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!
3
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.
4
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!
5
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.
“take proper phone propped up against a book naked selfies with Snapchat,”
If you are wearing the activity tracker, are you really naked ?? ;-P
In this case, you’re holding the button. Thus, still totally valid state of naked.
How about a Trigger Warning notice for the Never Nude cohort next time.
How about a general warning for the trigger-hype-allergic cohort?
I have little interest in counting my steps, but had me sold at “naked selfie”.
Wow, $19. Before I used to say I wouldn’t pay that much for a fitness tracker, now I have to decide if I would actually use a wearable fitness tracker.
how did you take the photos if they didn’t send you a device? Who’s Joanna? Are they any good? Lots of unanswered questions :-0
They didn’t send me a device…just a pile of blah PR photos…all of which were non-useful. Instead, I grabbed screenshots from one of the videos.
I don’t know Joanna, or if she is any good.
Hi Ray,
Just a note to say that the Polar M400 also has smart phone notifications from an update a few weeks ago. Not sure if it’s complete feature parity with the Polar V800, but it works quite well.
Yeah, I couldn’t quite remember either if there were any slight nuance differences between the implementations on the M400 and the V800.
In the spirit of light looks at new bits on the market, any thoughts on the ‘Moov Now’, claims to be able to tell you if your run stride is too ‘hard’ and other interesting bits of data aswell..
So the same hardware for the Loop 2? Great fun in the shower, that water sensitive button.
The $29 one also comes with the bracelet, which would cost you the other $!0.
come on polar give me sync to phone from my V650 and smartphone notifications as well, now – (or in august when you add openstreetmaps – perferably before Agust 4. when i ride i’m to ride Munich – Venice for two weeks)
I hope they come through for you in time. In my view, timescales do slide with Polar but they have delivered everything I need from the m400, but when smartphone notifications come android way I hope its easy to disable the damn things. Horses for courses
could this replace the polar stride sensor (if shoe mounted)? (would it pair as such with M400?)
THANK YOU for this article! I have spent the last 30 minutes navigating the inter webs looking for someone to tell me what the difference is between the Flash and The Flask Link and could not find it explained – even on the misfit site. Best I could tell it was exactly the same thing but with different prices which made no sense.
However “The only difference between the Flash at $29 and the Flash Link at $19 is the waterproofing at 30-meters for the $29 Flash” makes it very clear.
I like to swim sometimes so I will get the Flash.
Thanks!
That and the flash link doesn’t come with the wrist band from what I could tell of the Misfit website.
I have a general questions/comment (not specific to this entry), can readers still subscribe to a thread without having to post to it? I don’t see that option but I know that I’ve done it before.
Thanks for all that you do!
Not quite at the moment. It was offered, and then a few weeks ago the site basically reached maximum capacity on the commenting system and things started breaking.
So we swapped to a new system, but that didn’t have that subscribe without commenting feature in it. So the devs have it on the list to add shortly, but they prioritized stabilizing the base functionality first.
Soon, sorry!
My gf is on the market for a new band (currently has a Nike Fuelband SE) and she’s been looking at the Vivosmart… would that be a good idea? I feel like it is due an upgrade very soon.
The black will be a higher contrast and contrast between the band and LED’s much better, so the Sorbet and White I don’t think is a good idea. So, wait for a the black device and see if folks like it. If the Fuelband is still working and alerts are not need… I would keep the Fuelband and wait ’till the black PL2 is available. If the smaller Vivosmart is to her liking then give it a spin. I like to stay with bluetooth stuff although Garmin proprietary (owned) ANT standard has excellent dependability… their bluetooth, not so much, and the bluetooth is what connects the Vivosmart to your phone. The ANT connects the band to the ANT heart rate band. Me and my wife use the Fitbit Flex and both of us are on the second warrantied device. Don’t spend to much unless very dependable… My vote because of dependability is with the PL2 in black. Now if they had a Windows Phone app and connected to UHC I might think leaving the Flex before this one breaks.
As a Loop v1 user I was most let down with the press release stating that it still has the same old crappy led array for a display which is totally unreadable outside in daylight (not even bright sunlight will render it useless).
Another major irritation is the lack of on-wrist HR tracking on both this and the V800. =(
When you say you can export the data from the Loop/Loop 2, could you be more specific about what data one can export, for example to SportTracks? Is it just activities with the HRM, or is it the number of steps for the day, or the hour?
How does exportability of data from Loop 2 compare with Vivofit2?
Also, I really would prefer a belt activity monitor, and ideally one that noticed stairs. Is there one of those that would allow for data to be exported to SportTracks?
I have done online searches, but have not found the answers to these questions. Thanks for your help.
Your update on the Polar Loop seems to mis a -tag…. the rest of the blog is rendered in Italics….
That would be the em tag….
Eek, thanks! Fixed!
Can this be used as a BT stride sensor for iPhone / Android?
In apps such as iSmoothRun, etc. Instead of Adidas Speed_Cell / Wahoo Fitness Stride / Polar etc.
No, unfortunately not.
According to the misfit site the only difference in the flash and flash link is that the flash comes with the sport band. Both say they are “durable and water resistant to 30 meters”
Yeah, not really sure why they say that as we had significant discussions on the topic (many back and forths).
I recently purchased the Polar Loop 2 and I’m trying to figure out how accurate the activity tracking / goal info is. I haven’t done any extensive tests, but in the few that I’ve done, it doesn’t seem to compute. For example, if it says I have an hour of walking left to meet my goal, then I walk for ten minutes, I would expect it to update the goal to now say 50 minutes left. I read your review on the Polar Loop and it seems like you’ve done some testing on the step counter. Have you done any testing related to the goal progress?
I wear my loop fairly loose around my wrist… and I’ve wondered if that’s part of the problem. Based on the Flow app though, it seems to know that I have it on (it’s not registering as unworn). Thoughts?
There is a new version of Flash – Flash Cyclist Edition link to misfit.com
Have you tried it? Seems like no need to tie to the pedan like Garmin or Wahoo.
Thanks.
Minh
Not yet, though I’ve had the tab up on my browser to poke at and order one.
Hi! I’m reading your articles once in a while and I am really amazed how much effort you put in these reviews. That’s really great! I’ve been using Polar Loop 2 for almost a year now and I was pretty pissed because I thought there was no way to start and stop training sessions accurately when using a heart rate belt. After a while I noticed that it is possible to use “flight mode” as a start/stop function. Once you put “flight mode” on the Loop cuts of bluetooth. You can dress up and get out. Then just deactivate “flight mode” and wait for a HR belt to pair the Loop and start running or riding or whatever. Stop monitoring HR belt by activating “flight mode”. Here’s how you get pretty accurate training data to analyze your performance. I think this is something they should add to user manual.