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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Check out my weekly podcast - with DesFit, which is packed with both gadget and non-gadget goodness!
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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!
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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.
Speaking of Fitbit, there was also a rather significant Fitbit Charge HR update – among other things it apparently fixed high stair count issue and added gesture-triggered clock face, which is great as I no longer need to push the button to see the time.
link to help.fitbit.com
(Just noticed update rollout is paused due some Android update issues)
You might want to note iron cowboy lost his bid for 50/50/50 after he “ran” the marathon on an elliptical the other day.
How can he have lost his bid when he claimed not to be bidding for anything apart from covering the distances each day. He’s not going for a world record. He’s been open and transparent about everything. It’s a testament to his will that he even got on the elliptical after crashing on the bike and hurting his hip. More power to him I say and let the skeptics/haters wallow in their own negativity.
I’d agree that he didn’t lose anything per se. I’d also say what he’s done is incredibly impressive.
But all that said…an elliptical isn’t running. If he had done it on the treadmill – even just walked – I’d been just fine (I know others might go with a more strict implementation). But it’s fundamentally different on an elliptical – significantly.
Regarding the Fenix 3, just received my replacement unit after having the bad GPS issues others have seen. This replacement unit came with the latest firmware. Performance is every bit as bad with this new unit. Unbelievable Garmin.
Did you do the letting it sit outside thing first?
I certainly did, and it’s not helped at all. There are several people on the forum who have both the 920 and the F3 who have either given up and returned the F3 or, like myself, only now use it for hopeful testing of firmware and wearing to work. Garmin could do with publicly stating what’s going on, even if that’s via you Ray, if they want to keep their customer base. Right now it’s mainly the thought of re-buying all my sensors that’s preventing me from switching, especially now Polar has a mapping bike computer.
Well, in my case the performance is much improved. Not saying it’s perfect but now it’s alright. That said, I usually run roads with at most moderate tree coverage. Some high-rise buildings around though
They lost me after my fourth Fenix2 which still didn’t work. That, and after the tech support guy finally admitted on the phone that they weren’t planning on addressing the fact that it couldn’t load longer GPX courses their other watches could, and that after a month they hadn’t even bothered to look at the data and VIDEO PROOF I sent them of their watch failing to go over 4 hours on a 12 hour run (it would cycle over and over never getting above the 3:xx mark; that’s right, it wouldn’t even keep time). I had video to prove it, sent it in, and after a month… they’d done nothing.
Happy Suunto Ambit2 user now, and it’s been totally flawless for over a year.
Yes, tried the outside thing. I realize all devices can have bad days, so gave it another shot tonight under better atmospheric conditions – the results were no better. I’m a long time Garmin user, and have spent thousands of $ on their equipment. This experience has let me wondering if I’ll ever buy another.
There were two updates out of Polar last week. One for the M400 to (hopefully) fix the “Something went wrong” issue and the other for the V650 to prepare it for future updates.
Two days left for the long awaited V800 open water swim metrics.
Only 1.5 years after the first announcement (and later withdrawn and replaced by future release)
It was an official “announcement” : “And they’re coming. By end of June.” (link to twitter.com)
Good hope, however with Polar the future remains future for to long.
I always wonder how Frederik Van Lierde, world-champion IRONMAN has been using his watch for over 1.5 years now. Is it only for some extra weight or has he really used it more than a day.
It seems (so far) that the Polar M400 update also sorted out the upload troubles. Since the update the uploads were pretty seamless, before I had to plug in, plug out the watch at least 4-5 times before it actually recognised that the watch was connected.
Super interesting about the use of Fitbit data in a case! I would have never thought it could be used that way!
Hi Ray
I just learned about the bePro powermeter pedals (link to bepro-favero.com) yesterday, any chance that you might get some soon or what’s your opinion on them?
It’s set to arrive here tomorrow. :)
Now they look like a good price! Am I misreading the line “Maximum pedal load resistance: 90kg” though? Seems a little low to me, even if I did weigh 90KG surely pedalling forces will increase that? And I know a lot more riders over 90KG than under…
A bit low indeed, though Vector isn’t much higher. Typically the weight is factored into the stress forces (meaning, they assume something like a max load of 2,000w).
Great, looking forward to get your opinion
Behind the curve as always But that pedal load resistance, that would be each side I take it, so In effect unless you were standing on a single pedal your weight would be split across them?
For the sleep tools, also including the Beddit which recently released v2 for iOS?
Withings still seems to lack android support :(
No, Beddit won’t be part of it. I don’t have a V2 unit currently.
You got me big time.
I thought you meant bike packing as in: http://bikepacking.net
But with all your travels I should have known. LoL
Still looking forward to the Epix review.
Steve
In case you hadn’t seen it through other channels: maybe interesting video for this weeks blog: Bike, a different look at the cycling specimen in Utrecht, made for this weekends Tour start.