TESTED: Bryton rider 330

A couple of issues ago, we had the Rider 100 and 310 put through their paces by two of Australia’s National representatives for the XCM World Championships. Both units were small, light, easy to use once setup, and also very reasonably priced. Bryton have recently launched the Rider 330 –not much bigger than the 100 or 150 and packed with 72 functions including turn-by-turn navigation and wireless connectivity. With a huge claimed battery life of 36 hours, and a high sensitivity GPS chip, Bryton claim that the Rider 330 is perfect for mountain bikers.

Setting up the Bryton

Set up for the Bryton Rider 330 is fairly straight-forward, Bryton use an app to get the most out of the Rider 330 GPS unit. The app is a great place to view your rides, and you can change the user profile and set up an auto-sync with your Strava profile. The app doesn’t let you change the data pages and data fields on the Bryton itself though – this needs to be done with the unit itself. With WLAN connectivity, you can enter your network details and upload via the device – which is a great time saver, especially seeing you don’t need to charge it often.

There are seven data screens, and you can have up to eight fields of data on each. Of course you won’t find them as easy to read as if you had 5, with one larger at the top. But if you’re a data fiend you might like tracking your left leg power dominance compared to your right while keeping your heart rate and cadence in check. Run one screen, run five, or seven. It’s up to you.

What is really nifty is the route planning function on the app. A screen not unlike Google maps lets you enter a start and finish address, and then you set the route – you can then send that route to your device via Bluetooth, and follow the turn-by-turn directions on the screen. However, you cannot modify the route. So if the fastest way is along the Motorway, that’s what will come up – and obviously that’s not what you want. So while it’s a handy feature, it’s not a mountain bike specific one, or great in a built up urban area. You can set routes up yourself to export them though, not via the app.

I found the device quite easy to sync with both a ANT+ heart rate monitor strap, and a power meter. The mount is not unlike others, with a variety of bands provided for a 90 degree turn mount. It was secure, and could fit on a stem or bar easily.

On the trail

For the sake of comparison, I used the Rider 330 in conjunction with a fairly well-used Garmin Edge 500. On long rides, I did notice some mild variance between the data from each in distance, Watts, and climbing. I don’t use a speed/cadence sensor, so really all this was going to be from sample rates of the head unit.

Both devices use one second recording intervals, and it is hard to say one is more accurate than the other. The variances were very, very minimal, and I didn’t have any experiences of dropouts or shortened routes from imprecise measuring. So that’s a big thumbs up if you’re relying on your GPS unit for navigation or training.

The Bryton is good to go once you turn it on and gets a signal far, far more quickly than my Garmin. It is really fast to power on, perfect if you’re the rider always in a rush with mates waiting, or just trying to squeeze more into each day, and you’re tired of waiting for your GPS to wake up. 

From a training perspective, you can set workouts and download them to your unit for it to prompt you. Even better, the Rider 330 can go all super-coach on you, with a number of fitness tests programmed in. Access is via the unit for the details, and this would be way easier if the app could do the set up and explain the requirements – just for ease of reading off the larger screen of a smart phone compared to that on the device.

The option to have the backlight permanently on is excellent for training. Sure it sucks power down, but if you’re working on set sessions in the early morning or in the evening, being able to see “your numbers” is essential.

With just 3 buttons, if you’re used to a four-button layout you might hit the wrong button at first. But learning a new interface isn’t hard, and it was easy to get accustomed to what button did what – they’re labelled after all.

Overall

The Bryton Rider 330 is an excellent option for a compact, easy to use GPS device, especially for the price. I was really happy with the connectivity between my phone and the unit, and I’m sure there will be some upgrades to the app in the future to increase this functionality.

See our previous review of the Bryton 100 and 310 : HERE