Garmin Edge 200 vs Bryton Rider 35 cycle computers

tbeat

Guys,

As the Bryton 35t is now on sale at the same price of the Garmin edge 200 (around 90 quid) i am pondering what the benifits and negatives of each? my bike is ant+ enabled so Bryton looks to have a head start. Any experiences of either wud be appreciated

thanks
Trevor

rolf_f

For the same price the Bryton wins easily. Really it the 35 is a competitor to the 500 rather than the 200 - there's not that much in it between the Bryton 35 and Garmin 500 (though it sounds like possibly Bryton currently have the edge on the navigation but there is the odd 500 feature that Bryton seem to lag on.

The 200 loses a lot of functionality eg many parameters, the flexibility of how you set the screen display up and all the ANT stuff. On the other hand, I think the Garmin navigation site is better than Brytons but neither are compulsory to their units.

luv2ride

I like the fact that the Bryton 35 seems to have turn by turn navigation (not sure if the Garmin has this?). I have the Bryton 50 with HRM and cadence and am pleased with it, but can't seem to get turn by turn navigation on mine - full maps, YES and "distance to next turn" or "distance to next waypoint" YES, but not turn by turn which I think is the function I'd use most outside of the speed, distance, cadence, HR readings (all of which it does very well). Very tempted by the tempted by the 35 at the Cyclestore price I must say.

tonyp71

My Bryton went through the wash in my jersey pocket last sunday :shock: and has come out none the worse for it (just nice and clean!!)
Not sure if this will help in your decision though!

stepdavi

Where can I get bryton 35 for 90£?

tbeat

Stepdavi you can find it on www.cyclestore.co.uk. Think I will take the plunge and go for it!

goonersi

yeah i've just taken the plunge as well

prhymeate

what's the breadcrumb navigation like on the 35, does anyone have any experience with it?

Weeman1973

Just taken the plunge too! HR & Cadence as well as GPS for under £90, don't think you can go wrong. Hopefully will have it for the weekend to give it a whirl!

apreading

Will someone please buy them all, before I give in to temptation... I already have a Garmin 800 & 200 but still want this just because it is a bargain!!!

rolf_f

Prhymeate wrote:

what's the breadcrumb navigation like on the 35, does anyone have any experience with it?

I'll need to check it (hopefully I'll remember on the way home!) because, last time I looked, it was different to the 40 and a little odd!

With the 40, the display scrolls how you'd expect. It's main flaw is that it changes scale - I've never managed to get from Bryton what controls this but usually I find that when the roads are most complicated, the scale goes annoyingly small! It isn't a big bother but it can mean overshooting the odd turn. If they would make the scale much larger, it would work better. I think Garmin allows a forced scale which is better but apparently the Garmin breadcrumb navigation doesn't actually work useably anyway.

In the case of the 35, unless it has been recently changed, it shows the trail in segments which disappear as you ride along before being replaced by another segment. This would work very well if you could control where the segments are by setting waypoints but it doesn't work like that. The result is that the segment may end just before a turn leaving you some confusion where to go. The 40 approach is better but both get you where you want to go. I'll check this tonight.

Basically, it isn't as good as a proper mapped unit (though a little bit of re-programming and it could almost be) but, as long as you can put up with the odd bit of uncertainty and the odd back track, it's not bad. You shouldn't get lost with it!

Jamie2007

Thanks for that reply Rolf.

Just bought one of these, and was looking for the skinny on the 'navigation'.

Do you find the unit itself reliable?

Do you have the cadence/hrm unit?

Cheers

prhymeate

Thanks for the detailed reply Rolf. I'm going to France in the summer so would like a computer with some form of guidance, everything I read seems to point towards a Garmin 800 though which costs more than my bike! I might just have to take the plunge though.

g00se

I have a 35. the benefit over the Garmin is that it is ANT+ compatible so you can add sensors.

If you have a choice between the 35 and 40 - go with the 40. The 40 had better training functions - specifically, you can push custom heart-rate training zones from the software (max heart rate - or threshold heart rate based). With the 35, by default it displays 5 zones at fixed percentages of max heart rate.

Saying that, I've found a way to work around the website software to push custom zones to the 35 together with custom training routines - rather than try to send the routine via the site, schedule a workout based on that routine and zones to the 35. This will end up with the custom zones and routines on the device - though I don't know how long it'll be before this is removed

Also, the 40 seems to tie in better with the new functions on the website - which makes sense as the 35 is getting on a bit.

The breadcrumbs tracking is a bit weak - though it'll help in a fix. I do like the upcoming climb profile thing though.

I got mine on a group-buy website with heart rate monitor and cadence/speed sensors for about £120. it's worth keeping an eye out on those.

g00se

Prhymeate wrote:

Thanks for the detailed reply Rolf. I'm going to France in the summer so would like a computer with some form of guidance, everything I read seems to point towards a Garmin 800 though which costs more than my bike! I might just have to take the plunge though.

The Bryton Rider 50 might be an alternative to the Garmin 800. Also, if you can hold on - there is talk of a new Bryton Rider 60 device coming out soon. http://road.cc/content/news/74743-bryto ... ouchscreen

prhymeate

g00se wrote:

Prhymeate wrote:

Thanks for the detailed reply Rolf. I'm going to France in the summer so would like a computer with some form of guidance, everything I read seems to point towards a Garmin 800 though which costs more than my bike! I might just have to take the plunge though.

The Bryton Rider 50 might be an alternative to the Garmin 800. Also, if you can hold on - there is talk of a new Bryton Rider 60 device coming out soon. http://road.cc/content/news/74743-bryto ... ouchscreen

Thanks. I've looked at the Bryton 50, but after buying maps for France & Switzerland which I will need, the price difference between the Bryton and the Garmin 800 performance version (which has free maps available) is only about £10 after using Wiggle vouchers. I wasn't aware of the Rider 60 on the horizon though, I'll have to look into it. Cheers!

Jamie2007

Goose

Thanks again for the info

You can get the 35 with all the sensors for £90 right now as posted above, at Cyclestore!

g00se

Jamie2007 wrote:

Goose

Thanks again for the info

You can get the 35 with all the sensors for £90 right now as posted above, at Cyclestore!

Blimey - was assuming that was the device only - or with just one sensor.

rolf_f

g00se wrote:

Jamie2007 wrote:

Goose

Thanks again for the info

You can get the 35 with all the sensors for £90 right now as posted above, at Cyclestore!

Blimey - was assuming that was the device only - or with just one sensor.

Fraid not - you have to pay an extra fiver on there to get it without the cadence and HRM

Jamie2007 wrote:

Thanks for that reply Rolf.

Just bought one of these, and was looking for the skinny on the 'navigation'.

Do you find the unit itself reliable?

Do you have the cadence/hrm unit?

Cheers

I have a fair old collection of stuff as I used to help out on their forums.

My warts and all take is:

Yes, the unit is reliable. My 30 has done thousands and thousands of miles daily and aside from the slightly damaged buttons is just as good as it ever was. At one point, it seemed to not like connecting to the website and I suspected a dodgy usb port but that resolved itself and it may have been a software glitch that was fixed. Some people have had problems but there are always the odd dudd units of any electrical gadget out there.

I do have cadence and HRM. One strap has gone a bit erratic. I didn't return it as Bryton had already given me another. I think they might have been redesigned anyway since. It's possible that other HR monitors have a lower failure rate but my duff one is nearly two years old (though not heavily used) so whether there is an issue here or not I don't know. I heard of a small number of failures and that's it.

I have the old cadence unit which has never given me any trouble. They have redesigned the sensor now but I'm not sure what difference that will have made. I have the cadence on a couple of bikes and it has never caused any bother or any failure beyond batteries running out.

Also should mention that people do say that the GPS speed measurement on the Garmins is a bit erratic. I've never noticed this on the Bryton. There is a slight lag (which annoyingly can crop slightly your recorded top speed! I once recorded 49.9mph max speed whilst still accelerating which was bothersome!) but it always looks very stable to me so I've never bothered using a wheel sensor.

My main complaint is the website - I'm in the habit of using it as it is only recently that you could extract the gpx files easily to upload to other sites. The current upload to Bryton process tends to result in a number of files failing to upload though there is clearly nothing wrong with them (as they can be successfully uploaded manually). The other thing I don't like (again effectively solved) is that any updates were always forced on connection rather than disconnection. This meant that uploading files was done as part of the update process which sometimes crashed. If you'd just done the Fred Whitton, and Bryton decided now was the time for a software update, your ride could effectively get killed in the upload. This is now in the past though.

smidsy

Damn you for posting this.

I have just pressed the button on the 35T at Cyclestore.

I am destined to become a slave to numbers.....and its all your fault! :-)

stepdavi

Took the plunge myself. Less than £90 for GPS with cadence and hrm? Well worth it in my book. Everywhere else its well over £100 without the cadence / harm. No doubt they will sell out soon!

p1tse

What's bryton online interface like, as garmin is quite good

I've got rides on garmin connect can I transfer these to bryton?

Jamie2007

Rolf
thanks again for taking the time to reply so completely.

I know that the website has been a work in progress but have heard Bryton are continually improving it which is good to hear.

I hope that the heart monitor has been improved since you had bought one, we shall see I suppose.

The cadence is not something I have used in the past so am looking forward to seeing my what difference it will make for me or not.

Thanks again for the info, thats what this part of forum should be about, spot on!

Cheers

p1tse

I've done some googling and read responses on here
There's always going to be negative feedback on forum, but Bryton support doesn't seem to help

Also I read you can't see speed and cadence when on a turbo trainer on one screen

Tempting, but thinking hold out for tried and tested edge 500

Anonymous

Seems a total bargain for a device which will communicate with ant+ power meters too! Just needs strava support then it could really take on garmin!

p1tse

Does it not link up to strava?

roger_merriman

p1tse wrote:

Does it not link up to strava?

not as seamlessly no, you can upload files etc, but no plugin like the garmins

p1tse

I was so close to order one but think the extra is worth paying on garmin for better community, knowledge on forums and tried and tested

g00se

The strava upload isn't too bad now. Plug the device into the PC - upload to the bryton site - then press the upload to the strava site.

rolf_f

p1tse wrote:

I've done some googling and read responses on here
There's always going to be negative feedback on forum, but Bryton support doesn't seem to help

Also I read you can't see speed and cadence when on a turbo trainer on one screen

Tempting, but thinking hold out for tried and tested edge 500

Can't see any reason why you wouldn't be able to see speed and cadence on one screen on a trainer. You can configure any parameter on any screen; in normal metering mode, you can set up 18 parameters if you like. I suspect the comment related to the fact that you would need two sensors to show both cadence and speed indoors - and Bryton supplies one sensor with the cadence option (they don't yet, afaik, produce a twin cadence and speed sensor - but you can use any such ANT sensor like the Garmin one anyway).

As for tried and tested - the 35 has been out for over 2 years. It's tried and tested!

Still, Bryton doesn't always help itself. The Taiwanese approach to updates seems less open than the Americans take. With Bryton, they keep developments to themselves and don't always shout about it when they've really improved things. And they do seem to have killed off the Bryton South Africa forum which was the best community (certainly better than the official Facebook one). But really, it's about the unit and I think the 35 has the edge on the Edge.