So, how did the 310 stack up? The first thing that struck me was how quickly this GPS could pick up a signal, it’s ready to go in less than 10 seconds, and if you are in a hurry to get out the door and cycle off without starting its recording function it’ll give you a friendly beep to ask if you’d like to do something with it!
Mounting it to the bike was pretty straightforward, with the bracket being held in place with the rubber O-rings. With the unit being so light it won’t be moving anywhere in a hurry. The only disappointment being that the spare brackets I had from the Rider 40 were different so yet another mounting standard from Bryton (the 50 uses an entirely different bracket as well) and a few more need to be purchased for the other bikes. The unit is being used on mountain bikes and my road bike, the road bike getting the cadence meter added onto it. Fitting this was pretty simple but I had to mount the magnet on the crank on quite a bit of packing to get it close enough to the chainstay sensor – a bit ugly but it works.
Onto that user interface – it really is a simple piece of kit to use and I’ve set mine up so I have one screen including the cadence showing for on the road bike and others with information like slope and altitude for when on the mountain bike. The display is pretty clear, easy enough to read once you’re familiar with the layout you’ve selected – this is where the Rider 50 scores over its younger relative, its display is far bigger and clearer but the drawback is that the whole unit is bulkier and heavier for it.
Starting the record feature is easy and although the stop/pause isn’t immediately obvious it becomes second nature pretty quickly. With this being the “T” version I also had the heart rate monitor with this unit and that and the cadence sensor were picked up straight away when they were activated. The heart rate strap needs to be done up pretty tight to maintain contact, which I swear immediately raises my HR by giving me that tight chest feeling, but it always stays in touch with the Rider 310 if it is done up tight enough. I had no issues with interference when using my commuting lights next to the head unit.
Hooking up the unit to the computer to download was painless, I’m already familiar with the Bryton interface and dashboards on their website, but all I do is download my rides and use it as a log of what I’ve done in the year, nothing any smarter than that, so can’t comment on more advanced functions. I had one or two rides over the last few months where the GPS unit froze up and had to be re-started, this could just be a software issue though and may be fixed with an update in the future.
What else would I like to see in the functions? I can only think of one more thing and that would be a compass or direction/bearing indicator for use in the woods on the mountain bike – perhaps this could also be offered in a software update in the future, everything else I want is there.
This is part of a new wave of cheaper GPS units that are appearing on the market now but I certainly didn’t feel short changed on features or build quality. It’s a neat looking piece of kit that won’t frustrate you with a steep learning curve, think of it as a highly specified cycle computer without the mess of wires or transmitters that can be swapped from bike to bike without the hassle of wheel size needing to be adjusted for – a bonus when you have 4 bikes with 3 differing wheel sizes!
So it’s pretty much a thumbs up from me insofar as this is the one that’ll replace the Rider 50 and I’d recommend that you’d check it out yourself.