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!
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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.
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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 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.
Wait with baited breath for a review of the Avio the road cc artical made it sound like they were happy with the repeatability but I wasn’t so sure about the accuracy compared to other products. What did they say about that ray?
If they’ve cracked carbon I’d be amazed. Sounds to good to be true for £250!
The Road CC folks haven’t ridden it yet, thus, we don’t know.
Wow – if your first impressions seem positive.. they may get me to part with some money… this is just low enough not to arouse wife suspicions :)
Hi, Any more info on the powersense ?
Looking forward to read the powermeter review!!
Speaking of 300$ PM wouldn’t you order the Chinese one (Xcadey) that you had mentioned on Twitter just out of curiosity?
I’m all for burning $300 (I’ve got 6 tabs open on Amazon at the moment narrowing down gizmos to buy), but given their own data looks horrendous, I see little desire to spend both money and time (mostly time) trying it out.
Fair enough :) but maybe their “marketing” doesn’t know what and how to show :)
Somehow…I don’t think that makes me more inclined. ;)
Plus, I ended up buying everything on all the tabs…and now…well…I think I spent like $1,500. :-/
Tough life! #firtstworldproblems :) but this is not just fun, I started a YouTube channel and now I retain myself from opening gadgets unless I can properly film… ?
Any news on the new bePROs? Favero says they’ll announce it soon, but won’t give any extra details.
Knowing if it’ll be a new line (crank based for example) or a direct replacement of their current pedals would make a purchase decision so much easier right now :-)
I just got an Under Armour scale since they had given me a $40 coupon and it has been super wonky even on it’s own platform, and at first required the Under Armour Record app which is perhaps the most broken app I’ve ever used. Now it seems to be syncing fine over wifi and pushing my weight to Myfitnesspal and Garmin Connect just fine now that I’ve uninstalled UA Record funnily enough. I’m not super thrilled with it though despite the $40 coupon, especially since that coupon didn’t work unless I paid $100 and the scale is $99 so I had to also get an overpriced shirt I didn’t care about.
Also the bodyfat data and even weight sometimes vary fairly significantly even when I just step on and off several times in a row without doing anything else. Bodyfat I expected, but weight varies by just over a pound sometimes. I kinda expected more precision there in today’s age. Is a pound of variance still just to be expected, even when just stepping on and off the scale a few times?
Also do you think Garmin’s implementation will cause more people to partner like Sports Tracks? And would a Garmin scale push the weight to Myfitnesspal? Kinda annoyed right now that my new Under Armour scale of all things struggles with that sometimes and doesn’t send bodyfat to anybody ever, even Myfitnesspal…
When I tried the UA scale a long while back, they said there was a settling period after placing it on a surface of a few weigh-ins. Meaning if you left it in the same place on the floor and just stepped on it day in/out, then all was good. But if you picked it up and such…then less so.
As for Garmin pushing to MyFitnessPal, that’s what it supposedly does already, but it just doesn’t work consistently for many.
Thanks! Yeah I didn’t move it during the handful of first few weigh-ins, but I had just removed it from the box when I did them so maybe I’ll wait till this weekend and try multiple in a row again.
And thanks again for the info on tye Garmin scale. It kinda astounds me how what is arguably one of the simplest and oldest health/fitness metrics of all (weight) seems to be the one with the least cross-compatibility.
The on-bike footage from Paris-Roubaix gives you a taste of just how fast the pros are taking the pavé sections in a way the bike/heli cameras don’t really capture. Butters, the lot of them! And up to 4-5 abreast at times… you couldn’t pay me enough!
For your fitbit exploding comment, they do use lithium ion batteries so could just be a bad battery. When there are millions of things you kind of expect something with a very very small chance of happening to happen at some point
Always possible, but Fitbit’s statement is pretty clear: The user basically whacked it with something to cause it (external force).
Your Death Star handlebars t-shirt is one of the most awesome t-shirts I’ve seen in a looooooong time! Where did you get it? My Google skills don’t seem up to the task of finding it.
looks like its an old design from Eleven.cc – Super Cool!
link to pinterest.com
Even better – they sell a framed version!
link to eleven.cc
Here ya go, this is where I bought it: link to threadandspoke.com
Thanks!
Quick comment on the Peloton bike. A friend of one of my Spinning® instructors got one for Christmas. It broke the second time she used it and was 4 weeks before they could send a tech out to fix it… It’s hearsay but I’ve no reason to doubt it.
The interesting thing about the Panasonic reading your HR is that it sounds like the took the technology that Microsoft put into the newer Kinect when the XBOX ONE came out, since it has been able to do that since it’s release.
That tech is much older then the Kinect:
link to news.mit.edu
I figured as much, just the first main stream thing I saw with it built in. That mirror is pretty neat though.
Thanks for the tip on the first Gen Apple Watch. Went to grab the watch off the charger the other day and noted it was hot, then noted the separation. Didn’t explode, but boy it makes one wonder…..
In the spirit of questions about GPS/wearable/sports tech, when are we going to see cycling computers with USB Type-C ports?
I am ready to burn all my micro-usb cords in a fire after switching to a phone with type-C…
I kinda wonder the same thing, but the general feedback I’m getting from companies is ‘What does it do for the consumer?”
Which…honestly, it kinda hard to argue with. As a techie (and owner of a new MacBook Pro) I keep hoping to see new gear adopt USB-C, but if I step away from it for a second I realize that aside from action cams there’s very little tangible benefit from a speed standpoint. After all, an hour long .FIT file is a mere 100KB – so no meaningful speed increase.
One could argue the stronger port design, but the lack of legit waterproofed ports is another issue. There are a few companies dipping their tow into that, but nobody wants to end up with a Polar M400 USB port situation. So that makes people even more wary.
Then there’s compatibility increases, but as much as it pains me – that argument falls to tatters more than any other, since overwhelmingly people have micro/mini-USB cables around these days versus the handful of us with USB-C ports on our goods.
:-/
Hmmm, i see your/their point. Especially on the IP67/whatever ports… That is just going to take time i suppose. Maybe 2 years from now, after the Samsung GS8 has been around for 24 months, the waterproof-ish type-C ports will be cheap enough for Garmin to say fine.
My arguments for type-c would be: ease of use and faster charging… data transfer has nothing to do with it, but i can see how my argument falls apart there as that is a primary perk of type-C…
But wait. > 90% of people charging phones never transfer anything to or from it with usb… why are phones rapidly moving to type-C??? i think it is just my two arguments, ease of use and faster charging.
“why are phones rapidly moving to type-C???”
Well how else are they going to sell you new accessories? ;)
They are trying to get everything to the one port standard. Makes life easier only dealing with one cable. It is the only usb 3.1 cable, no more displayport cables (link to displayport.org) Thunderbolt too.
There are waterproof ports:
link to mouser.com
That was one of the justifications for putting audio over USB C
link to usb.org
The thing to keep in mind is that it isn’t making a waterproof connector. That’s easy. It’s making a GOOD waterproof connector that survives years of salt and doesn’t cause corrosion. That’s a far more difficult challenge that most attempts have failed at (historically).
I see your rental bike has disc brakes, what do you think? I’m just about to pull the trigger on a new bike with disc, I think they’d be great, especially if you’re running carbon rims.
Fenix 5 gets another new firmware:
link to garmin.com
chronos:
link to garmin.com
The 935 is still at 2.95. Will be interesting to see if the 935 gets the new boating functionality the Fenix 5 got. Not because I care about boating but as a way of seeing if the 935 will get new functionality added the same as the Fenix 5 or if this is the start of diverging functionality
Any update on the Avio Ray?
The only new info I can find is on their website, so not exactly neutral. According to them or their reviewers its great and it seems like they have released 100 units to testers (what they call pathfinders) and are searching for bike shops to sell it :-/
I actually met with them in December, they came over to Paris. They’re roughly looking to start rolling out this spring/summer.
Thanks for the update which sounds promising ?
Hi Ray I note Avio have started selling there power meter on their website. When do you think you will be reviewing one of their units?
I have a unit now (two units actually)…more soon!
Great news!
Have you found time to do a review?
I took the punt today to buy it as two respected local bike shops are selling it.
Once the lbs has fitted it I can compare it to my Favero Be Pro S but I’ve no idea how accurate the Be Pro S is.
I got my crank with the Avio last Saturday. I did a quick ride and numbers felt in the right ball park for the effort. My ride on Sunday needed recalibration of the unit a few times but the temps were 2deg in the morning and 8deg at lunch. Today the temps were more constant and the range seemed reasonable but the outputs to high (It was an eye balls out ride but not eyeballs in another country). So out of curiosity I did a quick 5mins test on my turbo with the BeProS and the Avio both running and whilst both units were consistent in response to effort the Avio was on average 19.5w higher than the BeProS. I can’t say if the BeProS reads low or the Avio reads high though and I just hope its consistent ?