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.
-
Check out my weekly podcast - with DesFit, which is packed with both gadget and non-gadget goodness!
-
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.
Am I the only one running 12 speed on the regular H3? It seems to be completely functional for me.
I’m doing the same.
I’m running a 12 spd cassette on the original Hammer. No problems whatsoever.
Two people in my triathlon club also say they put a 12-speed cassette on the regular H3 and it works fine. If 12 speed works on an 11 sped free hub, why the H3 Plus? And why would JetBlack need 11-speed and 12-speed versions? Ray, when you are done with Amazon Prime Day updates we need an answer to this mystery.
I can chip in here with some first-hand info on the H3/12spd issue. In theory it should be fine. In practice it’s far from fine… :/
Deep dive and pictures here: link to trainerroad.com
Thanks!
Welp, I’m still slaving away on the Hammer (forerunner of H3) I got in 2016. Still works great and is still really loud. A couple of years ago I contacted Saris about buying parts to upgrade my Hammer to H3 quietness and they quoted something close to $500, which was just $200 under they were selling a new H3 for at the time. They have been great at supply parts for both my Hammer (new belt) and Infinity platform. I’ll guess I’ll just keep my earbuds in and turned up for the foreseeable future.
Heinrick, search the video on Youtube with this title “Mancave Maintenance, CycleOps Hammer Noise Remedy” completely got rid of the noise for me. Assume you’ve also greased the freehub, which you don’t even need to remove the cassette to do, you can just pop the freehub body off. A very little grease will do.
Enjoy the quiet ride!
Ordered an H3 yesterday ($350) after my Wahoo Kickr crapped the bed after a couple of years of minimal use. That wasn’t a great buy for $1200. I have been waiting on Wahoo to help me out for over a week now. Never buying another Wahoo product again.
I have been using an H3 for probably 4 or 5 years now and I still like it a lot. I know I paid a lot more than the current price for it.
That said, I would love to see them get back into the power measuring business. I have lots of Power Tap wheels and pedals and they work great. I was so disappointed when then sold out to Quarg who then proceeded to crap all over us.
You really think a KICKR Core is somehow superior to a Saris H3 Plus and the H3 Plus needs to undercut it in price to be competivie? Including a cassette can’t possibly THAT big of a selling point. And I’m sure you know the problem with including a cassette. You have no idea if people are on 10, 11, 12, or maybe even 13 speed.
Definitely, it’s superior in the things people actually care about (which isn’t max gradient or max wattage, as the CORE is more than enough for almost every rider).
Instead, it’s got the main things the H3/Plus doesn’t:
1) Totally silent
2) Multi-channel Bluetooth
3) Support for Zwift Cog / Virtual Shifting
4) Support for KICKR CLIMB
Plus a few other probably minor things I’m forgetting. In the case of Wahoo including a cassette, you choose which cassette type you want on their page (10/11/12 speed).
I’ve read quite a few reliability issues on the core packing in after a year and out of warranty
I hope Saris comes back from the dead essentially. Speaking of Wahoo they have been mighty quiet, when are they going to drop some new stuff? After the interview with Chip it’s been silence.
The Wahoo smart treadmill seemed like an incredibly high risk product for them. Big development and support costs and competing in a crowded market.
On the other hand their excellent line of ELEMNT computers is starting to look a bit dated and crying for an update.
I really want Wahoo to succeed. I spoke to Chip once at EuroBike and he oozes passion for the company and its mission. Glad he is back in control.
Ray,
Totally unrelated, but I think you can drop The Pro’s Closet add from your page. They are done.
Hoping Saris starts by releasing a firmware update with Zwift virtual shifting for existing H3 units. With the price change, that would get the H3 back into the conversation for many. In fact, as an engineer located in Madison WI with embedded software experience, I’ve thought about reaching out to Saris about working on this for them.
Agreed! I live in Wisconsin as well and sold my Wahoo Kickr years ago to get the H3, primarily because I wanted to support a Wisconsin company. While my H3 works as it’s supposed to, no support for the Zwift Cog seems like a non-starter for any modern trainer these days.
Have they given any information about ongoing support for existing units, especially outside the US? I’m in the UK and as far as I can see I’m reliant on 3rd parties for spares, and any form of manufacturer support is non existent (unless I’ve missed something)
I’m located in Italy and I’ve always recevied quick and effective support from Saris customer service.
When I started to experienced loud squeaking noise they sent me a service kit which was probably connected to the belt arrangment of something like that.
This week I informed them that I experienced a super strange case of the plastic carter warpening (which they recognized as a possible problem connected with high ambient humidity) and they sent me a replacement carter free of charge. It took some time to reach here from US but it eventaully reached my home free of charge again, and I just need to assemble it in place of the warpened one.
In my opinion a H3 at 350$ is a super deal.
Happy to know that others are running 12s without any issue.
Typo:
Director(y) of Product Management.
I still have my H3 purchased during the early stages of confinement (COVID). It refuses to die. Except for the power supply. Tried to contact SARIS at least a dozen times about their disintegrating power supply connector and they ignored me. REI came through with a completely new unit. Bought a power supply from Amazon to replace the original. I still have some P1 pedals that I need to regrease.
I do not care about all the virtual shifting junk from Zwift so I think the H3 is still viable at that price but their biggest issue, in my mind, is not the hardware.
This was the most relevant comment for me
“Or, the new JetBlack Victory, which I’m almost done with my testing on”
*Waits, patiently refreshing the home page*
I was sad to read this – I bought an early H3 that is now slowly dying (some of the radios stop broadcasting after ~70 minutes). I’d put money down on the JetBlack Victory – I wanted to support this great American company (like I supported Kinetic, Wahoo, Powertap etc) but there was no innovation. The features of the JetBlack were just top notch for the price. I will miss that massive flywheel though – the road feel for a trainer was just superb.
DC do you know anything about the new Wahoo kick v7 ? When is it supposed to appear?
Well, now that Wahoo has dropped prices, and Saris did the same, I’m wondering if Elite and especially Garmin are gonna follow as well and also gonna drop prices. Soon to find out ?
My H3 freehub seems kind of sluggish. The chain wants to keep moving when I stop pedaling. Is there a way to service it?
For me, what needs fixing on the H3 is it overheating at high resistance. I had an original Hammer, it was loud but kept chugging up any grade, until I killed it by not sufficiently shielding it from moisture during rides. Got a H3 to replace it, much quieter but overheats during any extended climb. Got an Elite Direto instead; it doesn’t hold a candle to the H3 in terms of ride feel, but at least can hold resistance. I’d switch back to the H3 in a heartbeat if they could just fix that issue.
I had the problem while grinding at low RPM….say 250 watts/40-50 cadence-rpm/100 kg/100% trainer difficulty…. while going up the Radio Tower climb. My thought was to keep RPM up to get the internal fan blowing more. Lowered trainer difficulty to 50-60% and have not had the problem since.
Thanks for the tips. My vanity dictates that I stay at 100%, even though I’m not fast, and I typically gravitate to 70-75 rpm cadence when climbing. Further motivation to drop some weight I guess!
I was part of the design team for the hardware and firmware. The system is monitoring the internal temps to ensure nothing gets too hot. It will throttle back resistance to reduce temperatures, which means you need to shift up to a higher speed to reach the same wattage. So nothing bad it happening, just a limitation of the system.
If you can reposition one of the fans you use to cool yourself to hit the plastic side of the trainer that will provide a massive boost to the cooling of the flywheel inside the trainer. It can, depending on ambient temps, mean it never needs to go into that protection mode.
Thank you, I will try that. I have used a fan pointed at the trainer before, but this will motivate me to experiment more with how to angle it.
Oh, and I will say that the original Hammer was way more tolerant of heat, I could hardly ever get it to dial the resistance back. Maybe that’s the price you pay for quieter operation.
Hmm, I vaguely recall that to support the new belt design they may have adjusted the gear ratio. Which would have dropped the speed of the flywheel I think. Which would explain it being easier to overheat.
I upgraded to the trainer fan to one with a concentrated airflow, and placed it going straight into the trainer vents. Haven’t gone up something super steep yet, but have climbed enough to feel confident cooling airflow was the issue. Very happy with it now, thank you for all the insight straight from the designer’s mind!
I bought a Saris H3 in 2022 and it’s been problem free ever since. Paid twice the current price but it was worth it. I wish they would support virtual shifting.
I hope Saris can rebuild company successfully!
Still happily running my factory reconditioned H3 (best value purchase at the time) and I can’t kill it, it just chugs away. I would love H3 compatibility with the Zwift Cog/Bike. I have no idea whether a reconstituted Saris trainer team would be up for such a challenge, but I can dream. I have no desire to purchase another trainer anytime soon.
Hi DC – I am sorry I didn’t see this post before. I just bought a Saris H3 Plus and the necessary tools to set it up. (I have and older bike I rarely use, so I used that cassette.) However, now that I have it setup I’ve discovered a more major oversight. The Saris App in the Google Play Store is gone. I have called and spoken to support and they seemed completely unaware. I’ve been told they would tell IT and I should check back. That first call was on Monday and it is now Thursday. Yesterday I emailed instead of called and still no answer. Can you believe it? Supposedly the app is necessary to upgrade firmware and to fix any communication issues. I assume also you need it to use it without Zwift or similar system. If you were me, what would you do? There has to be some sort of solution….
Weirdly the app does appear gone. However on android there’s an easy way to work round, there are plenty of apk repositories you can download from outside the play store. You’re looking for version 4.055
link to apkpure.com
You also don’t need it to pair with Zwift etc. Just to upgrade the firmware
Wow – thanks! I had thought there might be a way to find it somewhere, but I do not normally venture into anything outside of the playstore for obvious reasons and a concern I won’t see an issue until it is too late. That worked! And with that installed, I’ve deleted apkpure app just to be safe. Really appreciate an answer. (You would think their support would be able to suggest it or send it somehow.)
Hi,
I’m am looking for a smart trainer for my wife. She has an aging magnetic wheel on trainer at the moment.
Since she’s never used a smart trainer, I think almost anything will be an improvement. I have a Kickr Core which works well and I would buy again if the price was right. However, at the moment, the Saris H3 Plus is the cheapest I can get (Atlantic Canada). 12 speed isn’t a concern but there don’t seem to be any regular H3 available. Because it is almost CAD 200 cheaper than any other model I’ve looked at (see below for what I can get at the moment), I was going to get it. it does seem to cover the basics but the state of the company is making me second guess the decision
Saris H3 plus CAD560
Jetblack Volt 2 CAD 750
jetblack victory (preorder) CAD 800
kickr core CAD 860
Elite Suito T CAD 750
Elite Suito used CAD 600
garmin tacx flux S CAD 670
Considering the price, is there any reason not to get it? any concerns with buying a saris trainer?
thanks!
Yeah, I’d say in your pricing scenario, the Saris H3 Plus does make sense.
I think longer-term Victory is a better trainer, but given the CAD prices, the H3 Plus is a solid deal compared to the others.
Thanks for the quick respond!
Question here…. Who decides if Saris will be able to use the Zwift COG… Saris or Zwift?
I wish there was a more recent hands on review. Everything I find on the interwebs is dated and not first hand experience with the H3 Plus unit. Here in Canada, an H3 goes for 570$CAD. Compared to the 850$CAD for the Kickr Core, it’s no contest.