Heads up!!! Here’s your massive Cyber Monday sports tech deals list! This includes the Garmin Forerunner 965 for just $499, Garmin Epix for $429, the Apple Watch Ultra 2 for just $619, the GoPro Hero 12 Black for $299, (or Hero 13 bundle for $339!) and plenty more! Go check out the full list of 100+ deals here!
I’m DC RAINMAKER…
I swim, bike and run. Then, I come here and write about my adventures. It’s as simple as that. Most of the time. If you’re new around these parts, here’s the long version of my story.
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Smart Trainers Buyers Guide: Looking at a smart trainer this winter? I cover all the units to buy (and avoid) for indoor training. The good, the bad, and the ugly.
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FAQ’s
I have built an extensive list of my most frequently asked questions. Below are the most popular.
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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.
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!
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.
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!
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.
Aha! Thought they might do this….saves me hashing something up on a HUD Live. Waiting for them to infiltrate the NFL….live tactics, instant coach feedback, plus lots of interesting post-processing possible for the coaches using GPS/accelerometer data eg impacts, sprint intensity, positioning etc.
Interesting product, although I think for cycling purposes I’d gravitate more to the 4iii model than this. Inexpensive enough that you can have a handlebar mounted display for the details (bigger screen, easier to interact with, etc.), but capable enough to allow you to stay within a target zone. Naturally, this plus a handlebar computer would be great, but as you note it’d likely be hard to justify the cost of both.
Where I think Recon could have a huge benefit would be in swimming goggles. Unlike running/cycling/etc. there aren’t currently any elegant methods to see your metrics while you are actively swimming. Watches are good for checking things between sets and after you’re done, but they don’t really help a whole lot during them. Plus, while open water swimming it’d be awesome if it could help with navigation – mount a forward facing camera, GPS and electronic compass on the strap behind your head and you’d easily be able to stay on a perfect line without having to sight :D
Given their ability to display a map I still see a huge market for this in powersports. I’d love to have this for motorcycles and snowmobiles as well as skiing and cycling.
This will be a great product if it can capture all type of sports. If it can track cycling, running, and snowboarding data and even provide me with GPS information on the fly…I will be the first one to line up for the device. Besides who wouldn’t want to become Robocop or Terminator while racing or training…..I would!
Very interesting. I’m wondering if having a version that slaves to an existing Garmin/Cycleops/etc computer wouldn’t be a a nice market; in other words just make a display unit. There are (as you know way better than I) a heck of a lot Garmins out there already.
Nice to see Recon moving their product forward after a pretty quiet winter. Outside of some serious advances in technology, they will probably use an existing Android app… my bet would be on a collaboration with Wahoo. This was essentially how they integrated Contour camera’s into the ski goggles. It would be great if they adopted ANT+ and 802.11g/n or even better “draft-ac”. Bluetooth seems to be a stumbling block for Recon from an integration perspective. given Hero went the WLAN 802.11 route.
The WiLink 7 chips have WiFi on them, so still a possibility.
From what I can tell none of the products mentioned are a proper heads up display. For me to be at all interested the information has to be transparently overlaid on my natural field view, requiring me to avert my eyes far out to a distant corner isn’t much better than looking at a handlebar mounted display.
link to en.wikipedia.org
It actually depends. For some of the Recon units I’ve tried (the one with more flexibility), it really is complete in my natural field of view, with no changes in eye direction. However, I found with the Oakley Recon goggles, due to lack of flexibility, I did have to change my eye direction.
On the 4iiii’s, no change in eye direction was required, as the bar is just in the peripheral vision without issue.
The challenge you have with any HUD technology at the face is that the focal distance is so shallow that you’ll need to change focal point slightly to see it. The strength of the 4iiii’s system is the color LED’s mean focal length is irrelevant since you can still see color in peripheral vision.
What’s up with your chain (pic of the Quarq)? It’s barely engaged on a single tooth on the chain ring.
It was out in a field while taking lots of photos, I probably had turned the crank and/or changed something so it ended up there.
I should be receiving my reconjet anyday now. Excited. I hope to be able to use either my Garmin 910 or the Reconjet depending on my mood & the weather. Will be interesting to see if the reconjet will truly replace the Garmin 910/920. They are both in a similar pricepoint, but the jet doesn’t track swims. Maybe the ideal would be a pair of reconjet goggles that you can wear on the bike – I believe the CEO originally tried it..