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
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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.
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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.
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.
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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.
Wahoo BOLT 3 & ROAM 3 Hands-On: What You Need to Know!
Wahoo has announced their new Wahoo BOLT 3 and Wahoo ROAM 3 bike computers, which essentially is moving the BOLT & ROAM-sized devices onto the ACE software and display platform. The goal here being that Wahoo’s three bike computers … Read More Here
Garmin Varia Vue Front Camera/Light In-Depth Review: Worth the Price?
Garmin has just announced the Garmin Varia Vue, which combines a 600-lumen front light with a safety camera capable of recording in 4K. This essentially becomes the logical pairing to the Garmin Varia RCT-715 rear camera/radar combo. Of course, … Read More Here
Zwift Now Does Outdoor Ride Tracking, Zwift Ride Gets More Crank Lengths
Zwift’s first-ever, and hopefully annual, Zwift Community Live (ZCL) began yesterday in Mallorca. This event aims to bring together the Zwift community with a paid four-day event packed full of outside riding. At first glance, that might seem weird … Read More Here
FIT File: Garmin Connect+ FALLOUT // Did Garmin Get Cancelled?
For those not subscribed to the FIT File (it’s free!) via your regular podcast app or on YouTube, here’s a quick post with the highlights from the most recent episode. In this episode, we chat about the Komoot acquisition … Read More Here
Garmin Vivoactive 6 Hands-On: Everything You Need to Know!
Garmin has just announced the new Vivoacitve 6, which brings it even closer to their mainstream consumer watch, the Venu 3. This new version adds in some 50 sport profile modes and a ton of running features, including running dynamics, … Read More Here
DJI Flip The Gauntlet: ActiveTrack Sports Follow-Me Testing
The DJI Flip is the second DJI product (after the DJI Neo) to incorporate its fully built-in autonomous tracking capability. Up till these products, you had to have some form of controller involved in order to actively track/follow you … Read More Here
Garmin Connect+ Paid Subscription: Hands-on Thoughts & Analysis
Garmin has announced that it is dipping its toe into the AI-powered paid insights subscription service business. While this is hardly the first subscription service that Garmin offers (more on that later), this is the first time they’ve charged … Read More Here
GoPro Anamorphic Lens Mod In-Depth Review
Last September, when GoPro announced their new GoPro Hero 13 Black, they also announced new ‘HB Series’ lens mods. Essentially, these were more advanced lenses than GoPro has made in the past, and included a little bit of ‘smarts’ … Read More Here
FIT File: Watch Overload?! What We’re Testing and What We’re Wearing
For those not subscribed to the FIT File (it’s free!) via your regular podcast app or on YouTube, here’s a quick post with the highlights from the most recent episode. In this episode, we chat about fresh new watches … Read More Here
Komoot Acquired: History Says This Won’t End Well
And now things start to make a bit more sense. Earlier this week I posted on the news that Komoot was changing to require a Premium subscription for users to sync routes to 3rd party devices like Garmin, Wahoo, Hammerhead, … Read More Here
Komoot’s Expanded Paywalls: Trying to make sense of it
Over the last few weeks, Komoot has pretty significantly expanded the moat around their platform, specifically when it comes to doing (executing) the very routes you create on Komoot. Going forward (from Feb 27th, 2025), all new users of the … Read More Here
Polar’s TrainingPeaks Structured Workout Integration Goes Live: Here’s How it Works
After announcing their planned TrainingPeaks planned workout integration last fall, Polar has turned it on in public beta this morning, allowing you to receive your planned structured workouts automatically on your watch. These workouts will sync from your TrainingPeaks calendar, … Read More Here
Strava Bans User for Running in North Korea
On the list of quirky things, I didn’t have “Strava bans user for running in North Korea” on my bingo card today. But here we are. I’ve just spent the last hour going down the rabbit hole that is the … Read More Here
Hammerhead Karoo Adds App Store: A Few Thoughts
Hammerhead has announced an on-device App Store, except…well…just don’t call it the App Store. Instead, it’s officially called the “Native Extension Library”, or, in some places, also called the “Native App Library”. Either way, it allows you to tap and … Read More Here
Strava Backtracks, Now Allows External Links Again
On Monday, Strava re-enabled the ability for you to post links within various Strava areas, such as completed activities, event descriptions, and more. As you might remember, back this past fall, Strava restricted that ability, instantly removing any links you … Read More Here
HoverAir X1 Pro vs The Gauntlet: Sports Tracking Test!
The HoverAir X1 Pro/Pro-Max drones have been some of the most hotly anticipated drones over the last year. The pair was announced concurrently, and are near identical save a slightly better camera in the Pro-Max (capable of 8K). However, … Read More Here
TrainingPeaks Announces Price Increase For Annual Subscribers
Almost exactly two years since the last time TrainingPeaks increased prices, they’ve announced today an increase for annual Premium subscribers (only) by 8%, going from $124.99/year to $134.99/year. This change will only take effect once your subscription renews, as well … Read More Here
Rouvy Announces FulGaz Platform Will Remain
If there’s anything I like around these parts, it’s short easy-to-write posts with good news. And this one pretty cleanly falls into that category. Though, admittedly, it doesn’t have all the answers. I’ll give a quick background up front, and … Read More Here
FIT File: All The Indoor Training Updates!
For those not subscribed to the FIT File (it’s free!) via your regular podcast app or on YouTube, here’s a quick post with the highlights from the most recent episode. In this episode, we chat all things indoor training … Read More Here
Decathlon Van Rysel D100 €249 Smart Trainer In-Depth Review
The Decathlon D100 smart trainer is easily the best budget smart trainer on the market today. With a normal price of 249EUR, and occasional sale price down to 199EUR, it’s impossible to beat no matter how or what you … Read More Here
Garmin Backtracks: Expands ECG Functionality to EU Fenix 7 Pro & Epix Pro Users
Last month, Garmin announced access to its ECG feature within the European Union (and Australia) for Fenix 8, Venu 3, and Venu 2 Plus users. However, Fenix 7 Pro & Epix Pro users were left in the literal January cold. … Read More Here
Beats PowerBeats 2 Pro Fitness & Heart Rate Review: Does it Actually Work?
The new PowerBeats 2 Pro earbuds have a slate of new features for audio-related purposes. However, for sports-specific usage, they have one big new feature: Built-in heart rate sensing. This would not only be the first time Apple has … Read More Here
Polar’s New Journal Publication is Surprisingly Good/Geeky/Scientific
This past September, it appears Polar started the “Polar Journal”, a monthly publication about all things sports/fitness/etc. Given it launched in September, it easily got drowned in the gazillions of other sports tech news stories that occupy that historically slammed … Read More Here
Rouvy Adds Zwift Cog/Click/Ride Virtual Shifting: Battle Royale Begins?
Rouvy has just done what everyone has been asking for: Added virtual shifting to Rouvy, using Zwift hardware*. This allows you to use virtual shifting in Rouvy, just the same as Zwift, using the Zwift Click or Zwift Ride … Read More Here
Garmin Instinct 3: Complete Beginners Guide (AMOLED & SOLAR)
Here’s your complete Garmin Instinct 3 (SOLAR & AMOLED) Beginners Guide, which covers everything you need to know about how to use the watch day to day. This is a bit different than my review videos (or the Garmin … Read More Here
TrainerRoad & Zwift Integration Finally Arrives: Full Details
The much-awaited Zwift+TrainerRoad integration has finally arrived, allowing you to execute TrainerRoad structured workouts directly within Zwift. And while this isn’t the first Zwift integration we’ve seen over the last 9 months, it’s the first one to include a new … Read More Here
Elite Avanti Smart Trainer In-Depth Review
The Elite Avanti was introduced last summer as Elite’s new mid-range option for direct drive trainers. Unlike some of their competitors, Elite went all-in on specs on this one. They didn’t hold back: Adding WiFi, Zwift high-speed Race Mode, … Read More Here
Race Ranger Sensor Tech Coming to Age Group Racing
It’s been a hot minute since we last checked in on Race Ranger, and last week they made an announcement that I think is pretty notable. For those not familiar, Race Ranger is essentially a sensor system that’s used in … Read More Here
Garmin Instinct 3 (AMOLED & SOLAR) In-Depth Review
The Garmin Instinct series has enjoyed enormous popularity since its launch over 6 years ago. The rugged-looking watches have always aimed to deliver some of the longest battery life in the wearable-GPS world, while still maintaining much of the … Read More Here
The Big Garmin Watch Crash Issue (Jan 2025): Explainer & Fixes
Here I was, just minding my own business trying to take photos for my Instinct 3 review, when some, but not all, of the watches kept crashing and rebooting every time I opened up the sports menu. Little did … Read More Here
Week in Review – January 26th, 2025
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 … Read More Here
Ironman Sells FulGaz to Rouvy, and Plenty More
In a move that will probably surprise nobody within the industry, Ironman has decided that owning an indoor cycling platform wasn’t really their jam. As a result, Ironman has sold off FulGaz to Rouvy. Meanwhile, Ironman has concurrently announced a … Read More Here
Week in Review – January 19th, 2025
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 … Read More Here
Garmin ECG Now Available in EU (But not Fenix 7 Pro & Epix Pro)
After a very long process, Garmin’s ECG feature is now available in the EU and Australia, along with previously available countries, including the US and a slate of countries in Asia. At least for the Fenix 8, Enduro 3, and … Read More Here
Garmin Instinct 3 vs Garmin Fenix 8: Every Difference Detailed!
The Instinct series and Fenix series are Garmin’s two main ‘outdoors’ and adventure-focused watch series. And while these two models have continued to converge, there are a ton of differences. Somewhere in the 100+ differences range if you were … Read More Here