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.
You mention Garmin doesn’t use even for obvious infringement. Why not?
On your item #6: indeed very cool shots, even better is doing windsurfing/windfoiling yourself 😀
You live in the Netherlands so you got all the opportunities to learn it.
Stop being stupid. When Ray starts windsurfing, he won’t have time to test all that stuff (and, more importantly, write it down).
I tried windsurfing during one of my winters in Perth. I loved it. I mean, except for the literal oceans of seawater I drank.
I’ve always been tempted to try it here in the Netherlands. Obviously, the beaches are super popular for it, but so is the lake that the DCR Cave sits on.
Did you progress until fully planing ? I guess not because you would have been hooked for life 😀
Hi,
What about the promised Polar Grit X2 in depth review ?
Looking forward to it.
Thanks
……we wait and hope
The written post is done. It’s the video companion/review that’s got me bogged down.
Maybe I’ll just release the written post and eventually hit publish on the video side.
Yes please
Yeah, the Holobike thing doesn’t look promising. I read the Wired article and looked at their Kickstarter page. No mention of power, no mention of pairing to HR, no mention of gearing, no mention of whether or not there’ll be a FIT file to upload to the usual places. They do have what looks to be Look pedals in the pictures and there are buttons on the handlebars that might be for shifting. I’m not sure who they’re marketing this to. They did fulfill their goal, though, but it was pretty low.
Hi Ray,
In Matt Legrand’s video following the open “cave” 2023, you were unboxing the Insta360 AcePro. You never mentioned anything about said camera. Is it because you want to keep out the fiacso? or do you consider reviewing it sometime? Following GoPro’s disappointing Q4 results, it’s interesting to see how things are developing in the action cam field.
Thanks for the great site
Nah, this fiasco is all afterward (I had bought the Ace Pro myself, so wasn’t privy to the entire creator mess back then).
The Ace Pro was actually something I thought I might publish an update of sorts on last week, but alas, I’m behind on a few other things for this week. As noted above, the integration with Garmin/Apple (and soon COROS) is very legit cool. It doesn’t solve for every single scenario, but it solves for basically every bike/run scenario where you’d use the camera. Or, any scenario where you’re wearing a watch or bike computer from one of those companies.
As far as the Ace Pro itself, I do wish the FOV was wider compared to GoPro. Likewise, while I do think the flip-screen is cool, it’s not super practical to flip-up while riding along at high-speed, to validate framing (compared to the front displays of GoPro/DJI). But otherwise, I’m actually pretty happy with the camera – the fast charging is insanely fast. The other big thing GoPro should copy (DJI already has it).
Ok – i’ll just put in another article that might be interesting. Until now astronauts at the ISS have not been using VR for excersizing. Here is an article the recent test of VR on the ISS for cycling link to ing.dk – did watch a video of him telling about the immersivenes and how it actually helped Andreas Mogensen (and some of the others who tried it as well) during his recent stay at the ISS.
uhh found an article about it and “new bike day” at the ISS from ESA here link to esa.int
500W maks though.
That’s pretty crazy. All aspects of it! From the hardware/trainer to the software and quirks of the VR headsets without gravity. Nice find!
A legal note about the FTC’s endorsement guidelines: This is not actually law; it’s the FTC’s interpretation of the law (which bars “unfair” or “deceptive” marketing practices). The FTC’s interpretation would likely not hold up in court under the First Amendment, which allows the government to require disclosures only under very narrow circumstances. The disclosure has to be part of “commercial speech,” which means advertising. A youtube video that’s under the editorial control of the reviewer probably doesn’t count as commercial speech under the relevant precedents. It’s also unlikely that a court would consider a failure to disclose to be inherently misleading. The FTC also knows that these guidelines would likely not be enforceable, so it typically just sends warning letters without actually doing anything about it.
“A youtube video that’s under the editorial control of the reviewer probably doesn’t count as commercial speech under the relevant precedents”
Insta360 requires their sponsored creators to send copies of the video to them for approval (see the 2nd linked video).
in stark contrast to european law. Non-disclosure of sponsored videos are illegal in Europe.
But insta360 requiring that kind of control over content, completely pulls all credibility for factual videoreviews of their products.
I will though note though, that for non-sponsored people/media (like myself), Insta360 hasn’t required me to send anything in for approval (which, I’d never do). DJI has asked (repeatedly) previously, and I’ve always said no as well (again, nothing sponsored there). I’ve never had any other company ask.
Ah, that would likely be a much closer case, then.
Incidentally, I don’t practice in the UK, but as of a few years ago, their test was basically “did the brand exercise editorial control,” and if it did not, then no disclosure was required. That seems sensible to me because posting something on a personal blog or youtube channel implies that it’s your own words and opinions.
I think it’s about 2 years ago that the EU made some huge changes about mandatory disclosure of sponsored videos – not just a small “this is a sponsored video” at the beginning” because it was completely impossible to determine if the text in the video was an actual opinion or something read from a script provided to influencers. We have had several cases in the EU already about this. In Denmark alone i think i can count about 3-4 cases with “high profile” danish influencers being fined for not disclosing sponsorships ranging from product placements to travels or events.
well your integrity is not on the line :-) – you have always been completely transperant about how things are run. That is also the only way you can have the credibility and influence from the vendors point of view – no matter how bad a review is. The only thing is that you only have to depart from that line once, and that credibility is gone and will take a long time to recover from. Take a look at Linus tech tips. They do have some bumpy rides once in a while, but watching their friday night show actually portrays a very honest Linus that you dont always see in the normal videos. :-) (and a lot of things have gone both south and north after a WAN show, but they usually own theit mistakes)
Hey Ray,
I am sure you have noticed that, but I can’t find anything on the internet regarding the new release of a beta software for the Epix Gen2 Pro with an addition of the Messenger. From what I found regarding the app itself is that it can actually send messeges via the iridium sattellites network but I have no idea wehther this works with the watch. Any clues? Can you refer to that in any way?
Here’s what I found in the usual place (the Garmin Forums Beta section). This update is for the non-Pro only (the one I have).
Change log for version 17.19 (changes since v17.17):
Updated Translations
Fixed issue where a messenger message could fail to send
Garmin has devices/platform called inReach, which gives you worldwide satellite communications using Iridium. So far as I know, no Garmin watch has inReach built in. They have dedicated devices for this, and have a few handhelds that have it built in. So you have to have an inReach device and subscription, and then you can pair to your inReach device and send messages from your watch. (I’ve been wondering whether Garmin would build inReach into a watch for a long time now, especially considering that they’re pretty lackadaisical about LTE, but I suspect the problem is the big antenna bump you see on inReach devices.) This is similar to what Apple does; you can send emergency messages via satellite from certain iPhones, but not from an Apple Watch so far as I know. So far as I can tell from a quick search, the Messenger app is for iOS/Android and only runs on phones.