the most effective bike lights available on the market, that is the one I match on my bikes once I’m not actively testing one thing else. It’s sensible. It’s fantastically shiny, greater than sufficient for being seen at evening, and many shiny sufficient for daytime operating too in larger modes.
You may fairly simply simply set it to the ‘Sensible’ mode and have it regulate the brightness accordingly. It’ll be brighter throughout the day, nevertheless it does with out the downward-facing Optitracing bulb within the sunshine. At evening it will get dimmer basically in order to not dazzle, however provides that downward bulb.
Truly, my essential criticism is within the mode choice, and it’s the one factor I needed to seek the advice of the guide for. The modes are all some mixture of flashing essential bulbs, stable Optitracing, or stable essential bulbs and flashing Optitracing, nevertheless it isn’t overly clear which is which once you’re heading out on a trip, and took me a couple of cycles by way of every of the 5 modes. That is barely compounded by the actual fact the good mode isn’t the identical brightness on a regular basis, and that the sunshine’s inner reminiscence means it comes on to the final used setting on startup, quite than the primary in a regular sequence of choices.
This final level is undoubtedly going to make life simpler for individuals who like to make use of the identical setting on a regular basis, and basically ought to save a whole lot of faff, making it merely a switch-on-and-go unit.
Just like the Publicity Enhance-R, it may possibly act as a brake mild, flaring up when the inner movement sensor detects you’re decelerating. The sensor appears just a little extra delicate than the Publicity unit as you possibly can set it off in your hand, which does make life even tougher if you happen to’re setting the sunshine mode with it off-bike. Regardless of the added confusion I tended to go away it on, as I’d quite have automobiles know I’m braking than not.
You’ll, in a gaggle setting, have to set it to the bottom brightness. It doesn’t have the flexibility to self-dim just like the Publicity Enhance-R upon detecting one other bike mild behind, and on larger brightness settings at evening it’s actually dazzling. The brake mild can be helpful for different riders to know if you happen to’re slowing down, however the mild will turn out to be dazzling so you might additionally go for tried and trusted callouts.
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The mounts, significantly the saddle rail one you probably have area in your rails, are ace. It’s so much neater than the cradle and elastic system that the Publicity lights use, and so much neater than a seatpost mount. The seatpost mount is nice, works effectively on spherical posts, however I discovered it wanting on aero posts if they’re D-shaped, usually trying down to seek out the sunshine off at a jaunty angle.
Earlier than I get onto the downward bulb I ought to say that sure, this mild is just a little heavier than the competitors, however in absolute gram phrases it is minimal, and for that you simply get unbelievable battery life. Battery life anxiousness is an actual factor, however right here it merely doesn’t exist, as I do know that no matter occurs, I’ll have sufficient juice to get house on low mode. As soon as the battery will get beneath 10% it’ll mechanically change to Eco mode and disable the brake mild, so that you don’t even want to consider doing it manually.
Now, the get together piece: that downward bulb. It sounds on paper like a gimmick however in actuality it’s nice, and it’s why, together with the Knog Mid Cobber, it’s what I favor to make use of particularly inside the metropolis limits. Whether or not it’s flashing or stable you not solely get this cone of sunshine illuminating the road round your rear wheel, however your decrease legs are additionally partially lit up too. It is a very efficient factor certainly, it’s novel, and I charge it very extremely.
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Worth
What’s form of mad is how low-cost this mild is. It’s so filled with options, from the battery life, the good dimming performance, the brake lighting, by way of to the downward mild, that you simply’d count on to be paying high greenback for it. In actuality, it’s solely £50/$60, and really ceaselessly discounted. That is half the price of the Publicity Enhance-R, and whereas that could be a actually very wonderful rear mild, it isn’t twice nearly as good. The worth right here is sensational.
Verdict
There may be little or no to fault right here. The Magicshine SEEMEE300 packs a tonne of options right into a well-made, very efficient bundle. It does some issues different lights available on the market don’t by way of battery life and extra visibility. It comes with nice mounts. It’s shiny, it’s comparatively good, and up to now it has withstood some fairly horrible driving situations. The one factor I can fault is the marginally complicated mode choice setup, and whereas the seatpost mount doesn’t work so effectively on a D-shape the saddle mount greater than makes up for it.
All of this for half the value of comparable performers, so it’s a reasonably open-and-shut case to say this actually is the most effective rear bike mild available on the market for the time being.
| Design and aesthetics | Nicely thought out, neat, sturdy construct high quality, and with that nice additional downward bulb | 10/10 |
| Mild high quality | Greater than shiny sufficient, with broad angle throw and added aspect visibility. The flashes aren’t dazzling wither, and are extra of a delicate pulse | 10/10 |
| Management Scheme | This can be a little complicated. When you’re a set and overlook rider it’s going to be simple because it’ll simply keep in mind the final setting that was used. | 8/10 |
| Battery life and charging | Market main battery life. That is it. | 10/10 |
| Worth | Extremely, you get the entire options for a very fairly low-cost worth. | 10/10 |
| General | Row 5 – Cell 1 | 96% |