The Week in Review is a collection of both all the goodness I’ve written during the past week around the internet, as well as a small pile of links I found interesting – generally endurance sports related. I’ve often wondered what to do with all of the coolness that people write, and while I share a lot of it on Twitter and Facebook, this is a better forum for sending it on to y’all. Most times these different streams don’t overlap, so be on the lookout at all these places for good stuff!
So with that, let’s get into the action!
DCRainmaker.com posts in the past week:
Here’s all the goodness that ended up on the main page of DCRainmaker.com this past week:
Sunday: Week in Review–July 17th, 2017
Tuesday: Wahoo Rolls Out ELEMNT/BOLT Live Tracking with Data & Routes
Wednesday: Xert rolls out free real-time FTP app on Garmin devices
Thursday: Garmin Acquires Cycling Aerodynamics Company Alphamantis
Thursday: Hands-on: Airdog’s new ADII sports-tracking drone
Friday: Wahoo’s New 2017 KICKR SNAP Trainer: Hands-on
Friday: Strava will now fix your Garmin or phone when you break it riding…or not.
Sports Tech Deals This Week:
Below is the current list of deals in the sports tech realm. Of note is the addition this week of the Cycliq Fly6 (back-light/camera combo) and Fly12 (front-light/camera combo) at $97 and $199. That’s a solid deal, especially for the Fly6.
| Product | Sale Price | Amazon | Sale Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | AmazFit T-Rex 3 - $40 off | $240 | Amazon | |
 | Amazon Echo Dot Kids - 42% off | $34 | Amazon | Despite being a tech-focused dude, our kids don't actually get much tech in their lives. However, we got these two years ago for them in their rooms, to play music. They do lots of other things, but our kids mostly just use it to play music (from Spotify and Apple Music too), and occasionally they ask it questions. It has all the parental controls I want, so it locks it down from bedtime/etc...For $34? Solid deal (The coolest 'nice touch' feature is that if you whisper to it, it'll whisper back...in the owl kids voice it has.) |
 | Apple 11" iPad - (Wi-Fi, 128GB) - $70 off! | $279 | Amazon | ⚡ This is an awesome deal. I use my iPad primarily for TrainerRoad as well as Zwift when not with a larger display. I also occasionally use it for other apps, namely Indievelo, Kinomap, Rouvy, and Peloton. But I pretty much test every smart trainer app on it. For all these cycling apps, the graphics capabilities is really pretty irrelevant, so having the absolute top-end/latest model won't make any difference. I prefer the budget options. |
 | Apple AirPods 4 - $60 off! | $119 | Amazon | |
 | Apple Watch SE (2022/2nd gen) - $100 off $249/$299 (cellular) | $169 | Amazon | It's really hard to beat $169 for an Apple Watch. Again, like the other Apple units on this list, the SE3 was announce last month - which adds an Always-on Display, among other features. But at $169 with otherwise all the same software features as the higher-end Apple Watch units, this continues to be one of the best deals in smartwatches out there. |
 | Apple Watch Series 10 - $120 off $399/$499 (cellular) | $279 | Amazon | With the Series 11 out last month, you'll see sales on the Series 10. That said, there isn't a huge difference between Series 11 and Series 10. So if you were looking at the Apple Watch SE3, this might be worth grabbing instead for the added features. |
 | Apple Watch Ultra 2 Black Titanium - $150 off | $649 | Amazon | With the new Apple Watch Ultra 3 announced last month, it's time to clear some Ultra 2 inventory. This is pretty much the 'normal' sale price for the Ultra 2. |
 | DJI Mini 4K Drone - $60 off | $239 | Amazon | If you're looking to get into flying with a DJI drone, this is a solid place to start. Of course, moreso than that, the days are very limited for how much longer you can actually buy at DJI drone in the US. So, grab them while you can. |
 | DJI NEO - $30 off! | $159 | Amazon | This is the lowest price on this drone, and is a great option if you want a follow-me drone that's pretty hard to kill, at a price point that's still super reasonable. |
 | DJI OSMO 360 - $137 off | $412 | Amazon | NOTE: This is not sold by DJI directly via Amazon. DJI itself is NOT selling the OSMO 360 in the US, and WILL NOT support/repair it in the US. That said, it's a solid deal if you're ok with those risks. |
 | Garmin Edge 540 - $73 off | $267 | Amazon | ⚡At $267, it's pretty much impossible to beat this deal in terms of bike computers. There's no competitive option that beats it on features/battery/etc at this price, or frankly anywhere near it. Sure, it doesn't have a touchscreen, but it's not as bad as it used to be (I did a stint on it this winter for a week or so, and was fine). |
 | Garmin Epix Pro - $250 off! $899/$999 | $499 | Amazon | ⚡ This is avery solid deal! The Epix Pro has the latest optical HR sensor in it, and thus has full ECG support as well. Note, this is for a 'renewed' model. In Garmin lingo, it means it went back to the (same) factory in Taiwan, and went back to the assembly line and is effectively a new watch again. I wouldn't have any concerned with a renewed model, but some might. |
 | Garmin Varia Radar (RTL515) - $50 off | $149 | Amazon | This is Garmin's standalone radar+taillight option, and $149 is pretty much the standard sale-price. Even despite all the new radars out there, this remains the most accurate option on the market. Now, only if Garmin would just re-release it with USB-C. C'Mon Garmin... |
 | Garmin Venu X1 - $100 off! | $699 | Amazon | This is the first time we've seen the Venu X1 on sale, since it came out this past summer. This is a good deal, though, I do wonder if it indicates the original pricing wasn't quite right here. |
 | Garmin inReach 2 Mini Satellite Communicator (2-way) - $40 off | $360 | Amazon | This is a pretty small deal for this product. This is my defacto satellite communicator when out of coverage area, and I've used it on a number of major treks over the past two years when well outside of cellular service, both in a 24x7 tracking mode for friends and family, but also there in case of emergency. Would strongly recommend for anyone doing anything in the wilderness. |
 | Garmin inReach Messenger Plus - $100 off! | $399 | Amazon | This came out last fall, and is the second time this has been discounted. The key difference with the new Plus model is that it adds the ability to send photos and voice messenges via satellite. I've used it a bit, and it's pretty cool because it makes it a lot faster to just say something rather than type it out, but the $499 price seemed excessive. $399 makes it slightly more palatable. |
 | GoPro Hero 13 Black - $50 off | $349 | Amazon | |
 | GoPro Hero 13 Black Bundle (extra battery/SD card/floaty) - $100 off! | $379 | Amazon | ⚡ This is a very solid deal. It's a Hero 13 Black on discount, but then an extra battery tossed in, then an SD card, and then a floaty. |
 | GoPro Hero 4K - $20 off | $199 | Amazon | While the new Hero Lit was announced a few weeks back, which includes a front LED light, for the most part it's the same camera inside. Note I'll have a full comparison shortly though between the GoPro Hero Lit, DJI OSMO Nano, and Insta360 Go Ultra. |
 | Google Pixel Watch 3 (45mm) - $70 OFF | $229 | Amazon | The newer Pixel Watch 4 came out last month, and will start shipping this week. I see the Pixel Watch 4 as a pretty substantial hardware upgrade over the Pixel Watch 3, notably due to satellite SOS, as well as a user-replaceable battery. Still, this is a solid deal. |
 | Insta360 X5 360* Action Cam - $50 off! | $499 | Amazon | |
 | Polar H10 Chest Strap (Dual ANT+/Bluetooth Smart) - $15 off $89 | $84 | Amazon | |
 | Polar Verity Sense - 15% off $99 | $82 | Amazon | I use this as one of my reference devices for heart rate accuracy testing. |
 | Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra (2025) - $100 off! | $549 | Amazon | |
 | Samsung Galaxy Watch8 - $35 off | $314 | Amazon | |
 | Sony Alpha 7 IV Full-frame Mirrorless Camera w/ 28-70mm Zoom - $400 off | $2,398 | Amazon | This is the main camera I use for still photography and video b-roll. I recently wrote about all the photography gear I use, linked at side here. |
 | Suunto Run - $50 off! $249 | $199 | Amazon | This is a very solid deal. It's got virtually all the software features of Suunto's higher-end watches (minus the app store), and just came out this past May. |
 | Suunto Vertical - $120 off! | $379 | Amazon | While the new Suunto Vertical 2 just came out last week, if you wanted to stock-up on MIP-based display watches before they disappear, here's your chance. |
 | Suunto Wing headphones - $30 off | $119 | Amazon | |
 | Wahoo ACE Cycling GPS - $90 off! $599 | $531 | Amazon | |
 | Wahoo BOLT V2 - $30 off $279 | $237 | Amazon | |
 | Wahoo KICKR 2022/V6 - $155 off! $1,299 | $894 | Amazon | ⚡This is actually the lowest price we've ever seen on the KICKR V6. Wahoo says we won't see a new top-end KICKR this fall, with them instead focusing on the new KICKR Bike Pro, KICKR CORE 2, and all their new bike computers/radar/etc... |
 | Wahoo KICKR Core Smart Trainer - $75 off! $499 | $427 | Amazon | This is basically the lowest price we've ever seen for this trainer as far as I know. It's still a very solid trainer, and the cornerstone to the new Zwift Ride bike as well (it uses the KICKR CORE as the base). It works with the Wahoo KICKR CLIMB too. |
 | Wahoo KICKR Desk - $30 off | $199 | Amazon | |
 | Wahoo KICKR ROLLR - $130 off $599 | $569 | Amazon | |
 | Wahoo ROAM V3 - $70 off! | $395 | Amazon | This is the first time we've seen the ROAM V3 on sale (notably the BOLT V3 is not on sale, though the larger ACE is). |
 | Wahoo TRACKR Heart Rate Sensor - $15 off $89 | $84 | Amazon |
Also of note is that ELEMNT $80 rebate for the larger unit. Helps to equalize the price compared to the smaller BOLT. Both contain the same software, though the larger unit has an additional LED stripe.
Oh…and ProTip: Swing back by this page sometime mid-morning on Monday US Eastern time for a very time-limited deal on some products.
YouTube Videos I Published:
Here’s some YouTube goodness that I published this past week, don’t forget to subscribe!
DCR Podcast:
By the time you read this, another episode will hopefully have dropped. If not, I suggest keeping an eye out on your feed. We recorded one Friday night so it should be out as soon as Ben finishes golfing or something.
Stuff that I found interesting around the interwebs:
Here’s a not-so-small smattering of all the random things that I stumbled on while doing my civic duty to find the end of the Internet.
1) It’s dead, Jim: This will come as no surprise, but Intel has killed off their wearables division. What remains slightly unclear is if Recon is technically part of that or not. Of course, they previously pseudo-killed Basis by recalling the product and then shutting down the site. It’d be interesting to know how this impacts New Balance, who worked closely with Intel on their Run IQ Android Wear watch, whereby Intel did much of the work (including ongoing updates).
2) Alaska Airlines now charges $25 for bikes: Sweet! Far more reasonable than the $150USD (one-way) that United or others charge. I still have really good luck with my bike bag, but if you get pinched, I’d rather only pay $25. (via Race Radio)
3) Well that was cold: I was looking forward to seeing how the Alaskaman triathlon (first year) went last weekend. The pics don’t disappoint!
4) A different look at the Tour de France live tracking platform: A week or so ago I showed you a behind-the-scenes on Dimension Data’s live tracking platform. This past week Cycling Maven put together a video during his TdF Vlog about it. Cool stuff.
5) What’s on Team Cannondale-Drapac’s bike computers? Ask and you shall receive. Each rider lists what data fields/pages they use. (via Harald)
6) Why ‘the unicorn’ shouldn’t be used for health startups: Interesting perspective on health startup valuations from a business angle.
7) Tesla is paying employees to commute by bike: File this into the list of things you didn’t expect.
8) Update on this: GoPro water bottle mount: Last week I mentioned this, and my skepticism that it would arrive within the previously stated August timeframe, or that it might arrive at all for the price. Astoundingly it actually came on Wednesday this past week. Seriously, fastest crowd funding thing ever for me. Quality seems just fine, though I haven’t really done any super detailed testing.
Sports Technology Software/Firmware Updates This Week:
Each week I quickly highlight some of the new firmware, app, software and website service updates that I see go out. If you’re a sports technology company and release an update – shoot me a quick note (just one-liners are perfect, or Tweet it at me is even better) and I’ll make mention of it here. If I don’t know about it, I won’t be able to post about it. Sound good? Oh – and if you want to get a head start on things, this page is a great resource for watching Garmin firmware updates.
Garmin FR735XT Beta Firmware Update: Added swimming countdown timer, also some other tweaks/fixes.
Garmin Varia Radar Firmware Update: Radar and LED improvements, some other bug fixes.
Garmin VIRB Edit update: Minor tweaks and fixes.
Garmin Vivosmart 3 Firmware Update: Actually a whole pile of tweaks and new things.
PowerTap P1 Firmware Update: Minor bug fixes, some additional fixes for the P1S
Wahoo Fitness ELEMNT/ELEMNT BOLT Firmware Update: Added live tracking and a few other tweaks (discussed in full post up above).
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Thanks for reading!
Participating in the Alaskaman race was an amazing experience! Every swim stroke, pedal revolution, and running then hiking step was a challenge. The course was very well organized, despite being an inaugural event in a relatively remote location. Weather was great. Views were breathtaking. Ahhh… Hard to believe it’s been a week since my husband and I crossed the finish line.
Podcast still hasn’t dropped.
Either Ben is a poor golfer, or he’s stuck on the 19th. I suspect both :)
Good report on Alaska trithlon… The race is now part of the X-tri world tour, with 2 more newbies…
Hi, I’d be interested in your thoughts on the ongoing Withings/Nokia debacle. It seems a textbook example of how to upset customers for no discernible benefit.
Yeah, it’s been on my list to look at, just been travelling a bunch lately w/o a lot of access to my scale. As of this morning I have no more travels till the end of August, so going to dig into it more.
But I do agree, they really seemed to have F’d this one up in an impressive way.
Do that many people actually use the withings app rather than integrating the data within 3rd party platforms? My scale still measures my weight, and other bits bobs, and squirts the details to sporttracks.
I used to use the Withings app a lot as I have a number of pieces of Withings hardware (Go, BP, Scales, Thermo) which I bought as it brought everything together on one platform. The weight graph was particularly useful as it allowed a quick check of trends (or for inspiration/reassurance). The new graph is useless as it isn’t possible to set axes to meaningfully depict the data. All very basic stuff. It should also be possible to fix very quickly once they accept the problem exists.
Do you know if the Fly12 discount will be available in UK/Europe?
Just asked… will post back when I hear.
Any word on when F5 will get the Stress tracking update?
Good question, I’ll shoot them an e-mail today on it.
While you’re at it , please bug them about their progress on the ANT+ connection issues. It would be nice to know what is going on there. The most recent beta builds seem to be focused more on dog tracker than anything else.
Any luck getting an ETA?
Thanks
What bike computers could be traded-in by Wahoo Element?
Must it be GPS computer or any type?
I could not find this information anywhere…just found about the condition of the computer must be.
Great link to the Alaskan tri Ray. Your Week in Reviews are among my favorite posts.
I wonder how much the RunIQ debacle has contributed to the final downfall of the intel division. What will New Balance (and TAG Heuer) now do with their new digital division?
Interestingly, we still have not seen a DCRainmaker RunIQ review yet! For a while it sounded like it may be released any moment and it would be an epic fail. While I like New Balance (they are helping maintain running trails in the Winter in Boston!), I was looking forward to the review, out of pure schadenfreude :))) Ray, any chance for a RunIQ review being published?
Yeah, I may take another look at it now that it’s on Android Wear 2.0 (I’d guess about 30-40% of the problems were attributed to AW1). But it’s not going to solve the dismal optical sensor they borrowed from Basis (via Intel). That’s not a sensor for workouts, it’s for non-fitness use.
Is the mid-morning on Monday deal the wahoo sale?
Yes.
Seems the @recon twitter account is gone (or I’m going mad)
Wow, you’re right. It appears totally gone. Don’t find any record of old tweets under a newly named account, nor does my following show it named as something else. Poof.
Basis still has a Twitter account.
Randomly out of interest I pinged one of their pro-triathletes – he was under the impression they were BAU.
More soon on this from me. But yeah, they’re dead.
Killed off their Facebook presence also.
Ray
The alaskaman was a lot of fun, the swim was not all the bad but I had my longest t1 trying to get my arm warmers on as I couldn’t close my hands enough.
The longest part was the hike up the mountain twice
Fun times for sure.
Chris
Hi Ray,
Power2Max have some fairly big discounts on their type S line at the moment.
Ray – Fly6 or Garmin Varia?
I like the price point and the camera feature of the Fly6 is nice but it’s not a deal sealer for me… I feel like the radar feature of the Garmin unit is far more useful. Thoughts?
If you live in the city, I’d go Fly6, if you live more in the country (or plan to ride there), I’d go Garmin Radar.
For me, the radar is totally useless in the city (just too much traffic), whereas it’s at its best out on the countryside.
Did the podcast ever get posted? I still can’t find it..