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:
It was a bit light last week, as I’m prepping stuff for reviews for the next week. Between now and the end of Eurobike in 6 weeks I’m currently tracking 29 new product announcements (plus ones not in my tracker yet). Hold onto your hats!
Sports Tech Deals – One Day Left!:
While the Clever Training 20% off sale ended this past week, there’s still an opportunity for you to pick up a handful of different trainers from REI for 20% off. These deals end tomorrow, Monday May 28th at 11:59PM US Pacific Time. All these links support the site, or, if you’re picking up anything else at REI, use the below link first and then wander from there.
Technically it’s a members-only sale, but it only takes a second to sign-up and then use coupon code ANNIV18 for REI. Oh, you can get free shipping to your local REI store. Woot!
For those curious, the Tacx Neo is my go-to trainer that I use when I’m not testing something else. But if you’re looking for the best bang for the buck from the available trainers in this sale, it’s the Tacx Flux.
In addition, you’ve got these sales still remaining for a few days longer:
$100 off all Fenix 5s – 5/18-6/16
$50 off Edge 25 units (base and bundle) – 5/18-5/28
20% off on Saris and CycleOps – 5/18-5/30
$50 off Edge 520 5/18-5/28
Here’s the full listing with links that support the site though:
Product
Sale Price
Amazon
Other site
Sale Notes
4iiii Precision Ride-Ready Power Meters - $100 off!
This is for their non-drive power meter, in either the 'Ride-Ready' config (they send you a completed unit), or $50 off for the factory-install (where you send in your crank arm). The Ride Ready option is really a solid deal, considering you get a reliable power meter for $235.
Ride Ready R7000 - 30% off
Ride Ready R8000 - 20% off
Factory Install - 20% off
9th Gen Apple 10.2-inch iPad (Wi-Fi, 64GB) - $100 off!
⚡ 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 Wahoo SYSTM, 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.
I've been using these the past few months, after years of using the Beats Studio Buds...man, these things rock. My wife has already started stealing them, which means she'll probably get a set for Christmas so she'll stop sealing them.
⚡I make no secret how much I utilize AirTags, mainly, cause they've saved my butt numerous times already. We have them in every suitcase, and every backpack, and every bike bag. They're also hidden in most of our bikes (sometimes two of them). We were able to get our cargo bike back when it disappeared, as well as figure out when all our suitcases went missing during an annual family vacation where they were (for 5 days!), and plan appropriately. Seriously, just get them.
These aren't the latest anymore, that's the newer 3rd gen units. But if budget is in mind, it's hard to beat these. It's still what my wife uses as her daily driver, including tons of time on the indoor trainer/bike.
⚡This is now the lowest price we've ever seen the Apple Watch SE (2nd Gen) - a very solid deal, especially with the new WatchOS 10 features adding in offline topo mapping, power meter support, and plenty more.
This is Apple's latest Apple Watch model, and did quite well in my review when it launched about two months ago. Especially notable is all the new sports/fitness features it got this year, such as cycling power meter/sensor support.
This is really the first slate of sales we've seen on the Apple Watch Ultra 2, and the lowest price to date. Note: It'll show $739, and then to get the full extra $10 more off, you have to check that 'Apply Coupon' button under the price.
There's just no competition in our minds on the best running stroller - it's what we used with all three of our kiddos for everyting from intervals to 20-mile long runs. In fact, we actually have two of them - one at home in Europe, and one with family in Canada that we picked up used. Go Bob Go!
The DJI Avata is DJI's smaller form factor FPV drone, and one of my favorites to fly. I don't use it all the time, but more for very specific things requiring a bit more agility (whereas most of the times I'll use the DJI Mini 4 Pro, Air 3, or Mavic 3 Pro).
There's definitely something cool about seeing a sub-$300 drone. And there's nothing wrong with this drone, it's very good. Just be careful though, because it's lack of 360* obstacle avoidance means it's pretty easy to get yourself in a pinch for a beginner drone.
Up till the Mini 4 Pro came out, this was my go-to drone. It's what I shot almost all my drone footage from, and is great for both cycling and hiking (or trail running with a hydration pack to hold it), as it's super lightweight and includes everything you need.
⚡ This is the first time we've seen the DJI Mini 4 Pro on sale, for a product DJI rarely discounts so soon after release. This is a great drone, and my go-to unit now for most trips.
⚡ This is the first time we've seen the new Fenix 7 Pro series on sale, and it's a nice strong sale. The smaller Fenix 7S Pro watch has become my wife's go-to watch since it came out, for all of her training and 24x7 usage.
⚡⚡⚡ This is a crazy super strong deal, with Amazon having it as low as $449 (insane). Note that the Epix Gen 2 has continued to receive virtually all of the Epix Pro new features firmware updates. Also note: This deal is *STILL* available. Sometimes you'll have to click to show other retailers (on the right side), but it's still live.
⚡ This is the first time we've seen the new Epix Pro series on sale, and it's a nice strong sale. I'd say this is probably my go-to watch these days (middle-sized one), with the singular reason I tend to choose it over the Forerunner 965, being the built-in flashlight for night.
⚡ This is the first time we've seen the new Epix Pro series on sale, and it's a nice strong sale. I'd say this is probably my go-to watch these days (middle-sized one), with the singular reason I tend to choose it over the Forerunner 965, being the built-in flashlight for night.
⚡⚡⚡ This is a crazy super strong deal, with Amazon having it as low as $499 for Sapphire edition (insane). Note that the Epix Gen 2 has continued to receive virtually all of the Epix Pro new features firmware updates.
[Note: This is a renewed unit] Obviously, the Fenix 6 isn't the latest anymore, but these are still very capable watches and frankly, at $329, there's absolutely nothing from any of their even brand-new competitor watches (COROS, Polar, Suunto, etc...) that can even remotely compete with the features here. Heck, not even Garmin's own pricing for their Fenix 7 Pro can compete with this. Fwiw, all Garmin renewed units go back to the same factory original units came from. Frankly, there's virtually no difference. If you're on a budget, this is where it's at.
⚡ This is the first time we've seen the new Fenix 7 Pro series on sale, and it's a nice strong sale. The smaller Fenix 7S Pro watch has become my wife's go-to watch since it came out, for all of her training and 24x7 usage.
⚡This is a strong deal if you don't care about the new optical heart rate sensor (including ECG) of the newer Fenix 7 Pro, especially given the Fenix 7 series has received virtually all of the Fenix 7 Pro's new software features, keeping them essentially identical.
This is Garmin's mid-tier running watch, and is a very polished option with good multi-band GPS, and of course, a boatload of running metrics. This model also includes offline music such as Spotify and Amazon Music.
This is one of Garmin's most popular running watches, and this is now the lowest price we've ever seen on it. 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.
This is one of Garmin's most popular running watches, and this is now the lowest price we've ever seen on it. I often use this in my accuracy testing comparisons when validating other watches, due to it's very strong GPS performance. This is the SOLAR edition.
This is a good deal, especially considering the Instinct 2 series got Training Readiness and a host of other new features over the course of just this year alone.
This is a great deal at $199 for the smaller 2S units, especially considering the Instinct 2 series got Training Readiness and a host of other new features over the course of just this year alone. Plus of course all the existing triathlon/power meter/etc support it has built-in.
This is the first time we've seen the Instinct 2X on sale, and since announcement it's received a huge slate of firmware updates and new features. It's best thought of as an Instinct 2.5, as it has almost enough features to really be more of an Instinct 3 (which doesn't exist at this point).
⚡ 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.
We have more Nest cam's than I can count. No really, we have half a dozen at the DCR Cave alone, plus more at home. We love them. Nest Cam's really only go on sale about 1-2x per year.
These are the WiFi mesh access points I use both at home and the DCR Cave. Love them - I don't need to dork with them, they just work. Sure, there are fancier 'Pro' versions now, but really, I just have zero issues.
While the new Pixel Watch 2 just came out a month ago, the Pixel Watch 2 got almost all the software features two weeks ago via software update. The Pixel Watch 2 does have a slightly better optical HR sensor, and better battery life, but otherwise is relatively similiar.
⚡The Karoo 2 is down to $299 ($100 off), but you can use DCR coupon code DCRAIN40 to get an additional $40 off, bringing it down to $259!!! A very solid deal given all the software updates it's received!
This is one of the other more popular display-laden rowing machines. I haven't tried this, but my sports-tech reviewing buddy DesFit has (linked at side) and liked it.
Hyperice Normatec 3 Leg Recovery System - $100 off
I actually quite like the Insat360 Go 3 and the combo of tiny form factor when you want it, and screen-box when you don't. I'm not sure $20 off is a sale worth jumping out of your seat for, but hey...a sale is a sale.
This is something I use frequently when shooting out and about and I need to re-charge a crapton of drone batteries, action cameras, or just cameras and such. I also use it on trips to Eurobike and elsewhere to keep equipment charged. I've even bought a solar panel to hook up to it (surprisingly effective). Heck, I've even powered a KICKR trainer ride from it!
Lasko High Velocity Pro-Performance Fan (U15617) - 23% off
This is one of the most popular indoor trainer fan companies out there, which rivals the Wahoo Headwind fan but cost a fraction of the price. Of course, it lacks ANT+/Bluetooth integration, but realistically if you really want that you can add a smart outlet for $10 to toggle it on/off from your phone if need be. I've actually got this fan in the DCR Cave recently on advice of many people.
Nespresso Vertuo Next Coffee & Espresso Kit - 30% off
⚡ Let's be honest: This place runs on Nespresso (or, well, the knock-off pods we buy). But, the machine is Nespresso. Without it, reviews most definitely would not get done (and certainly not on time). This is a pretty sweet deal if you ask me!
We use one of these and so far after just about five years, it's working great for us. Love it, and works better than trying to stick a regular Nest Cam out the window (since it'll reflect both during daytime and at night with the IR sensor).
⚡ I know, I know, I still owe everyone a review. Nonetheless, 2+ years later, I love this thing. We use it for more than pizza too, notably steaks (to get a really crispy sear). But a lot of pizza. It's completely portable, even easily fitting on our cargo bike. Note that I went with this model, the cheapest one they make, as I realized that buying the higher-end models that that support gas didn't make much sense for me. I have a gas grill already (and could easily just put a stone on it). Similarly, while a large 16" is appealing, realistically I've found this 12" more than enough for pretty substantial personal pizzas (and it makes it easier to handle). Full in-depth review pretty soon...probably. Also, $244 appears to be the lowest price ever.
I believe this is the lowest price we've ever seen on the original/base Peloton Bike model (without a bundle required). This is still a solid bike, and actually one that I use at home (I have the newer Peloton Bike+ at the office). Both my wife and I use these bikes interchangeably, and while the Bike+ has a bigger screen and better accuracy, there's very little difference in the core Peloton experience. I'd still recommend this model to most people. Note Peloton has stated/confirmed there will be no 'bigger discounts' on products during this holiday period.
This is a solid deal for the Bike+. Both my wife and I use both the Peloton Bike+ and the regular Bike (one at home, one at office) on a weekly basis. We like both. The Bike+ is more accurate than the regular bike, and also has a bigger screen and automatic resistance control. That said, the core Peloton experience isn't any different between the two - it's the same platform there. Note Peloton has stated/confirmed there will be no 'bigger discounts' on products during this holiday period.
Peloton has the Peloton Row on sale, both this base unit here, but also various bundled units as well. This is the first times we've seen the base unit (non-bundled) on sale.
This is a great dual ANT+/Bluetooth Smart (with two Bluetooth Smart connections) chest strap that you'll often find me using as a reference strap in heart rate sensor testing. We only tend to see deals on it around Black Friday, always topping out around 20%. Note, the medium- size is the one on sale.
We have a few SONOS speakers around the house and DCR Cave (the Ikea variants at DCR Cave), but by far our favorite is the Roam, which we take outdoors into the garden during the summer, beach vacations, AirBNB's, etc... It has a battery in it, and also connects to both WiFi and Bluetooth. Love, love, love
I use a literal flotilla of these small SSD's for all my photo/video projects until they get moved off to the NAS system (Synology) for longer term storage. I have T5/T7 units, and are picking up a few of the larger T9 ones given the sale prices. Love them, incredibly fast and reliable.
⚡I use the SanDisk Extreme Pro SD Cards exclusively for all my video/photo shooting on my Panasonic GH5 and Nikon cameras (video and stills), including up to 6K recording with the GH5. I've mostly used 128's, but more and more lately I'm filling up cards faster with higher bitrates, so this sale is gonna have me pickup a bunch of the 256GB ones instead. The 128GB/ 512GB/1TB ones are also on sale too viathe same link. Note that usually I wait till these are about $40-45, so this is a fantastic deal and I'll be filling up.
⚡ A very solid deal, making it the least expensive smart bike out there. Note that while the deal is marketed as being 37% off, most of the time the bike floats between $2,500 and $2,800. Still - $1,999 is very solid.
This is the first time we've seen the new Suunto Vertical on sale, and especially notable given the huge firmware update it got this past week with tons of new features from the also-new Suunto Race watch.
⚡⚡ Holy crap, this is an incredible deal. Get this while it's hot and lasts. Note that you can also pair this with the NEO Motion Plates, which would give you a slight bit of forward/back rolling motion.
This is arguably my wife's favorite sports tech gadget. She uses it pretty much daily. Thus, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention this deal. Also, please don't tell her, she might just buy another one...
My wife uses the Theragun Elite, which is just slightly more expensive than this model at $299 on sale right now. But hey, I hear good things about all of these.
⚡⚡ This deal is back, and it's a pretty incredible deal. It's the Wahoo KICKR CORE down to $499, which REI briefly did this past June. Nobody else seems to be offering this deal, and even though the KICKR CORE got the price reduced to $599 recently, it's virtually unheard of to see these trainers below the $500 marker.
⚡ This is a very solid deal that happens twice a year, if you were looking at the Wahoo power meter pedals, grab these before this disappears (and it usually disappears). As with the Garmin Rally pedals, I continue to use Wahoo power meter pedals for accuracy testing of other brands/units.
⚡ This is a very solid deal that happens twice a year, if you were looking at the Wahoo power meter pedals, grab these before this disappears (and it usually disappears). As with the Garmin Rally pedals, I continue to use Wahoo power meter pedals for accuracy testing of other brands/units.
⚡ At some point, everything becomes a steal. While the Wahoo RIVAL struggles to be comepetitive with higher-end watches, at $99, it's a pretty crazy deal - especially for triathletes where Wahoo does some cool stuff around automatic transitions.
I've long been a fan of the Withings WiFi scales, especially since they can connect/push data to so many platforms, including Zwift! Note that the Body+ simply includes more data.
Enjoy (and thanks for helping support the site, even if it’s just buying toilet paper using the Amazon link on the sidebar).
3) Suunto’s big firmware update: Normally I list these down below, but this one is notable enough that I wanted to call it out up here. This post is a good overview of the new features. I’ll be covering said new features shortly in a slightly different manner. Hang tight.
4) Study published on Stryd running metrics: Note, this study doesn’t look at the power accuracy/numbers of Stryd, but rather the underlying pieces like ground contact time and vertical oscillation. Those are critically important to get right in order to estimate power. However, the bigger challenge is some agreement on what exactly is power in running (how it’s defined and at what point/way it’s measured), and then from there you can do accuracy testing. (via Titanium Geek)
5) Triathlete Magazine 2018 Buyers Guide: This was released online now (previously just on newsstands). I wrote some sections in here, albeit, an eternity ago now.
6) Garmin now the 2nd largest smartwatch manufacturer after Apple: They shipped over 1 million ‘smartwatches’ last quarter. Do be aware that these studies don’t generally get actual numbers from vendors, but are more wild-assed guesses. Also keep in mind the definition of a ‘smartwatch’ changes more often than an Instagram model’s clothes. It varies from quarter to quarter, and publication to publication.
8) A Fond Look Back At The Hysterical Anti-Citi Bike Hysteria: Change is hard, and in the case of NYC a half-decade ago – implementing a bike share program had more than a few people strongly against it. Funny bit of ‘turn back the clock’.
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 Edge 1030 BETA firmware: Reduction of suck (hopefully). Apparently lots of folks have been having issues since 4.00 came out a couple weeks ago (I’m still on 3.90). This is supposed to fix some of those introduced issues. Note, you can downgrade to 3.90 if you’re having problems.
Garmin FR935 BETA firmware: Added Physio TrueUp – This syncs across the advanced fitness features between certain devices.
Suunto Spartan Series Firmware Update: This adds in intensity zones, better training target options, alongside more notification history and HR on the watchface itself.
A crapton of app GDPR updates: A bunch of apps and platforms also had minor updates this past week focused on GDPR compliance. Too many to list here.
—
With that – thanks for reading and have a great week ahead!
Garmin released a new map for the edge 1000. You can install it for free with Garmin Express. But now you need an additional micro-SD card. Because the size of the map 20180.10 is bigger then the internal 10GB memory.
Ray, re GDPR and data portability. How do you think companies will handle requests now and in the future? In theory we should now be able to request data and get it back in format that’s structured/machine readable and can therefore be imported into another site (or even better the transfer between sites is automated).
i know you talked about only certain devices getting it (only edge 1030 on the bike side), and in the connect IQ post talked about them maybe opening it up to more devices (hopefully my 820 and the 520?)
Do you see it working between your devices yet? In the Betaforum we are having no results really.. and between my 820 i see no sync up. (I am not even expecting any of the training score stuff)
at it’s most basic it seems to send 520 activites from GC to the 5x. These appear in the 5x history and it uses these to calculate training status etc on the 5x
no syncing of HR data so you still get the usual gaps in GC/GCM
The 5 homepage image links are still broken? Firefox browser with Windows 7 64bit. Cursor changes to a hand but no link even though it’s present in the html. Didn’t have this problem previously on same desktop pc?
Does TrueUp also mean that if you were to reset your device, the physiological metrics like VO2Max and Training Status will be restored when you re-setup the device and sync it with your Garmin Connect?
Doesn’t this happen already if you pick the right options for the setup procedure? I am guessing physio trueup won’t add this function, because it really just downloads other activities from GC and then re-runs the FirstBeat Analytics taking those activities into account.
No. You can back up / transfer some settings and activities manually. They aren’t stored in Garmin Connect. If you don’t do this you can’t restore anything after a reset or to a new device.
The stuff you can backup and restore is activities, records, and settings. It is not the Training Status, VO2Max, and other Firstbeat-type data.
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FAQ’s
I have built an extensive list of my most frequently asked questions. Below are the most popular.
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! 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 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.
Garmin released a new map for the edge 1000. You can install it for free with Garmin Express. But now you need an additional micro-SD card. Because the size of the map 20180.10 is bigger then the internal 10GB memory.
Ray, re GDPR and data portability. How do you think companies will handle requests now and in the future? In theory we should now be able to request data and get it back in format that’s structured/machine readable and can therefore be imported into another site (or even better the transfer between sites is automated).
Seems the Stryd study was done only on a treadmill. They tend to do this
I really wonder why a researcher would focus on a single product when numerous vendors offer the same metrics.
Hey Ray.. regarding Garmin Physio True up
i know you talked about only certain devices getting it (only edge 1030 on the bike side), and in the connect IQ post talked about them maybe opening it up to more devices (hopefully my 820 and the 520?)
Do you see it working between your devices yet? In the Betaforum we are having no results really.. and between my 820 i see no sync up. (I am not even expecting any of the training score stuff)
it’s working on the 520 > fenix 5x
at it’s most basic it seems to send 520 activites from GC to the 5x. These appear in the 5x history and it uses these to calculate training status etc on the 5x
no syncing of HR data so you still get the usual gaps in GC/GCM
The 5 homepage image links are still broken? Firefox browser with Windows 7 64bit. Cursor changes to a hand but no link even though it’s present in the html. Didn’t have this problem previously on same desktop pc?
+1 – same problem…
+1 “Happy” that I’m not the only one.
+1 – same problem from Safari and Chrome on macOS
Works again. ?
Does TrueUp also mean that if you were to reset your device, the physiological metrics like VO2Max and Training Status will be restored when you re-setup the device and sync it with your Garmin Connect?
+1
I’d like to know this too. Thanks.
Doesn’t this happen already if you pick the right options for the setup procedure? I am guessing physio trueup won’t add this function, because it really just downloads other activities from GC and then re-runs the FirstBeat Analytics taking those activities into account.
No. You can back up / transfer some settings and activities manually. They aren’t stored in Garmin Connect. If you don’t do this you can’t restore anything after a reset or to a new device.
The stuff you can backup and restore is activities, records, and settings. It is not the Training Status, VO2Max, and other Firstbeat-type data.
link to support.garmin.com