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.
-
Check out my weekly podcast - with DesFit, which is packed with both gadget and non-gadget goodness!
-
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.
Will we be able to watch it after the fact? Thanks, and congrats! I’m a week ahead of you in infant life. Hope the sleep is progressing well.
Yup, it’ll be archived and available (questions and all!).
Sleep? Hmm…3:04AM Now.
Ray Having just become a grandfather myself for the first time, we are not really interested in you and the Girl (lovely though you are), we just want to see the little one so we can all go Ahhh!
This looks like it could be fun. Will see if i can catch it. At least the time zone makes some sense this time :-)
Yup, I tried to align it to as many timezones as possible. It’s tough hitting all of them, especially the folks Down Under.
Lands bang on me starting work on Saturday so I should be able to make it. Are you doing giveaways ;-) I’ll have cupcakes!
Friday afternoon in the UK – what better way to spend the last hour or two of the working week?! :)
Looking forward to it.
Be lovely to see Bobby and maybe little mini-Maker! :)
The new camera technology link isn’t working for me by the way
Ahh, I think it may be because you’re in the UK and my Amazon link tries to geo-fix it for you on Amazon.co.uk, which isn’t offering it yet. In any case – getmevo.com will do the trick (though, they aren’t shipping intl yet).
gread idea, now I have a (fair) reason to have facebook open while working. Your mic needs an upgrade though :) (and make a review about your choice)
I think 1-on-1 chats with industry experts would be a great idea.
Great show Ray thanks!
If I could make one small recommendation? Talk faster, that way you can cram in more content :D
Haha…I think you’re the only one to tell me to speak faster! Next time I’ll set an alarm on my phone repeating every 10 mins to remember to speak slower. I just get so excited!
Or use a metronome XD
I enjoyed this! You should do it more often :)
Thanks!
Excellent Q&A – thank you! I thought your answer on cycling power meter near term pricing was especially interesting. It makes sense about the game of chicken re: price drops.
Longer term though, how far down the deflation curve do you think we are in terms of power meter pricing? Accuracy appears to be a “solved” factor for almost all players (new or established), and the last year or so hasn’t seen a ton of innovation. Normally I’d expect pricing in a somewhat commodity product to come down to something that gave the manufacturer a pretty thin margin – but I don’t know how low COGS would be for these products, and what the impact of operating in a pretty niche space (and thus lower target market volumes) will have on how high companies will try to hold margins over the longer term. Thoughts? Also, how many of these power meter centric companies will still be stand-alone companies in five years or so?
I think sub-$300 is very reasonable for the next 18-24 months, depending on entrants. I think we’ll probably see PowerPod go there (sub-$200), and then probably see 4iiii eventually go sub-$300.
With someone like PowerPod (and to a lesser extent Stages), their non-crank COGS is super low ($15-25). Adding the crank and labor of installing on a crank is what drives things up.
I suspect if PM companies can find the sweet spot in the $200-$300 range with reputable and useful products, many of them can live.
on your response to work / life balance ….
– “I love playing with The Baby”.
You know The Baby is someone you look after and not “play with” like you do a new sports tech gadget …. ?
Although an “In Depth Review of the Baby” would be a great feature that you do on each birthday!
I also ‘love’ changing diapers…just not in the same kinda loving way. More like a ‘I love taking out the trash’ kinda way.
I was pretty much on sole poop diaper duty. We used cloth diapers and my job was to rinse them out in the toilet (they make a special hose you can attach to the toilet plumbing) and of course wash them. My son is 5 now so we’re fortunately well past that stage!
On the subject of L / R Balance:
I used P1s for about 6 months, and z2/z3 was very consistently 47% Left.
It levelled off ~50% at threshold
Having has water ingress issues with the P1s I swapped to P2M and z2/z3 is consistently 51.5% Left.
Now obviously the P1 is (very, very likely) the more accurate balance number, and i had not interest in doing anything with it (other than be interested) – but I imagine some people do (foolishly? – there is probably better things to focus training time on) – And use the 6 o’clock / 12 o’clock estimate would have yield a very different “prognosis” and “balance training plan”.
So what I’m hearing is wait for eurobike for the smart trainers lol. Really itching to get a kickr or the like, though, but if there are some cool updates I will gladly wait (although it seems like the kickr just dropped in price). For the past year I’ve been swapping the tire off my powertap wheel, which can be pretty frequent some weeks between riding inside in the evening or fitting in a quick inside ride whilst working from home. But the thing that may finally get me a smart trainer: a spouse who just started riding and doesn’t want to deal with changing tires. Sometimes it takes someone to go through what you do to see why you want certain things!
Ray, is there any chance you can take the audio of this and put it on the podcast feed?
Ray,
Hope the live event went well, hated to miss it. I am looking forward to your annual review of power meters OR a stand alone review of the new Rotor 2inpower powermeter. With all the left/right/smothness/etc I feel like my old powertap needs a technology refresh. Really hoping the debacle with the first rotor powermeter is behind them and the 2inpower is a significant improvement!!
Thanks Robert
I’d say that was pretty much a resounding success Ray! Well done, and looking forward to the next one. Will try to help come up with ideas for potential subjects and send them through beforehand.
Thanks for sharing!!
Could you please share the bred cheese and ham too?
The meat was Coppa and a Prosciutto, the cheese were Saint-Félicien & Rocamadour. All of which are my favs!
30min chat to people at Interlake could be great, maybe something like their view of tomorrow, where technology is going.
When I saw your announcement post I thought this was a great idea Ray; I really enjoyed the live Q&A format, and I think the whole concept was executed very well. I also think it’s a great idea to do interviews at the major trade shows with some of the big names in the industry. The DCR podcast and TRS radio are my go too listening choice for long runs, so keep the audio coming!
Hi Ray ,
Somewhere you State, that the element is not so good for you because you cannot download the fif file with USB.but this is working really well, you don’t have to use the Over the air connectivity with the E…
But I understand that size matters more for you than most others as you have to record all those power meters…
…perhaps wahoo enables a feature to record more than one PM in the future, but I think there is only few people demanding this;)