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:
With TPC (The Pro's Closet), you'll save $40 on purchases over $200 with coupon code DCRAIN40 for tech and non-tech purchases!
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 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!
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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 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.
Sports Technology News and Reviews
DJI Air 3 Complete Beginners Guide
Just a quick heads up for those looking to pick up the DJI Air 3 (or, recently got it), I finally completed my DJI Air 3 Beginners Guide. This one is even more detailed than my previous DJI Mini 3 … Read More Here
Garmin Venu 3 In-Depth Review: More Sleep Analytics, Power Meters, and More!
Garmin has just launched the new Venu 3 series, which goes back to having two separate sizes, while adding in a slate of features – some of which are the first time we’ve seen them on a Garmin wearable. … Read More Here
Strava Adds More Photo-Based Tools to Route Planning
Strava has added a new feature for Subscribers that lets you see photos while route planning on desktop now, and more specifically, lets you see the exact location of said photos. This is a major upgrade over the Strava route-photo … Read More Here
Apple Adds Cycling Power Meter Recording to Fitness+ Workouts
Apple has quietly added power meter and cadence data to your completed workout data in Apple’s Fitness+ cycling workouts, which is their coached platform where trainers iterate through structured workouts. This addition is supported in the latest public betas of … Read More Here
Tech Tidbits: LIMITS Power Meter Company Liquidates, COROS Firmware Update, Skydio Leaves Consumer Drones
Here’s a few tech tidbits from today, the last few days, and the last week or so (in the case of Skydio) that are worthy of note. We’re back at the point where companies are warming up for what I … Read More Here
MyWhoosh Selected for UCI Cycling Esports World Championship for 2024-2026: A Few Thoughts
The UCI & MyWhoosh announced yesterday that the MyWhoosh virtual cycling platform has been selected for the UCI Cycling Esports World Championships in 2024/2025/2026. Up till now Zwift has been the platform utilized for the online cycling World Championship event, … Read More Here
Samsung Galaxy Watch6 and Watch6 Classic In-Depth Review: Is it Finally Accurate?
Like clockwork each summer, Samsung has released their latest wearables, this time the Galaxy Watch6 and Watch6 Classic. This release offers two different form factors, including notably bringing back the physical rotating bezel on the Watch6 Classic edition. Samsung has … Read More Here
4iiii Adds Apple Find My Feature to Power Meters: Hands-On
4iiii has become the first power meter company to add Apple’s Find My support to their devices. This capability is called ‘Find My’, but is essentially the 3rd party program Apple has that allows companies to make a variant of … Read More Here
DJI Air 3 Active Track: Ultimate Test & Tips Video
For those into seeing how autonomous sports tracking in drones continues to progress, I’ve just hit publish on my latest video covering the DJI Air 3. I dig into a ton of different scenarios from over the past month into … Read More Here
Women’s Tour de France: Time Trial Behind The Scenes & Smart Trainers
The last stage of the 2023 Women’s Tour de France wrapped up with plenty of sports tech and other tidbits to check out. In the above video I walk through all the team bus/technical areas to see what’s floating around, … Read More Here
Women’s Tour de France: Bike Computers and Power Meters
As was the case with last year’s Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift (the women’s Tour de France), I swung down to check out all the sports tech. This first post will cover all the bike computers and power meters, … Read More Here
COROS Heart Rate Monitor (Optical Band) In-Depth Review
The COROS Heart Rate Monitor is a very simple product, which should make for a very simple review. After all, it doesn’t even have an on button. Instead, it has exactly one purpose in life: Transmitting your current heart rate … Read More Here
DJI Air 3 In-Depth Review (with Sports Tracking!)
DJI has announced and released the DJI Air 3, the successor to the Air 2S, and the ‘middle-child’ of the core DJI 3-series lineup. This drone is meant to slot in below the Mavic 3 Pro price/feature-wise while being higher-end … Read More Here
Tour de France 2023: Which Smart Trainers Do They Use?
In this video I dive into all the behind-the-scenes bits on time-trial day, including which smart trainers they use. However, realistically, it’s actually quite a bit more than that in this video. I look at an interesting new trend in … Read More Here
Garmin Fenix 7 & Epix Get 50 New Features in Beta Update
Garmin is seemingly on a roll the past 7-10 days, with having released the much-anticipated firmware bringing all the new Fenix 7 Pro & Epix Pro features to the non-Pro editions, via a new public beta firmware update. This follows … Read More Here
Apple Watch Power Meter Support: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know
Last month at Apple’s annual developer conference the company outlined the future of Apple Watch, at least in terms of software, for the next year. One item that seemed to surprise many was the announcement that Apple would be adding … Read More Here
Week in Review–July 16th, 2023
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 Adds Training Readiness & Morning Report to Instinct 2 in New Beta!
See, Garmin does listen when enough people get upset about something. Back a few months ago Garmin released the Instinct 2X, which is essentially a bigger Instinct 2 device with a flashlight and multiband GNSS. But on the software side, … Read More Here
Garmin Forerunner 255/265/955/965 Get Slate of New Features in Beta
Last night Garmin dropped a new beta firmware for the Forerunner 955 and 955 Solar, adding a slate of new features coming from the recently released Fenix 7 Pro & Epix Pro series. That feature set includes Hill Score, Endurance … Read More Here
Huge Amazon Prime Day 2023 Sports Tech Deals Tracker!
It’s back again – Amazon Prime Day…err…Days. That means that most (all?) Amazon country properties are doing pretty substantial deals across the board on all sorts of products for today and tomorrow (July 11th and 12th). This event is held … Read More Here
Week in Review–July 9th, 2023
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
Tour de France Tidbits: When A Sticker is Better Than Sports Tech
I spend most of my time at the Tour de France looking at riders’ handlebars. It’s sorta my thing. Back many years ago we started seeing teams add stickers on rider handlebars with details of the upcoming stage, notably the … Read More Here
Garmin Epix Pro: The Complete Beginners Guide
Just a quick heads up for those that aren’t subscribed on YouTube, that I’ve just hit publish on my incredibly detailed hour-long user guide for the Garmin Epix Pro, from beginning to end. As usual, I walk through all … Read More Here
Power Meter Pedals In The Pro Peloton?
One of the most common questions I got after my ‘Power Meters and Bike Computers of the Tour de France 2023’ post is whether or not any teams were using power meter pedals, and if not – why not? To … Read More Here
Tour de France 2023: Bike Computers and Power Meters
The Tour de France kicked off again today, this time in Bilbao, Spain, with 176 riders and 22 teams. And thus begins the annual tradition to ferret out not just the sports tech gear these teams are sponsored to use, … Read More Here
