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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?
- 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?
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- 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.
Blimey, I haven’t seen a wooden racing shell in forever.
I’m amazed that anyone finds value in the Garmin performance status. I find it to be so finicky as to be worthless. My status changes ALL THE TIME.
Agreed that detail level isn’t really glanceable. A variety of the measurements seem like they have the most utility when they swing hard in one particular direction and stay there.
So are we getting into FPV? I’ve struggled with signing on for that kind of time commitment but I’m so tempted. Glad you had a good week buddy. 👍
I’ve had some stuff for a while, but kinda half-hearted in my FPV skills. Trying to ramp things up though. Less so for acro-type stuff (tricks/etc…), and more just so-called ‘cinematic FPV’ type flying.
FPV looks like a seriously fun hobby (never tried it, my only drone experience is with Mavic Air 2 & Mini 2), but I can definitely see how it doesn’t have much overlap with the fitness world. After all, kind of hard to run/bike/swim while wearing FPV goggles.
I’m nowhere near Amsterdam but I’ve done my years of hardcore FPV racing at the national level (domestic US) before settling fully into triathlon as my main hobby. I could probably offer remote technical support if it came to it.
The best tips I can offer are to put stick time in on a decent simulator (DRL sim, Velocidrone, or Liftoff being my 3 top recommendations) and it’s going to save you a lot of time and money rom crashing/repairing later.
As for actually building/debugging hardware setups, it’s a rough learning curve the first time or two and after that the drones almost multiply themselves automatically :D :D
So weird to see that pink bike without a baby out front!
Haha…good point! Usually it’s always there. This was such a last-second hail-mary, that she didn’t even have time to contemplate the attachment of Baby out front (its actual name is just “Baby”…her stuffed monkey is named Monkey, and her stuffed bunny is named Bunny – much to the confusion of everyone).
Hi Ray!
Curious, what’s the cost of servicing a bike there in Amsterdam?
– A regular city bike?
– A cargo bike like yours?
– A high end road bike ?
Wondering if such a huge market (everyone rides bikes) would bring down bike servicing costs.
Only to a certain point… servicing bikes still takes time, and the bike shops need to make a living too :)
High end shops can charge up to € 88/hour: link to instagram.com – while regular shops offer basic bike service starting at € 30
I think in general things are substantially cheaper here than in most other parts of the world, for all ranges of bike maintenance.
The biggest difference is certainly at the regular-bike level, where things cost tens of dollars for basic bike maintenance stuff that’d cost $50-$100 in the US at a LBS.
Cargo bike stuff is still incredibly cheap. For a tube swap only on the Urban Arrow, including labor and parts it’d be 20-25EUR. I can’t imagine it being that cheap anywhere else for a specialty cargo bike to even glance at it.
Higher-end road bike prices are certainly pricier, but again, it’s all relative. I can bring my road bike to one of the two higher-end shops and they’ll do an incredible job for perhaps 1/3rd the cost of the same work in the US. The thing is, unlike most US shops, it doesn’t feel like the shops are to overcharge you for simple tasks on a high-end road bike. It’s just a bike task, and if it’s quick and easy, you won’t pay anymore than any other bike.
Just my experience in Amsterdam.
Man, dealing with maintenance on a box bike can be a real bear sometimes! I have a Yuba Supermarche which I (and my kids) love but right after I got it, I was trying to adjust the brakes. And never having touched disc brakes before, I of course immediately bled off the hydrolic line. This was…not great. The closest bike shop to me is probably about 3 miles, so twice as far away as yours. I rode there with the front disc just rubbing the whole way. I think they had to replace the whole pad. Lesson learned…I don’t touch the brakes anymore!
Seeing your kids pull up alongside your workout in the bucket of your cargo bike to offer “constructive criticism” gave me a bad flashback to my days of collegiate sailing. We’d be out there grinding away like maniacs on the pedestals (think hand bikes connected to a hydraulics motor) and the coach would pull up alongside in his Boston Whaler, give us a disapproving head shake, and pull away. Stone cold demoralization!
Hi Ray – I’m interested to know how much linkage there is between things like RHR, sleep, HRV and the training metrics and the suggested workouts on Garmin devices. My view from my FR945LTE (the (likely) forgotten child) is not much.
Great effort from your daughter coming with you on your run btw. My kids are at least twice her age and I wouldn’t contemplate taking them on run of that distance with me (or at all) due to the complaints I would receive from the first step/pedal stroke. Kudos.
I never see any electric scooters in all your pictures like a Segway Ninebot with max speed of 25 kph.
Are they banned in the Netherlands or everybody already has a bike for commuting?
They have started to become popular here in Australia but the local infrastructure is not really suitable for them. i..e footpaths are for pedestrians and roads for vehicles. Fully dedicated cycle paths don’t exist like they do in the Netherlands as they are often shared with pedestrians or vehicles.
We see here more and more electric scooters, which is a good thing in my opinion. Not sure about Amsterdam which is crowded anyway and I believe they have to wear a helmet even if the speed is limited to 25km/h. Also they need to drive on the road and not the bike-path. Maybe that’s the reason you won’t see them in Ray’s pictures. In the rest of the Netherlands, only the scooters which go faster then 25km/h need to wear a helmet. In the cities they need to drive on the road sometimes and on other roads they’re allowed on the bike-path. 25km/h scooters always need to drive on the bike-path.
Yeah, in Amsterdam they’re virtually unheard of. Maybe I’ll see one once per week? Maybe. And I live in an area packed with the target audience (teens and 20-somethings going to/from the fields/school/university).
As noted, not being allowed on the bike paths is basically a non-starter for most people. You’d be stuck out in road-hell, especially given so much infrastructure is designed to make the bike paths blissfully quick to many locaitons.
What’s far more common is ebikes in that target demographic, it’s really exploded in the last 1-2 years.
Kickscooters are a very grey area in NL. There are a couple of models that are certified to go on public roads (but you need to wear a helmet, register it and insure it). The rest is, AFAIK, considered “toys”, so technically you aren’t allowed to go on public roads / bike lanes with those – and you’ll get a fine if you do. But given the fact that you can’t put a police officer on every corner, lots of people take the risk and ride those anyway.
Do you think you might do a review of the Descent G1? I had one for a week. It’s a great watch with all the super useful features of the Descent 2 including triathlon. However on my first pool dive with it I found myself not able to see the small numbers (I am now 53 and getting a little long sighted) so that wouldn’t work for safety reasons. I sold it on eBay for a slight loss and bought a Suunto Vyper plus tank pod.
Definitely. Working on it. I was going to publish this week, but I think I’ll wait about two weeks and get some more diving squished in. I’ve got a few dives already, but at this point, I’m not in a huge rush.
Have you noticed the Descent G1 Solar to be darker/dimmer than non-solar Garmin watches?
No. It’s exactly the same as the regular Descent in my opinion. I found it perfectly viewable in air. But underwater the optics are a little different and I couldn’t focus on the smaller data fields. I started to have the same problem with my Suunto D4i Novo. When I was < 50 I had no problem but now I can’t see the tank pressure which is rather crucial! I could get some varifocal lenses for my mask but I’ve opted for a bigger dive computer.
If you have no vidual problems the G1 is a great diving watch with the exception of lacking air integration.
To pre-emp Ray’s review…
It’s everything the Instinct 2 is (with a different charge cable) and add the diving profiles of the Descent Mk 1. That’s it.
“It’s everything the Instinct 2 is (with a different charge cable) and add the diving profiles of the Descent Mk 1. That’s it.”
Yup, that’s about it.
Can we still expect your review of the Descent G1? Can’t buy a product until reading the DC Rainmaker review!
Can you add the 7D training load to the watch face of the Descent G1? That is my favorite data field to see on the watch face.
That last picture is just priceless.
Well, I blame flu, I was not checking on my favorite websites for some days.
Ping me for anything FPV related in NL. I am close by.
Doh, no worries! Hope you’re feeling better.
Much appreciated – I might reach out as I break more things. :)
Hello Sir,
Here’s a huge second on the feelings about status ‘unproductive’! As a recovering lazy fat guy, I was immensely proud of myself for my Saturday workout which included a long run followed almost immediately by a long bike ride, about 5 hours duration, 2,000+ calories burned, and calves seriously burning. Mr. Garmin? … Not so much. Status updated from ‘maintaining’ to ‘unproductive.’ COME ON! That word is hurtful. I’m not training for the Olympics, I’m just trying not to let the old man in, and I thought I lapped his butt, very productively!
Thanks for the technical quality and entertainment quantity of your work. If you know who we need to send a thesaurus to at Garmin, I’ll spring for it.
Hey please post photos with analog face of Descent watch, which is a twin with Instinct2!
Hi Ray, do you still plan to review Descent G1 or already gave up on it?
Yeah, I suppose I should finish that at some point.