Q. What about those cheap but powerful lights, like Magicshine and iaMOutdoor, that I see online? Are they any good?
A. Several members of the group have used these with varying stories of success. The consensus is that the quoted output - usually 1200 lumens - is probably a generous overstatement, that the quality is not always up to scratch so they are not as resilient as more expensive brands and that they are not very feature rich. For example, they don't have a very focussed beam, no/little battery life warning and the choice of settings is very limited.

All that said, they are very bright and good enough to ride off-road at night, you just might want a spare battery. They are very good as a first light and they do seem to be driving down the price of some of the high-spec competition. When one of the group had a problem with their battery, the supplier, Magicshine, were helpful so aftersales assistance is available.

Don't be under any illusions that they're better than the 'quality' brands though - these tend to be much more resilient, feature rich, leading edge, etc. But the cheap brands are changing the market.