The Bryton Rider S800 is the latest addition to Bryton’s increasingly sophisticated line of cycling computers.
Its headline feature is a very long battery life of 36 hours. Only the Garmin Edge 1040 Solar can improve this. Solar charging extends the runtime to approximately 45 hours.
With a high-quality color touchscreen, the S800 can be easily configured via the Bryton Active App. While some of its features like route planning aren’t best in class, the Rider S800 is a complete product and one of the best GPS bike computers on the market.
Key Features and Specifications of Bryton Rider S800
- Clear and responsive 3.4 inch color touchscreen
- 16GB of storage
- Up to 36 hours battery life with USB C charging
- Built-in ANT+, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi
- Connectivity to Komoot, Strava, TrainingPeaks, Today’s Plan and more
- Live Tracking and Group Tracking
- Voice recognition for directions
Bryton Rider S800 Features and Tech Specs
Bryton Rider S800 is a large device whose top surface is almost the same size as Garmin Edge 1030 and its successor Edge 1040. The slightly longer than the Rider S800 is due to the sloping bottom edge of the Garmin device. .
The Rider S800 also has a color touchscreen with a size similar to Edge devices. 3.4 inches versus 3.5 inches diagonal on Garmin computers. Bright, very responsive and easy to read while riding.
In contrast to the screen, the four buttons on the side are a little hard to use. They’re small, hidden under the S800’s chamfered sides, and require a firm push to activate. Moreover, they are very close on both sides.
Bryton has its own mounting system. It looks just like Garmin’s, and the computer fits in his Garmin mount, but not in a non-Bryton mount. You can buy another of his Garmin mount converters that screw onto the base of the S800 instead of the Bryton connector.
The S800 ships with bar top mounts, but its size means you’ll probably want out-front style mounts to save bar space, which Bryton sells separately.
There are so many things you can configure and fine-tune with the Rider S800. The Rider S800 uses GPS, GLONASS, QZSS, BEIDOU, and Galileo constellations, but they can be toned down to extend battery life at the cost of slightly less accurate GPS location fixes.
There are many other options for configuring data collection. For example, if you have a speed sensor and a cadence sensor, you can prioritize whether this is your primary source of speed data or a GPS trace. You can also set your own heart rate and power zones or have them determined automatically.
Similar to Hammerhead Karoo 2 and Garmin Edge 1040, Bryton has switched charging for Rider S800 from micro USB to USB C. This greatly increases the charging rate, about 50% in an hour, and within 2 hours he can be up to 75%.
With a long battery life, you’re unlikely to run out of juice during your ride even if you find yourself running low on it minutes before you leave. rarely became.
Bryton Rider S800 Companion App
Your cycling computer should have a good set of web and smartphone app features to help with pre-ride planning and post-ride analysis, unless you rely on third-party apps. Bryton offers both web and smartphone apps.
The web app is fairly basic, offering ride and workout logging, route planning, and basic analytics. It can also record basic user data and link to Strava, TrainingPeaks and SelfLoops. Oddly enough, the phone’s Active app has a longer list of apps, including Today’s Plan and Relive.
In contrast to web apps, phone apps are feature-rich. This includes options to configure almost every feature of the S800 within the app. And with a very clear view of the S800’s screen, it’s easy to configure the screens and data fields displayed on the device. Your computer will quickly update with your changes.
The Bryton Active phone app can be particularly battery-intensive, which fluctuates between about 5% and 40% of my Android phone’s battery usage over a 24-hour period. is enough to make a noticeable dent in battery life.
Routing, Mapping and Navigation for Bryton Rider S800
Route planning in Bryton Web App is pretty basic. You can drop the waypoint, but if you want to move it you should delete it instead of dragging it.
There’s also no heatmap information, so it’ll lead you to the most direct route between waypoints, even along busy roads when there are quieter alternatives. relies on a heatmap of where others have ridden to take you through routes that you are likely to enjoy riding.
Bryton has built voice recognition into the Rider S800, but it relies on a companion app and your phone’s processing. It recognizes place names fairly well and creates routes for you, but you can’t get around congested routes.
There is also an Explore function that works with the companion app to suggest boarding routes. Once you have set your mileage, you will be presented with 3 ride options. Again, no heatmaps means you’re not being guided to cyclist-friendly roads.Import routes from Strava, Komoot and Ride With GPS to bypass Bryton’s mapping can also do.
The OpenStreetMap basemap has clearly marked major and minor roads, and street names, sidewalks, and carriageways are visible at higher zoom levels. Quick screen refresh makes it easy to pan the map. The basemap looks pretty mundane, but it includes features like forests, rivers, and railroads, which can be useful for off-road riding.
The route is easy to follow, with clear turn instructions given in advance. Ignoring U-turn alerts will automatically reroute even minor deviations, but this does not scale well for more complex rerouting tasks.
Like many other computers, there is a Climb Profile screen that automatically appears when you reach a hill on your route, but unlike Hammerhead Karoo 2, it doesn’t appear if you aren’t following a pre-planned route. not.
Tapping the Rider S800’s screen during a ride will bring up an overview page with a list of configurable stats all in one place for a few seconds. This is a convenient way to quickly review the most important data.
Bryton Rider S800 LiveTracking and Other Features
Bryton Rider S800 has all the connectivity features you would expect once paired with the Bryton Active smartphone app. This includes live location tracking with designated contacts, as well as notifications for incoming calls and texts.
You can also invite fellow riders using the S800 to your group and set up group tracking so you can track their location. You can also use speech-to-text to send messages through the device, but I’ve found the final results to be mixed in clarity.
If you want to go turbo, there are pre-planned workouts and tests for FTP, lactate threshold heart rate, and your device’s maximum heart rate. You can add your own workouts and use the Diary feature to plan your days tracking each workout or download plans from Training Peaks. You can also virtually drive a route from your S800.
Brighton Rider S800 Verdict
The Bryton Rider S800 is a sleek looking package, packed with lots of features and generally easy to use, both on and off the bike, with a highly responsive color touchscreen. I have it. However, if you want to use the buttons, they are awkwardly placed and require a firm press.
It has good connectivity to other devices, the internet and third-party apps, and has many features that can be configured both on the device and the active phone app.
Long battery life is a benefit if you’re planning long rides or multi-day excursions, and navigation is efficient as long as you don’t stray too far off course.
However, Bryton’s features are difficult to use, and you may decide to use a third-party app for route planning. Some of the features, like speech-to-text conversion, look more like gimmicks than conveniences.
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Photo: Joseph Branston
