Cactaur
Maximum Pace
- Feb 3, 2014
- 374
- 302
My 3 year old Wahoo Bolt has been falling apart for the last 2 years (naturally after warranty expired). The buttons have parted from the body and the USB door has been disintegrating to dust. Now its held together with electrical tape and hope.
A mention of the Bryton on Bikerumor caught my eye but no review on DCRainmaker so I took a chance and went for it. Key features were a claimed 18hr battery and support for OpenStreetMaps and RidewithGPS. Not doing a Ray Maker style comprehensive review but a comparison on the functionality and my use case.
At USD $270 RRP its more than the $229 of the (v1) Bolt but you get a color screen and capacitive touch controls which might be a deal breaker for some. Main operation can still be done via buttons on the side so not that much of an issue. Buttons are plastic without the rubber sponginess of the bolt. Battery door is a rubber plug which mates into the recess underneath the body. I'd prefer the lip to insert deeper but it seems adequate. It has a similar crease for opening like the Bolt which worries me it will break the same way. Different material though so here's hoping. Comes with a right angle microusb but haven't tried it for charging on the go.
Comes with an aluminium outfront mount and the usual zip tie/ rubber band mount for stem or handlebar mounting. Luckily my Barfly 4 mount also came with a Bryton puck so it was a simple swap there.
Settings are mostly done through the app. Bryton has a few preloaded maps and a fairly generous 15GB of memory. However you can't manage it via the app and have to connect to a PC to even see what is loaded on. You'd only realise you don't have the local map when you zoom and and see nothing. The one i received was for Europe, Oceana, Asia (but not SE Asia) so its probably loaded according to where you'd buy it. Important to read the instruction sheet because there are no in app instructions on how to proceed for map downloading and management. So go to Brytonsport > support and pick the region and country map you need. Here Wahoo still beats everyone else hands down.
On the map situation: I'd have gone Garmin initially but the fact that they use OSM data and just sprinkle a little Garmin dust on it to charge for the maps rubs me the wrong way. You can roll your own Garmin compatible map but its a PITA to select all the necessary sections, lean on the overworked OSM server to package the files, then load that file via USB to your device. In this the Bryton is the same as Garmin however with prepackaged maps it does simplify things a bit.
We'd like our devices to last forever, and have updates for the next millenia. Companies aren't immortal however. While packaging a Garmin map is a pain, the format is well understood and its fairly straightforward to roll your own. Bryton and Wahoo have their own format for packaging OSM data, which will be a problem if either of them go bust. Wahoo has tons of money from from their smart trainer business so thats less of a possibility. Bryton as a smaller player leaves users perhaps in a more precarious position. Winner Garmin, sort of.
Wifi connection: Wahoo wins again. Elemnt Bolt will pull wifi settings from the app (I think, at least the process seemed transparent to the user). Bryton needed to key in password manually. Given that maps are manually loaded on the Bryton wifi might be only used to upload past rides. I also performed a firmware update but that seems to use the phone as an intermediary.
Route loading: I use RWGPS as my primary route planner, and again this is where the Wahoo wins. Routes need to be set to public in RWGPS for them to show up in the Bryton app, then you have to choose the route to download to device. Wahoo you just favorite/ pin the route and it will show up when synced.
Wahoo wins on many fronts, but the build quality has soured me on their products. It may be unfair to blacklist the entire company based on 1 lemon but that is consumer mentality. I can't trust the new Elemnt Roam won't have the same build issues. For myself I hope Bryton continues to do well and iterate on their app interface. They have a viable alternative at this point, a bit more polish and we'll get there.
5/26 Theres an update to the Bolt now which has a color screen, live re-routing and replaceable port cover and SRP of US$279. Too little too late? Still have doubts about the side button quality and Ray Maker has been having troubles with his loaner set.
A mention of the Bryton on Bikerumor caught my eye but no review on DCRainmaker so I took a chance and went for it. Key features were a claimed 18hr battery and support for OpenStreetMaps and RidewithGPS. Not doing a Ray Maker style comprehensive review but a comparison on the functionality and my use case.
At USD $270 RRP its more than the $229 of the (v1) Bolt but you get a color screen and capacitive touch controls which might be a deal breaker for some. Main operation can still be done via buttons on the side so not that much of an issue. Buttons are plastic without the rubber sponginess of the bolt. Battery door is a rubber plug which mates into the recess underneath the body. I'd prefer the lip to insert deeper but it seems adequate. It has a similar crease for opening like the Bolt which worries me it will break the same way. Different material though so here's hoping. Comes with a right angle microusb but haven't tried it for charging on the go.
Comes with an aluminium outfront mount and the usual zip tie/ rubber band mount for stem or handlebar mounting. Luckily my Barfly 4 mount also came with a Bryton puck so it was a simple swap there.
Settings are mostly done through the app. Bryton has a few preloaded maps and a fairly generous 15GB of memory. However you can't manage it via the app and have to connect to a PC to even see what is loaded on. You'd only realise you don't have the local map when you zoom and and see nothing. The one i received was for Europe, Oceana, Asia (but not SE Asia) so its probably loaded according to where you'd buy it. Important to read the instruction sheet because there are no in app instructions on how to proceed for map downloading and management. So go to Brytonsport > support and pick the region and country map you need. Here Wahoo still beats everyone else hands down.
On the map situation: I'd have gone Garmin initially but the fact that they use OSM data and just sprinkle a little Garmin dust on it to charge for the maps rubs me the wrong way. You can roll your own Garmin compatible map but its a PITA to select all the necessary sections, lean on the overworked OSM server to package the files, then load that file via USB to your device. In this the Bryton is the same as Garmin however with prepackaged maps it does simplify things a bit.
We'd like our devices to last forever, and have updates for the next millenia. Companies aren't immortal however. While packaging a Garmin map is a pain, the format is well understood and its fairly straightforward to roll your own. Bryton and Wahoo have their own format for packaging OSM data, which will be a problem if either of them go bust. Wahoo has tons of money from from their smart trainer business so thats less of a possibility. Bryton as a smaller player leaves users perhaps in a more precarious position. Winner Garmin, sort of.
- There isn't any color customization for the maps, so while you have a nice color screen you're stuck with the default.
- Sensor pairing prefers ANT+, not that its bad since it consumes less energy than bluetooth however its strange that it does not even show the BT connection to my speed/ cadence/ HRM.
- There is a voice search option: needs phone app to be active so its offloading the voice processing and route finding to the phone. A device like the Android based Hammerhead Karoo is basically a smartphone and would beat everything else on the market but its pricier and battery life isn't as good.
- It is supposed to be able to re-route on the fly but does not work when you follow a pre-planned course. I suspect like voice it offloads the calculation to the app so you have to choose 'navigation' and plan on the app or device rather than follow course
- You can connect to a smart trainer to simulate a route. Tried the TCC Okutama route so thats kind of interesting option to do race simulations.
Wifi connection: Wahoo wins again. Elemnt Bolt will pull wifi settings from the app (I think, at least the process seemed transparent to the user). Bryton needed to key in password manually. Given that maps are manually loaded on the Bryton wifi might be only used to upload past rides. I also performed a firmware update but that seems to use the phone as an intermediary.
Route loading: I use RWGPS as my primary route planner, and again this is where the Wahoo wins. Routes need to be set to public in RWGPS for them to show up in the Bryton app, then you have to choose the route to download to device. Wahoo you just favorite/ pin the route and it will show up when synced.
Wahoo wins on many fronts, but the build quality has soured me on their products. It may be unfair to blacklist the entire company based on 1 lemon but that is consumer mentality. I can't trust the new Elemnt Roam won't have the same build issues. For myself I hope Bryton continues to do well and iterate on their app interface. They have a viable alternative at this point, a bit more polish and we'll get there.
5/26 Theres an update to the Bolt now which has a color screen, live re-routing and replaceable port cover and SRP of US$279. Too little too late? Still have doubts about the side button quality and Ray Maker has been having troubles with his loaner set.