Sports Tech Summer Deals Still Live! A huge number of the Amazon deals are still going! This includes the Garmin Epix for just $459, and the Fenix 8 for $150 off. The Apple Watch Series 10 for $279, the GoPro Hero 13 Black for $329, smart trainers, drones, action cams, and plenty more! Go check out the full list here!
![WeekInReview_thumb_thumb_thumb_thumb[1]](https://media.dcrainmaker.com/images/2017/02/WeekInReview_thumb_thumb_thumb_thumb11.jpg "WeekInReview_thumb_thumb_thumb_thumb[1]")
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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:
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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 2024 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.
Still using windows I see ;-)
Yup. Though, I blend. I use a Mac for video editing, but a Windows box for everything else. And an iPhone.
Ray, use Notepad++, you won’t have problems like this.
> when my computer decided to restart.
Sounds like the lovely new Windows update policies. ?
I noticed on the bike computer video they never showed the screen other than a lock bike screen. So I would say its safe to assume at this point all they have is a box with two lights and a horn.
I was going crazy trying to figure out how to manually upload a file… I was checking the GC Status page, forums, etc… Took a while but eventually found it in the giant “+” button.
Also, where’s the gimbal review?
Google Sheets/Docs/Slides/Keep!
Never click save again!
WRT Garmin, the most frustrating thing is trying to load a course onto a device. The only way I’ve found is to import this as an activity, then save as a course (and then delete the activity, hopefully before it syncs to Strava).
They could’ve added intention actions on Android/iOS to open them in Garmin Connect and then sync to a device, instead – a huge mess.
Yup, 110% agree.
It’s funny that when the Fenix series first came out (what, like 4+ years ago?), I noted at the time that the whole route/course creation process was far too dependent on a desktop computer, you couldn’t just create a Garmin Connect route on the mobile app and push it to the watch.
Ironically, then they had/released a standalone app to do roughly just that, except…not in Garmin Connect. That app eventually died as opposed to integrating it in.
And now here we are in 2017 with the new Fenix5 and mind-bogglingly still no way to quickly create a route via mobile phone in Garmin Connect and then transfer it easily to the watch.
You could use dwatch, – though it’s 3rd party
When making a course I usually create it on an iPad using the Garmin connect webpage (saving often), then go to the garmin connect app on my phone just to send it to my phone.
It’s not hard but a little weird. Also that there is no garmin app for the iPad.
I had an update come through on Saturday for my Wahoo Elemnt. From what I can see the fonts have changed on the screen with the addition of a symbol above the speed indicating whether the current speed is above or below the average for the ride (not that useful really). Not sure if much else has changed.
Ahh, good catch. Looks like the update notification went into my ‘Clutter’ folder. Grrr…
Details here: link to support.wahoofitness.com
The triangle symbol used to act as a decimal point in the speed field, as part of the data itself. Take a look at some of the marketing screenshots, and you’ll see it in the data field itself. Now it’s moved to the label. IMO, it’s less useful there, I look at data when I’m riding, not labels.
Also, the full width 4th data field is now gone, with the addition of the 11th data field. Some liked the full width 4th data field, some didn’t. I guess the “didn’t” were more vocal to Wahoo. I think that it was something that made the ELEMNT distinctive, at least visually. Now, it looks more like the others.
If you want to be different, you have to be different.
I honestly just wish I could have a static layout, period.
Is Garmin’s import of Fitbit data working for anyone? It accepts my files (after some editing, ie removing the “body” or “activity” line from the CSV), but the data does not show in the Connect dashboard.
Hi Ray, there’s also a Bepro firmware update:
link to bepro-favero.com
Nice catch – I’ll roll a note into next week’s update!
Adidas killing miCoach to focus on Runtastic?
With Tapiriik I’m not able to synch activities anymore from strava to Garmin Connect… in tapiriik dashboard it says is synched but it’s not in my GC activity page.
is it so also for someone else? :-(
thanks
Same here. Stuck on TrainerRoad workout, and now the server is offline. Just reupped my yearly subscription. Bummer
Yeah, it’s likely due to the Garmin re-positioning of that button that’s killing those apps. They’re likely using that behind the scenes up fake an upload of data to your account. Garmin *really* hates it, but I have zero sympathy for them there. They’ve had years to implement an API for uploading files from other platforms, and keep stalling at every turn for reasons that defy any logic. It’s all about the platform.
What’s funny about it is that someone thinks it’s bad to allow other devices to upload to their platform. In reality, it’s the best marketing thing ever. Just think about it: What company wouldn’t love to have a ready-made database of all of their competitors customers? In this scenario, when a Wahoo customer (for example) uploads an ELEMNT file to Garmin Connect, it’s telling Garmin that the customer is on the ELEMNT. So why not display subtlety targeted ads about how your product is better than the competition (if it is)? It may also tell Garmin that the customer is on the ELEMTN for cycling, but uses three other Garmin products for running, action cams, and hiking. Maybe there’s a reason for that? Maybe they’d trend the data and see that the customer is spending more or less time with the Garmin product vs their competitor, and maybe they’d proactively try to understand if it’s a meaningful trend.
The ‘cost’ of hosting those files is laughable, because the numbers are just so small. It’s likely a few bucks in storage costs at most at the end of the month (in total). But heck, let’s for fun pretend it was something totally fake and unreal like $30K a month for all customers (it’s not, really, it’s not). That’s nothing for a company of Garmin’s size to spend on marketing or an ad buy. By enabling data uploads for competitors, they not only get to ensure the right audience sees the ‘ads’ (or promos or whatever you want to call them), but heck, they know all sorts of useful information about that customer.
Sigh…it’s an argument I have every time I chat with them in person.
Seems like there isn’t much effort in general to use the data or everyone uploading to figure things out besides some of the stuff strava does.
Thinking the algorithms that golden cheetah, training peaks, etc use the figure out fatigue from wattage
I am curious why you think that the use of indiegogo is a red flag?
Kickstarter requires the company to have an actual functioning product of some form, whereas indiegogo happily accepts vapourwear.
I see…and you WOULD get money even if its total bogus and fails to meet its goal.
Exactly as Ian noted.
There’s zero checks and balances – and overwhelmingly the sketchier projects end up these days on Indiegogo. Not to say everything is perfect on KS (at all), but it’s getting better.
Just in case people would think only scammers would use indigogo it does have the advantage that they take less of a cut.
I also noticed that the Garmin Import had moved.
Is there somewhere that Garmin announces these kinds of changes, or do they just leave us to figure it out? It is interesting how much new information I get about exercise tech from DCR rather than the companies that produce the product.
No announcement method I’m aware of. They have a Garmin blog, but it’s rarely used for stuff like this. More just random PR announcements and occasional Garmin Connect IQ stuff.
I found out the hard way when it disappeared. Then I got increda-angry. Then I did some digging on the Garmin Forums and found said solution. Then I was happy again.
I wasn’t angry, just confused. I found it by accident before reading your blog, but find it interesting how much better you are at distribution of news of their changes than they are.
Big thanks for the hint…. I nearly got crazy finding the Upload-Button !!!
Hi ray. When is the definitive review of the tom tom runner 3 coming out. Waiting on your review befor I take the plunge and buy one
Working on it!
Overall, it’s a nice little unit. Though basically it’s just a Spark 1 with a few minor tweaks, so if you generally like the look of that review, then this will likely check the boxes. Since that initial review though there has been changes/adds like the daily RHR readings.
There was a firmware update for the KICKR released on 3rd Feb 2017 which I can’t see listed anywhere in your week in review posts.
I applied it to my Gen 1 KICKR and found that it no longer broadcast power/cadence information on ANT+ or BLE. I had to roll the firmware back to 1.4.26 to get it working again. Not sure if you know anything about what happened there? Should this only be applied to Gen 2?
This one? link to support.wahoofitness.com
It should definitely be Gen1. I haven’t heard anyone else note that issue. Maybe try applying it again – and then fully restart the unit if you didn’t (power off)?
Good catch on missing that one. I had some of the Wahoo firmware alerts end up in the wrong e-mail folder, so missed them unfortunately.
Yes. That’s the one.
Interesting. I certainly did restart it (pulled power out). And then tried to find it again using the Wahoo utility app on my phone and then ANT+ on my laptop with TrainerRoad.
I guess I’ll try it again at some point and see if I have better luck!
As for deals, I’m seeing the Powertap GS hub at $299 on their site. Is that a fire sale or what? Being discontinued, or nobody wants straight pull spokes?
It’s been that way quite some time.
Basically there’s a few reasons:
A) You’ve got the cost to thread it onto a wheel, which will cost you at least $100-$150 at most LBS
B) It doesn’t support the new G3 BLE or dual ANT+/BLE caps, so also a bit limiting there.
Still, ignoring those issues – if you can get it threaded cheaply, it’s a fantastic deal if you’re on ANT+ (i.e. Garmin).
yeah, I seen now that it’s been a few months. The specs say it is dual ANT+ & BT smart and I figured it would be good-to-go for connecting w/ my Polar V800, so I assumed it would work. Am I wrong/ in for a nasty surprise?
no better way to pass the time when the snow flies than to lace up some wheels!
Huh. Weird, I wasn’t aware of them making a dual capable GS. I’d want to double-check that with them.
New trainer on kickstart? link to kickstarter.com
(or maybe I missed your post)
But something seems wrong with the design as the flywheel is tiny and other things seem off
Yeah. Looks to be a classic case of mismatching target market demographic with their product.
You should give Onenote a try for your notepad docs. It syncs to OneDrive and can be used across all your devices (Windows/Android/Apple), so that no matter where you are you can add something to it.
Oh – I love Onenote (after all I worked for Microsoft for more than a dozen years). For me, I like Notepad as it’s the great equalizer of things like fonts/text size/etc… It’s also instant.