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.
totally impressed with your 5K time of 13:24.
There’s no way that’s right… right?
No, it’s just an artifact of something mistagged.
The first bug in my graphic and it shows up on Ray’s, d’oh! This 5K time was from a confused Epix run that had already been flagged. I’ve added a filter to remove flagged runs from that bit of the graphic.
Does the HRM tri software update just happen? I can’t figure out how to tell what software version my hrm tri is running, but I know my 920XT is up to date…
You’ll need to update/connect your FR920XT first to grab the firmware update, then it’ll update the strap in turn.
On my 920XT, I found I had to go into the Settings -> Sensors -> HR-Run and manually trigger an update of the HRM-Run from there.
Too much pr in that Samsung post to figure it out. Photoplethysmogram and electrocardiogram? PPG makes sense (optical HR) but ecg too? Where to the electrodes go? BIA? Also needs electrodes and don’t think they can work in the wrist location. Only makes sense as a generic chip for everything where a device only uses one or two functions but having one integrated chip is still tint, cheap and lower power enough that it makes more sense then multiple chips for what people want
Hey Ray, seems you linked the Peter Sagan Greece thing twice… Rather than the go pro video which sounds awesome. Cheers
It’s not very clear, but it appears that the Sagan Grease production is an ad for… artichokes?
Whole thing is ridiculous and I love it.
Imagine you’ll be too busy w/ werables at CES, but if not here’s a free story idea: how good are generic commodified werables? I only wonder as I saw both of these at ALDI this past week and one looks like an almost straight copy of Fitbit Charge (tho it’s unit fits into band, is not permanently attached). Even if they only do 75% of what a brand name tracker does, the fact they cost only 25-40% makes them a potential value proposition, I would think. Just an idea.
link to aldi.us
link to aldi.us
I think the Xiaomi mi band is a good example – $20-25 gets you an activity tracker with optical HR sensor – true, while the accuracy of both the step meter and HR sensor leaves a bit to be desired, it’s within 10% of ‘name brand’ activity trackers.
Cool stuff! The 10k effort in Paris was actually a 9.9 km effort according to your Strava-activity. But what a time was that, wow!
maybe you have mentioned it somewhere else, i might have missed it, but because i think it is a big deal, i would like to have your opinion about the latest beta firmware update for the Fenix3 that brings all the functionality of the FR630 (stress score, lactate threshold!!..) + more (new cool widgets not available on the store (myday, last run, last bike, last swim, last sport)). Will they update also the 920xt?
Yup, I talked about it a week or two ago when it first came out (within a ‘Week in Review’ post as well).
I don’t know about the 920XT.
So this is still in the Beta stage at the moment?
How does one get the Beta downloads onto the watch?
I can’t find it on my Fenix, along with the second generation of run dynamics. I’m told my watch is up to date.
Thanks
the firmware is still beta, you can find it at:
link to www8.garmin.com
installation instructions are available (it is pretty easy, but you need to follow the steps because to have running dynamics you need to update also the hrm-run, and to have latest watch faces you need to update the fenix3 display).
maybe my post was not to the point, what i wanted to underline was that not even in the change history of the garmin website there is any mention about the lactate threshold.Not that is a game changer (for me it detected the L.T. one time and auto adjust the heart zone), but i found it strange it was not mentioned, maybe to protect the marketing of the FR630 :)
The Hero4 Session rocket is pretty cool.