Hiding in plain site, the Bryton Gardia R300 Rearview Radar and Tail Light looks to be a power packed safety device that will bring welcome features to a lot of cycling computers. In fact, they say all the features will work with Garmin head units, and only a couple small convenience features will be missing from Wahoo.
For starters, the 65-lumen light itself has some great settings – High, Low, Group Ride, Night Flash, and Day Flash operate as you’d expect. But there’s also an accelerometer that ignites it like a brake light when you slow down or brake.
It has 220º visibility, and on the bottom is a multi-color LED battery life indicator, so you know at a glance how much juice is left. That light also indicates whether it’s connected to a head unit via Bluetooth or ANT+, and with Bryton and Garmin head units, you can power the light on/off and cycle through its modes. Even more impressive, when connected to a compatible Bryton computer, it’ll use that computer’s ambient light sensor to automatically adjust the tail light’s output to riding conditions.
A companion app will let you further customize your light’s preferences, and in the absence of a compatible GPS cycling computer, can serve as the screen to show you what traffic is doing behind you. It can even be set to vibrate and/or make noise when cars are approaching, letting you leave it in a jersey pocket and still be somewhat aware of what’s coming up behind you. Clever.
As for the radar, it sends data to compatible cycling computers to alert you to oncoming traffic. But, it also adjusts the light pattern and brightness to help alert the traffic that’s coming up on you. Based on the speed and proximity, it’ll tweak the flash response to better get the driver’s attention.
Battery life ranges from 9 to 27 hours, depending on which light mode, whether you’re using the braking feature, and other variables. With everything else off, they claim about 27 hours of just radar usage. Weight is just 68g (claimed), and here’s the best part: MSRP is only €129.95 (about $130 as of this post going live). Release date TBA.
