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I’m DC RAINMAKER…
I swim, bike and run. Then, I come here and write about my adventures. It’s as simple as that. Most of the time. If you’re new around these parts, here’s the long version of my story.
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Smart Trainers Buyers Guide: Looking at a smart trainer this winter? I cover all the units to buy (and avoid) for indoor training. The good, the bad, and the ugly.
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FAQ’s
I have built an extensive list of my most frequently asked questions. Below are the most popular.
- Do you have a privacy policy posted?
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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.
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!
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.
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!
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.
CLIMB release date? Still April or pushed again?
Last I heard it was timed to Sea Otter (mid-April), but I haven’t checked in a week or two.
Tomorrow is last day if sea otter so I’m guessing likely pushed back?
Would love to see a post on your kite surfing experience.
+1
So would I :)
Is there going to be a Strava kite surfing activity?
I actually don’t have a single photo from any of my kite surfing stuff.
I even brought the Soloshot with me on Friday, but ended up focusing so much on trying to stay upright that just didn’t ever head back to shore and get it all setup.
And funny enough, I totally forgot to turn on a recording activity until the very last 15 minutes of my 4 hours…at which point the wind immediately died out of nowhere. Sigh.
Still, I drank enough seawater to be mistaken for a whale. I was getting the hang of things finally in the last 90 minutes or so. But with the strong winds I’d often put too much power on the kite during launch, and end up catapulting myself a solid 5-10 meters through the air sans-board and face-planting straight into the water. Would have made for great video though. :-/
Unboxing 3 watches?
now I’m curious…
Here comes the Wahoo Rival. . .
Must be soon, while the secrecy period end May 22 or so, that would be a crazy release time as then we’re already in summer tri season in the Northern Hemisphere, surely they need an April release. That said, with a climb being way behind release schedule, it would surprise me if they’re spread a little thin and the Rival suffers too…..
When we can expect Stryd Live review ? :-)
Not till I get back (and get the treadmill moved to the new DCR Cave), realistically.
Ultimately, I just didn’t want to spend time in beautiful Australia running indoors on an old treadmill. :)
I do have to say – the photo of the Versa in your post looks much better than other shots I have seen, where it looks pretty cheap – like a bad knock-off of the Apple watch. Speaking of photos. I love The Girls shot of The Peanut riding the carry-on. She (and her sister) are going to be quite the world travelers. ;)
It feels cheap, especially in the context of an Apple Watch S1 at almost the same price.
And the band mechanism in particular is pretty poor. I don’t get it, because the band mechanism on the Ionic is brilliantly done. I suspect the idea here is to conform to band standards…but in reality, it just doesn’t work all that cleanly.
I’ve been keeping my eye out for the Versa review. This detail about the band mechanism is somewhat disappointing following all the hyped reviews I’ve been reading.
Definitely looking forward to the full review!
Enjoy Sentosa Island! I take it, the Peanuts earned a visit there….
That’s the plan, maybe today, maybe tomorrow. Weather looks less than awesome either way.
If you’re looking for good cheap food you should check out Lau Pa Sat for satay. And if you’re looking for a crab replacement the barbecue sting ray at East Coast Seafood Park is excellent. And finally there’s Dinh Tai Fung for excellent dumplings.
Ok, Dinh Tai Fung was an excellent choice tonight for dumplings.
I was hesitant at first after looking it up, given it’s a chain. But very solid. We ate the crap out of a lot of dumplings tonight!
Did you try the soup dumplings? Those things are crazy addictive. I think Dinh Tai Fung is Michelin starred at least.
Probably 100% wrong.. But starting to wonder if Paris is no longer ‘home’!?
I’m with you on this one…..maybe next week we’ll get a few House Hunters Australia posts :)
My money is on London… or South Africa…
Nah, not London – too rainy and…well…rainy.
Now Cape Town is appealing, but it was previously ruled out for the singular reason that it was too far for family to travel to – and that was pre-Peanuts.
We’d likely have moved to Perth in a heartbeat years ago if it wasn’t for the distance to family piece. We did look at a few places there, but more out of curiosity.
A quick google shows the following annual rainfall figures and Paris is rainier than London!
London 109 days 557 mm
Paris 111 days 637mm
Paris is a bit hotter, however, with average temperatures over the year of 12.3 deg, C compared to London at 10.3 deg. C.
Hmm…somehow London always seems more miserable weather-wise. :-/
Very non-committal there Ray… Guess we’ll have to wait and see. Spain maybe?
Very non-committal there Ray… Guess we’ll have to wait and see. Spain maybe?
You’ve been riding London on Zwift too much – it rains there more frequently than in reality! ;)
I’m still impressed you get so much time to ride/run/swim. With our 6 month old I’m struggling to maintain even a small amount of fitness. 1 weekend club ride & 2 mid-week Zwift sessions is about the max I can get while working 5 days… To be fair I probably don’t have the energy for much more, even with a rockstar baby who sleeps 10-11 hours most nights!
I’d credit 3 things to Ray being able to maintain his level of activity…
1. The Girl and her seemingly epic ability to juggle Ray and the Peanuts, whilst also kicking off her own running again! Serious respect due there Mrs Maker!
2. Having a job that doesn’t tie you down to working 9-5 and that you can mold your life around.
3. Ray’s job largely *is* getting out and run/bike/swimming so he can test all the kit, write this blog and answer all our questions. So a 1 hour run for Ray is equiv to me being stuck in a windowless office in a meeting… grr.
Didn’t hear about any plane crashes at Perth which must mean that Ray’s plane was able to get off the ground somehow.
It was landing that was the tricky part. Actually, more like unloading. Took them a while to figure out how to get it all back out again.
Hi Ray
Can you recommend a well stocked bike shop in Perth/Fremantle. I can’t get hold of a pair of Vector 3s in the UK. I’ve been travelling round Australia for four weeks (via Singapore as it happens) and I’ve only found one bike shop that stocks them but they sell them immediately.
I hope you enjoy Singapore. I had a pleasant run from Clarke’s Quay round Marina Bay and back again.
Good scope for a bit of Openwater swimming at Sentosa.
Hmm, not sure on that one to be honest. I know that Vector 3 supplies are limited across the board (or rather, backordered), and that Australia in particular seems to be in short supply. I’m sorry!
Three unboxings! If somebody were in the market for a running-swimming-somewhat stylish-Vivoactive type watch $300 or under, would you recommend they wait a month or two? My current Vivoactive battery has gotten too bad to even display the correct time and the Garmin offer of a “discounted” Vivoactive HR for $200 seems like a poor choice.
Your Peanut is so cute. Enjoy it while you can. Mine is 11 and I get the eyeroll every now and then but she still likes to sit next to me when we watch America’s Funniest Home Videos. :)
Tomorrow is last day if sea otter so I’m guessing likely pushed back?
Mid to late June now.