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 Fitness announces KICKR trainer pricing/availability
Back at Eurobike I went pretty detailed and deep on the new Wahoo Fitness KICKR trainer, which is the first Blueooth Smart and ANT+ combination resistance controllable trainer out on the market. The trainer was designed to allow application developers … Read More Here
First look at new Wahoo Fitness RFLKT Bluetooth Smart bike computer
Today Wahoo Fitness showed off their newest product here at Interbike; the Wahoo Fitness RFLKT bike computer. The RFLKT (pronounced ‘Reflect’) is the Bluetooth Smart driven bike computer that connects directly to your phone and displays the content of the … Read More Here
And thus begins Interbike 2012…
I’ve successfully arrived in Las Vegas, ready to tackle another year at the massive bike show – Interbike. I’ve got a full plate over the next two days and I’m looking forward to talking with a number of companies, especially … Read More Here
The Belgium Runaround
Last Thursday I did one of my typical single-day turnaround trips for work. In the states, these were often done with airplanes. For example, DC over to Chicago, up to NYC or Boston, down to Charlotte, Raleigh, Florida, and any … Read More Here
StageONE $699 ANT+ & Bluetooth Smart crank-based power meter announced
This morning, Stages Cycling announced a new crank-based power meter, StageONE, which will be available for $699US. The power meter includes both ANT+ and Bluetooth Low Energy (BTLE/BLE/Bluetooth Smart), allowing you to connect to any of the ANT+ power meter … Read More Here
Week in Review–September 16th, 2012
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
Paris Blog: Going to the farm and picking fresh produce!
One of the things we both really enjoy doing is going to u-pick farms and picking our own fruits and vegetables. In the past, we’ve primarily picked apples, blueberries, and strawberries. Given it’s fall (crazy, huh?), we figured it was … Read More Here
Coolness: Me and Simon Whitfield presenting at ANT+ Symposium
Well, not together at the same time. Because that’d be awkward – mainly for me. And probably a little for him. He would talk about Olympic Gold and Silver medals and Olympic opening ceremonies…and I would talk about plastic trophies … Read More Here
The Girl’s 2012 swim/bike/run gear I use list
Last week I outlined every piece of gear that I regularly use in my day to day training or racing. Not the stuff that I review for products, but rather, the goods that I always turn back to once the … Read More Here
The Swim It In-Depth Review
With the steady rise of deaths in the swim leg of triathlon, I’d been asked by a number of people about my thoughts around the Swim It. I even wrote a rather long op-ed post on it a while back. … Read More Here
Norway in a Nutshell
I’m typically not a terribly big fan of organized tours. I like to get out, explore, and wander around a bit on my own timetable. Just the way I am. But in Norway without either a car or many days, … Read More Here
Week in Review–September 9th, 2012
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
Size matters: Time for a bigger piece of wood
As I started putting together the initial Polar RC3 and Garmin FR10 reviews a few weeks ago, it became clear that in order to accommodate all of the watches I wanted to picture together in my typical size comparison photos … Read More Here
A Norwegian Runaround
There are few things I enjoy more than running in new places. It’s an easy way to check out ones surroundings and get a bit of exercise in – especially after travelling. After making the relatively quick 800+ mile trek … Read More Here
The 2012 swim/bike/run gear I use list
A few weeks ago a reader reminded me that I hadn’t updated my previous gear list in years. And while many of the core foundational items haven’t changed a ton – I figured I’d give the most comprehensive and updated … Read More Here
Our wanderings through the French countryside
Well, technically, the German, Swiss and French countryside. But since we were in Germany for all of about a mile – it was mostly just the Swiss and French countryside. After leaving Eurobike on Friday, we meandered up to Zurich … Read More Here
The fun side of Eurobike: Day 2 in photos
Let’s get away from the sports tech and just talk about some of the more entertaining/interesting/strange things we saw at Eurobike. You can rewind to Part 1 for our first day. For example, while bicycling with your dog on your … Read More Here
Eurobike Sports Technology Things That Didn’t Fit: Part II
This is a continuation of the cool little sports technology tidbits series I started this morning. Here’s Part I if you want to catch up. And with that, onto Part II! Enjoy! — O-Synce GPS Bike Computers (and surprisingly cool … Read More Here
Eurobike Sports Technology Things That Didn’t Fit: Part I
There’s a gazillion things to see at Eurobike, and many of them simply don’t make the cut for a bigger full-sized post. Sometimes it’s because they are too early in the development cycle and lack full details, sometimes because I … Read More Here
Updates from Tacx about upcoming new features, iPad trainer control app
I spent a good bit of time at Eurobike talking with the Tacx folks about their upcoming TTS 4.2 software update, as well as what’s in the pipeline for the one after that – version 4.3. I’ll be spending more … Read More Here
First look at the Kinetic by Kurt $200 Bluetooth Smart inRIDE power meter trainer accessory
NOTE: My full inRide In-Depth Review has been recently posted (click here), with far more detail and analysis than the below post. Enjoy! This is definitely the week of power meters, and there’s no shortage of new products – for … Read More Here
Hands on with a $200 Bluetooth Smart power meter and precision distance/speed sensor
A few weeks ago I got in touch with the folks behind Velocomputer, who have been working on a Bluetooth Low Energy Speed/Cadence/Power Meter. The unit is no bigger than your current standard speed/cadence sensor that you mount today to … Read More Here
An early hands-on look at the Mio’s new ANT+ cycling computers
One of the areas I was looking forward to checking out with coming to Eurobike this year was companies which aren’t offering products in the US market – but rather focus on the European market exclusively. Of course, within the … Read More Here
The update without an update: Garmin Vector Power Meter
[Please Note: Garmin Vector has been released, you can see my first look at it here. In the interest of keeping things clean, I’ve disabled new comments here, and all comments should head over to that post. Thanks!] Over the past … Read More Here
The fun side of Eurobike: Day 1 in photos
Ok, I’ve written enough power meter posts for one evening. But don’t fear, I’ve still got more to write, rather I’m just deferring them until the ferry boat ride tomorrow morning. In the meantime, let’s take a look at some … Read More Here
Power2Max announces updates to power meter, upgrades for existing owners starting at $10
Power2Max has announced a software and hardware update to their existing Power2Max ANT+ crank based power meters. The update adds emulated/calculated left/right power balance, as well as a temperature sensor to aide providing accurate power measurement and correcting drift issues … Read More Here
First look at Pioneer ANT+ left/right power meter and head unit
Note: Updated 8/31/2012 at 5:15PM Easter Time This year at Eurobike, Pioneer has finalized and announced details of their upcoming power meter solution, which is due to be out ‘roughly’ in January 2013. The unit has made the rounds on … Read More Here
First look at new ROTOR Power Meter
This week ROTOR announced their first entrant into the power meter world with their new ‘ROTOR Power’ product. The ANT+ compatible head unit measures and reports individual left/right power output – making it one of numerous new power meter products … Read More Here
First look at Wahoo Fitness KICKR ANT+/Bluetooth Smart Trainer with power meter
The KICK may very well be the most interesting trainer ever made. Here’s a first hands-on look at the unit, and the features it’s going to offer both consumers and developers alike. Read More Here
On the move to Eurobike, what do you want to see?
Later this afternoon we’ll pack up shop, grab a rental car and make the 7-hour trek to Eurobike. Well, actually, we’ll make a 7-hour trek to a town in Switzerland across the lake from Eurobike. Thursday morning I’ll tackle the … Read More Here
Garmin Forerunner 10 (FR10) GPS watch In-Depth Review
The Garmin FR10 is the companies first almost-sub-$100 GPS watch. At a slight premium over the sub-$100 crowd, does it contain enough differences? Read More Here
Observations from our first indoor pool swim workout in Paris
Last Friday night The Girl and I walked a few short minutes away to ‘our’ new pool. By ‘our’, I mean the closest one to us, and the one we’ll likely end up getting an annual pass at. Given it’s … Read More Here
Running past topless demonstrators–and other antics from my weekend
This weekend was a bit of a hodgepodge of things, everything from touristy sight-seeing, to running in new places, to writing lots (and I mean LOTS) of product review content for stuff coming up – much of which is tied … Read More Here
Week in Review–August 26th, 2012
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
Photo of the day: Racing (triathlon?) bikes on water
Last weekend while bumbling around at the northern of the two Paris beach areas, I caught sight of three people racing across the canal’s watery mass…on bikes. At first glance, it would be an aquatic race – but then upon … Read More Here
