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/X 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!
DCR Posts In The Past Week:
Here’s all the latest on the site:
Tuesday: Hiking Across Madeira: A 3-Day Trek (MIUT Variant)
Thursday: Tech Tidbits: Favero MX Pro Shipping, Polar Vantage V3 Update, Garmin Beta Update
As always, tick-tock goes the pendulum. Quiet week, busy week, quiet week, busy week…. (except September, which is just ALL THE BUSY!).
Stuff I Found Interesting Around The Interwebs:
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) You can now buy Zwift Click standalone: This is useful if you’ve got a Wahoo KICKR CORE, KICKR V6, or KICKR MOVE (others coming soon), and want to use virtual shifting instead. You don’t need the Zwift Cog for virtual shifting, instead, you’ll just leave your bike in a gear, and then use the Zwift Click buttons to shift instead.
2) The Bike Industry’s Sustainability Blind Spot: A good look at what happens when a major industry player (Specialized) doesn’t appear to be making right on wages owed to factory workers after one of their partners collapsed. This is the kind of coverage/stories that I appreciate Escape for.
3) Campagnolo announces very high-end power meter: This new unit, priced at $2,500, but claiming industry-norm accuracy of +/1%. The company touts a 16-gauge design, and talks a little bit about high-speed data (but skips on details). And, perhaps it’s accurate. But, I’ve heard every single claim in the book over the last 15 years, and frankly, they rarely hold up to either my or GPLAMA’s power meter testing protocols – especially new power meter designs. But as always, happy to test one, should it float by.
4) Christian Vande Verde Returns to Peloton: After a few years away, it’s good to see he’s back. His previous classes were always great. Highly structured, yet pro-cyclist interesting tidbits. He kicked off with two classes last weekend, and hoping he finds a regular cadence.
5) Running A Half Marathon in Picked up Can ‘Dress’: Paul has been coming to my DCR Open Houses for years, and he does amazing work picking up trash on all his runs as a daily thing. He made this outfit totally from cans he picked up, including that crazy big Braveheart-style flag, and then ran a half marathon on the windy and rainy beaches of The Netherlands. Give him a watch for sure!
6) Nike’s New Team USA Kits: Oh my. How on earth does this sort of thing get past the gazillion layers of approval, on both the Nike side as well as the Team USA side, that would be required for such a high-profile event/kit? Baffling.
7) Monday is the Boston Marathon: Good luck to all those competing, here’s a quick link on how to watch the race live.
8) A swimming power meter? Huh, interesting stuff. Always enjoy Matt’s videos.
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Thanks for reading!
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Are you going to review the eos swim better ?
For the most part, I try and find a balance between things people want to see reviewed, and things people are actually going to buy from a pricing standpoint.
A $799 swim device is a really tough sell. A $90-$130/year membership atop that is an even harder sell. Given all the devices that are in my never-ending backlog, I’m really struggling to see how to dedicate time to this, given how few people would benefit from a review, unfortunately.
But, maybe I’m wrong.
Totally understand Ray, you must have loads of products backed up and I’m sure you get asked to review a plethora of apps especially the explosion of ‘AI’ coaches.
I’ve been interested in these having used the now defunct Incus Swim device (victim of realistic pricing on the devices but no recurring revenues model, then a pivot into pro peloton tracking 🤦🏻♂️) we need to clone you!
You are 100% not wrong Ray. The pricing on this is way too high, possibly just quite high without the subscription but that’s a deal breaker for me. Same with the Form goggles, having swimstraight as a subscription only is crappy customer service.. put stuff behind a paywall when I’ve paid good money for hardware and I’ll never be a customer.
If you believe their marketing hype then the QIDI Vida – Smart AR Glasses for Sports will solve all the issues of existing HUD sports glasses, not sure how it will deliver though.
link to kickstarter.com
Those Nike outfits! 😆 The thing about swimming power meter reminded me of the swim goggles with head up display from a few years ago and, not totally related but I have been looking at the ENGO 2 HUD sports glasses. I don’t think you’ve ever reviewed that. From stuff I’ve seen on the interwebs, they look good but a little bit unreliable with people complaining that they break after few weeks or a month or two. Any plans to do a review of those?
Quote of the day…
“Professional athletes should be able to compete without dedicating brain space to constant pube vigilance”
Hey Ray, while I agree with your reasoning on testing the eon swim better, part of the fun of your work is that you do often test some very different technology items that most of us wouldn’t otherwise be exposed to. There isn’t a ton of great swim tech out there so let me put in my modest vote for you giving the eons a whirl. Also, some of my favorite Ray stories have to do with swimming (remember when the stingray tried to kill you?!) so there is always the chance for some magic…
I do wonder if such a power meter would measure the force applied to the nose of certain underwater animals 😉 Of course, no harm should come to animals or any other creatures (including Ray).
Cycling Weekly tested the Campag Power Meter – doesn’t seem great.
link to cyclingweekly.com
I’d call that more of a “first impressions” rather than a “review” especially because it was a “test unit pre-release and as such, the My Camp 3.0 app has yet to receive its update in order to recognize the power meter. Thus, we could not conduct any in-app calibration, should that be required.” So not clear that it was final hardware or firmware and cannot be properly calibrated because their app isn’t compatible yet…
You think peloton is ever gonna land in NL? I’d like to use it for the classes but in europe is only vbaible in germany
I expect so.
Peloton keeps saying in their investor calls each quarter, that this is the year for expansion in Europe. I’ve gotta imagine that the Netherlands is the easiest of Easy Buttons (high rate of English language, high rate of German language). I’d also imagine Spain being on the list too.
Of course, as always, we’ll see…
Would you consider updating buyers guide for smart trainers? I find to be whole product space bit overwhelming haha.
Yeah, all the guides need updating.
Super short guide though:
If going with Zwift, and don’t want to spend more than $1,000 – get the Wahoo KICKR Core Zwift One Hub Deal. If playing the app field, get a KICKR CORE with the cassette of your choice.
If spending more than $1,000 – you can basically decide between:
A) Wahoo KICKR V6/Move
B) Tacx NEO 3M (or, a Tacx NEO 2T with the Motion Plates for far far far cheaper)
C) Elite Justo
There ya go. 🙂
Thank you!
Thanks very useful. How do used trainers slot into this? There is Kickr V5/V6 to be had bellow 1K.
Any idea what’s going on at Stages Cycling? Every product now shows out of stock. Weird??
Reddit has a few threads mentioning layoffs on 19 April as well as no responses to inquiries. Anyone have any solid info?
link to escapecollective.com
Interesting ad I saw in Facebook for a new imu st is releasing that I’m guessing will have uses in sports.
link to content.st.com
Would be interesting to see how advances in imu sensors impact measurements. Would be interesting to see how much they are changing. For example how much difference is there from the imu in the fenix 7 and the Fenix 8 when that comes out? Will newer more accurate sensors allow significantly better running power data? Everyone talks about how software improves to allow for better features but how much depends on better hardware
Thanks for posting about my eoSwimbetter video!
I wonder how many years it will take Zwift to fulfill their promise to open the Click Button protocols to other companies? I would love to use the Click Buttons for electronic shifting in apps like Rouvy and MyWoosh.