Sports Technology News and Reviews

A 2019 Sports Wearables Recap with DesFit (Video)

Okey doke, happy Sunday! Here’s a quickie of a post for you. Albeit, not a quick video. But that’s alright, quality over quantity. Or something like that. As you may remember, DesFit was over here for the DCR Open House … Read More Here

Zwift Begins First Day of New Crit City Race Course: My first go of it

To my surprise, that was more fun than I expected. Also, it hurt my lungs more than I had planned for this Saturday afternoon. But more importantly – I could actually see doing it again. Which is not something I … Read More Here

Fisher-Price Smart Cycle Trainer In-Depth Review

We have arrived: The pièce de résistance of my five consecutive days of indoor smart trainer reviews. We started the week at $3,500 with the Wahoo KICKR Smart Bike, and yet we’re going to finish the week with an $89 … Read More Here

Kinetic R1 Smart Trainer In-Depth Review

It’s been 16 months since the Kinetic R1 was first announced at Interbike 2018. That was back when Interbike still existed. Since then, Interbike has dissolved, Kinetic started shipping the R1, then stopped for half a year, then resumed again … Read More Here

Fascinating Stats from Strava’s 2019 Year End Report

Ahh yes, December – time for eggnog, pepernoten, and Strava’s year end report. But yes, of course, I’ll once again point out that the report technically only covers data from Oct 1st, 2018 to Sept 30th, 2019. I think for … Read More Here

4iiii Fliiiight Smart Trainer In-Depth Review

The Fliiiight is a different kind of trainer on so many levels. First off – it doesn’t use any sort of traditional trainer resistance technology to provide resistance. Instead, it recreates gradients and wattage levels by moving magnets, which depending … Read More Here

Elite Suito/Suito-T Smart Trainer In-Depth Review

It’s been about five months since the Elite Suito was first announced back in July. The Suito made a name for itself by essentially copying the same Elite formula as a few years ago: Offer a good medium-range product that … Read More Here

Wahoo KICKR Bike In-Depth Review

At $3,500 the Wahoo KICKR Bike is Wahoo’s most expensive product. And one of the most expensive indoor training products you can buy. It’s also the company’s first go at creating not just an indoor bike, but actually an entirely … Read More Here

Garmin Venu GPS Smartwatch In-Depth Review

It’s been a bit over three months since the Garmin Venu came out, and since even before the announcement day it’s been on my left wrist – day in and day out. It’s definitely been one heck of a long … Read More Here

Skydio 2 Autonomous Sports Drone In-Depth Review

It’s been just shy of two months since Skydio announced the Skydio 2 drone, which is virtually entirely dedicated to sports tracking (in the consumer realm anyway). I previously tested the R1 drone about two years ago, which did incredible … Read More Here

Black Friday & Cyber Monday 2019 Sports Tech Deals Round-Up!

It’s that time of year again when there are tons of sales on all sorts of sports technology items.  Everything this year is pointing to earlier sales than normal, as manufacturers and retailers alike try to lock in your dollars … Read More Here

Sports Technology Buyers Guide: Winter 2019-2020

Each year around this time I publish my complete guide of sports tech recommendations, covering a wide range of sport gadget areas.  My goal here being to give my specific recommendations – exactly the same recommendations I’d give to my … Read More Here

Tacx NEO Bike Smart: $700 off, Scratch & Dent Sale

[Story time: Simply skip the end of you want the deal] You know when you hear a story, raise an eyebrow, shrug, and then continue along your day? That’s roughly what happened back about a month ago when I heard … Read More Here

Stages Dash Gets Radar Support, Outlines Future Firmware Plans (and a 30% off sale)

(***In case you missed it, an in-depth review of the Dash L50, M50, and L10 has be posted. Follow the links to check this out.) Today Stages released firmware 2.0.0, which adds a whole bunch of performance tweaks and an … Read More Here

Apple Watch Series 5: Sports & Fitness In-Depth Review

It’s been two months since the Apple Watch Series 5 came out, and the watch has been on my right wrist every one of those days. Swim, bike, run…and plenty more. You may remember my initial thoughts on it back … Read More Here

The Best Garmin Charger: Only $9 for a Two-Pack of These Pucks

The Girl hates the standard Garmin charging cable. And I can’t really disagree with her. While I appreciate Garmin has mostly managed to standardize on the little four-pin connector for most wearable products in the last 3 years, it’s still … Read More Here

Elite Zumo Smart Trainer In-Depth Review

One. Year. Later. Some trainers arrive on the scene happy as a clam (though virtually none in 2019). Others take a few weeks to mature. Some take months. The Zumo though – it decided to take its time like an … Read More Here

Week in Review–November 17th, 2019

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 Massive Holiday 2019 Deals Listing!

As promised from yesterday’s post, a slate of new deals are live as of today, including Garmin’s holiday deals, as well as Suunto’s deals. These encompass a huge swath of wearables from both companies, but also cycling items from Garmin. … Read More Here

Huge Fall Sale: 20% off including trainers, power meters, watches and more

Like clockwork, it’s that time of year again! The now annual 20% off sale has begun. Now technically, it’s semi-annual since it happens now and in the spring.  But I don’t think anyone’s complaining about the chance to buy a … Read More Here

Zwift Confirms New Hardware Division: Posts Job Positions To Build Indoor Smart Bikes

Ahh yes, the rite of passage for any tech company is posting job positions that give away your future plans. Be it Apple posting autonomous car engineering positions or Uber trying to build flying things, eventually companies have to show … Read More Here

COROS Releases New ‘Running Track’ Mode On Watches, Adds Running Power & Efficiency Pod

Now we’re talking – some legit new features here coming from COROS. First up, they’ve launched a new track mode that increases the accuracy of running on a track, by somewhat ‘snapping’ to the track and even the specific lane … Read More Here

LVL’s ‘Hydration Sensor’ Rises from the Dead, Gets Acquired

A few people have asked this morning my thoughts on the news that BSX’s LVL was acquired by Gideon Health, and further yet gave the backers the option of either getting a refund, or getting a mystery box device at … Read More Here

Tacx NEO 2T Smart Trainer In-Depth Review

It’s been just over two months since Tacx announced their NEO 2T smart trainer, the latest in the line of high-end NEO trainers. You may remember back in my launch post, it wasn’t all sunshine and unicorns for the new … Read More Here

Garmin Starts Roll-out of PacePro to FR945 and FR245, Also Adds More Data Fields Per Page

Here’s a Thursday quick heads up for ya – Garmin has begun the roll-out of PacePro to the Forerunner 945 and FR245/FR245M series watches. You might remember PacePro was introduced on the Fenix 6 about two months ago, and essentially … Read More Here

Mid-Week Tidbits: Canyon supports trainer riding and Suunto clarifies platform future

Here’s a couple of updates that have trickled across my desk over the last two days that I figure are worth chatting a moment about. Some of them also have some catches as well, so while you might have seen … Read More Here

Bkool Exits Trainer Hardware Business, Shifts Focus to Training Platform

The fact that indoor cycling company Bkool has just announced today it’s exiting the indoor trainer business isn’t terribly surprising. What is the most surprising thing out of the last 24 hours is the number of active users Bkool has … Read More Here

Google Acquires Fitbit: What it actually means to wearables and the industry

Google has just announced the acquisition of Fitbit for a cool $2.1 billion (USD).  The move will undoubtedly drive change in the industry, though, not as much as one might think – at least initially. Don’t worry, I’ll explain in … Read More Here

Smart Bike Shootout: Wahoo KICKR Bike vs Tacx NEO Bike vs Wattbike Atom

It’s the moment you’ve probably not been waiting for – the complete DCR Smart Bike Shootout! And by ‘smart bike’, I specifically mean one that’s an indoor resistance controllable unit shipping today-ish that’s also supporting all the appropriate industry standards … Read More Here

VirtuGO Announces It’s Shutting Down: Where’d things go wrong?

One of the most viable alternatives to Zwift from a graphics standpoint just announced it’s closing up shop. VirtuGO has sent out an e-mail to all registered/paying users that the service will shut-down effective November 25th, 2019. Users will be … Read More Here

Suunto 9 Series Gets New Sleep & Fitness Metrics from FirstBeat

Suunto has pushed out an update today to the Suunto 9 series (Baro and non-Baro variants, plus all the colors of the rainbow) that adds in three fitness-focused features that originally premiered back on the Suunto 3 and Suunto 5 … Read More Here

Strava App Sensor Pairing Is Now Dead: My Last Workout Taking Out The Trash

As of today, the Strava app will no longer allow you to pair to sensors like heart rate straps or cycling cadence sensors. Instead, Strava is now actively recommending you download other apps instead of using Strava’s own app. Well, … Read More Here

Week in Review–Oct 27th, 2019

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

Weekend Tidbits: Hammerhead Adds Radar Support, Elite Releases Upgrado app, Garmin adds Edge connection to inReach

This is the segment in the week where I spent an inordinate amount of time on two other posts and two videos, and realize I still have some thoughts I wanted to go more deeply in on a few topics, … Read More Here

The Smart Trainer Recommendations Guide: Winter 2019-2020

Heads up! The 2020-2021 Smart Trainer Recommendations Guide is now up! Go check out that one, instead of this stinky old 2019-2020 guide! The trees are turning colors and the leaves are falling. Except if you live in Australia. But … Read More Here