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Week in Review–May 4th, 2014

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The Week in Review is a collection of both all the goodness I’ve written during the past week around the internet, as well as a small pile of links I found interesting – generally endurance sports related. I’ve often wondered what to do with all of the coolness that people write, and while I share a lot of it on Twitter, Facebook, and Google Plus, this is a better forum for sending it on to y’all. Most times these different streams don’t overlap, so be on the lookout at all these places for good stuff!

So with that, let’s get into the action!

DCRainmaker.com posts this past week:

Here’s all the goodness that ended up on the main page of DCRainmaker.com this past week.

Sunday: Week in Review–April 27th, 2014
Monday: The failed openwater swim that landed me in the hospital
Tuesday: 5 Random Things From The Past Week
Thursday: LifeBEAM Smart Helmet with Integrated ANT+ Heart Rate Sensor In-Depth Review
Friday: Suunto rolls out direct integration with Strava, a brief overview

Stuff that I found interesting around the interwebs:

Here’s a not-so-small smattering of all the random things that I stumbled on while doing my civic duty to find the end of the Internet:

1) The Cloud of Doping Past in Triathlon: Slowtwitch is on a roll of solid pieces the last few weeks.  Great one by Herbert on the impact of (mostly) pro cyclists coming into the sport, with doping backgrounds. (via Rodney Buike)

2) Looking at sleep trackers: This time from a doctor that focuses on sleep tracking.  Cool stuff. (via Eli)

3) Giant’s Taiwan factory tour: Cool look behind the scenes, part of a series on how the world’s largest bike maker does things.

4) Recon Jet delayed till at least fall: Looks like things continue to get pushed out further, while the price will increase soon.  Full details at the link.

5) Hubless/spokeless bicycle that folds to size of umbrella: Interesting concept, though, more interesting will be to see what the price is.  My money is that it ain’t gonna be cheap. (sent in from JMW)

6) Quarq slightly lower power meter prices: I suspect additional pressure from units with equal features for less cost, and more features for equal cost resulted in this.  I continue to believe Quarq makes excellent power meters, but I also continue to believe that so do other companies at fair bit cheaper price (PowerTap and Power2Max).

7) The Do’s and Don’ts for triathletes on Strava: From, now as of today, 4-time winner of the Wildflower triathlon.

8) Bike Polo: Yes, this is a game.  And thankfully, there’s a high quality video about it below.

9) A dry Lake San Antonio at Wildflower: The first photo in this piece is unreal.  Having done Wildflower in the past, hard to imagine.

10) UK folks can register to try out a Garmin VIRB for the year: It’s always amazed me that companies the size of Garmin (and Garmin in particular) haven’t done more of this type of stuff.  On the face of it, it’s basically an ambassador type program.  The cost to Garmin is almost non-existent, while the upside is huge if they pick the right 50 people.  Same goes for many other sport tech companies.  I’ve long believed that well connected age-groupers (non-pros) tend to make far better ‘sponsorship’ opportunities than most pros in the endurance sport world.

11) Yes, because he can:  Just keep on watching the video as this cyclist interrupts things a bit.  Don’t worry, he returns.

12) The Beer Mile Record: In the highly unlikely event you didn’t see this already this week, I present you complete awesomeness. (via, a lot of people)

Crowd Funded Projects of Athletic Note:

Most of this content used to be found within the main section, but I figured I’d just call it out up here and make it easy to find. I regularly sift through Kickstarter and Indiegogo (plus a few others on occasion) looking for sports projects. Note that as always with crowd funded projects, assume the project will be late and will under-deliver on features. Thus far, on the numerous products I’ve helped ‘fund’ (except a leather bike handle), that’s been the case.  And finally, me simply mentioning them below is definitely not an endorsement, it’s just me mentioning they exist.

Carbon fibre Bluetooth connected bicycle: Yes, the bike itself is Bluetooth Connected.  Really interesting concept, though, a tiny bit expensive for me. (via Recon Twitter)

Sports Technology Software/Firmware Updates This Week:

Each week I quickly highlight some of the new firmware, app, software and website service updates that I see go out. If you’re a sports technology company and release an update – shoot me a quick note (just one liners is perfect, or Tweet it at me is even better) and I’ll make mention of it here. If I don’t know about it, I won’t be able to post about it. Sound good?

Site/Firmware Updates:

Garmin Fenix2 Firmware Update: More fixes/adds, notably adds in swim drill mode support

Garmin Fenix1/Tactix/D2 beta firmware update: Minor tweaks

Garmin Edge 510 firmware update: Nothing, just backend manufacturing updates. (via GPS Information)

Garmin Edge 810 firmware update: Same as Edge 510. (via GPS Information)

Polar Flow web site: A whole ton of updates/adds as they march towards the Polar V800 release

Polar Loop firmware update: Compatibility update for latest iOS app

TomTom firmware update: A few fixes, including treadmill fixes

Suunto: Website as noted above, plus also adding in the ability to download .FIT/.TCX files (woohoo!)

iPhone Updates:

20140427_153125000_iOS 20140430_004723000_iOS

20140430_022826000_iOS 20140501_002951000_iOS

20140503_013812000_iOS

iPad Updates:

photo

Android Updates:

Screenshot_2014-05-03-20-52-45 Screenshot_2014-05-03-20-52-57

Screenshot_2014-05-03-20-53-07 Screenshot_2014-05-03-20-53-16

Screenshot_2014-05-03-20-53-45 Screenshot_2014-05-03-20-52-05

Windows Phone Updates:

wp_ss_20140504_0001

Thanks all!

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27 Comments

  1. falconeye

    I cannot accept the beer mile record;-) This should be done with real beer, not with american canbeer. If he is able to do the same with, for example, “Augustiner” or “Tegernseer” beer, I am the first to gratulate. But I fear he wouldn’t be able to run the mile at all.

    • Tyler Haas

      Depends on the beer — Tegernesse helles lager wouldn’t qualify for a beer mile WR, as the beer has got to be at least 5% ABV. Also, it’s got to come in 355 ml servings; drinking Augustiner would be overly difficult, as it’s generally found in the US only in 320 ml (too small!) and 500 ml size. For that matter, I’ve never seen Tegernesse in a 355 ml either.

      Budweiser fits the bill — 355 ml can, 5% ABV exactly. The rules, alas, do not specify that the beer has to be particularly tasty.

    • falconeye

      I doubt you can really buy Tegernseer beer in US, but who knows. There exists the so called “Tegernseer Spezial” which has 5.6% ABV. So this would be enough. And yes, I also think the Tegernseer beer is only sold in 0.5l bottles and not available in smaller size.
      I will ask when I am the next time in the “Tegernseer Bräustüberl”.

  2. Remco Verdoold

    Thanks for the fun stuff, but that kickstarter bike!! They are saying loads of things about safety but it is lacking so safety features (hand brakes, mud guards, proper lamps etc). But that is not for here to discuss.
    The Polo is cool :)

  3. Néstor Rodríguez

    Yes, here in Spain we start the doping process at the school. We are the only cyclists doped in the Tour of France and other events, and also our motorcycles will be doped today in Jerez. And in the Barcelona´s half marathon (I only run the marathon) I supose we went all doped too.
    Thanks for all your post.
    Néstor.

  4. Blind

    Another load of Garmin fixes but still no FR620 cycle mode. From what I remember it was supposed to be a Q1/Spring update. Roll on Q2/Summer…

  5. Paul S

    So is WIthings the first to take advantage of the M7 in the 5s? It’s the first claim to use it I’ve seen, but I don’t pay that much attention to this. I remember all the hype about the M7 when the 5s first came out (had to wait in line with my daughter on the first day, since she wanted one).

    I turned step counting on in the Withings app on my 5c. (Why a 5c? My 13 year old daughter doesn’t want anyone else in the house to have a better phone than she does.) That was a small mistake, since there doesn’t seem to be any way to turn it off. After every mountain bike ride, I get credit for a series of disjointed “runs” of various length. (My 5c rides in my Camelbak when on the mountain bike.) At least road rides show nothing, and I don’t pay any attention to the number anyway. One small plus is that I was finally able to dissociate my Withings Pulse, which I haven’t used for months, from my Withings account, which they didn’t allow before the app gained step counting.

    • Nah, almost all of them do it now. Outside of the dedicated apps that utilize it (i.e. MyFitnessPal, etc..), most of the activity monitor hardware vendors do as well now. I believe FitBit was the first hardware-focused company to offer it.

  6. Jon

    A bicycle that folds to the size of an umbrella, except for the wheels which you apparently then have to carry slung over your shoulder like a spare tire. I’m not sure that’s a big improvement.

    • Paul S

      As pointed out in the comments over there, the back wheel is actually irrelevant and could be discarded. It’s actually rolling on that small wheel at the back that’s connected to the chain. They could just do the same on the front and be rid of both rims/tires, and then they’d have the “ultimate” small wheel folding commuter, at least so far as wheel size goes.

    • Paul S

      The other interesting thing is that the bike seems to be supported in front by rollers on top of the front wheel. That front rim will have to be pretty hefty to support the bike, since a normal bicycle wheel is supported by tension in the spokes, and normal rims are comparatively flimsy (just need to be able to handle braking forces/friction and the spoke tension). I’ll bet those spokeless wheels are pretty heavy, and it must be interesting to watch the wheel flex as it’s being ridden.

    • Empewu

      “the back wheel is actually irrelevant and could be discarded” – not really – the (large) rotating wheel has angular momentum that helps you ride the bike

  7. Paul S

    Let’s try that again (be nice if we could edit comments): No, angular momentum has little to do with the stability of a bicycle. This is well understood.

  8. Joyce

    You’re from Seattle and you didn’t know bike polo was a thing? Cal Anderson, next time you’re back in the PNW! Bike Polo is best enjoyed, of course, after a stop at Molly Moon’s across the street (and the lovely Fleet Feet – because all the best running stores have an ice cream shop steps away).

  9. Jonas

    Hello Ray,

    Any news on the Mio head unit firmware update?
    I thought it should’ve been here by now but I can’t find anything…

  10. Benjamin

    Hi Ray,

    I see you showed an update to the “Bicycle Power Meter” app on Android by “Innovative App Designs”. Do you have an opinion on this app?

    (Opinions from other readers are equally welcome :) )

    • I downloaded it at one point to play with, but haven’t had a chance to really dig into it. Might do it later tonight if I’m able to go to the Dubai track and rent a bike.

  11. Lars

    Ray, did you see that there is a Chocolate Milk Mile as well? :-)

  12. Hi Ray, any idea how to operate the swimming drill mode in the v2.9 firmware? I can only find the option to turn on drill mode for pool swims, but beyond that nothing else seems to have changed in the F2. No luck so far in my internet searches too.

    • I haven’t used the drill mode yet (only the swim alerts). I’d poke into the Fenix2 post and see if anyone has some tips there.

      Have you used it previously in the Garmin Swim?

    • Nope, I don’t own a Garmin Swim, only had a FR610 (great watch!) before upgrading to the F2. Wanted to track my pool swims more accurately where possible.