garmin vs bryton?

copper585

looking for a new gps computer, looking at either garmin 500 or one of these new bryton ones.am familiar with the garmin and nearly bought one few months ago however have now seen the brytons and quite taken with them.does anyone have a bryton and what do you think? whats their site like to use? thank you for any replies.

copper585

nobody bought a bryton?

le_boss

tbh i had never even heard of bryton until your post. and after reading what i can about them on the net i wouldnt be suprised if no-one has bought one.

garmin basically have a monopoly because their products are so good. i know they are expensive, but its like everything these days, you get what you pay for.

mrushton

My partner was thinking about a gps map thing for when she is out on the bike. Is there anything available that lets her follow the map route that isn't a Garmin and if she gets a Garmin any particular model? She isn't that bothered about the bike functions.

le_boss

this is a basic garmin gps if your not interested in the bike function:
http://www.probikekit.com/display.php?code=O0309

if you dont want a garmin how about getting a phone with maps on it? any android or the iphone will give you mapping apps

mrushton

le_boss wrote:

this is a basic garmin gps if your not interested in the bike function:
http://www.probikekit.com/display.php?code=O0309

if you dont want a garmin how about getting a phone with maps on it? any android or the iphone will give you mapping apps

Means changing her phone (she has a Nokia) to a smart phone - tbh she should just remember the route Just wanted something simple but it doesn't work like that

mroli

mrrushton - the best bike GPS thing I have seen is the Adventurer 2800 or 3500 which uses OS maps. There is probably a cheaper option, but if you really aren't interested in any of the training functions, the mapping looked great.

le_boss

mrushton wrote:

le_boss wrote:

this is a basic garmin gps if your not interested in the bike function:
http://www.probikekit.com/display.php?code=O0309

if you dont want a garmin how about getting a phone with maps on it? any android or the iphone will give you mapping apps

Means changing her phone (she has a Nokia) to a smart phone - tbh she should just remember the route Just wanted something simple but it doesn't work like that

i had a similar issue as my phone isnt a smartphone, but i wanted to see if i could get maps on it as it is gps enabled. thanks to some help on here i managed it.

http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtop ... t=12746282

provided the phone is java enabled and has gps inbuilt you can use things like trekbuddy (works great) and google maps. only issue i have found is after 3 hours the battery is dead.

fred22

le_boss wrote:

tbh i had never even heard of bryton until your post. and after reading what i can about them on the net i wouldnt be suprised if no-one has bought one.

garmin basically have a monopoly because their products are so good. i know they are expensive, but its like everything these days, you get what you pay for.

Not sure i entirely agree. Garmin def have a monopoly but the forums are full of complaints about them. I'd also agree that they are expensive, the new 800 being 400 quid with the maps yet no shortage of customers waiting.

mrushton

mroli wrote:

mrrushton - the best bike GPS thing I have seen is the Adventurer 2800 or 3500 which uses OS maps. There is probably a cheaper option, but if you really aren't interested in any of the training functions, the mapping looked great.

£200+!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I used to stick an OS map in my jersey pocket. The Garmin 605 seems cheaper. I'll buy something then some 'WonderMap' (tm) thing will appear for £10 in Aldi.

Oh spooky. I thought they were wired or something but am I right that a lot of the data is generated via satellites not wheel magnets (apart from HR)? So is the 605 worth getting? At £150 it's some 25x more expensive than the Landranger OS map but if I can swap between bikes it might be worth having (thinks of expensive 'follies' sat in boxes in the house)

spokegeezer

If you want to follow courses or download routes, dont get an Edge 500, it will keep crashing!

antfly

Have you updated the firmware? They just released another update.

gorgoracha

The advantage with Garmin is that you can have maps from any place in the world... I am currently in Taiwan for 3 months... Enjoying the very mild winter... And I can easily make some local route (turn by turn)... Memory map or bryton wouldn't allow me that as they got no detail map for this area for example...

Otherwise if you are only interested by the GPS functions, the 605 works great... TBH I had a polar watch for a few years and I didn't replace the battery last time... It wasn't bringing me anything...

flanners1

I have a HTC smartphone and run My Tracks have Cateye computer and HR. I find My Tracks perfect for keeping tabs on my ride. Also have maps on the phone. Battery life has never been a problem. Garmins are great but far too expensive for what they are.

spokegeezer

antfly wrote:

Have you updated the firmware? They just released another update.

Is there a version of firmware that doesn't crash when following courses? I've heard it will follow short courses but ones of circa 80+ miles it always crashes.
Which version of firmware works please?

antfly

I don't know i've never done 80miles with it but the recent update said something about improving courses when I updated mine.

Petzicat1

Loving my Garmin 800. First GPS for bike so can't comment on any other device

marcusjb

Petzicat1 wrote:

Loving my Garmin 800. First GPS for bike so can't comment on any other device

+1

Works very very well. I am using it on 200k rides without any dramas for battery life or following the course - and the new update with the recalculation on/off ability is excellent.

No complaints so far....or maybe one.....the beep for turns is quiet due to the speaker being underneath the unit in the mount area (for waterproofing I assume). I've yet to miss a turn, but it is hard to hear in town.

Brilliant piece of kit.

Hudster

I use my 500 for following courses, but not sure if I've done one over 80 miles on it yet. They have just released an update to the firmware though (which I've not yet taken). I'm a big fan of mine, but I use it more as a training aid than navigational aid.

If you are not bothered about the bike features and logging, then you can get any cheap GPS device. If you want maps, then you will need to spend a bit more. I also have maps on my Nokia (it's not got a gps though) so if I ever get lost I can check that. For properly exploring, you cannot beat a proper paper map. I tend to print one out before heading off and folding it in my jersey pocket. I'll use OS maps for mountain biking, but find them too bulky for road riding...

jimmyfortune

you can buy the bryton rider gps very cheap on iceware:

http://www.iceware.be/Bryton-cb4_Sp_l94VogAAAEsLvBDgGOT-Consumer-Electronics-UK-BOS-en_GB-EUR

i bought it a few weeks ago and received it in two days. i like this one a lot
better than my garmin (that i lost during biking due to a bad garmin mount) and
it saves me a lot of money with the open source maps!
[/url]

spasypaddy

i love my 800 but its going to go back to garmin, the screen is disintegrating around the edge. disappointed but a replacement should see me happy.

MrChuck

jimmyfortune wrote:

i like this one a lot
better than my garmin (that i lost during biking due to a bad garmin mount) and
it saves me a lot of money with the open source maps!

You can use open source maps with Garmins though- I have them on my Vista?

xrayted

I have been using Garmin for years, and since the advent of Garmin Connect it has become a revelation. Training centre previously provided functional data, whereas Connect offers fully integrated analysis.

I only possess a Forerunner 305 and via a handlebar mount, it travels with me on everyone one of my cycle rides and even a week in Mallorca didn't phase it. To get such comprehensive information from a wristwatch type device is amazing.

Being on the look for a new GPS based device to analyse my rides etc, and obviously the price point of the Bryton attracted me. However as Garmin has evolved into the byword for cycling performance measurement it tends to make my choice simpler.

If it is that if Bryton can carve a way into the market, then the overly inflated prices for Garmin's could be forced down. However you only have to look at what Apple did to the portable entertainment industry, and why it continues to dominate to realise that people who choose a Bryton instead of a Garmin may ultimately realise in a few years what a daft mistake they made and go back to the trusted Garmin brand. Like the iPod dominates portable music and the iPhone is now the generic term for a mobile phone,people ask what the Garmin said when asking about cycle rides. You never know though if Apple can improve battery life on the iPhone, their GPS app may be the ultimate winner.

Needless to say then when I do upgrade it will be decided by which Garmin I can afford. I prefer to see what happens with Bryton to see what decision I would make after my next Garmin.

nathancom

Yes Garmin Connect is excellent. In time I am sure sport specific smartphones that equal Garmins will be released but currently you can't beat the Garmin 500/800 as cycling computers.

I don't see the point of saving a relatively small amount of money for an item I know is less good than the market leader. I would rather save up a little bit longer or just take the plunge, so currently I wouldn't look at anything other than Garmin. And again Garmin Connect has a lot to do with this, you are buying not only the computer but the software service as well.

apreading

Yes, I love Garmin connect. Was tempted enough to register with Strava the other day, but it seems fiddly and complicated and more about competing on 'segments' rather than just being a nice simple training aand route planning tool that lets you share with others. Garmin connect if reason alone to go for a Garmin to me - so glad I bought my 800, I thought I would regret it but its one of the best cycling related items I have ever bought.

d4evr

I am thinking of a new computer, and I have looked at the Garmin range, I don't need mapping (I know where I am going generally) I have a Satmap for hillwalking also. So my question is this, Is the Edge 500 the one to go for, and is it worth going for the HR and Cadence version?

nathancom

It all depends on what cycling you plan to do - it is a full featured training computer. If that is what you need/want then it will make you happy. HR and Cadence sensors are useful in trying to improve different aspects of your cycling, so again if you are after a top end training computer they are must haves really. If you just want something to measure your speed/distance/laps etc then the Garmin will do that and very well too.

robdaykin

Hadn't seen this thread before, but there have been threads previously on the Bryton units that I've contributed to.

My Rider 50 is now 14-15 months old, about 4500 miles logged and it works beautifully. Still has over a 10 hour battery life, with HR and either cadence or speed/cadence sensors running, I have a GSC10 from the Garmin era, and I have a Bontrager cadence only sensor on a different bike. In terms of still working it triumphs over the Garmin 305 it replaced, because I had not managed to keep a 305 running for as long as 12 months, and battery life tended to be around 2-4 hours on any 305 I had.

Interface on the unit is bright, colourful and informative, with no real problems seeing it in any light. Backlight is automatic and colours invert at night to orange on black, making it easier to read without the light on all the time. Buttons are robust, and haven't broken, unlike the 305. Menus are simple and easy to navigate. Lots of options to set up lots of different screens, but I tend to have 3, map, current real time data and trip data. Can have loads of fields visible or just a few.

For navigation they now supply Navteq maps, or you can use open street map. The Navteq ones are a little quirky, since I definitely don't need to see bus stops marked in town, and I prefer the open street map ones. Maps are stored on Micro SD, and you can buy loads of different areas online for download. Navteq Maps are also stored online so you can't lose them, and you download onto the unit as you like, or you can put your own on an SD card. Not tried that but the original maps were open street map.

Internal data storage for rides and routes feels infinite. I have not yet managed to fill it past 10%. Which is great compared to the 305 which could not store enough way points for me to ride back from York (50 miles on back roads).

Other contrasts, the Garmin software is shoddy, speaking as a software developer. The training center interface is clunky and dated, and the maps it shows are a joke, with only main roads shown, and often in the wrong place. I only ever used it as a backup, and instead loaded the GPS records into other software to review. The Bryton software is web driven, sometimes slow, sometimes you need to do things twice, but the maps are Google and so reasonably accurate, and the software not too bad with some analysis tools and charts. The main issue is that you must upload to their site, which personally I'd rather not do. Once uploaded however it's a doddle to create a range of file formats to drop into your preferred software, so it's not too bad.

The Bryton route planner is reasonably good, and good enough that I don't feel the urge to go back to bikeroutetoaster, or any of the other tools I've used.

As regards support Garmin will replace a faulty unit, but will totally ignore any suggestion that they might improve anything, software or hardware. They suffer from big corporation disease, they are right, and the customer has no choice but to lump it. Bryton by contrast respond promptly to emails, and whilst I've had issues with the unit over the year (wouldn't stay switched off, now fixed, compass gets confused, recalibrate or use map instead), they issue firmware updates, and feature updates regularly. Since you connect to their website, these are automatically selected and installed, with minimal intervention from you, so you're almost always on the latest set of fixes.

Early Bryton mounts were prone to failure, and I had one go at 30mph chucking the unit down the road about 2 months in. Damage was a small gouge in a corner of the face, well away from the screen. The mounts were redesigned about that time, and the new ones are now more flexible and after 11 months, no complaints.

Boot up time is a couple of minutes, the 305 sometimes didn't complete startup till I had got to work (15 mins ish). Bryton doesn't throw a tantrum if you start it indoors, or you are walking down to the garage, unlike the 305 which often refused to see satellites unless completely stationary during startup.

Haven't tried it with a power meter, because I don't own one, but looking at some of the online forums it looks like they work fine.

I would never touch another Garmin product with a barge pole, and the Bryton does the job. Most importantly Bryton themselves do not suffer from hubris, and do listen.

Yes I know other people have good experiences with Garmin, I had a colleague at my last job whose 500 had lasted nearly a whole year, and aside from battery life he was happy with it. I'm sure the 800 is fine, but it's very expensive compared to the Rider 50, and based on my experiences I chose to give Bryton a chance, and I'm not regretting it.

and no, I don't work for Bryton, they are in Taiwan I think.

Omar Little

Some of those criticisms of the garmin are really "legacy" criticisms though - the Edge 305 was one of the first GPS bike computers and the technology has improved in terms of battery life, startup time, storage etc in the new models like the 500 or 800. I suspect a bryton (or product from another manufacturer) from the same time would likely have the same issues. I agree the software is pretty poor for logging or mapping rides but most Garmin users will use the connect website for that sort of stuff. Its pretty slick and well designed.

apreading

robdaykin wrote:

Other contrasts, the Garmin software is shoddy, speaking as a software developer. The training center interface is clunky and dated, and the maps it shows are a joke, with only main roads shown, and often in the wrong place. I only ever used it as a backup, and instead loaded the GPS records into other software to review. The Bryton software is web driven, sometimes slow, sometimes you need to do things twice, but the maps are Google and so reasonably accurate, and the software not too bad with some analysis tools and charts. The main issue is that you must upload to their site, which personally I'd rather not do. Once uploaded however it's a doddle to create a range of file formats to drop into your preferred software, so it's not too bad.

You need to look at Garmin Connect online. The Garmin Training Centre is legacy software - they push the online software now and it uses Google Maps or Bing Maps and has some great analysis tools and charts - sounds a bit like what you get from Bryton in that case...!

As someone else stated, your analysis of Garmin is somewhat out of date in terms of software, battery life etc - in fact all of the things you dislike about Garmin.

I am sure if you tried a modern one or used the online software you would be happier.

alidaf

After spending nearly a year procrastinating on buying a GPS computer I ended up buying a Garmin 800. I really liked the look of the Bryton Rider 50 but after a few months in the forums I became convinced that Bryton has a long way to go. At the start I was heavily against Garmin due to an issue I had with a car sat nav. Unfortunately, I had to go against the grain to get what I wanted because the Bryton just couldn't deliver and I was less than impressed at the way the product had developed. As far as I could tell, the Bryton group are not developers in the way that Garmin are. They are an umbrella company that was looking at ways of entering a market with mostly off the shelf components. The early firmwares were really buggy and every iteration just seemed to make things worse. They were constantly chasing their tail trying to resolve problems. I lost patience with them in the end.