Heads up!!! Here’s your massive holiday sports tech deals list! This includes the Garmin Epix for just $419, the Apple Watch Ultra 2 for just $699, the GoPro Hero 12 Black for $249, (or the brand new Hero 13 or $299!) and plenty more! Go check out the full list of 100+ deals here!
I’m DC RAINMAKER…
Here’s how to save!
Wanna save some cash and support the site? These companies help support the site! With Backcountry.com or Competitive Cyclist with either the coupon code DCRAINMAKER for first time users saving 15% on applicable products.
You can also pick-up tons of gear at REI via these links, which is a long-time supporter as well:
Alternatively, for everything else on the planet, simply buy your goods from Amazon via the link below and I get a tiny bit back as an Amazon Associate. No cost to you, easy as pie!
You can use the above link for any Amazon country and it (should) automatically redirect to your local Amazon site.
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Check out my weekly podcast - with DesFit, which is packed with both gadget and non-gadget goodness!
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5 Easy Steps To The Site
1
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.
2
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!
3
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.
4
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!
5
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.
I Miss icTrainer on the list.
They Doubled the Price during Corona.
In you dont need 20 year old Poor grafics, try it.
There is also a 60 day discount around: PLP23
Thanks – just added it in!
Ictrainer costs are the wrong way around, annual v monthly
Interestingly (in the UK at least), Wahoo X is £14.49 per month if you purchase it through the Apple App Store, but £12.99 if you purchase directly through the Wahoo site. Guess that’s the App Store tax at work!
I like the intro 🤣
Bain of your existence
Perhaps bane is what you’re looking for? Unless you really dislike baths…
Ain’t nobody around here got time for a bath. :)
Thanks!
If there are 2 people in the family, then the annual FulGaz subscription is an even better deal, as with an annual membership you get a free account for a family member.
What about software apps like PerfPro, one time fee and more or less same as TrainerRoad.
Hmm, hadn’t really thought about non-subription apps (virtually none left), I’ll add it in.
Thanks for this! Im looking for options other than peloton. Peloton is actually going up to 24/month if you want more than 3 cycling classes a month.
Outstanding article and very helpful, thank you!
You should check out Join. It’s growing fast.
Wow! I haven’t used TrainerRoad in a while (I’ve become more of a runner than a cyclist), but I didn’t realise the price had gone up so much!!
It was always a _bit_ more expensive than Zwift but that’s quite a lot more now!
I want to put in a plug for TrainerDay which is just $4/mo, but packs a ton of great features. TrainerDay consists of a trainer app that runs on iOS and Android and a web-based training plan builder that is science-based and incredibly flexible. It syncs to all the major platforms and has a super-responsive developer who answers questions in the forum daily.
Having used TrainerRoad and Wahoo X/ SYSTM/ SUF/ Whatever-it-will-be-called-next, I can’t imagine going back to paying that much when TrainerDay does everything I need.
One example of a great TrainerDay feature is the ability to ride in HR Mode, which adjusts your power target to keep your HR in the zone of your choice. Works great for long Z2 rides.
Thanks Ben :)
Found this. Early state, but who knows….
link to cr4nkup.com
You also forgot the GTBike V mod for GTA V (link to gtbikev.com). Once off purchase for the game, and then free for life. It has come on in leaps and bounds.
Surprised that more people don’t just use mywhoosh. Have been using it for a while and while not on par yet with Zwift is getting closer by the month. The main issue is the long download times..seems to want to do a few GBs every time. When folks ask me how to get started I always recommend MyWhoosh just to see if they even like indoor cycling. With them taking over the ESport World Championships seems like it’s here to stay. Haven’t heard it even planning to go paid.
I tried it once, finished my ride and poof the app crashed, and my ride was lost. Is that a common occurrence or a one off? In 3 years, I’ve had zero Zwift crashes.
“The main issue” is that MyWhoosh benefits the UAE, an oppressive government.
My powerful computer can’t handle it. Only 12fps. This app needs a PC monster. I mainly use AppleTV on ZWIFT, ROUV. THIS is the cheapest and more convenient option of a mini box than buying a large computer.
Tried so many apps but keep coming back to Big ring. Not the fancy graphics of others but wide choice of cycling places, realistic environments and just works all the time. the downside his not BLE connection but easy enough to get over that.
I am not a BR worker etc ha ha I mentioned before about Mywhoosh, Bkool, Zwift etc that I use but so fake .. and frankly boring after a while.
Book’s real life rides are so shoddy compared to BigRing.
With the new Annual option on Zwift, are you able to still do the pause membership for X number of weeks? I find that nice if I can remember for times of outdoor biking, vacations, injury, etc. If I am recovering from injury or training less on bike, its easy enough to just use Trainer on dumbmode/fluidmode and watch shows/movies… shift gears as needed for more/less resistance , for zn1 or zn2 days/weeks I don’t need muuch :-/
Watch GPLama’s video on YouTube which answers this question and others about the annual plan. The answer is no, there’s no way to pause.
You’re missing Velocity. vqvelocity.com
Created by Robbie Ventura, and used by some big coaching groups, like Purple Patch, Vision Quest, 80/20 Endurance, and more. They also acquired PerfPro.
Thanks Jim-
Looking at the website though, I don’t see any prices listed, nor any way for a consumer to download the app?
Am I missing something?
Cheers!
I’m pretty sure they have reached out to you, but not sure if you received the emails. They are entirely web based, (only iOS app on phone and iPad). They have Drew Hartman on their staff, (founder of PerfPro), and it’s a different business model, as it is B2B, not B2C. They focus on coaching groups and organizations, for more intimate and personalized/engaged experienced with a coach. If you email me, I am happy to make an intro with the staff. JimVanceInc at g mail. They are blowing up.
Vision Quest/PerfPro is now charging yearly for “support and services”. I bought two licences previously, but I am not willing to pay any more for the limited functionality I need as a single user.
Have you considered crowdsourcing your app review from among your user-base or does that stray too far from the site’s ethos?
You could still be the primary contributor and, obviously, the editor.
Don’t forget this one DC Rainmaker
link to cr4nkup.com
Rgds Ollie Payne
It’s nice to see an annual Zwift option now, which might entice me to join again. I used a nifty hack several years ago to get an “annual rate”: Zwift used to sell gift cards for an annual subscription, and I used the DCR membership discount through a seller to buy the gift card at a discounted rate. I was bummed when Zwift stopped selling membership gift cards!
…when I find out there’s a perk for being a DCR Supporter not even I knew about! 😂
Willing to start an indoor training business here… which cycling app/platform would be ideal?
20 riders per session, using a mix of standalone smart trainers, dumb rollers, and also “bring your own powermeter equipped bike” option.
Contact me at TrainerDay, we can help you out. Offer a discount to your members or something.
Perfect timing. Thanks!!
I really enjoy TrainerRoad and I think it really works if you follow the plan, but with those prices it’s becoming very difficult to justify it versus the other options… specially if you mostly use it during winter months.
As someone mentioned: Join link to join.cc
Great info put together in one post. I never realised how many platforms there are already on the market actually.
Just as an extra thing, I would love to see also Black Friday offers in such a visual, that would be great. I know Rouvy is having -25percent (I know because I made use of it) but I am sure others have good deals too and if someone is hesitating which app to use for the coming winter season, it would be good to see who is offering the most savings during this crazy sales time of the year.
Kinetic.fit had its app removed from Google Play probably for misuse of, or lack of an update to, the YouTube API. You can still find the latest APK on other sites, like link to apkpure.com
The prices currently on your table ($60.00 ; $10.00) don’t match what’s on the site link to kinetic.fit : $9.99/month or $24.99/quarter.
Odd, shows $60/year here: link to kinetic.fit
Anyone know which free desktop apps let you control erg mode on a trainer?
I currently use ErgVideo, since a workout file plays like a video player timeline. You can click anywhere in an interval and change things on the fly. I like doing this while I ride Zwift so I can cater intervals to line up with the course I’m riding. Any other apps that can do something similar? I’d love to find one that can do free ride intervals.
Sticking to a training plan and fitting it to a course in Zwift really helps keep me more engaged than importing a workout into Zwift and pressing start.
Hi. What do you think about link to wattattack.ru
Thanks for the list, and most importantly, thanks to the folks in the comments section who pointed out some apps that were left out of the original list. Some great options were listed which I had never heard of until reading through this article.
I can’t believe that someone still offers a one-time purchase license in the year 2023 (PerfPro) or that something like TrainerDay is so inexpensively priced.
This will help as I transition off of TrainerRoad (common theme here) and move to other programs which offer most of the same benefits at a much lower price point.
What about ergvideo? I use it almost as often as zwift, with my tacx neo. I use videos i bought awhile back but they do subscriptions now, $10/month i think.
Thanks for taking the time to put this together, I appreciate the thoroughness with which you write. One of the things I do think is worth noting are the family and group pricing discounts that some platforms offer. My wife and I both subscribe and some of the different platforms have steep family or group discounts which is appealing to us.
Hi Ray, thanks as always for this info. One thing that would be cool is if you were to do a current comparison of the apps from a functionality standpoint, as well as what they do (there are some that are full blown immersive riding experiences, while some, eg. Join, appear to be training apps that don’t provide any tailored functionality for indoor trainers.
I’ve been playing with several over the years (the weather is good enough here that mostly I couldn’t justify paying for one, and certainly not an annual membership). But, because of their re-do of a free month, I tried Rouvy again, and found that they had massively improved it. Rouvy uses actual video from real roads, and augmented reality to place cyclists on those roads. A couple years ago, it was pretty wonky. Now it works quite well, to the point that I decided to do a month to month membership while it rains here. The real roads really works for me; others might prefer the more gamified approach of MyWhoosh or Indievelo (I’ve never tried the big Z).
Hi, I’m just looking for a Cycling app where the watts that manage the ERG Mode of the smart trainer are those of an external source (ex: pedals / potentiometer).
So far after many searches and tests I have only been able to verify that ZWIFT does it.
But… Shouldn’t it be the logical thing to do in general?
If you spend “a lot of money” buying a potentiometer, do you want it to be the one that calculates all your workouts… what sense does it make to connect an external power source to the system (and avoid those watts from the smart trainer) if the ERG doesn’t use it for anything?
Thanks for your help,
TrainerRoad was the first to offer PowerMatch, their name for using a separate power meter to as the power data source instead of the smart trainer power data. Below is a quick list largely from memory, in addition to Zwift that you mentioned:
TrainerDay, Xert, FulGaz and likely some others.
Additionally, Wahoo and Elite trainers offer a direct Power Match feature within their own app setup process. If you have one of those trainers, you can pair up your power meter directly to the trainer, and that power meter gets used regardless of the app you use.
Hi Chad,
Many thanks for your help here.
I’ve tried FulGaz maybe one or two years ago and I’ve had the same problem… maybe they’ve solved it now.
From the options above (you mentioned) do you know if some of them are ANT+ compatible and also MacOs? my smart trainer only is smart under ANT+ protocol (bkool smart pro2).
Kind regards,
I only have experience with Zwift & TrainerRoad via ANT+, but they both work for power match use.
I don’t have any better info on the others. Hopefully Ray or others will reply. Outside of that, checking with the app makers may be necessary.
Is this table of the prices from this specific date or is it regularly updated?