I’m DC RAINMAKER…
I swim, bike and run. Then, I come here and write about my adventures. It’s as simple as that. Most of the time. If you’re new around these parts, here’s the long version of my story.
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You can use the above link for any Amazon country and it (should) automatically redirect to your local Amazon site.Want to compare the features of each product, down to the nitty-gritty? No problem, the product comparison data is constantly updated with new products and new features added to old products!
Wanna create comparison chart graphs just like I do for GPS, heart rate, power meters and more? No problem, here's the platform I use - you can too!
Think my written reviews are deep? You should check out my videos. I take things to a whole new level of interactive depth!
Smart Trainers Buyers Guide: Looking at a smart trainer this winter? I cover all the units to buy (and avoid) for indoor training. The good, the bad, and the ugly.
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Check out my weekly podcast - with DesFit, which is packed with both gadget and non-gadget goodness!
Get all your awesome DC Rainmaker gear here!
FAQ’s
I have built an extensive list of my most frequently asked questions. Below are the most popular.
- Do you have a privacy policy posted?
- Why haven’t you yet released a review for XYZ product you mentioned months ago?
- Will you test our product before release?
- Are you willing to review or test beta products?
- Which trainer should I buy?
- Which GPS watch should I buy?
- I’m headed to Paris – what do you recommend for training or sightseeing?
- I’m headed to Washington DC – what do you recommend for training?
- I’m from out of the country and will be visiting the US, what’s the best triathlon shop in city XYZ?
- What kind of camera do you use?
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5 Easy Steps To The Site
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.
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!
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.
My Photography Gear: The Cameras and Equipment 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! It’s a nice break from the day to day sports-tech talk, and I hope you get something out of it!
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.
Power2Max goes to $599 – Joins Quarq, Pioneer in April power meter price slashing
Power2Max Price Cuts Today Power2Max announced price drops of about 21% off of their existing units, dropping the base price to a mind-boggling $599. This is ahead of the bike industry event this weekend, Sea Otter, where we’ve seen a … Read More Here
A Doha (Qatar) Nighttime Runaround
I landed in Qatar rather late Sunday night, about 11:30PM or so, making it roughly 12:30AM by time I got to the hotel. For the super-quick geography reminder, here’s where Doha is: With work meetings taking up most of the … Read More Here
The Ashton Instruments Power Meter: An Early Look
Last fall I sat down to meet with the folks behind Ashton Instruments, an up and coming power meter company. At the time we sat down in a random hallway at the Mandalay Bay convention center on horrible looking carpet … Read More Here
Garmin announces new VIRB X and VIRB XE action cams
Today, Garmin announced two new action cameras – the next in their VIRB action cam lineup. These two cameras continue in the footsteps of the Garmin’s first generation cameras by focusing heavily on sensor data and internal metrics that can … Read More Here
5 Random Things I Did This Weekend
Here’s what I was up to this weekend. Or rather, all of about 24 hours of it while at home. Had to squish things in a bit! 1) Flew home from NYC While it may seem as a bit of … Read More Here
Behind the scenes on my Spring 2015 FOX TV NYC Gadget Segment
On Friday I had the opportunity to return to the FOX TV New York City studios to do a live segment as part of FOX NY’s morning broadcast. I’ve made a few appearances on the station previously, including one about … Read More Here
The DCR US Roadtrip: The Crazy Week That Was!
Here’s what I’ve been up to the last 5 days, with just a mere single photo per company or function. For the companies, you’ll see more detailed ‘Behind the Scenes’ type posts in the coming weeks as I dig out … Read More Here
Garmin Vivoactive In-Depth Review
Earlier this year at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Garmin announced a slew of wearable devices including the new Vivoactive. The Vivoactive was designed as a merger between Garmin’s mid-range fitness watches (i.e. the FR220) and the … Read More Here
5 Random Things I Did This Weekend
Another crazy weekend in the books, one packed with lots of photographs for upcoming reviews and various product posts in the short-term queue. Here’s what was on the agenda! 1) Indoor trainer rides…over and over again I spent considerable time … Read More Here
Week in Review–April 5th, 2015
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
The Power2Max Type S Power Meter In-Depth Review
It’s been a touch over two years since my last Power2Max product review, for their now-named Classic edition. About a year or so ago they came out with their Type-S editions, which would make for their 3rd generation unit. I’ve … Read More Here
DCR & TRS Triathlon Team Up For Podcast World Domination
And by world domination, I mean the worldly domination of the endurance sports technology segment. Which based on our detailed multi-pronged collaborative research study is 12 people (8 if you don’t count both our parents). No worries, we’re going to make … Read More Here
Garmin quietly introduces automatic sleep detection to existing activity trackers
Over the last few days Garmin has enabled automatic sleep tracking on all of their sleep capable activity tracker devices. They did so not as part of any firmware update that you have to install, but rather on their backend … Read More Here
5 Random Things I Did This Weekend
Here’s a roundup of the weekend gone by. Lots of fun city stuff the last few days. 1) Rented an entire boat on the Seine Back about a month ago two local friends of ours got married, but did so in … Read More Here
Week in Review–March 29th, 2015
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
5 Random Things I Did This Weekend
Here’s what we’ve been up to over the last few days here on the home front. 1) A bit of a long run Saturday afternoon I headed out for my long run. In this case it was about 1hr and … Read More Here
Week in Review–March 22nd, 2015
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
Epson Runsense SF-810 GPS watch with optical HR: In-Depth Review
Over the last 8-9 months, Epson has introduced a number of fitness wearables into the market. While that might seem odd for a company known primarily for printers, one need only remember that Epson is part of the Seiko Epson … Read More Here
PowerTap announces P1 Power Meter Pedals, also PowerTap C1 chainring unit
PowerTap has just broadened their power meter portfolio with the P1 Pedals & C1 Chainring. Here’s everything you ever wanted to know about them. Read More Here
5 Random Things I Did This Weekend
It’s been a busy weekend, with a lot of new devices on the plot – here’s what I was up to the last two and a half days. 1) Starting using the Garmin Vivoactive After I landed from Bahrain early … Read More Here
Heads Up: Garmin FR910XT for $249, TomTom Cardio for $219 (optical HR GPS)
Starting today, a handful of products are on a fairly big sale – the Garmin FR910XT, TomTom Runner Cardio, and a deal with the Scosche Rhythm+. As is usually the case, I tend not to create standalone posts on any … Read More Here
The 2015 Paris Half-Marathon Race Report
Ok, so I’m a bit behind on posting this race report. Which is probably appropriate given it’ll match my running of the actual race. No worries though, unlike Snapchat, the photos here don’t expire (though regrettably aren’t likely as titillating … Read More Here
A Bahrain Run & Swim Brickaround
The last 48 hours I’ve been in Bahrain, a tiny little island country in the Middle East that floats to the east of Saudi Arabia. So close in fact that when I’m on work trips to Saudi, I often just … Read More Here
A Brief Update on 4iiii Precision Power Meter: Starts shipping this week
Quick update/note – July 27th, 2015: Many of you have asked when my review of the 4iiii Precision Power Meter will be released. While I received a number of test units back this spring, I’ve run into a bug/issue that … Read More Here
5 Random Things I Did This Weekend
Here’s what I was up to this past weekend, the whole of which was actually spent home in Paris. Woot! 1) Packet Pickup for the Paris Half-Marathon On Saturday morning I headed up to the Bois de Vincennes to pickup … Read More Here