Heads up! The Garmin Enduro 3 is down to $829, some $70 off. That’s the lowest price to date on this new device. The Enduro 3 is notable though because it’s basically a Fenix 8 Solar minus the dive/voice features (and the Fenix 8 Solar/MIP starts at $1,099). Everything else is there, and it gets all Fenix 8 software features (and, insane battery life). Meanwhile, the Fenix 7 down to $429! Or Epix at $429. There’s a bunch more sports tech deals listed here too!
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:
With the start of July brings a fresh wave of new sports tech deals. More interestingly, some of these are actually Europe-specific, which is a rarity around these parts! I’ve noted which ones specifically are Europe-focused.
The lowest price to date for the Enduro 3, whcih is basically the 'cheaper' Garmin Fenix 8 with a MIP/Solar display (but without the scuba or voice calling features). It gets all the Fenix 8 features and updates otherwise.
This is actually the lowest price I think I've got on record for the Garmin Fenix 7. It got virtually all new Fenix 7 Pro features until this past fall, and even this past week is still getting some new features. A very soild deal.
This has been one of Garmin's most popular running watches, and it's down to a very strong price. I often use this in my accuracy testing comparisons when validating other watches, due to it's very strong GPS performance. Note this is the base edition without solar. It'd be hard to find any better deal in sports watches today, from any company (given this has full mapping, tons of new features even this week, etc...). I say '$100ish', because it's usually been on forever sale at $499.
I use this scale, merely for the weight tracking functions (not body fat). It works just fine for that piece, and integrates with the rest of your Garmin data. If you aren't in the Garmin ecosystem, there's plenty of cheaper options.
Not quite as good as the $299 back during the holidays, but this is likely the new-normal sale price. And hey, it's still a very solid camera and my preference for day-time footage (at night, I use the Insta360 Ace Pro 2).
⚡ This has become one of my favorite drones, given it's tiny size (fits in my running shorts pockets) and ease of use. While there's the new Pro-Max drones, those are basically 2x+ the price, and honestly, the video quality isn't really achieving that price point. ***Note: Select the '$100 coupon' checkbox on the site.*** Also, you can select yet another extra battery as an option below that checkbox.
This price has continued to stay low since Black Friday, still a very solid deal for one of the best WearOS watches out there.
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.
The DCR Podcast:
It’s back baby!!!
We managed to coordinate for once in our lives, and even set a standing weekly time going forward. Next thing you know we might even go as far as become presentable in public. Nah, probably not.
Here’s the low-down on what was covered this past week in the DCR podcast:
– Catch-up of the top 3 product announcements in the month
– A recap of where cycling head units stand this year
– Detailed discussion of trainers of 2017, and where things are going
– A similar discussion of power meters and where things are going
– Discussion of the Tour de France and all the festivus that’s happening there.
– We even answered a reader question, and gave a bunch more detail than that person ever wanted. Like, probably TMI.
Thanks for listening! Subscribing and rating in iTunes is much appreciated, and be sure to send in your questions via the voice mail widget at the bottom of the podcast page!
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) Velon/GoPro Daily Tour de France videos: While none of these are mixed to music, there are some great edits in here. Also some astounding (and painful) crash footage).
3) TdF power file analysis: Like past years, Training Peaks is doing analysis of the power files of various pro athletes. Here’s one from the sprint of the infamous elbow crash a few days ago.
4) Triathlon Bike Aero Testing: I meant to link to this study last week, as I linked to the fund-raising a long while back. Be sure to dig into the linked data study though. There’s also a massive Slowtwitch thread where you can ask questions and be politely told why you’re probably wrong by a bunch of people smarter than you or me on the subject.
5) Orca whales visit swimmers: I’m reasonably certain I’d crap myself more if these showed up mid-swim than sharks. Mostly, because I’m cool with sharks. As a side note, you should subscribe to Bradley’s channel – especially if you like amazing aerial footage and/are from the Pacific Northwest. Warning: Some strong language early on in the video.
7) Lifeguard focused drone:This is pretty darn interesting. While this is no substitute for lifeguards at beaches, it could be a great supplement to them. Especially in cases where a secondary person could get a flotation device very quickly to an individual in need, while the primary lifeguard gets there physically. Also could be useful in tough to reach areas (i.e. against rocks) or with challenging sea conditions. With today’s drones easier and easier to operate, and with lifeguards generally trending towards younger generations – it’s actually kinda a perfect fit.
— Business Insider (@businessinsider) July 6, 2017
8) More pitfalls of crowd-funded products: This falls into my general theme of avoiding crowd-funded projects that try to do too many ‘firsts’ in a new product. That usually means it’s not real or otherwise un-achievable within any realistic time frames.
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.
Shame the Mavic wheel video doesn’t show Dan Martin crashing on the next corner because the brakes didn’t work :)
On a more positive note, great to have the podcast back, i’ve been looking longingly at the feed waiting for it to update!
Don’t know if this is the right place to mention this, but anyway… Have you talked to the Stac Zero guys about the aero testing thingy they have? Slowtwitch has an article on it on the front page. Would be interesting to hear your take on it
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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.
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.
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!
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.
![WeekInReview_thumb_thumb_thumb_thumb[2]](https://media.dcrainmaker.com/images/2017/07/WeekInReview_thumb_thumb_thumb_thumb2.jpg "WeekInReview_thumb_thumb_thumb_thumb[2]")
Soon there will be one less player in the memory card game with Lexar stopping production.
I think the title must be July instead of June?
Thanks, I brought it back to the future!
Shame the Mavic wheel video doesn’t show Dan Martin crashing on the next corner because the brakes didn’t work :)
On a more positive note, great to have the podcast back, i’ve been looking longingly at the feed waiting for it to update!
Look like 80$ link rebate on Elemnt does not work ???
Hmm, odd. Here’s the link – does this one work? link to clevertraining.com
Perfect !
Don’t know if this is the right place to mention this, but anyway… Have you talked to the Stac Zero guys about the aero testing thingy they have? Slowtwitch has an article on it on the front page. Would be interesting to hear your take on it
Indeed, was reading that just this morning. Ironically, 4 minutes prior to your e-mail, they e-mailed me…