I am kind of intrigued by the price ($100 for the unit). Looking through the manual here, it seems to be capturing everything that my Edge 500 does, while offering wireless uploads/Strava integration. Not a ton of reviews out there, but for the price I am thinking of taking it for the team and buying a unit on eBay.
Thoughts/experiences? Wonder how accurate is the GPS/altimeter? Is there battery life really as advertised?
Disclaimer: I am in no way associated with Bryton.
Thanks.
I’ve been testing the 310 for several months, through several firmware upgrades. With the current version, GPS accuracy is nearly identical to my Garmin 500. It does find the satellites significantly faster than the 500. I’ve seen significant variations in altitude when compared to the 500 after uploading to Strava, but I also see just as much variation with other people using Garmins who did the same ride. I’ve never run the battery all the way down to see what the actual battery life is, but I have gone over 20 hours without a recharge, so it does at least go longer than my 500. The only downside I have found is that the mounting system looks identical to Garmin’s, but isn’t. A Bryton will fit in a Garmin mount, but won’t lock in place, and a Garmin will not fit in a Bryton mount at all.
Disclaimer: I work for a Bryton distributor.
This seems too good to be true. I read a review that seems to say the biggest difference between this and Garmin 500/510 is no mapping. Are they talking about no mapping on the display while riding? Or it doesn’t create a map of your route for post workout analysis?
The 500 (and presumably 510) can follow a pre-recorded ‘bread-crumb’ style course. This will have a blank map on the screen with a line that veers left/right depending on where the course wants you to go.
It does not have waypoint mapping, or even lines notating streets.
Any GPS device that records your path (and not just transiently display it) will “create a map of your route for post workout analysis”.
Okay, that’s exactly what I was thinking. I don’t really care about that map feature of the Garmin’s but would love to have that style of comp. This Bryton seems like an awesome alternative!
Why didn’t they do a quarter-lock design? Does it require a licensing fee to Garmin? How many fields can be displayed at once - max?
They do use a quarter lock design, it just isn’t identical to Garmin’s. The tabs, slots, and indentations are all slightly different, so nothing engages when you put a Bryton in a Garmin mount. The “wings” on the Bryton are also slightly narrower than Garmin, as is the cutout for them on the mount, so a Garmin won’t even fit into the mount. But just looking at the mounts side by side, they appear identical. 8 fields can be displayed on each screen.
That sucks about the difference in mounting. I’m using a Speedfil BTA cage that has a built in garmin mount, I wouldn’t be able to use this anymore and would have to figure out a mounting system to get in between my aero bars.
Is the only downside in your mind really just the mount? I’ve wanted a 50/510 really badly but can’t quite afford one, even used, and this is an incredible price point. Is it really on par with the 50/510? Would I be missing out by not going with Garmin? I’ve already got the speed/cadence sensor and HRM from Garmin, but since the Bryton is ANT+, those should connect without a problem.
I’ve had no problem pairing a P2M, Garmin speed sensor, and Garmin and Timex HRM straps.
I did bring up during testing that with all the 3rd party Garmin mounts, especially the integrated BTA systems, that making the unit Garmin compatible would be huge improvement. Mounting issues aside, I’ve been very satisfied with the results since the last firmware update. I don’t even use my 500 on my road bike anymore, I’ve just been strictly using the 310. I’d love to use it on my tri bike as well, except that it doesn’t fit my aerobar mount and the only places on my bike I can put the Bryton mount are not quite in of my line of sight. So for the time being, the 500 stays on my tri bike, but that’s strictly due to mounting options. But if their bar/stem or out-front mounts will work with your setup, its definitely worth considering…
I think I will have to highly consider it then. I have a wider setup with my bars so I think I could use one of these and mount the Bryton out front mount to that. Should fit right in between the end of my bars.
I’ve got a $50 gift card to Amazon so I’d only have to pay for half!
Do you have any insight if they are planning on coming out with a new model that fits Garmin mounts? I’d hate to buy this and then 6 months later they’ve changed it.
Unless I’m missing something (always highly possible) aren’t you comparing apples (Edge 500) to oranges (Bryton 310). Feature-wise it looks more comparable to the Edge 25 to me. It looks like a basic GPS bike computer that reads speed, distance, time, hr but no power.
? It surely supports PMs - see page 30 of their manual, it covers the pairing, etc. You can also input your FTP and so on to get IF/TSS. It can also calculate NP.
I think that the only thing it’s missing is the live integration with Strava - so uploading from Bryton via Bluetooth should work, but it does not seem to have any capacity to accept incoming data streams via Bluetooth.
Otherwise, it seems to be closer to 510, but without the touchscreen (which is a hugely useless feature IMO), and with a much better battery life, and at like 1/3 the price.
Didn’t see that. Admittedly I stopped scrolling through the manual fairly early. I would have thought there’d be some reference to power somewhere in the first 30 pages. The sensors icon legend (pg 5) has nothing, the various screen shots throughout have nothing, no section giving more details about how it handles power data, etc.
? It surely supports PMs - see page 30 of their manual, it covers the pairing, etc. You can also input your FTP and so on to get IF/TSS. It can also calculate NP.
I think that the only thing it’s missing is the live integration with Strava - so uploading from Bryton via Bluetooth should work, but it does not seem to have any capacity to accept incoming data streams via Bluetooth.
Otherwise, it seems to be closer to 510, but without the touchscreen (which is a hugely useless feature IMO), and with a much better battery life, and at like 1/3 the price.
Exactly what you said. It seems to pretty much be the same thing as the 510.
Regarding the mounting…I just realized the Speedfil BTA I use, I believe the Garmin mount pops out. If the Bryton mount is the same circumference, which it looks like it is, should pop right in! This just keeps getting better!!
I checked the Bryton mount against a Garmin mount, the Bryton’s body is about 1mm larger in diameter. Also, the tabs for the rubber bands stick out slightly farther and are a different shape and size than the Garmin’s. From looking at photos of the Speedfil mount, it looks like it might be possible to file out the hole in the mount if the Bryton doesn’t already fit, and file down the tabs to the same thickness/shape as a Garmin if those get in the way. The only thing that looks like it might be a real problem is it looks like there are a few clips that hold the Garmin mount in place from the underside, the Bryton mount may not be compatible with those…
Thanks for the info. I don’t think I would let that be the reason I didn’t get this computer. I’m sure I could figure a way around it. May bite the bullet this weekend
If you don’t mind making the conversion permanent, I would guess that a little sanding and some epoxy if the locking tabs don’t fit would do the job, you’d just need to replace the Speedfil mount if you ever changed computers (assuming those are available aftermarket)…
Handy is not in my vocabulary haha. I’ll have to check it out once I get everything
Just got my Bryton 310 in yesterday. Messed around with it a bit to set up the screens but haven’t actually used it yet while riding.
Do you have any idea how to change the time and date? Mine is like 90 mins behind and the date says 4/9.
I would expect that once you sync it up with satellites the date & time should get fixed.
Curious to know how well this unit works, accuracy of GPS data, quickness of finding satellites, and how easy it will be to get data out of it. (Although for road use, IMHO as long as you use a speed sensor, super GPS accuracy isn’t needed as this isn’t a navigation-oriented unit.) Garmin fully automates the data exchange, which is nice except it fails a lot. For instance, made the mistake the other day of closing my laptop during a Garmin Express upload, bye bye data. Would be nice to have a larger screen than my 910XT but hate to buy more expensive buggy Garmin stuff. Bugs that are hard to take on a $400 unit might be a bit easier to take on a $100 unit, LOL.