Heads up!!! Here’s your massive holiday sports tech deals list! This includes the Garmin Epix for just $419, the Apple Watch Ultra 2 for just $699, the GoPro Hero 12 Black for $249, (or the brand new Hero 13 or $299!) and plenty more! Go check out the full list of 100+ deals here!
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Here’s how to save!
Wanna save some cash and support the site? These companies help support the site! With Backcountry.com or Competitive Cyclist with either the coupon code DCRAINMAKER for first time users saving 15% on applicable products.
You can also pick-up tons of gear at REI via these links, which is a long-time supporter as well:
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You can use the above link for any Amazon country and it (should) automatically redirect to your local Amazon site.
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5 Easy Steps To The Site
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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.
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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!
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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.
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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!
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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.
I have a Pebble Steel and backed the Pebble Time kickstarter. Should be interesting to see what hardware and software devs come up with for the Smartstraps. I currently use a Garmin Forerunner 620 and Scosche Rhythm+ (tried the MIO Link, but that did not work on my wrists). Like always, great review!
It appears that the powered section of the watch band would be facing down when worn on the left wrist. This seems like it would be an issue for a GPS antenna. I guess you could flip the watch upside down to reverse the powered end of the watch band but then the buttons would be on the opposite side of the watch and the watch face would be upside down (could be fixed with S/W).
I recall hearing that it is reversible to allow it to be used on either hand. of course that still leaves the problem of the buttons on the wrong side, but that shouldn’t be too hard to compensate for.
I like the idea of the watch and the possible added functionality via external sensors. Pebble focus is a watch and they add extra functionality only if needed. I applaud the fact that they didn’t add a HR sensor like most other watches have.
But having a strap with a GPS antenna makes sense to me. Imagine you bought the metal edition. One morning you decide to go for a run but taking one of the supplied straps doesn’t make much sense. So why not put a plastic strap which has a GPS antenna? I think it makes sense and I’d love they could integrate with Garmin Connect.
The “accessory port” itself sounded a bit off to me at first, but when you think about the potential of “smart straps” it is in my opinion, one of the biggest innovations in the field. The sort that the likes of Apple would never allow. Time will tell how good these are though. The power could be a potential issue though.
Kieran, the specs call for the strap to draw a small amount of power from the watch OR the watch can actually contain batteries and even power the watch itself. Theoretically you could have an ‘uber’ strap that had a camera, GPS, speaker, blender (OK maybe not a blender) and a variety of other sensors with the batteries to power that (you would have to charge it separately, of course). How practical is yet to be proven but at least the idea is possible with the smart strap.
very cool. but really, we’re all waiting for tomorrow’s review from you. :)
(Fenix 3)
Yup, it’ll be up tomorrow. Not quite as Midnight eastern, but more around lunch European time or so. Have a few photos left I need to grab outside during daylight hours.
And tomorrow after reading the review some European readers would like to (pre)order one.
Any news on the progress of the European DC Rainmaker support warehouse?
There is indeed progress, we talked today about it and they’re in the site testing phase now. I’m being told about 4 weeks till a soft-launch. Good stuff though (and I know it’s been a long haul, but so is setting up operations in Europe).
Biggest problem is that DC Voltage + Sweat = (potentially) bad things. Accelerated corrosion of the power contacts and possibly a shorting of the power nodes. How will they prevent sweat from reaching those power contacts?
Smart straps are ok I guess, but I’m rather hoping for a way for the Pebble to communicate over BLE with external pods. I’d like to keep my HR-strap, my foot pod and wouldn’t mind carry an external gps like Polar had not long ago.
If that was possible it wouldn’t take long before we’d see kickass applications capable of exporting tcx files and what not.
Hey Ray. Do you own a Pebble? And, if so, do you ever use it? I wonder.
Cheers.
Yup, I own one. I don’t use it too much, primarily because it hasn’t really offered me much for the sport-specific use to date (i.e. lack of GPS).
I had a pebble…it was alright. The pebble time really doesn’t interest me, i mean look at that bezel. Its huge. All it does it display notifications. I had a moto360 for sometime too but ended up returning it. I am glad Garmin put activity tracking and notifications into their watch. Also the battery life in it is amazing. Between everything the watch does and the added features i just listed, thats a smartwatch to me, personally.
plus the whole talking into your watch screams “gimmick” there is simply little practical use for that. People love the idea of a “Dick Tracey” watch, but are you going to send notes to anyone, anywhere in public by talking into your watch. I think not.
Since they have an SDK, could we see something like the following?
* ANT+ strap
* On-watch app that shows All ANT+ devices’ info
How much power can the strap get to run?
We definitely could. The power draw on that from an ANT+ side would be pretty much negligible.
Anyone know how to make a duathlon profile for run bike run?
I tried to creat one but i cant seem to find speed and cadence senensor on my created profile.
I dont see tha cadense profile. And i want to seperate the run bike run. Just like in the tri profile. Thanks
Can you do a review on the Pebble or the Pebble Steel (I’m more interested in the Steel version but either would work), I want to know about accuracy with things like step counting, calories, sleep and swim tracking.. I’ve heard mixed reviews that’re all over the place with some people adoring it and call it incredibly accurate for them and some people saying it’s a piece of junk and you’re better off getting a fitness tracker for those things. My main uses would be for swimming, hikes and weight training (with HRM) and I was leaning towards the polar loop but the fact that the pebble can supposedly track swim distances and strokes now, is really appealing to me, but if it falls short in the other areas, obviously I’m not as interested in just a really expensive distance tracker for swimming. I’m dying to know what you think because I trust your reviews!!! Thanks Ray!
I’ll likely start with the Pebble Time, coming out here rather shortly – and then maybe do some comparisons to the older editions within that.
But this smartwatch is also for swimming ?
Can the Pebble be used as a heart rate monitor with something like a Polar H7 strap or a Scosche Rhythm+?
The review of this seems long overdue. Even a “quick look” shorter review would be very useful. I can’t find out anywhere if this picks up bluetooth smart to be used as a heart rate receiver. Or if there is a Polar or other fitness App for it.
thank you in advance for any information.
It is currently not possible to pair a Pebble Time directly to a bluetooth sensor. As I’ve read somewhere thats gonna be an update (but still unannounced). I use my Pebble Time with my iPhone 5 and the ap iSmoothrun. The app allows you to set up different screens and works perfectly with my Wahoo RPM and Polar H6 HRM. But unfortunately you always need to catty your phone with you.