Heads up! The big Garmin annual spring sale has started, with $200 off the Fenix 8 (first sale to date!), $100 off the Edge 1050, Forerunner 965 at $499, the Forerunner 265, the new Instinct 3, and countless other Garmin products including inReach Mini 2. Plus the Apple Watch Ultra 2 Black Titanium is on sale, and some Suunto & Wahoo product deals too. Full list & thoughts here!
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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.
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!
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Have some fun in the travel section.
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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!
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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 2024 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.
US is getting what they chose.
I just wish they would Label it the trump tax as it is.
They probably don’t do that because their govt might come after them in various nasty ways for saying such things.
Good on Wahoo here. Some manufacturers have sadly decided to spread the cost to Europe, which is a joke. I will do my best to avoid buying from companies that do that, whereas this is a good and fair move from Wahoo.
What companies have you seen do that? I believe you, just curious.
Sony has been in the news for doing it with their games consoles.
MS raising console (+20%), accessories and games also in Europe etc.. not only the US..
So it suggests it cost them $34 ish for the unit (if tariffs add 50). They sell this for $200 retail (before tariffs), which is a good margin. Is this normal markup for consumer electronics?
Or just the components inside it actually made in China
it may well be that wahoo are helping the US out of their own hole and only passing on part of the tariff cost, cutting into their own margins
have a look at this article which includes a detailed breakdown of the margins and tariffs on one product (noting that ever company and product has different circumstances)
link to escapecollective.com
Are we winning yet?
He and his family are. All that crypto and Emoluments Clause violations. They are breaking rules like they get points for doing it. Saw a sticker: ‘Make America Embarrassed Again’.
i think thats a really good way of doing it.
ideally there would be a separate line item for the tariff cost but thats not a standard thing for sales platforms to support so instead you add it to the shipping cost which is valid – tariffs are a part of the overall shipping cost. meanwhile, the actual item price is still accurately shown so consumers don’t think wahoo is ripping them off and wiht a little intelligence it is obvious where the cost comes from.
the “imported product” note even highlights this, though it could be more explicit but would then probably attract the ire of the idiot responsible for this mess
I like this explanation. I don’t agree with the article’s gripe towards Wahoo. Cut those guys some slack, they’ve been getting sniped on a lot lately.
There may be technical reasons they chose this path or to emphasize as you said, the price was intended to be $200 while calling out the extra $50 for extraneous reasons.
$250 is a little steep though just so I can get one more micro USB device out of my life.
I had the same experience ordering a mini deskpi rack (a little 10″ rack for computers, switches, and such).
$60 rack with a $50 shipping charge. It took me a few minutes to figure out that was likely due to tariffs; I wish they’d just said as much.
That said, unfortunately it makes it too expensive. I’m really sympathetic to the companies having to deal with this crap. They’re losing sales and I expect quite a few will go out of business, or reshape their businesses to avoid any reliance on the US.
It’s not clear to me why a company in, say, Taiwan can’t buy these items and resell them. I listened to a PinkBike podcast with the CEO of Outbound Lights who was explaining how, even though he assembles in the US, he’s at a big disadvantage to light makers overseas who are using Chinese components, and then paying a 10% tariff to ship into the US. He has some CHinese components on which he pays the 145% tariffs, so the impact to a US-based company is much larger than the impact to an overseas (non-Chinese) company.
So if I pick it up from the warehouse I can avoid the ‘shipping fee’? Really, this is dishonest and fails to communicate the real issue that Americans need to see in black and white. Pandering to a bully just subjects you to more bullying.
Wahoo pays the tariff when they import the product, so the method of how you get it from Wahoo (shipped, warehouse, bike shop, carrier pigeon) doesn’t matter, you’ll still end up paying paying the tariff fee.
I don’t see any pandering going on. Wahoo wants to sell their product, and don’t want to get political in their storefront, that’s not their business. Anyone can read between the lines and know where the service charge is actually coming from and who is at fault.
What he meant os, that since it‘s labeled as „shipping fee“, they shouldn’t charge him the 50$ „shipping fee“ if they don’t have „to ship“ it to him…
Which imho is also exactly why Ray is pointing this out in the first place.
I wouldn’t call that dishonest. It’s just standard fare for americans to not include taxes in a MSRP. I know it’s something we’re not used to in Europe, where by law everything has to include VAT in the RRP so you know how much you’ll be charged before you reach the checkout counter. But for Americans it’s always a mystery, unless you do some mental math and add that 15% or whatever their state’s sales tax is. And this tariff stuff is really just another tax… so yeah it *should* be as part of the sticker price, but it’s not against their conventions for it not to be.
I get that thinking, but as an American that grew up with sales tax, we all know what that looks like. And we all know what shipping looks like. This is clearly neither, but instead, a charge listed as “$50 Economy Shipping”.
Wahoo saw what happened to Amazon/Bezos who planned to have a tariff line item in their prices and didn’t want to deal with that.
That is exactly what I was thinking. They saw what happended to Amazon and decided to avoid the trouble..
Just this.
I came to see if anyone had pointed this out. I agree with Ray that it sounds misleading (if I’m being generous) but I assume this alternative was chosen in this slightly insane political environment when anyone is open to misdirected criticism (where, in this case it should be self-directed).
As cited above I’d love Amazon to stand up and put the line item in for their items, but no… if a company does that it risks petty retribution (along the lines of the best form of defence is attack, I guess). In just 3 and a bit years this madness will be over… (I’m pretending it’s not “nearly four years” for the sake of my mental health)
Here we go with tribal politics. The problem is no other US President Dem Or Rep will get rid of it cause the money they make goes into their pocket. The last administration did not roll back the SALT tax nor the first Tariffs. Why? cause it worked in their favor but they wont tell you that. Don’t get caught up in political BS. Government should have never let companies go overseas in the first place. It destroyed
places like the rust belt. Pure greed caused all of this.
Its no longer good to be a billionaire we must now be a trillionaire. The chickens have come home to roost. Sorry to say this. there are 2 types. Insiders and outsiders. Guess what my friend you not on the inside as far as i know
Yes, Biden never reversed any of Trump 1.0 policies, so this whole “it’s gonna be over in 3.5 years” is nonsense. These companies need to face up to reality and add it to the US price or list it under the US price as a tariff. Trying to hide it as a shipping charge or diluting it across the rest of the world is just wrong.
I doubt this is dishonesty. My money is on a poor product decision based on time/cost estimate from engineers to add a new line that would be descriptive. “But we can add this to shipping with no changes”
“Now, I don’t have a problem, per se, with Wahoo passing on the cost. After all, like it or not, that’s the reality of the US political landscape right now (because, let’s be clear, this is a political choice). However, what I do have a problem with, is not owning up to it. Instead, Wahoo lists this as a ‘service charge’ within the shipping line item, as you saw above.”
They are probably trying to stay away from Trump backlash, but yes, they are being dishonest as well. Two wrongs do not make a right.
I’m sorry US people: you chose, and this is the results. And things still have to start. I’m not happy for you, I’m not happy for us (EU), but this is reality!!!
Hi Alessandro – Re your “you chose” comment, please note that the current president won with 49.80%, meaning a (slim) majority of USA people voted for someone else. Please have some sympathy for the majority that are being forced to live with a situation which they absolutely did not choose. Thank you.
Once again, you people are twisting the numbers now that the shit is hitting the fan.
Donald Trump – 49.81%
Kamala Harris – 48.34%
Others – 1.85%
Trump beat Harris by more than a percent in terms of the popular vote. If the majority was concerned about Trump, why has Others not teamed up with Harris to give her the majority? Is the US not a democracy?
This was simply a clever and easy way to account for the tariff based on the limitations of their eCommerce platform. This separates out the tariff for normalized reporting and accounting purposes.
I do agree, however, that they should indicate total consumer cost up front so folks can make an educated decision before they arrive at final payment. My guess is other eCommerce sites will use similar approaches until folks get accustomed to the new normal. I just hope that companies don’t use it as another way to pad their margins!
So if you order and pay for it and after 1 day return it for a refund….so you pay 250 and get 200 refunded? Very nice….
Just looked…you can get it on Amazon for $199.00 incl. free shipping. Go figure. It’s out of stock, but you can add it at that price and will be delivered when back in stock.
I don’t like or even enjoy getting political on pages that are for my hobbies. Ray, this is not aimed at you. But, I find the “blaming Trump” attitude a little disingenuous and very simple minded. Like a bunch of little kids, I want my toy as cheap as I can get it. I also agree with Ray on Wahoo, just state what it is, no reason to hide it. Has anyone not noticed that for the last 30 years or more practically everything we buy is made in China. Find something at Walmart, Amazon, Hobby Lobby, etc. etc. etc. not made in China. Did we really think that we could simply continue to buy cheap from China and move all our manufacturing there for the next 100 years and there would be no consequences? Does anyone not remember the last President and his son taking bribes from China? What about the Chinese balloons flying over the US that the last President did nothing about? How about the fact that in my small community of 12,000 people the Chinese Government has bought dozens of properties setting up drug farms and funnelling in hoards of illegals that are indentured servants? China is trying to buy up the US and everyone has, until now, just turned a blind eye towards it. If you have any doubt, talk to your local law enforcement and government officials about the amount of Chinese owned properties. Numerous State governments are just now passing laws to confront this onslaught of Chinese government procurement of US property. This current political policy might make a couple cheap Chinese products cost a little more for awhile but your grandchildren may still have a home in the future because of it. Just my two cents.
“a little disingenuous and very simple minded”! An apt summation.
As a Canadian I am just glad you did not mention the torrent of fentanyl pouring into the USA from your northern border. BTW – what “small community of 12,000 people” do you live in that has become a Chinese base camp for the destruction of your great country from within. I am sure King Donald and the fawning mmbers of his court will take care of it in short order. But first those 90 trade deals in 90 days…
Proceeds to get political :D
“I don’t like or even enjoy getting political on pages that are for my hobbies”…
Proceeds to write just about the most pollical comment possible
“I don’t like or even enjoy getting political on pages that are for my hobbies.” proceeds to debit literally trash political propaganda
For the non-US readers in here, if you want to know where that post is coming from and since he specifically mentioned “Walmart, Amazon, Hobby Lobby” look up Hobby Lobby controversies or something similar on Google or read the Wikipedia.
Even a lot of moderate Republicans boycott that brand. Shopping there is basically a political statement.
Wondering if they didn’t want to make changes to the computer system to spell it out ?
Who knows he may change his mind tomorrow anyway ?? 🫣
This is a little bit disingenuous because any inventory they already have on hand was not impacted by the tariffs. It’s only for anything after April 2 and my guess is that they’ve had inventory on hand. Unless this company operates under LIFO, which no company I’ve ever dealt with does, inventory on hand was pre-tariff
Given this was the very first shipment (and now already out of stock), this was very likely impacted by tariffs.
I just ordered mine for 170 Euro here in Estonia (hobisport dot ee)
Enjoy winning yanks! :D :D
Lets be honest Wahoo can’t “own up to it”. We’ve seen how combative the US government will be in that case. Look what happened when Amazon were rumoured to be showing the tariff on their price. They basically publicly accused them of declaring. I cant see that ending well for wahoo.
In the end it is a shipping charge, since it is paid upon shipping to the costumer country. Many stores have been charging import taxes under the shipping for long, usually stating that shipping covers all the import taxes or even charging the costumer for import taxes themselves. Still better than what Microsoft and Sony are doing passing part of USA taxes to Europe, and probably what garmin plans to do based on their last investors call.
Uh. I owned literally dozens of Garmin units over the last two decades and do have about a dozen right now. Would not buy Garmin again if they try to make EU citizens pay for the US tariff craziness. Please monitor…
I’m in the US and I don’t blame you.
Microsoft and Sony are likely doing that so there is no pricing discrepancy. When there is a pricing discrepancy in one market, people start being creative to make money on the situation — the grey market.
Well it should get interesting for these discretionary consumer items. If I see a surcharge or price increase on something I am simply not going to buy it, I’ll make do with what I have or do without and absolutely avoid purchasing. I will not pay the extra tax/surchrage/tariff what ever you want to call it. I suspect there are many others that will do the same which will have economic consequences for many company’s.
As of Monday this week Wahoo was also adding a tariff surcharge to the KICKR trainers, but since they have removed it.
I’m so surprised they would charge shipping at all on their own site. It doesn’t matter if they would lose $20 doing it because that would be far far far lower than the $400 they would lose out on by a 3rd party retailer taking their 30% margin out of the same RRP.
As a business, isn’t Wahoo! doing the right thing for its stakeholders? They want to sell as many radars as possible, not take sides in a temporary issue, no matter how silly we find it. It’s transparent enough that we all know why it’s there.
I guess we shoule say: Welcome to the world of different taxes, US.
Shops like bike-discount, mantel and bike24 have been having different prices per country in the EU for manybyears already, just based on the different VAT.
US consumers are long used to taxes, each state has their own tax rates.
Mantel/etc selling from the Netherlands to Spain is applying the Spanish intra-EU VAT, which is very different than importing a 1,000EUR good from China, direct to Spain (or the Netherlands), which then gets a different tax category entirely.
Not sure what you really want here. If they called it a tariff anywhere on the site like you’re asking for, they told you they would be in violation of the terms for search engines that list their products. Wahoo did they best they could to make it clear in the circumstances, and everyone knows what is happening. It’s the opposite of hiding. Even calling it a tariff to you in this statement represents a calculated risk they are taking to be clear with the consumer base.
TRACKR now listed as out of stock due to “exceptional demand.” I suspect Wahoo waiting for the dust to settle on the trade negotiations from over the weekend to see if tariff pricing will need to stay or go. Would be less than ideal to have customers pay a “shipping surcharge” only to find out a week later the surcharge is gone.
I just received mine and Garmin mounts are compatible.
But 199 is the real price. The 50 additional dollar is the orange tax which us citizens inflicted on themselves.