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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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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!
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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!
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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?
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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.
Now that Garmin updated the various sport watches with the automatic transitions, can we expect your test results any time soon? Back in January you were trying to get people together to try it out. I’m curious how it ended up doing. Thx!
Yeah, I had a few takers, but the weather got actually to messy for the bike portion (freezing rain made it an ice skating rink). But it looks to be a bit warmer this week, so I might make a go for it.
Garmin has the patent on wrist-based nacho cheese dispenser. No way they are licensing to Polar. They will block imports in the ITC and sue.
😂
The problem with the Apple Watch study is that it requires you to track your activities on an Apple Watch. I’ve been part of two other Apple Watch studies. This one I didn’t join because I don’t use my Apple Watch to track activities. I’d be glad to give them access to FIT files from Garmin or Strava, but they don’t want that.
To be fair, in most of these studies, I think that actually makes sense. Mainly because it helps to normalize the data, and provides a ‘guaranteed’ conduit of how the data gets to researchers.
Of course, not all studies fit that bill, but I can definitely understand the desire by researchers to have all the data coming off of a single platform (whatever that platform may be) to help minimize everything from user support to normalization issues.
Im still waiting for wireless blips for DI2 to glue to my extensions. They go on and off the bike as I need them.
Ray/Anyone – what’s the take on Oura now, a while post latest review? I’ve always been very intrigued/keen to get one but I didn’t because of the reviews making me feel it was too far from a finished product to get value. Is that still the case?
Man, I’m living in the wrong country, 10-12 race starts sounds awesome. As someone who hates getting up early I wish we’d adopt that in the US.
Preach.
I think the biggest surprise about the Apple study is that Colorado isn’t #1. But one look at the number of people I run every week with in Massachusetts, it makes sense.
Hello Ray,
I feel bit stupid to ask but I didn’t found any original data from Garmin about the sleep data worldwide.
Have you read more granular data from them ? Is there a press release somewhere on the web ?
Thanks
Waiting for the Garmin Instinct 3 series….hope you are allready testing it! 😜
A slight correction. Polar doesn’t say it is the “Most badass watch ever made”, They say it is the “Most badass watch WE’VE ever made.” After reading your First Look, I’d have to say that is more accurate. No Nacho Cheese dispenser ;)
Fair point. But yes, lack of nacho cheese dispenser is gonna be a challenge.
Do you see Round-trip routing coming to other Gatmin Watches like the 265? It’s a feature I would love to have for my Fall trip to Europe but can’t really justify the 965.
No, it wouldn’t happen on the FR265. The round-trip routing requires maps be onboard, and the FR265 doesn’t have maps (nor the amount of storage needed for anything but perhaps a single European country). :(
That said, you can actually do round-trip routing from the Garmin Connect app for any watch, and then push it to the FR265. And honestly, given how slow the round-trip routing feature works on even Garmin’s high-end watches, it’ll always be faster to do it via the phone (since it’s virtually instant there).
It’s located under: Training & Planning > Courses > Create a Course > [Sport] > Automatic > Choose distance/direction
I guess it’s kinda buried.
Thanks. That helps lots. When my 920xt finally bites the bullet I will think the 265 or equivalent at the time is the one I will be looking at next thanks to your reviews. The 165 would work but after recently getting the 840 I really like some of the training stats that it has that are not supported by the 165. Again thanks this will make my trip easier and I can save money for the trip.
Ray, any intention on reviewing this?
iGPSPORT iGS800
link to youtube.com
I might poke at it, if there’s some demand.
I’ve poked at some of their devices in the past, and always found them sorta like the Bryton ones I’ve tested: They just tend to be kinda half-baked. :-/
But, maybe this one is different.
Would be nice if you did. The screen-to-body ratio alone makes it vere interesting as far as setting trends.. Karoo 3 won’t challenge this (schematics already available), maybe Wahoo?
I know it’s about more than just screen and we still don’t know whether it will be good at all with igpsport…