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.
Tag Archives: CES
Roundup from CES Day 1: Unveiled Event
In the lead up to CES officially starting there are a number of press events for companies to showcase their newest products to media before the showroom floor actually opens. Last night I had the chance to attend one of … Read More Here
Hands-on: Garmin’s New Fenix 5 Multisport GPS Series–with mapping!
!!!Heads up – Check out the newest Fenix 6! My full Fenix 6 In-Depth Review is now available! Click on to read it all!!! Right on cue, Garmin has released their next edition of the Fenix series – the Fenix … Read More Here
Welcome to CES 2017!
And so it begins again! According to my badge, it’s at least my 5th year at CES. Perhaps it’s been more, I’m honestly not sure. I’ll trust what they say though. CES – The Consumer Electronics Show – Is the … Read More Here
18 Sports Tech Things at CES That I Didn’t Write About
My week at CES is structured around an extensive amount of walking, talking, and photographing. Which might lead you to believe there’s also an extensive amount of writing, but that tends not to be the case. Instead, I pick and … Read More Here
Peloton’s Interesting Indoor Cycling Bike Platform
By some stroke of complete and total coincidence, a friend of mine called me last Wednesday morning and asked about the Peloton bike system. You may remember the company from about 2.5 years ago when they first launched into the … Read More Here
Initial impressions of a production Bragi Dash unit
This week at CES, folks got their first look at the now final production units of the long-awaited Bragi Dash. The company began shipping development kits a bit ago, but only just now is working to get the first few … Read More Here
Garmin’s New Tactix Bravo: An Explainer
While earlier in the week I gave you a look at the new Garmin Fenix3 HR, the extent of my Tactix-Bravo photography was rather limited (I only included one photo). However, the reasoning will explain why this post will be … Read More Here
A Quick Look at the Withings Go Activity Tracker
As expected the early part of CES week saw a lot of new product announcements. There are lots of new players on the field with some innovative new products (and some obvious knock-offs and re-makes of existing technologies); but also … Read More Here
First Run with Lumo Smart Running Shorts
As the week goes on here at CES, I continue to add to my collection of first-time experiences that I’ve had recently. The most unique of the week thus far would go to Lumo Body Technologies, who makes running shorts … Read More Here
Thoughts on the Skulpt Chisel
I ran across the folks from Skulpt at CES this morning. You may recall Skulpt from a previous brief mention here a couple of years ago. That first generation device was a success and now they are out promoting their … Read More Here
Wahoo Fitness Announces GymConnect: Treadmill integration & control
One tiny step at a time Wahoo is slowly increasing their fitness related turf. This week at CES, they announced the GymConnect System, which allows you to control your treadmill and get it talking over ANT+ & Bluetooth Smart to … Read More Here
Fitbit’s Bad Day: How it ended up with multiple optical HR lawsuits, and a 20% stock drop
For the San Francisco based firm Fitbit, yesterday was likely the mother of all bad roller-coasters. They started off the morning at 7:30AM with a packed press room in the Las Vegas Mandalay Bay Convention Center with the launch of … Read More Here
Under Armour’s HealthBox: WiFi Scale, Fitness Band, HR Strap, and more!
Today Under Armour has announced a flotilla of fitness products, likely to take the cake for the most unique fitness products announced by one company at the show this week. They’ve done so by partnering with HTC and delivering a … Read More Here
First Runs Impressions: Under Armour’s Speedform Gemini 2 Connected Running Shoes
Over the last few weeks I have charged a water bottle, charged a pair of sunglasses, and most recently – ‘turned on’ a pair of running shoes. As part of today’s HealthBox announcement, Under Armour is announcing the next generation … Read More Here
Hands-on: Garmin’s new Fenix3 HR with optical HR, new Fenix3 bands, major software update
Update! My Fenix3 HR In-Depth Review has now been published (click here)! You can swing over to that post to read all the details! Today at CES Garmin has introduced three new fitness devices, first up is the new Fenix3 … Read More Here
First Ride: Garmin Varia Vision–Heads Up Display
Today Garmin introduced their first heads up display, the Varia Vision. The $399 heads up display takes data such as speed, power, and even approaching cars from the Varia Radar – and plops it up on a small screen at … Read More Here
Welcome to CES 2016!
Yup, it’s that time of year again – when tech blogs the world around explode with news about fancy new gadgets at CES (Consumer Electronics Show). All sadly mere days after you just finished unwrapping new Christmas gadgets. Such is the … Read More Here
A Sneak Peek at the Cycliq Fly12 Front Mounted Bike Camera Light
Update: My full in-depth review of the Fly12 is now posted! Swing over and check it out here. Some of you might remember last year my post on the Fly6 rear-facing bike camera and light. This unit was a combination … Read More Here
Behind the Scenes: An Impromptu Photo Shoot with Ray
Finally back home after a busy week with Ray in Las Vegas for the CES coverage, while backing up photo files, I ran across a few shots that a lot of you will find interesting. Last Monday, my first day … Read More Here
A look at Sony’s new 4K action cam, crazy concurrent multi-cam support
Last week at CES Sony announced their latest action cam, the Sony FDR-X1000V, which is capable of shooting 4K video. They also updated their HDR-AS camera line with a new 200V version (HDR-AS200V). These came as a surprise to approximately … Read More Here
A brief look at the Mio Alpha2 optical heart rate watch
Mio was on-hand at CES showing off both their recently announced devices from this past fall (Mio Fuse and Mio Velo), as well as demoing their just announced device: The Mio Alpha2. The Mio Alpha2 builds upon the features found … Read More Here
Garmin Connect IQ: An in-depth introduction to the platform you can now use today
This past week Garmin not only launched a slew of new devices, but perhaps more importantly – launched availability of the first portions for Connect IQ. Garmin Connect IQ is the application development platform for newer Garmin wearables that enables … Read More Here
Polar announces M400 footpod support, also smartphone notifications for V800/M400/A300
Today at CES Polar has made two fairly solid and notable announcements. Both of these updates continue to increase the competitiveness of the products included, but especially the M400 – which was already my top pick for a sub-$300 running … Read More Here
A sneak peek at two new PowerTap products
Like almost every other company in the sports technology world, everyone is here at CES. And that’s true even when you don’t actually have a booth, such as the case with CycleOps/PowerTap. Despite the lack of floor space I had … Read More Here
The Guess ‘How Many Steps I Walked at CES 2015’ Giveaway!
When it comes to walking, I have no week at any point during the year where I tally up a greater number of steps than that of CES. And this year was definitely no different. It’s been a crazy packed week (with … Read More Here
A fitting Misfit update
While standing around chatting when we briefly crossed paths on the running leg of the first ever Las Vegas 140.6 yesterday, Ray and I noticed the Misfit booth conveniently situated adjacent to the Polar booth. We flipped a virtual coin, … Read More Here
An update on the Dash, the wireless heart-rate monitoring music headphones
Perhaps one of the most highly anticipated products out there is The Dash, by Bragi. This tiny little set of pods sits in your ear and measures a cornucopia of athletic metrics from pace and distance, to heart rate and … Read More Here
A Very Strange CES Vegas 140.6
This year, as a promotion for their V800 multisport watch, Polar announced a rather unique twist on the iron-distance race format. Pro triathlete Tim Don stepped up to give the Las Vegas strip a glimpse of what a 140.6 triathlon … Read More Here
An update on the 4iiii Precision Power Meter
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
Seeing a crowd-funded project grow up: Sensoria
Amongst the multitude of vendor booths displaying at CES 2015, I noticed a rather large booth – mainly because they seemed to be swamped by crowds every time I wandered by. Dipping in for a closer look what really caught … Read More Here
First look at SmartMat, the connected yoga mat
The big catchphrase at CES this year is Internet of Things, and we’re now seeing that marketing prophecy manifest itself in all manner of wearable and non-wearable items. One in particular that caught my eye was this sensor-laden interactive yoga … Read More Here
A look at AmpStrip–the really cool heart rate sticker & activity tracker
Yesterday I got the chance to catch-up with FitLinxx, which is making the AmpStrip sticker that does 24×7 heart rate monitoring, step tracking, sleep tracking and even body temperature. But wait, I realize you’re probably still back on the ‘sticker’ … Read More Here
Hands-on with the new Garmin Vivoactive GPS smartwatch, and the Garmin Vivofit2
Garmin has announced a metric crapton of products today, but it’s the Vivoactive that I’m probably most excited about. Or, at least, it’s the device I feel has the most potential and the widest possible appeal. But, perhaps I’m getting … Read More Here
Hands-on with Garmin’s new Fenix3 multisport GPS watch with color screen
(Note: My Fenix3 In-Depth Review is now published and available here, go forth and enjoy all the details there instead!) Today, Garmin announced the latest iteration of their Fenix lineup with the Fenix3 multisport GPS watch. Described at its simplest … Read More Here
Hands-on with the Garmin Epix GPS mapping & multisport watch
Today Garmin introduced a full color mapping GPS wrist watch that doubles as a multisport watch – making for the first time they’ve merged the multisport world with their historically separate handheld mapping units. This new unit – the Garmin … Read More Here
