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!
I’m DC RAINMAKER…
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:
Alternatively, for everything else on the planet, simply buy your goods from Amazon via the link below and I get a tiny bit back as an Amazon Associate. No cost to you, easy as pie!
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
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.
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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.
Apparently an action-cam mount (GoPro) on a skiing helmet was the reason for the severe head injuries of the Formula 1 champion Michael Schumacher
They’ve not said that definitively, have they? I think the official line is still that he hit his head on a big rock.
Indeed having checked the report was a journalist speculating (and who’s now withdrawn said speculation): link to forbes.com
Ray, you mentioned in a previous post the only watch you took with you on vacation was your F3. Curious to know how it’s performed for you while traveling with regards to pace and distance. I’ve reordered one (from CT in order to support this site) hoping that garmin is a bit closer to a fix to the many reported issues with short distance and all over the board pace that many users are reporting, including my own personal experience. In the meantime I’m still hanging onto my 920 for function before beauty as it were.
From looking at some of the trends of those having distance-short issues it almost exclusively looks to be related to trail runs/rides with lots of turns and essentially shorting the distance on the turn. I did some trail runs, but most of mine were a bit straighter or less switch backs. So I didn’t see any issues there, but probably more related to my routes.
For city running definitely not seeing any issues there (or really any other activities I do). I did grab a second F3 on my way out the door on vacation, which I used as a reference on my swim (in swim buoy).
Thanks for that quick reply. My runs and poor user experience were in light foliage, I live in an urban area of St. Louis down the street from forest park, so it will be interesting to see if the extra foliage in the park now that spring has arrived in full bloom have an affect on performance. Obviously you weren’t able to compare your F3 to any other benchmark like a 920 since the only watch you had was the F3, it would have been interesting to see if there was any discrepancy.
I will say a previous post of yours which noted the data fields to train by has greatly enhanced my running experience. I no longer rely on Instant Pace but now use lap pace, avg pace, HR and cadence as my main fields. It’s allowed the anxiety of watching instant pace to dissipate quite a bit.
In your opinion, are the issues being reported by those users on the F3 fixable with updates?
I would guess it’s likely just a case of over-smoothing, which could be addressed via firmware. My guess is that they are trying to walk a delicate line. Undersmooth and you get messy tracks, oversmooth and distance is shorted. I suspect we’ll continue to see them tweak things.
My hope is that will be the case just as they were able to greatly improve the 620 over time. Thanks for your communication and hope you enjoy the rest of your vacation.
I have noticed the instant pace on my F3 is a bit laggy, moreso than on the 310. That, coupled with the fact that any GPS measure occasionally just goes “blurp,” makes chasing the needle even worse; some people may be noticing that. Distance post-run seems reasonable.
Based on my extensive testing I’d say it’s far more than just a case of over-smoothing. Granted, there is a chance I just happened to have gotten a dud but the issue is not over-smoothing. The issues is signal to noise ratio in the unacceptable levels that *require* said over-smoothing. If that wasn’t the case then the Fenix 3 would use identical algorithms to the FR920XT.
I also found that it’s not just tree cover or switchbacks that cause problems. Weather induced limited GPS availability causes just as much of an issue and that would affect suburbia runners as much as it does trail runners.
The most infuriating in this whole situation is Garmin’s (non)reaction and utter ignorance of the customer complaints.
link to forums.garmin.com!)
My run yesterday morning went down a narrow tree-lined street (no leaves on them yet!) and I definitely see the problems now; the instant pace on the Fenix 3 was useless. Jumping from 9:00 to 4:50 pace from one reading to the next. It’s that way in the Connect log, too. I don’t expect perfection, but I’d like the instant pace to be good to within at least :30 while I’m holding a steady pace. It really makes me doubt the overall, too.
Not sure if I missed it elsewhere – are you in queue to get an Apple watch for a review of the sport capabilities?
Yes, there’s one awaiting me back at home once I return.
The first report I saw didn’t look too promising.
Looking forward to that review, Paul – good initial read, while not promising – my initial thought is that all those items are software related which doesn’t concern me this early in a release, much of that can be easily fixed and I’m sure Apple (or 3rd parties) will fix that in a matter of weeks/months. I am most concerned with the quality of the data and accuracy of the sensors and reliability. for an out of the box setup it seems to have done a good job of distance measurement without being tethered to the iphone…. we’ll see how it lines up against the rest of the competition.
I don’t expect it to compete with a $500 Garmin during intense workouts… I have no intention of replacing my garmin, I just want to make sure it can compete, scratch that, exceeds the current fitbit lifestyle fitness type devices. I’ve held off on these types of devices figuring if I can get an apple watch that is as good if not at the top of the range and comes with all the extras… it’s a no brainer(for me) for an extra $100.
That chap hasn’t read the user guide – the info is uploaded to the “activity” app on the watch – still pretty limited info, but you can get more than distance and calories burned. The main issue I found is that it seems that if you’re running another GPS app (I was running Strava as there’s no way of getting the data out of the Apple app and into Strava etc) then it seems the watch can’t access the phone’s GPS so just uses the accelerometer.
It’s certainly not a replacement for our Garmins, that’s for sure.
Oh, and you can set the screen up to show more than just distance and time – you have three data fields to play with.
If I may, Recon is a Canadian technology device manufacturing in the US. Still great that they can manufacture in North America.
No doubt, probably didn’t need the US three times in there which confused things. But the manufacturing is all US-based, while the design is Vancouver based (actually been to there offices a few years back).
Any insight on the current timeline for the Polar M400 to add the Smartphone notifications? They rolled out for the V800 but delayed for M400. Thanks for all your great reviews.
Looks like garmin is concentrating on improving courses and course navigation on the Edge 810 with their current firmware development:
link to www8.garmin.com
Edge 1000 also got an update but not mention of course changes so not sure if the course algorithms are shared between devices:
link to www8.garmin.com
Trailer for jogging:
link to kickstarter.com
(ok its meants for running with kids in the back being puled but could hold other stuff too but pricy)
Rear camera to identify cars behind you:
link to kickstarter.com
(uses a cell phone so not so sure I’d want my phone battery to be drained on a long ride as image processing may use lots of cpu and kill the battery)