Magicshine Cycling radar Seemee R300 - I stand by my review

A few weeks ago, I posted a video about a rear cycling radar that I said was pretty good. Then some other YouTube reviewers said, it's dangerous, don't buy it. I wondered, hang on, what's going on here? In this video, without saying they are wrong, I'm going to explain why I stand by my review. There's also a 15% off discount code in the Rear radars connect to your phone or bike computer, beep when they detect a vehicle or bike coming up behind you and graphically show that vehicle's approach. Orange normal speed, red coming fast. I've tested Garmin, Brighton and now MagicShine rear radars and they are most useful when riding mildly busy roads, where you might be looking at the scenery or chatting with your pals. That sudden beep snaps you back to be more aware of what's behind you. The criticism, as I understand it, is that it misses vehicles. There's something behind you and it doesn't alert you. I've tested this one extensively on different roads and I can honestly say it hasn't missed one vehicle. When, as on this awful cycling road, there is a queue moving behind you at the same speed as you, they disappear from the radar. But most radars do this. It's got them every time. The Seemee R300 by MagicShine is £120 and I found it for under £90 online. The Garmin RTL515 equivalent has dropped to £170, although it too can also be found cheaper. I've had a couple of false positives, a beep when there's nothing there, but nothing major. I'm not sponsored by MagicShine. I don't do any paid reviews and I can't explain why other reviewers had a different experience. I don't know, maybe different firmware. And I'm sure they are genuine in their conclusions. I can only review what I've been sent and speakers I find. Just pulled over to point out a couple of things about this. You see the little red dot that's running around the outside there. That shows that the radar is active. I particularly like this unit because of these side panels. They must greatly increase your peripheral visibility and they'll come into their own when you're going around a bend or coming out of a junction. I think it'll make you far more visible to vehicles following behind. Like many radars, this has a range of flash options. You can go bright solid, low solid. You can go into a pulse mode, a flash mode. And I know flash modes are restricted in Germany to emergency vehicles or something like that. But the thing I really like about this, and it's common in most radars, is that as a vehicle draws close, the flash pattern will change. It'll speed up. And I think that, even more than alerting you on your head unit, will do more to help keep you safe. It will catch a driver's eye and make them more aware of the bite that's in the road. Battery life. These are the claims from MagicShine. I used mine for three separate rides without charging, a total of seven hours, mixing the two types of day flash, and it still had plenty of juice left at the end. Plus, you can plug it into a power bank and it'll charge while operating, which long-distance cyclists will like. Incidentally, if this is helpful, could I ask you to watch to the end, please? Then YouTube will recommend it to more cyclists. This is going to be controversial. Some people like to ride wearing headphones, either one or both. And I'm not going to get into the rights and wrongs of that, but if you have a Varia, you can connect it to your mobile phone and then the Varia app will beep in your headphones over the top of your music or your podcast or whatever you're listening to and alert you to something behind. The MagicShine has an app, but it doesn't do that. That could be a miss for some people. Just a quick but massive thank you to the people who support this channel by signing up to become members. If you're interested, click the Join button below any video, except on the iPhone, and I'll pop up and tell you what this is all about. What else? There's also a group cycling or Peloton mode, so you can all flash in sync if you want, and you don't trip each other's radars. There are mounts for round and aero seat posts. The key thing for me, though, is that you connect simply. It's a very good price, and it works really well. However, I like riding with cameras front and back. I don't know why. It's just so I've got some evidence should something happen. Almost every road ride I do with a Garmin combined radar, light and camera. But as you can see, there's little peripheral scatter of light. It all shows to the rear. So perhaps I'm wrong. Perhaps it's better to use separate camera and radar light. The best rear camera I've tested has been the Cyclic Fly6 Pro. The video clarity test, particularly in low light, proved better than the Garmin because it records 4K. Like most stuff I get sent, I've since raffled this for charity. If I was still commuting by bike, what would I choose? I think I would go with this radar, the Magicshine CME-R300, principally because of that peripheral scatter of light, but also because of its price. And I would have a separate rear camera. Now, Magicshine also does a rear camera, but I haven't tested it and it records in 1080. So I'm tempted to say I would go with the Cyclic because I've shown that its 4K is very useful in capturing greater detail. It has to be a really good thing that the price of these safety gadgets are falling. I mean, you could pick up the Magicshine rear radar and rear camera for under 200 quid, but tell me, what do you use? What have you found to be effective? And crucially, what has been their reliability long-term? What works and what doesn't? Let me know, please, in the comments. Now, I did mention the Cyclic as being a really good rear camera. Why not take a look at this video now? It would help me enormously if you would click on that link, please, and I'd appreciate that no end. Thank you for watching so far. Give me a thumbs up if you've enjoyed it. See you again next time. Goodbye.