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SKY RAY S6 3xCREE XM-L T6 LED 2500Lumens 4-mode Bike light/ $57

35K views 109 replies 20 participants last post by  -Archie- 
#1 ·
#2 ·
While I've bought from cnqualitygoods myself in the past and have nothing bad to say about them, with only 12 posts to your name and a join date in Sept. of this year, your mentioning ( and linking ) of this product reeks of spam....maybe borderline spam but spam all the same. Don't be surprised if the moderators remove your post.

saypat, I'm not saying you are a spammer but you need to know that there are people who join MTBreview with the expressed intent to barter their wares. Usually when they do this they only have a handful of posts and have joined VERY RECENTLY ( as you have )....just saying.
 
#3 ·
It's a tough world to get along in, freedom is disappearing. I am a photographer and was once taking pictures of innocent school children at play on the playground. When I looked up, a man asked me what I was doing??? I invited him to invite the police out,, and he did. The police patted me down! In my mind I was not the offender but I thought the offender was the one harassing me! The officer looked thru my pictures with my permission (I always cooperate) and saw how harmless they were. Free to go. And the offending parent thanked me for my cooperation. Some other photographer might not have been so cooperative. I had respect for the offender, protecting the children.
I think with any discernment, one could tell that there is no spam intent in my post above, seriously. But, police if you must, and moderate if you will, I understand, and thank you. But, I will continue to represent the good in this world, disappearing as it is.
Cat-man, I appreciate your posts and continue to learn from them.

just sayin'
patrick
 
#7 ·
They are drawing interest here as well. Looks like the beam pattern is an intense spot because the reflectors are smooth. It might have been better if the reflectors were OP. At least they got the mode selection right by including a mid-mode. I can't speak to the battery or run time issue. The mount looks like standard O-ring set-up. I enhanced the photo below to show it better.
 

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#11 ·
Hi, JR - welcome to MTBR - good to see you over here too.

@ Cat-man-do. Thanks for that pic, I agree it looks like a standard MS type mount. Good news for me is I have a hard mount from my BD Strykr that should work on this light.

Anyone have some links on sources for better bar mounts that will work on this light?
 
#12 ·
Hi, JR - welcome to MTBR - good to see you over here too.

@ Cat-man-do. Thanks for that pic, I agree it looks like a standard MS type mount. Good news for me is I have a hard mount from my BD Strykr that should work on this light.

Anyone have some links on sources for better bar mounts that will work on this light?
You're welcome. There is a new mount being sold by the makers of the Fluxient triple XM-L ( U2). Looks like a real nice mount and has a slide in clip for the lamp to make it quick release. It will also swivel a bit I understand. Nice touch. I saw it being sold on e-bay ( UK ) for about $15. Sorry, I didn't save the link. The mount now comes standard with the Fluxient triple XML set-up. If I see it again I'll post the link.
 
#16 ·
I also have one on the way, I have a Skyray King so can compare it to that aswell as a MJ-808 / MJ-808E and a 872.

Mount wise i still use the Electron mount as Troutie has used on his lights until the very recent ones. I think i have just the one left now.

Their may be a link on my sig or user gallery.

Moggy
Hi Moggy, it won't be as bright as the Skyray king, it has a different driver and each emitter is driven at 1.8A, I had confirmation from fancyflashlights. You'll probably get close to 1600 lumens, which is still insanely bright for a bike light.
 
#17 ·
Mine might be here by the end of the week. It's been in Los Angeles for a couple of days, and that's close to where I am.

I decided against the MJ-808 and got a Dongrui DR-B18. It's a 26650 light. The head appears to be the same dimensions, so it'll probably have similar throw.
 
#21 ·
Me personally, I don't have an issue with the modes being set by # of led's (low=1 led, medium=2 leds, etc).
I pretty much always run my lights on high. The only time I would change it would be for a trail side repairs where I would turn down to low or medium to conserve battery (and because high would be too bright for working on a flat tire just two feet infront of me).

But I can see Cats point, if you change your modes from time to time, a different beam pattern would be kind of annoying. Perhaps those with personal experience with this can tell us, is it REALLY noticeable?
 
#25 ·
Got a bit of bad news. The battery plug is different than what Magicshine uses. I saw that both chargers output 8.4V, but the Magicshine charged at 1.8A instead of 1A for the SkyRay, so I wanted to use the Magicshine charger. If it was compatible, it would also mean I could immediately try out the charger with my Magicshine battery. This could mean trouble in the long term when I need to replace the battery.
 
#26 ·
Easy fix. Buy a MS type extension cord. Cut the plug off the light head and replace it with the MS type plug. Now you can run MS/B-ray/Gemini/Gloworm batteries. Then take the original lamp head plug and the other MS plug, splice them together and make a mini adapter for the original battery. Your done. Takes some minor DIY but it can work.
 
#28 ·
Here's a shot that may be hard to make use of. On the left is the Sky Ray S6, in the middle is an Ultrafire HD2010, and on the right is a Dongrui DR-B18. All are their highest modes. The lights look much brighter to the eye, but I cut down the shutter time so the image wouldn't be completely washed out.

 
#29 ·
I have that light, works smoothly. But I wonder, if I can swap the clear glass lens for some wide angle like gemini olympia. The cons seems to be the battery pack giving 7.4V/4400mAh. I will measure the runtime and current draw and post it here. But anyway it is a huge amount of light coming out :madmax:

SKY RAY S6 3xCREE XM-L T6 LED 2500Lumens 4-mode Bike light_Bike Light_Electronics Wholesale online

I've bought flashlights from this company before, he has been very good to us. I don't know anything about this light but came across it this evening and wanted to share it. I just bought a Cree XM-L T6 from E-Bay for $36. If I hadn't bought that, I would have bought this. Maybe another here can shed some light on this....

p
 
#31 ·
Got mine a few weeks ago, but weather has been crap on ride nights so I've only had one run with it. The High might just as well not even be there. The change in brightness is barely noticeable from Medium. Should probably run it on Medium and conserve battery, which is pretty bad from what I can tell. From full charge before the ride, I got 1:20 run time on high before it stepped itself down to low, then quit altogether 10 minutes later. I recharged the batteries (5-6 hours), let it sit for a week, turned it on and got a minute of run time before it shut off. Plugged the battery pack back on the charger for another hour and everything is fine. I'm going to do some controlled run time tests with a fan and see how it comes out.

The nylon battery pack holder is obviously a design afterthought. Only one velcro strap and it flops around when you're riding. I replaced it with a better one.

Beam pattern is good. Very floody but throws out there too. 1, 2 or 3 LEDs on does not really change the beam pattern, it just gets brighter. The O-Ring mount absolutely sucks for bumpy trails, passable for road or soft trails. The mount part on the light itself is just hard plastic with no soft rubber for friction, so you'll need to add a shim or replace it with a better one. Even using the smallest O-Ring, it moves around too much. This should have been constructed with a side (top) switch, as depressing the switch from the rear causes the light to move forward with the lights sheer mass and weight. I Tried rigging up my zip tie perma mount from the Strykr, but the wire placement sucks too - comes out of the bottom of the light right where the mount needs to go. Ended up adding some spacers to make it work, but it's not the best.

Overall, a very poorly designed light and I'm disappointed. I should know better by now - you get what you pay for. I'm hoping the battery performance improves, but I'm not holding out hope. Bottom line, I would not recommend anyone else buy this light. Cost me $65 shipped, but with additional parts bought to fix the flaws, it's getting closer to $80. For that amount of money, you can find plenty of cheap alternatives that work ok. There have been many positive reviews and happy customers that bought the Sky Ray King. I figured this would have similar quality, but that proved to be wrong.

My best combination for my type of night riding is a Shadow BL-21 for flood, complemented with a SMO torch for throw.
 
#45 ·
Now I think you guys know why I'm changing out the battery wiring.

Some of you guys don't like the nylon case. That doesn't bother me at all. I use mine, but it serves no purpose as I keep all my batteries in my frame bag.

The mount part on the light itself is just hard plastic with no soft rubber for friction, so you'll need to add a shim or replace it with a better one. Even using the smallest O-Ring, it moves around too much.
I ended up getting that replacement mount when I dropped my bike and broke the mount. The new mount might be working better. I already had inner tube wrapped around the bar with the smallest o ring.

I agree on gripping the top of the bezel to counter balance the rear switch, but the point was that Sky Ray could have done a side / top switch similar to the King flashlight. That would have made more sense for a light with this mass.
I kind of like the button where it is. I can switch it while keeping part of my hand on the grip. A remote switch would be better though.

Also the o-ring is quite difficult to remove comparing with the cateye mount.
Yes it is. That's very disappointing because that will deter me from removing the light when leaving the bike unattended.

Maybe it's slightly higher driven, maybe the cells are suckier?
I think the cells suck. I use my light sparingly, especially high, but the voltage drop at the end of my rides is alarming. It matches or exceeds my other lights that I use continuously.

It's throwing more money to fix problems that shouldn't exist, but I'm thinking about getting a Hope Universal mount. That should keep the light in place and make it easier to remove.

Replacement battery wiring makes alternative batteries possible. I'm thinking about the Xeccon $45 battery. With the mediocrity of the S6 battery, the battery might just give 5-6x times battery life. I might actually be willing to use my S6 all night.

Is the S6 still worth it at that point? I don't know.
S6: $69
Replacement mount: $4
Replacement battery wiring: $5
Xeccon 6 cell battery: $45
Replacement charger: $8

$131 to make this light work like you think it would by looking at the head. If in actual use it's comparable to the Magicshine MJ-880, I guess it's worth it. Maybe it'd be slightly better if the Hope mount work like I expect. It's a lot of hassle to get there though. If Sky Ray released their light like this for $100, with good bike modes, then I'd call it a steal. For now I'll say it's an okay platform for modding.
 
#32 ·
I pretty much agree with above ^^. The lighthead is just too massive and heavy to be practical. I'll be trying it tonight (on bars only) but am not expecting much stability. I'll probably have to change to a different type of mount vs. the O-Ring setup, I just can't see it being stable on my trails. We'll find out tonight.

I also have the 'other' 3x XML lighthead that is available. The much smaller one from this thread: http://forums.mtbr.com/lights-night-riding/new-clone-3-x-xml-t-6-49-88-shipped-814616.html and I compared just the beam shots in my backyard the other night. VERY, VERY negligible difference that I could see. I do like the brightness, and beam pattern, but the skyray was only just a hair brighter (though with various lack of quality controls, I could see the difference being more significant in others' experiences). Being a bulkier and heavier light I'd say the other 3x lighthead wins. The skyray is just tremendous, and that is a disadvantage to it.
 
#35 ·
It always suprises me how many people have issues with the O-ring mounts on lights.

I've never had a problem with movement or shaking, and I ride a rigid! We have some very bumpy, rooty, rocky trails and my lights have never moved.

Are people with problems using them on skinny 25.4 mm bars?

I have OS bars, I put one strip of rubber (from an old innertube) around the bar, then the light with O-ring, and never have a problem with movement.

Switching modes is done with 2 fingers over the front edge of the light, and my thumb pushes the button.
 
#36 ·
Inner tube is a good idea, fightnut; I'll give that a try. I agree on gripping the top of the bezel to counter balance the rear switch, but the point was that Sky Ray could have done a side / top switch similar to the King flashlight. That would have made more sense for a light with this mass.
 
#39 ·
results from my testing last night. S6 vs. 'other' 3x tri-clone.

throw = s6, a little more
spill = tie, both about the same - very similar beam patterns despite larger size of s6
heat = tie, both about the same, neither one hot
battery/runtime = 3x triclone

my triclone came with a 6400mah battery, supposedly. It went fine throughout the entire ride. The s6 crapped out during the ride, maybe 1.25-1.5 hours in. I like to run my lights on high generally, maybe bring them down a bit during climbs, and off while resting. Presuming both actually came with the claimed 6400mah batteries, the s6 depletes it faster. Maybe it's slightly higher driven, maybe the cells are suckier? I might pull apart the battery to find out if I feel so motivated at some point. Either way with the performance being only negligibly better than the triclone, but the battery being worse, and the added weight of the s6 - I think it won't actually be seeing much use from me on my rides.
 
#41 ·
I was just looking over this thread and was wondering....Someone mentioned that the S6 does power down from high to low. Anyone else able to confirm that? Was there any kind of strobe warning before the lamp went out? If not than at least you have the step-down which is better than nothing...consider that the warning.

For those owning one of these lights you might want to carry a small back-up torch or light on the bars and turn it on when you think the main light is getting low on battery juice. That way when the main light goes out you don't end up running off the trail because the light went out.

Funny, but the thought of this brought back an old story to mind. Back in the day of Halogen I had just purchased an upgraded Marwi 20watt halogen lamp that was powered by a small flat battery pack. The lamp had two modes, hi and low. Anyway, I'm about an hour in using the lamp, mostly on high with the new lamp bar mounted and my 10 watt Niterider on the helmet. I start down this really steep section of trail that is quite long, very fast and usually a real white-knuckle hoot. I'm seconds into the drop and popping into the big ring... Already my speed is almost beyond my control...suddenly I start seeing this flashing light and I'm like, WTF is that?!! ( :D ) When the flashing stops the lamp goes completely out leaving me with only the helmet light. This distracts me enough that I start to run off the side of the trail and into some high grass. Now anyone that knows about "high grass", knows that high grass can hide a multitude of dangerous obstacles...anything from ruts, logs, large rocks...etc. When I veered off the trail all I could think was, "OH SH*T"!! If there was a log in that grass I was going to catapult maybe twenty feet at the speed I was going. At moments like this ( < 1 sec ) it's surprising how fast the mind can visualize catastrophe. Thankfully, I didn't hit anything, regained control and made my way down the hill ( with a steady stream of p**s going down my leg....:D...Ah, the old days..
 
#42 ·
Well my just cuts off w/o warning, but I have alarm clock on my computer, so I can set it up before ride. I use low and medium, there is not much difference between med/hi for me. That is the reason I bought that voltage indicator actually :)

I was just looking over this thread and was wondering....Someone mentioned that the S6 does power down from high to low. Anyone else able to confirm that? Was there any kind of strobe warning before the lamp went out? If not than at least you have the step-down which is better than nothing...consider that the warning.

For those owning one of these lights you might want to carry a small back-up torch or light on the bars and turn it on when you think the main light is getting low on battery juice. That way when the main light goes out you don't end up running off the trail because the light went out.

Funny, but the thought of this brought back an old story to mind. Back in the day of Halogen I had just purchased an upgraded Marwi 20watt halogen lamp that was powered by a small flat battery pack. The lamp had two modes, hi and low. Anyway, I'm about an hour in using the lamp, mostly on high with the new lamp bar mounted and my 10 watt Niterider on the helmet. I start down this really steep section of trail that is quite long, very fast and usually a real white-knuckle hoot. I'm seconds into the drop and popping into the big ring... Already my speed is almost beyond my control...suddenly I start seeing this flashing light and I'm like, WTF is that?!! ( :D ) When the flashing stops the lamp goes completely out leaving me with only the helmet light. This distracts me enough that I start to run off the side of the trail and into some high grass. Now anyone that knows about "high grass", knows that high grass can hide a multitude of dangerous obstacles...anything from ruts, logs, large rocks...etc. When I veered off the trail all I could think was, "OH SH*T"!! If there was a log in that grass I was going to catapult maybe twenty feet at the speed I was going. At moments like this ( < 1 sec ) it's surprising how fast the mind can visualize catastrophe. Thankfully, I didn't hit anything, regained control and made my way down the hill ( with a steady stream of p**s going down my leg....:D...Ah, the old days..
 
#44 ·
I just did a controlled run time test with a fan blowing on the S6. Since I've experienced 1:15 run time on a ride using High and since there's so little difference between perceived brightness on High and Medium, I used Medium (2 LEDs) for the test, battery pack fresh off the charger. Brightness started to dip at 1:35, was down to very weak at 1:45 and the light died at 1:50.

The battery pack supplied with this light sucks pretty bad. I also noticed that sitting for a week from full charge, the pack loses significant charge: The light will only run for a few minutes before turning off.

I am definitely emailing Ric at Fancy Flashlights/CN Quality to see what he will do.
 
#51 · (Edited)
I have to post a correction. Magicshine-type batteries work just fine with the head. It's the S6 battery that won't fit the Magicshine charger. I don't care about that. I almost modified the light for no reason. Now I need to pick which battery to buy.

There's the Xeccon battery I mention earlier. It's from a reputable companies with quality cells. It's 6600 mah.

Then there's the 4x26650 battery pack that fightnut found. 10000 mah and $15 cheaper. But it's from a company that doesn't seem to have a reputation, and the cells could be the same recycled rubbish found in Ultrafire 26650's so it'd have diminished capacity and might have balancing issues.

Also, I tried taking apart the head, but didn't get far. I couldn't find a way to pull the reflector out. I removed the rear of the light, but what looks like a pill seems to be bonded in. That gives this light a limited life because I can't upgrade the LED's or driver. If the cord at the mount goes bad, the light becomes junk unless there's a way to take the light apart to replace the entire cord.




UPDATE: I played it safe and went with the Xeccon battery. I'll build my own 26650 battery pack at some point.
 
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