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!
Sports Tech Deals:
We’ve got a handful of new deals this week, a pile from Garmin in the cycling realm, and then a pile from DJI in the everything realm. Garmin does often put cycling gear on sale this time of year, albeit it’s far more rare for DJI to do the same this time of year.
⚡ Both myself and my wife have been using these since last fall, after years of using the Beats Studio Buds...man, these things rock. Sure, they're good for sports, but frankly, I use them on planes, editing, and such more than anything else. In fact, I've been listening to them now for 8 hours as I type away on my flight across the ocean. Only briefly putting them in the case to top-up.
⚡The Fenix 8 is now down to $799 for the 42/47mm AMOLED editions, and from $899 for the Solar/MIP editions. This is the first big sale, outside of a short $70 discount back in January by Uncle Amazon.
This is the lowest price to date on this watch, bringing it down to a very strong $499. This unit includes maps and is more or less a plastic Fenix 7 Pro. The FR970 just came out this week, adding ECG functionality and a few other software features...but at $250 more!
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 drones, those are nearly 2x the price (and more for Pro-Max), and honestly, the video quality isn't really achieving that price point. Also note the checkbox to get yet an extra free battery (thus 3 batteries in total, based on the way it's currently coded in Amazon).
I also have a GoPro Bones written post I need to finish dragging some photos into, but for now there’s the video below instead. I also had an accuracy deep-dive/rabbit hole post planned for Friday, but you’ll get that tomorrow instead. During the creation of this rabbit hole I went deep down another visual effects rabbit hole, all very much distracting me for many hours. But, it’ll look pretty!
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) How the pavé is prepared for Paris-Roubaix: A good behind-the-scenes look at the steps the race organization and associated organizations take prior to race day to try and keep the pavé somewhat sensible.
2) Fitbit gets medical approval for passive Afib detection: This is a pretty big advance, since it takes what was previously a manual capture process that the user had to manually trigger and wait 15 seconds, to being something that’s just happening 24×7 behind the scenes. The technicalities of this are a tiny bit fuzzy still, though it sounds like this will occur when the user is still or sleeping (which, is logical). Rollout will occur to US users first, “soon”. The definition of soon is part of the fuzzy bits. Still, this is a huge deal.
3) Apple Watch Rumors Be Apple Watch Rumors: There’s not much that doesn’t eventually make it into an Apple Watch rumor. The most popular rumor mill the last few years are new medical features/advances. Of course, these are virtually never true. Here’s a tip to quickly decide whether the rumor is true or not? Has this medical technology been systematically proven elsewhere in the wearables industry first? If not, then it’s not likely to debut on an Apple Watch. That’s simply not Apple’s style – hard stop. So yes, Samsung did roll out blood pressure sensing tech last year, but it was heavily caveated and required calibration on you, against known devices. Omron has these sort of things in their wearables, but without the battery drain of other features. Apple isn’t going to risk rolling out a feature that has a slew of accuracy caveats and would embarrass them (because while GPS tracks don’t embarrass them, the mainstream media would happily pick up on bad blood pressure data that misdiagnoses someone).
4) eBike injuries increased in the Netherlands: Albeit, not because cars were at blame, but because riders were often at blame. The explosion of ebikes in the last few years here is insane. In fact, a non-trivial portion of teenage cyclists we see in Amsterdam are now riding ebikes (and a ton of the older population too). But one does have to keep things in perspective. No country on earth rides bikes (per capita) as much as the Netherlands, and ultimately, I’d much rather have our neighborhood teens on ebikes than mopeds or cars. While ebikes are largely unnecessary for teens doing short-haul trips to the hockey fields, it also inversely makes long trips way more accessible than getting an Uber or owning a car.
5) More Pixel Watch pieces starting to fall into place: The nice part about the Pixel Watch rumor train is that Fitbit and Google have been crystal clear from the day they announced the acquisition that they intend to eventually make a Wear OS watch of their own with Fitbit aspects. So it’s really just a matter of time.
6) A look at Peloton hardware pricing over time: This past week Peloton announced a $5 increase of their monthly subscription from $40 to $45, while concurrently reducing their hardware costs (again). Various forums were alit with upset users about the $5 increase, though I think like any service of scale, it’s largely overblown. Meaning, it’s the YouTube problem. Which, in YouTube’s case, when you have a billion users, even if 0.5% of them are upset, that’s still 5 million upset people. With Peloton, and their 3 million hardware subscribers, even if 1% of them are upset, that’s a lot of angry Facebook posts – despite 99% of people being ‘shrug’ about it. In any case, more interesting is the Peloton hardware costs. Because despite the seemingly never-ending Peloton price shifts, in reality, it’s mostly been about rebucketing the shipping costs. Yes, prices have finally declined, but many of the sales were just moving shipping to be included or not.
I have a problem in general with the subscription model of Bike trainers and things like peleton. For a casual user like myself that may want to ride the trainer in doors every now and then they just don’t make sense. They only target the high users and leave casual users like me to give it a miss.
There’s still apps that are free (like RGT) to use though, and others that cost far less (e.g. $8-$10/month). And the trainer hardware themselves doesn’t have a monthly subscription revenue charge.
I’ve been a Ftbit Charge user for years and find they typically last 2 years before dying. What would you say is the typical life of a Garmin watch (looking at venu vs venu2). Thanks!
My Fenix 3 is still going strong from 2015. Admittedly not as my daily driver, but I still use it when I want to wear something that doesn’t matter if it gets damaged. Battery life will have degraded (to what extent I don’t know), but it’s still good enough to do multi-hour GPS activities.
The only Garmin device I’ve had die on me has been an original Vivofit, but that’s only when I came to try and use it after it had been left uncharged and unused for over a year; batteries don’t like being left like that.
I’ve had the original fitbit, the charge 3 and the charge 3 with paying abilities and they all literally stopped working. The first charge 3 startednover heating ad the second’s screen stopped working. I wore them everyday and typically sweat a lot during daily hiit workouts.
I have a Garmin FR15 that I wished would die so that I can justify buying an upgrade. Other than having to replace the band every six months or so it keeps on ticking, so to speak.
My Garmin Forerunner 310xt still works fine and it first came out in 2009. The only reason I don’t use it anymore is the form factor. But it still does everything very well, maybe even more accurate on GPS than the current ones.
eBikes are more dangerous than mopeds…
They are silent, unable to spot when they are approaching.
The speed limiter can be disabled, reaching a 40-50 km/h speed.
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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 (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.
Garmin sent me an email this weekend pointing to sales on the Canadian web-shop for Varia Radar, Edge computers etc.
Made me wonder if they’re about to release new versions sometime soon. (USB-C, please)
link to garmin.com
Ray –
I am flying to Amsterdam from SF next week. Will be working from Amsterdam for six months. Let me know if you want anything from the US.
I have a problem in general with the subscription model of Bike trainers and things like peleton. For a casual user like myself that may want to ride the trainer in doors every now and then they just don’t make sense. They only target the high users and leave casual users like me to give it a miss.
There’s still apps that are free (like RGT) to use though, and others that cost far less (e.g. $8-$10/month). And the trainer hardware themselves doesn’t have a monthly subscription revenue charge.
Also remember if you have a cycling head unit, some of them can control the trainer for workouts on their own. I think that’s what ERG mode is for
“I also had an accuracy deep-dive […] post planned for Friday”
That’s either a clue or a missed opportunity.
I’ve been a Ftbit Charge user for years and find they typically last 2 years before dying. What would you say is the typical life of a Garmin watch (looking at venu vs venu2). Thanks!
Which part is dying on you? The strap, or something else?
I wouldn’t say it’s typical though of any watch, Garmin Venu/etc, or otherwise.
My Fenix 3 is still going strong from 2015. Admittedly not as my daily driver, but I still use it when I want to wear something that doesn’t matter if it gets damaged. Battery life will have degraded (to what extent I don’t know), but it’s still good enough to do multi-hour GPS activities.
The only Garmin device I’ve had die on me has been an original Vivofit, but that’s only when I came to try and use it after it had been left uncharged and unused for over a year; batteries don’t like being left like that.
I’ve had the original fitbit, the charge 3 and the charge 3 with paying abilities and they all literally stopped working. The first charge 3 startednover heating ad the second’s screen stopped working. I wore them everyday and typically sweat a lot during daily hiit workouts.
Thanks!
I have a Garmin FR15 that I wished would die so that I can justify buying an upgrade. Other than having to replace the band every six months or so it keeps on ticking, so to speak.
My Garmin Forerunner 310xt still works fine and it first came out in 2009. The only reason I don’t use it anymore is the form factor. But it still does everything very well, maybe even more accurate on GPS than the current ones.
eBikes are more dangerous than mopeds…
They are silent, unable to spot when they are approaching.
The speed limiter can be disabled, reaching a 40-50 km/h speed.