Heads up!!! Here’s your massive Cyber Monday sports tech deals list! This includes the Garmin Forerunner 965 for just $499, Garmin Epix for $429, the Apple Watch Ultra 2 for just $619, the GoPro Hero 12 Black for $299, (or Hero 13 bundle for $339!) and plenty more! Go check out the full list of 100+ deals here!
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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You can use the above link for any Amazon country and it (should) automatically redirect to your local Amazon site.Want to compare the features of each product, down to the nitty-gritty? No problem, the product comparison data is constantly updated with new products and new features added to old products!
Wanna create comparison chart graphs just like I do for GPS, heart rate, power meters and more? No problem, here's the platform I use - you can too!
Think my written reviews are deep? You should check out my videos. I take things to a whole new level of interactive depth!
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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Check out my weekly podcast - with DesFit, which is packed with both gadget and non-gadget goodness!
Get all your awesome DC Rainmaker gear here!
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?
- Why haven’t you yet released a review for XYZ product you mentioned months ago?
- Will you test our product before release?
- Are you willing to review or test beta products?
- Which trainer should I buy?
- Which GPS watch should I buy?
- I’m headed to Paris – what do you recommend for training or sightseeing?
- I’m headed to Washington DC – what do you recommend for training?
- I’m from out of the country and will be visiting the US, what’s the best triathlon shop in city XYZ?
- What kind of camera do you use?
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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.
Your child is adorable. Very cute photo for #5 of your 5 random things.
:)
Cycling Maven also has the Robin S gimbal so will be looking forward to some crisp b-roll footage from both of you. Oh and don’t forget to get GP Lama to buy one of these. Lol
Yeah, looking forward to seeing how Maven handles it on the bike. As I found out, it’s a beast in weight!
I suspect I’ll occasionally use it for getting bike-computer screen specific video bits while riding (I currently use a GoPro Karma grip + Hero 6), but I think most of it will be non-riding.
Don’t you ever have a problem having stuff stolen from your checked bags?
Nope. I’ve only had two cases of stolen stuff in all the years. Once in Croatia when I was forced to check a carry-on bag at the last minute, and once in Kenya with a laptop that went missing (I had a bunch of laptops on this work trip, so eventually something had to give).
In general, if you’re looking at US and major European airports, theft is super rare since the security procedures around employees entering/exiting the secure area is so high (most are searched in both directions).
My challenge is I take so much gear on trips that I simply can’t take it all in the cabin. In this case on my trip back I did:
Cabin: Ronin-S case (seen in the last bike picture, the grey thing), sidebag of DJI drones, daily backpack of 2xlaptops and related gear.
Checked: Small roller suitcase with DSLR camera, crapton of wearables, clothes/etc…
I usually prioritize unannounced/unreleased products into my carry-on, but in this case I simply ran out of space for everything, especially boxed items that will get proper unboxings later. I was impressed with my ability to get three carry-on items through though. :)
Do you put all the batteries in carry-on (to the point of removing batteries from say the DSLR)? If not, did it ever cause problems leaving them in checked luggage?
Recently we had discussion on a bike Dutch forum about possible problems when checking in a bike that has a LiON like a forumslader or Di2 inside the frameset. Just curious what people’s actual experience is with batteries in checked luggage?
I generally keep my DSLR batteries in my main backpack, merely as an organizational thing, so that solves that bit. And same for drone batteries.
I don’t usually remember my eTAP batteries (which are smaller than the Di2 ones by quite a bit). I think if I remember from a briefing somewhere they were just below the limit.
There are cases of laptop and phone batteries and such catching fire mid-flight. I don’t think I’ve heard of DSLR batteries doing so though.
To me, that look was more like: Wait a minute…Bike ride….Dad, I’m on to you. I know I’m a prop in your photo.
Teenage looks have much more disdain and disgust (and they just wouldn’t be in the photo.)
Signed,
Father of 2 Teenagers,
Haha!
By chance any update on your Vector 3? From your RV video, it sounded like you don’t have any issues with the latest firmware and new battery caps?
Also, is the podcast dead dead?
My Vector 3 still has drops with the current firmare and battery caps, as do many other people on the Garmin forums. They are certainly improved but still flawed and I don’t think there’s much that will be done on the current hardware design. Personally I’d expect a rechargeable version to appear within a year that doesn’t suffer with connection issues internally. If you need a power meter right now, go for one of the others (although I’ve not looked into whether they also have issues). I’m certain that Ray won’t be seeing issues, just like he never does with Garmin watches or bike computers – Garmin must thoroughly test one of each just for him ;)
I’m actually *still* on old battery caps. I know, one of these days I’ll swap them out. Eventually.
Zero issues though. These are not pedals directly from Garmin, just via Clever Training from back in November or December.
Bought Vector3 pedals back in January. They were fine at first, although the batteries only lasted like 30 hours. Ever after the first battery change I’m having heaps of problems with dropped connections an, massive peaks. Not to mention two requests to Garmin support in Europe for new battery doors were left unanswered (for weeks), until I started complaining on the Garmin forum.
Now I have two new battery doors and guess what? Still dropped connections and peaks in reported power.
The rational thing would be to return them, but I also invested in a pair of road shoes to use on these pedals (normally use MTB pedals/shoes) so that would be basically 200 euros down the drain.
Completely disgusted with Garmin to be honest. Be sure to read up on the Vector3 Garmin forum before buying these pedals!
Ray- been following ya for years. Thanks for sharing your interests with us. I had a funny DC Rainmaker moment a week ago. I live in Alexandria VA and my family took a vacation to the Atlantic maritimes of Canada. One morning I was running in St John’s Newfoundland (if I remember from reading this blog that it’s somewhat close to the girls home) and realized I was wearing belaga socks (which you recommend) , with a Garmin 35 and I thought…this is a DC Rainmaker inspired moment! Had a great time up there. Thanks for the blog. It’s great!
Boom! I think even The Girl’s Mom uses a FR35 these days…
Did you enjoy Newfoundland? I didn’t get back there this summer, and I’m pretty sad about it! Next time you can send an email if you want things to do, places to go tips!
The Girl
Thanks for writing back – Newfoundland (as you know much better then I) is just peaceful, beautiful and real. Our time there (6 days) was part of a broader trip to Nova Scotia and PEI. But we kept Newfoundland, which we didn’t know was the best, for last. We arrived in Argentia via overnight ferry and drove slowly (in good Canadian style it seems :-) ) to Saint Johns. Celebrated my wife’s birthday in Quidi Vidi Village at Mallard Cottage, stayed in a jellybean house, and spent the next two days at the various regional sites including Signal Hill and Cape Spear. (this is when I dived into the DC rainmaker blog and saw many of the placed you both had been as well-still impress ray biked up to the lighthouse) Then we went north and went hiking in Terra Nova NP (goodness the Canadian Park system is great) and overnighted in a wonderful fishing village of Greenspond. Talked to the locals and enjoyed small town maritime life. Then we drove to Gros Morne with a midday stop in Gander and spent three nights there in Gros Morne. Wow-wow-wow. I have been to the Rockies (American and Canadian) but our family *loved* Gros Morne. My oldest daughter was jazzed by the geology of the Table Lands and my youngest (age 6) hiked with us all in the misty rain on muddy trials for 10km on the Green Gardens trail. My wife and I loved the Western Brook Pond (which is the biggest “pond” I have ever seen) We then sadly had to leave and headed to Channel-Port aux Basques to ferry back. The whole experience was rewarding but the Newfoundland portion was the best. The seafood, the gracious people, the well-maintained roads, natural beauty, the well-groomed trails and the refined simplicity of it all was great. I know you know this well, but your island and its history was a great joy to visit and we hope to come back in a number of years!
Ohhhhh my goodness. You have seriously tugged on my heart strings!! I’m wildly impressed AND jealous that you made it over to Gros Morne! It’s always over looked by travelers! The I have been telling Ray about the Table Lands for YEARS and I am so happy to hear younger generations still love that stuff! My dad and I hiked them many years ago and had our own little picnic on a glacier in August! I have spent many many summers out in Gander, Terra Nova, Gros Morne, and beyond. I just can’t wait until my kiddos are old enough to enjoy those same misty hikes, canoe trips, and camp fires!
You nailed the trip to St. John’s staying in a JellyBean house and seeing all the sights!
Thank you for sharing all of those details of your trip! I’m so so happy you enjoyed Newfoundland! It makes me very proud and happy to hear not much has changed :)
Hello Ray. All your picture is very nice. Just curious what camera did you use to take all those picture?
He mentions it in the menu “2018 Buyers guide”, under camera equipment he use.
link to dcrainmaker.com
True.
For this post, it’s roughly:
A) Everything is on my iPhone X
B) Except the flying photos are from the Mavic 2
C) DSLR Photos: Photo of the Ronin-S assembly, Fitbit Charge 3, and DJI Mavic 2 controllers on handlebars
Ray, I like your videos but be aware that in The Netherlands sentiment towards drone(-pilot)s around windmills is changing. More and more windmill owners feel it is a invasion of their privacy.
Kinderdijk (probably the most famous windmill-spot) was in the news a couple of years ago because of this:
link to dronewatch.nl
(sorry, in Dutch)
Yup, it’s a main reason I selected the middle of a weekday with nobody around. We never saw anyone at the windmill either.
I think anyone folks fly a drone they should be mindful of what’s going on around them, especially with respect to others. I’d also note though that drone noise has dramatically decreased, especially in the last year or so. Drones of 2-4 years ago were massively louder than now.
I can’t help but notice how ragged your bar tape looks. I realize it probably isn’t a huge deal but the left side visible in your handlebar photo above looks pretty rough.
I was thinking of mentioning the same thing :-p
Yeah, I know. New bar tape has been sitting next to my toolbox since June. Sigh.
As I always tell The Girl, everything is ‘just one more thing’. :-/
Ditto here. New tape sitting in a box for months.
My road bike is bar naked on the left side. Kinda used to it that way.
How many miles of BEAUTIFUL canal paths like that?
Enough for an epic gravel ride?
Thought the same thing, particularly as even a loose wind of tape does my head in and I re-wrap the whole thing! Offer here to redo yours free, if you’re ever this direction!
I like the ‘tool’ in your Ronin setup shot. Makeshift screwdriver, weight to hold the instrux booklet open, or were you buttering your new gimbal? ;-)
Haha… I believe I had used it to lock the tripod adapters into the plate. :)
Don’t they grow up fast. Already giving you the look . . .
I am sure that I am telling my granny how to suck eggs but I have found that Premier Pro is pretty good at editing multiple camera angles. If you do a clapper board type thing or just make a noise that all cameras record it’s super easy to line them up. You then get a multi camera video that has all the different views lined up and is really easy to work with
This probably won’t work if you have video from a phone screen cap mind you as there will be no noise to align to…
> Good times!
Indeed.
I’ve enjoyed your Mavic 2 testing a lot. It’s such a pretty landscape.
I spy a hidden Mickey!