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5 Easy Steps To The Site
1
In Depth Product Reviews
You probably stumbled upon here looking for a review of a sports gadget. If you’re trying to decide which unit to buy – check out my in-depth reviews section. Some reviews are over 60 pages long when printed out, with hundreds of photos! I aim to leave no stone unturned.
2
Read My Sports Gadget Recommendations.
Here’s my most recent GPS watch guide here, and cycling GPS computers here. Plus there are smart trainers here, all in these guides cover almost every category of sports gadgets out there. Looking for the equipment I use day-to-day? I also just put together my complete ‘Gear I Use’ equipment list, from swim to bike to run and everything in between (plus a few extra things). And to compliment that, here’s The Girl’s (my wife’s) list. Enjoy, and thanks for stopping by!
3
Have some fun in the travel section.
I travel a fair bit, both for work and for fun. Here’s a bunch of random trip reports and daily trip-logs that I’ve put together and posted. I’ve sorted it all by world geography, in an attempt to make it easy to figure out where I’ve been.
4
My Photography Gear: The Cameras/Drones/Action Cams I Use Daily
The most common question I receive outside of the “what’s the best GPS watch for me” variant, are photography-esq based. So in efforts to combat the amount of emails I need to sort through on a daily basis, I’ve complied this “My Photography Gear” post for your curious minds (including drones & action cams!)! It’s a nice break from the day-to-day sports-tech talk, and I hope you get something out of it!
5
The Swim/Bike/Run Gear I Use List
Many readers stumble into my website in search of information on the latest and greatest sports tech products. But at the end of the day, you might just be wondering “What does Ray use when not testing new products?”. So here is the most up to date list of products I like and fit the bill for me and my training needs best! DC Rainmaker 2023 swim, bike, run, and general gear list. But wait, are you a female and feel like these things might not apply to you? If that’s the case (but certainly not saying my choices aren’t good for women), and you just want to see a different gear junkies “picks”, check out The Girl’s Gear Guide too.
is the wahoo fitness android app released yet?, I can’t find it in the play store
Sorry, not yet. We are working on it full time, but it is still in early beta stage.
How does one go about getting the Wahoo fitness app for Android devices? I can’t find it on their site or in the play store.
It’s not quite out yet. Just a sneak peek!
Will I be able to import my activities from my garmin to garmin.connect through that micro-USB to USB dongle with my android smartphone?
At moment, on Android, no. I asked about this, it’s just not in the app yet.
However, I did convince the head of ANT+ to build that app themselves if nobody else has it today. ;)
See, I’m tricky like that.
I think this App may do this for you. Never used it so not sure how good the ANT support is.
I didn’t tried. it should be possible
Connect your Garmin Forerunner or Edge to your Android tablet – in a snap
link to sportablet.com
Keep in mind that while some tablets are supported without jailbreaking/hacking them, others do require it. I’ve been talking to that developer on and off about the product, and it’s on my list – just trying to find the right tablet that covers the most devices without jailbreaking (it depends on how the device connects).
Man I really wanna know how the rflkt works with the Hrm and Cadence. I’m in the market for a cycling computer and I’m totally thinking of going in the Bluetooth 4.0 direction. Then I hear that wahoo may release a version of the reflect with altimeter and maps. Jeeeez tech.
RFLKT is basically a 2nd display for your iPhone. It does not talk directly to any other sensors.
Once RFLKT is connected to the app, it can configure the screen any way it wants. You then connect your sensors (ANT+ or BT Smart) and the app can relay the data to the display.
The great thing about thins is that the App has 100% control over how and what data is displayed. Not only can it display sensor information, but also real-time weather or maybe even course/segment results, its 100% in the hands of the app developers.
Thx Wahoo Murray! Can you control music from Spotify on the display? Will activities push to Strava?
Mmmm.. I haven’t tried to see if it works with Third party music app, I don’t think I have access. I will check it out.
You can already push all activities to Strava using our app.
Cool! I’m holding out for this! Will there be a bundle with the RFLKT, HRM and Cadence? I’ll shut up now!
Not sure, I’m just the engineer :-)
Have you confirmed that the RFKLKT can act as a bridge between ANT+ devices and your phone? I believe you mentioned they were considering that, maybe as a second version?
No sorry, RFLKT is BT Smart only.
The Barfly, is fantastic. Highly recommended. I puts the Garmin 800 out ahead of the hand-bars which makes it so much easier to view. Also since you can rotate it on the bar you can set at a more view-able angle then putting it on the stem with the standard Garmin mount.
Any news on Garmin Vector?
Nuttin.
Even I am jealous about you taking home a KICKR!
O-synce stuff has mad it to the US market? I can not find anything anywhere.
Yup, they have a US distributor now: link to srmcon.com
I believe the cable you were referring to above is a USB On-The-Go (OTG) cable. I have one and I have been using it to use my mouse and keyboard on my android tablet. Never occurred to me that I can use it to connect my ANT+ dongle.
You could not do an ANT usb stick untill about 6 months back when support was added. The Apps need to of been rebuilt with the latest ANT sdk which not all of them have.
I wrote up the details for IpBike USB ANT support some time back.
Did I hear Perth? Any chance you’ll make it to Melbourne?
That was the plan (Perth). Regrettably, upon landing this morning, the first e-mail I saw was that the trip has been pushed back 5 weeks. :( Really bummed.
Any chance to have in the near future a micro usb Ant+ dongle ready to use, without the nead of USB OTG cable?
I have a micro to USB cable and can use the ANT+ on my phone.
It connects to my HRM and footpod.
Nevertheless there are no good apps out there that can make use of it.
Endomondo does not work with the ANT+ dongle (unless you hack it) and there is no Wahoo App (Yet) and no Garmin App.
Long Story short, I tabled that project for now.
IpBike is a great Ant+ data gathering app.
Can work trought Ant+ usb + OTG cable, with bike sensor (speed distance and cadence), power sensor, footpod sensor (speed distance and cadence) and Ant+ Tempe sensor.
And runtastic ?
Will the Barfly work with a 310XT ?
Yup, no problem. You just need the quick release kit backing ($18 from Garmin/etc..), but then it’s good.
This is the best news about the RFLKT. You said there are plenty in Atlanta… I’m so desperate for this device, I’ll call whomever is carrying it and order it from them. Can you share what stores have them in stock?
Atlanta is the headquarters of Wahoo Fitness. ;)
I suspect you’ll see it open for ordering (the RFLKT) within about a week, and it’ll essentially ship the same day likely.
Awesome! That’s perfect. Can’t wait!
rainmaker; any new impressions/thoughts on the kickr now that you have one at home? is that still the one you’d get if you could only get 1 trainer and had the budget for it? any concers with reliability, noise, or otherwise?
I would say it’s falling into the category of ‘It just works’, which is nice. And yeah, if I had $1K to buy a trainer that would last me a long time – this is probably it.
It’s built like a beast (no, really, it’s really heavy). I’ve been meaning to measure it. I was trying to use my hanging scale to measure a bunch, but then I realized I don’t actually have anything to hang from yet. I may try and balance it on a scale, but that could be sketchy. But it’s built like a CompuTrainer – a rock.
Obviously, there are a few minor bugs since it’s still beta firmware/software, but I was able to successfully complete one of my workouts without issue on it. Same goes for The Girl.
Noise, as you saw in the video is roughly on par with others. A touch bit higher pitched, but it didn’t bother me to work in the same room when The Girl was using it, and it didn’t bother me too much. And she was able to watch TV (across the room) without any headphones or anything, while she was on it.
if i want to complete a strava segment, i just select the segment via the wahoo app (which i assume links to strava) and w/o having to pay the strava premium or any other monthly fees… the trainer will simulate the given segment (i.e. set resistance to correspond with the hills) and time me?
Actually, a bit simpler than that.
There’s a separate app – called ‘Segments’ – which allows you to search for any Strava segment. Today it does that via location primarily (I can enter in a town/spot/address, or zoom to a location). And then I simply just enumerate the Strava segments nearest it and ride (it’ll simulate resistance as you noted).
At present, no Strava Premium subscription required – in fact, I’m not even signed into Strava at all (today, it may change, no idea).
Of course, all this is subject to change before release. Both Wahoo and Strava are working out the exact way the app will be ‘branded’, etc… I don’t expect functionality to change, just how it all shows up, if that makes sense.
I am not seeing “Segments” app on the iOS app store? is it subset of the wahoo or strava apps by any chance… or in non-public beta… or only android app for now? Is there an iOS app that controls the resistance and also measures/graphs/stores the HR, cadence and power data? can all of that data be automatically linked and uploaded to garmin connect?
lastly, the “And yeah, if I had $1K to buy a trainer that would last me a long time – this is probably it.” makes me wonder what other trainer is in the running for the top spot for you… and which one you’d get for yourself (i.e. if you didn’t have to spend any predetermined amount or rank within a predefined $ category, but rather if you were optimizing the cost/benefit equation like most of us do).
thanks
m.
Hi M-
Segments isn’t released yet on the App Store. You can see a few screenshots of it in my ‘Queue’ post (upper corner), or the KICKR post from August (video there). It’s iOS only.
The other app that does all the controlling of resistance for KICKR is the Wahoo Fitness app. The variant today in the app store doesn’t include the resistance control, but the app will be released here shortly (it includes the RFLKT pieces too). And yup, today is uploads to GC as well. Stores all the data, etc…
For me, at the moment, if I were to drop $1K on a trainer, yeah, I’d likely go this route. Primarily because of the open nature of it – and the fact that I know folks are building cool apps for it, and I can’t wait to see what people think of 6, 8, 12, 24, 36 months down the road.
In that same camp, I’d stick the Bushido and the CycleOps trainer. The challenge I have with the Tacx trainers is that in general the software is buggy. On the flip side, the CycleOps is more expensive than the KICKR – but generally more solid than the Tacx.
Any word on Campagnolo compatibility for the KICKR?
I’ll ask the next time I chat.
They have some adapters, but not in stock yet. I’m using a Miche 9 spd cogset with loose spacers.
I’m a little surprised that Wahoo is quite SO focused on the IPhone aspect (“IPhone-powered bike trainer” on the box, front and center on their web site, etc), especially for a company promoted an open platform. Yes, I obviously understand that IPhone has the market share but I wonder if Android and (in my case) Windows Phone users instinctively “look away” when they see such a firm focus on the IPhone and just assume it’s not relevant.
I assume the open framework doesn’t prevent third parties from developing Android or Windows Phone apps. Personally, I am also eager to see Windows 8 / Windows Phone apps pop up over time. It will certainly be interesting to see how third party apps appear over time. And, for now, I’m going to assume I don’t need an IPhone, as implied by the tagline :)
They have some adapters, but not in stock yet. I’m using a Miche 9 spd cogset with loose spacers.
I’m really looking forward to the RFLKT. Already have the sensor on both my bikes. When can I order????
They’ve promised (per their Tuesday FB update) to provide some sort of update by the end of the week.
Hi,
First of all, wow! I really like your reviews, they’re great!
I’m looking into this ANT+ thing, wanting to connect it to my Samsung Galaxy S2, and then using say the GarminFit app and the app registers my heartrate from my Garmin heartrate belt. Would that be possible with the small micro-USB to USB dongle that you write about above?
And, if so, does it matter what type of Garmin watch I have? For example the FR 210? Or does it have to be 310 and up which have the wireless transfer to ANT+?
// Veronica
Hi Veronica-
At the moment, things are a bit muddled still. I think we’ll see more clarity later this month.
That said, I wouldn’t expect the Garmin Fit app to work with this solution out of the box, it’s going to take some work on Garmin’s part to update their app to understand the dongle. But, what you describe is the theory.
On the watch side, it will end up having to still be a watch that transfers via ANT+. Today that’s the FR310XT/910XT/610/60/70 and a few others (the FR405/405CX/410 don’t fully fall into this category, as they use an older ANT transfer method that isn’t open).
Where’s the love on the RFLKT from Wahoo?? Still anxiously awaiting release.
Order has been placed. Wahoo!!! (pun intended)
For all wondering what apps support RFLKT at this time, here’s the link on the Wahoo site. link to wahoofitness.com
As of late Feb. (launch of RFLKT) there are two apps supporting RFLKT: the Wahoo Fitness app and iMobileIntervals (link to imobileintervals.com).
iMobileIntervals RFLKT display has HR, watts, speed, cadence, total elapsed and interval/lap times, current music selection or current/next interval activity, and live data telemetry status. iMobileIntervals also has control from the four hardware buttons on the RFLKT to pause/skip music, toggle backlight, restart the interval workout, skip forward/backward the interval, or take a lap split.