Magicshine Monteer 3500S Mountain Bike Headlight Review - feat. 3500 Lumen + Garmin Mount + Flash

Magicshine’s Monteer series of wired mountain biking headlights are a popular option among cyclists looking for high output lights at budget friendly prices. The series currently consists of five options: the Monteer 3500S, 5000S, 6500S, and the absurdly bright 8000S where each of the model names match the max lumen output. In this review we’ll be taking a closer look at the most affordable headlight in the series, the Magicshine Monteer 3500S. Although the $199.99 retail price may sound high to new cyclists, the Magicshine Monteer 3500S offers an impressive value with 3500 FL-1 verified lumen output. To achieve the high output, Magicshine has incorporated five Luminus SST-20 LEDs and powers them with the 5200 mAh MJ-6116 battery pack. As with the other Monteer lights, the 3500S features a durable aluminum body and Garmin style quarter turn mount directly molded into the base of the headlight.
As with other Magicshine lights, the Monteer 3500S has a Garmin style quarter-turn mount built directly into the base of the headlight. By incorporating this generic mount design, the Monteer 3500S can be used with a variety of third party mounts or adapters which is a big plus. Magicshine includes a simple handlebar mount with the Monteer 3500S that is shared with many of their other headlight models. The mount uses a rubber strap and an Allen bolt to secure it against the handlebar. Multiple strap lengths are included with the light to accommodate different diameter bars as well as aerobars. Although the included mount works well, it’s cumbersome to install with the bolt design. We’d highly recommend purchasing an out-front style mount for a cleaner installation.
... Read the full review @ thesweetcyclists.com/magicshi...
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00:00 Intro
00:11 Unboxing + Specs
03:53 Fit + Finish
06:45 Light Output
09:26 Comparison (MJ-906, Monteer 8000S, Allty 2000)
11:58 The Final Score
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[@geoffhart53]

After a researching many options I took the good advice here to buy the Monteer 8000 V2.0 with remote (MJ-6396) to mount on the handle bar of my Yeti SB165 T2, and the Monteer 3500S for my helmet, and of course I also bought the Magic shine MJ-6260B helmet mount to fit the later. The order arrived today (16/11/22) and both lights are currently on sale reduction (£70 saved). They will be used mainly for night MTB trail riding. I also ordered the SEEMEE 20 tail lamp which is a nice compact, easily fitted light for the occasions when I road ride to the local trail area (Quantocks, Somerset, England). It all looks lovely quality equipment and with 11500 lumens should be the ultimate night riding experience which I shall embark on this weekend. Many thanks for a very detailed and informative review which has been of great help in making my decision. Geoff

[@andrewnorris5415]

How have you got along with the lights Geoff?

[@patrickmckernan7122]

What a great review.

[@ytsteven]

very nice, complete and objective presented review

[@scsc9311]

This is identical to the Olight RN3500. The only difference I see is that the battery pack is labeled Olight. Same price, sugg. $199.99. During Black Friday 2021, Olight ran a promotion for $99.99 and they also threw in the break light, RN180TL, for free.

[@TheSweetCyclists]

I believe Olight re-brands many of Magicshine's lights. It seems like Magicshine and Olight have some really nice Black Friday/ Christmas sales going on right now. Some of them are identical while others have less features like the Magicshine Seemee 200 vs Olight 120 which is lower power and removes the downward facing LED - so check the specs.

[@kamarulamin3333]

Thank you for the review!

[@TheSweetCyclists]

No problem!

[@jordanfranck]

Great review

[@everywherelocal]

cool video 🤘

[@justinrozon7]

How would you say this compares vs the rn 3000?

[@defyent]

Great light but I like to use hybrid 3, which means hitting the button a total of 9 times just to turn the light on. It would be great if I remembered the last mode. Otherwise a great slight.

[@TheSweetCyclists]

All the Magicshine Monteer lights should have mode memory - you should be able to just hold the power button to turn it off and have it turn back on the correct mode. Does your light not work that way?

[@defyent]

@@TheSweetCyclists Hrm really ? Okay I’ll double check mine, that’s not something that needs to be enabled ?

[@defyent]

Just double checked mine, it definitely doesn't remember the last mode.

[@defyent]

So just an update, I contacted Magicshine and they confirmed that my unit was not behaving the way it should. Turns out it's faulty. They sent me a replacement light and it arrived today. Their support was great and I'm very happy they resolved the issue immediately. Great company and great product.

[@TheSweetCyclists]

@@defyent Glad to hear that. Must have been an very odd issue to cause the mode memory to stop working - almost all Magicshine lights have it.

[@twosix_00]

Between this and the Mj-906s, which one do you think would be the best option?

[@TheSweetCyclists]

Good question. The MJ-906S has DRLs and a more narrow beam while the Monteer 3500S has a 5 LED design. In terms of value, the MJ-906S is brighter (4500 vs 3500 Lumen) and has the better battery pack. I still prefer the 3500S for for trail riding over the MJ-906S because of the beam though.

[@richardwarsinske7064]

Neither if you plan on using them as a bar light. I've not tried the 906S but if as "thesweetcyclist" says it has a narrower beam than the Monteer 3500 (which I own) than I would look elsewhere for something with a wider beam. I love my Monteer 3500 but only as a helmet light! Optic beam angles are listed as the same as the 5000/6500/8000 Monteer's but the much smaller die size of the SST20 emitters used in the Monteer 3500 make the beam much narrower and more intense which is why they get more throw distance with the least powerful light.

[@jordanmackay3568]

I'm needing to get a handle bar light but not wanting to spend hundreds. The monteer 3500 is in sale for £100 this weekend and I can't find anything as good for the price. But I'm worried about light spread as I will be using it on the bars for dh / enduro trails. What should I do?

[@MarekGrubala]

Is it possible to use remote pilot to 3500S MagicShine?

[@TheSweetCyclists]

No, Magicshine doesn't currently offer the Monteer 3500S or 5000S with a wireless remote. Many of their newer lights do have remotes though like the EVO 1700 or Ray 2600.

[@chrissinclair8705]

What I don't get is if the battery pack has 4 18650's in there why the hell is it only 5200mAh battery? Are they using the cheapest ass 18650's on the market? I'm guessing to get the 7.2v necessary they are running pair's of 18650's in series to get that 7.2v. If so, then you could easily have 2 pairs of Panasonic 3200's in there and have 6400mAh and those are sort of a cheap industrial cell. There are more even higher capacity cells out there. Can we pay 10 bucks more and have another 30% more battery? What would even be better is if the cells were removable so we could put our own cells in there. I'd love to get a hold of a dead battery pack and pull it apart.

[@TheSweetCyclists]

Good points - I think you're right that the 4 cells help with getting the right voltage. Except for a few Fenix lights, replaceable battery cells simply aren't that common due to the larger packaging it requires and the risk associated with it (i.e. someone could install a low quality battery and then damage the light or complain about poor performance). I wouldn't be surprised if someone has already opened the battery pack up to see what is inside.

[@chrissinclair8705]

@@TheSweetCyclists I'm sure someone has taken a peek 🙂. Well just to help you guys out I've ordered one of those cheap chinese sort of knock offs on sale at Amazon for 20 bucks Canadian(.12 cents US :-)) so I don't care if I kill it or what lumens it puts out. It's basically the same sort of deal, little bright light for the bars with a battery pack. I'm going to see what they are doing and how it charges to see exactly what is going on with these sort of units. Obviously it's going to be of dubious quality I just want to see if they can be "tweaked". It's a good 20 dollar experiment. I've been taking a few of the all in one cheap chinese knockoffs and they are very simple inside. The last one I took apart was just a 2 18650 cell variety and it's very simply made. It actually works very well with an honest 800-1000 lumens I gave to my friend and basically what you have inside is 2 2000mAh 18650 cells wired up in parallel(positive to positive, negative to negative) so that it can use the 3.7v but have increased capacity of them in parallel to 4000mAh. There is no stopping someone from replacing those cells with higher capacity and quality batteries if they ever died or wanted better performance. The beauty of the little system I ordered is it's only 20 bucks and the batteries are the least complicated part of the unit. Because I totally agree with you, having a really nice light get thrown out because the batteries will need eventual replacing, is very wasteful. The light may be just perfectly fine, but eventually the batteries will degrade. Once I see how it's made, and can put it all back together properly, I may order some middle of the road decent batteries like those 3200mAh Panasonics or LG's or some other cheap industrial solid performing batteries and see if I can replace God knows what in this basket case I've ordered. I may even put it on my tech channel. Even if I kill the battery pack I'm sure I can make my own as long as the light receives the appropriate voltage. It's either 3.7 with cells in parallel or 7.2 with cells in series. The light doesn't care. Hell you could build a 48,000mAh battery for all the light cares. I'll keep you posted. Great channel by the way.

[@andrewnorris5415]

@chrissinclair8705 TrustFire do battery packs that take 4 or 6 cells - and they work with the magicshine lights. Can fit any cells you want in them. Dual springs too. I have the 3500S and that pack works great with it. I have 4 LG cells 3500mah. It's waterproof and comes with a basic battery level meter and a USB output. It does not charge from usb though. But plenty of 8.4V chargers can be got for cheap. Can get good deals on the magicshine lights second hand. They are well made. That is how I got mine.

[@KlimChugunkin888]

Кто пробовал свет с раскрытием 170 градусов(по горизонту),тот уже не согласится мучать свои глаза ездой в "тоннеле" 30 градусов-это ничто.

[@ivanteo1973]

Micro USB charging? in 2022? seriously?

[@TheSweetCyclists]

Yes, it's surprising to see from Magicshine which have converted most of their lights to USB-C. Note, the Monteer 8000S's larger battery pack has a USB-C charging port.