Bryton's £139.99 (~R3 000) Rider 650 brings a colour touchscreen, a 33-hour claimed battery and full Di2/AXS support to a price that undercuts Garmin's Edge line by hundreds — and two independent reviews say it's the value buy of 2026.
The budget GPS that's rattling Garmin
For years the cycling-computer conversation went: Garmin, Wahoo, then everyone else. In 2026 the "everyone else" has a name. Bryton's Rider 650 squeezes a 2.8in colour touchscreen, full turn-by-turn navigation, power-meter cycling dynamics and support for Shimano Di2 and SRAM AXS into a body that costs £139.99 (~R3 000) / €169.95 (~R3 200) / $169.95 (~R2 800).
BikeRadar's first look put it bluntly, describing a unit that offers "Garmin-rivalling features for less than half the price". The full review went further, handing it 4.5/5 and the title of best-value performance GPS the tester had ever used.
Bryton Rider 650 — by the numbers
Source: BikeRadar / Bryton
The headline comparison is brutal. The Rider 650's chief rival on features, Garmin's Edge 550 — which doesn't even have a touchscreen — lists at £469.99 (~R10 200), about £330 (~R7 200) more. As BikeRadar's Warren Rossiter wrote, the Bryton "costs less than half as much as the non-touchscreen Garmin Edge 550."
Step up the Garmin range and the gulf widens: the flagship Edge 1050 is £650 (~R14 100) and the Edge 1040 Solar £629.99 (~R13 700). Even Wahoo's Elemnt Roam 3 (£399.99 (~R8 700)) and the Hammerhead Karoo 3 (£450 (~R9 800)) cost roughly three times the Bryton.
How the 2026 field is priced
View data table
| UK RRP (£) | |
|---|---|
| Bryton Rider 650 | 139.99 £ |
| Sigma ROX 11.1 Evo | 249.99 £ |
| Coros Dura | 250 £ |
| Wahoo Elemnt Roam 3 | 399.99 £ |
| Hammerhead Karoo 3 | 450 £ |
| Garmin Edge 850 | 469.99 £ |
| Garmin Edge 1040 Solar | 629.99 £ |
| Garmin Edge 1050 | 650 £ |
In Rand (approx, @ today's rate): Bryton Rider 650: ~R3 000 · Sigma ROX 11.1 Evo: ~R5 400 · Coros Dura: ~R5 400 · Wahoo Elemnt Roam 3: ~R8 700 · Hammerhead Karoo 3: ~R9 800 · Garmin Edge 850: ~R10 200 · Garmin Edge 1040 Solar: ~R13 700 · Garmin Edge 1050: ~R14 100
Battery life: 33 hours, with an asterisk
View data table
| Claimed hours | |
|---|---|
| Bryton Rider 650 | 33 hr |
| Wahoo Elemnt Roam 3 | 25 hr |
| Garmin Edge 1050 | 20 hr |
| Hammerhead Karoo 3 | 15 hr |
What the reviewers say
Two independent verdicts on the Rider 650
Independent verdicts from across the cycling press — follow each link for the full review.
Best-value performance GPS
“The best-value high-performance GPS unit I've ever used.”
Read the full reviewA great mid-level option
“The Rider 650 combines some of the premium features like replaceable mount and Group Ride into an affordable price point.”
Read the full review“At more than £200 (~R4 400) cheaper than its chief rivals, I'd happily live with its idiosyncrasies.”
Bryton Rider 650: the balance sheet
- Easy to use, with fast sensor connection
- Class-leading claimed battery and a genuine bargain price
- Replaceable Garmin-compatible mount and Group Ride included
- Full ANT+ and Bluetooth, plus Di2 / eTap / EPS support
- Large, bright 2.8in colour touchscreen
- No predictive auto-climb / gradient alerts
- Map colours can look busy
- Auto-brightness can be too dim
- Lock screen is too easily triggered by the power button
- Launch software wasn't entirely bug-free
An outstanding-value performance GPS. Buy it for the price-to-feature ratio, not for class-leading polish — the quirks are real but easy to live with at this price.
Bryton vs Wahoo vs Hammerhead
Spend more and you're buying polish and ecosystem rather than raw features. Cycling Weekly calls the Wahoo Elemnt Roam 3 "a thoroughly contemporary bike computer that prioritises clarity over complexity", praising its larger touchscreen, speaker and improved battery. The Hammerhead Karoo 3 (4/5 at BikeRadar) is the navigation and SRAM specialist: "if you're a SRAM AXS user, the Karoo offers the best and simplest access to the data on tap."
None of that changes the maths. For the rider who wants roughly 90% of a flagship's capability at a quarter of the price, the Rider 650 is the obvious starting point — with the Wahoo or Karoo the upgrade if maps and feel matter more than the receipt.
Find one in South Africa
We surface live South African prices from the BikeBuy catalogue where we have a match.
Buyer questions
Is the Bryton Rider 650 really better value than a Garmin? +
On price, clearly. At £139.99 (~R3 000) it's about £330 (~R7 200) cheaper than Garmin's Edge 550 (£469.99 (~R10 200)) yet keeps a 2.8in colour touchscreen, full navigation and power-meter dynamics. BikeRadar called it "the best-value high-performance GPS unit I've ever used." You give up predictive auto-climb and some interface polish.
Does it really last 33 hours? +
That's the best-case claim. With a power meter, radar/light and an electronic groupset connected, BikeRadar measured around 14.5 hours — still enough for big days, but plan for roughly half the headline number if you run lots of sensors and navigation.
Will it work with my power meter, Di2 or SRAM AXS? +
Yes. It has both ANT+ and Bluetooth and is listed as compatible with Shimano Di2, SRAM eTap/AXS, Campagnolo EPS and FSA K-Force WE, plus power meters, heart-rate, speed/cadence, radar and smart lights.
Can I navigate and re-route on the device? +
Yes — it ships with preloaded OpenStreetMap maps and offers turn-by-turn navigation with on-device rerouting, plus a ClimbChallenge gradient view for climbs inside a loaded route, though it won't auto-detect climbs the way Garmin's ClimbPro does.
Does it sync with Strava, Komoot and TrainingPeaks? +
Yes. Rides auto-sync through the Bryton Active app to Strava, TrainingPeaks, Komoot and Ride with GPS.
Tap to vote — see how readers lean
Sources & further reading
The Bryton Rider 650 is the value benchmark of 2026: a colour touchscreen, full navigation, electronic-shifting support and a genuinely long (if optimistic) battery for £139.99 (~R3 000) — money that barely buys an entry-level Garmin. It won't out-polish a Garmin Edge 1050 or out-navigate a Hammerhead Karoo 3, and the dim auto-brightness and missing auto-climb are real niggles. But for the rider who wants most of a flagship's features at a fraction of the price, two independent reviews — BikeRadar's 4.5/5 and The Sweet Cyclists' 9.2/10 — land on the same verdict: this is the smart buy.
