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: Garmin
Hands-on: FORM Goggles Openwater Swim Mode Released for Apple/Garmin Watches
As previously announced back in May, FORM has released their new openwater swim mode that connects their heads up display swim goggles to certain Garmin or Apple Watches, enabling you to see details of your swim in real-time while openwater … Read More Here
How To Upload Your Garmin Workout During the Outage
For the last 18 or so hours, Garmin.com has been unavailable. And, if we know anything about endurance sports – it’s that if a workout isn’t uploaded to Strava, it definitely didn’t happen. So, I’m here to help you get … Read More Here
Garmin Acquires Firstbeat Analytics: A Quick Analysis of the Winners and Losers
It was about that time of year for Garmin’s fitness or outdoor business to acquire someone else. It seems to be roughly a yearly tradition, for example last year was Tacx. The year prior, the remains of a bankrupt solar … Read More Here
Quick Tidbit: Garmin Adds Dual ANT+/Bluetooth Smart HR Broadcasting to Fenix 6
Slipped into yesterday’s most recent Garmin Fenix 6 series public beta is a new feature that slightly revamps heart rate re-broadcasting. This is where you can broadcast the heart rate from your optical HR sensor, on the back of your … Read More Here
Garmin Edge 1030 Plus In-Depth Review
Like with most Garmin products that tack on a ‘Plus’ designator, the changes from the Edge 1030 to the Edge 1030 Plus aren’t earth-shattering. In fact, the Edge 1030 received overwhelmingly more changes last summer when it got a massive … Read More Here
Garmin Shows Off New On-Device Sleep Tracking Widgets
On the list of things that I didn’t think would be all that exciting, I’d put forth ‘Widget that shows my sleep from last night’. Turns out, I was wrong. This past weekend I had put a couple of random … Read More Here
Quick How-To: Garmin Wearable Heart Rate Broadcasting to Apps
If you’re spending a bunch more time lately indoors using fitness apps to maintain your sanity you might not realize that you can broadcast your heart rate right from your Garmin watch straight to your favorite app – thus skipping … 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
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
How to: Garmin’s Semi-Secret Triathlon Display Mode (aka ‘Extended Display mode’)
Like any true triathlete, I violate all the rules of common sense. The most important one being to never try something new on race day. But given I have a long history of violating said rule, I figured a few … Read More Here
Garmin’s Biggest Competitor Is Their Own Software Instability
To the casual observer, one might assume Garmin’s biggest competitors are Apple, Fitbit, and in certain cycling circles – Wahoo. But in reality, I’d disagree. Garmin’s biggest competitor is themselves. Or more specifically, their lack of focus on solving bugs … Read More Here
Garmin Live Event Sharing: Everything you ever wanted to know about it
Over the last month as part of Garmin’s new devices extravaganza, there was barely a mention of ‘live event sharing’ for certain devices. It was almost listed as fine print, right next to ‘if you do something stupid using our … Read More Here
Garmin Acquires Tacx: Detailed analysis and what it means to you
In what is unquestionably the biggest sports tech news of the year, Garmin announced today the acquisition of Tacx – the privately held Dutch company that makes trainers, water bottles, and tools. This news no doubt will have people turning … Read More Here
Garmin HRM-DUAL Heart Rate Strap In-Depth Review
Today Garmin announced their second dual ANT+/Bluetooth Smart transmitting sensor, the HRM-DUAL heart rate strap. Wait, what’s the first you ask? Actually it was the Garmin Vector 3, about 18 months ago. This new HRM-DUAL is about as simple as … Read More Here
Garmin Instinct GPS Watch In-Depth Review
When it comes to looks, you’re either going to love or hate the new Garmin Instinct watch. There’s not likely to be much middle ground. If you like the looks of Casio watches, you’ll probably be pretty excited about this … Read More Here
Garmin’s New $249 Edge Explore Full Mapping & Navigation Bike GPS: Everything you ever wanted to know
In the lead-up to Eurobike, today Garmin announced the new Edge Explore. Now, you’ve probably heard the Edge Explore or ‘Touring’ names battered around for half a decade or so. Usually along with a numerical identifier like ‘Edge Explore 1000’, … Read More Here
Garmin Fenix 5/5S/5X Plus In-Depth Review (with Maps, Music, Payments)
Today Garmin announced the new Fenix 5 Plus series, which takes the existing Fenix 5/5S/5X and injects full onboard color mapping, onboard music, and contactless payments. Additionally there’s new Galileo GPS support for higher accuracy, new smart notification privacy features, … Read More Here
Garmin Edge 130 In-Depth Review
Update – July 2020! Heads up that there’s now a newer Edge 130 Plus out. Check out that full in-depth review for all the details! As a techie-geek I suppose there’s some expectation that I’ll be most impressed with the … Read More Here
Hands-on: Garmin’s New Descent MK1 Diving Watch
Sometimes, I do sports that are actually not swim-bike-run. Be it skiing, or…ok, I guess that’s it. Actually, I scuba dive, which I suppose is still technically swimming. Or swimming done rather poorly. So poorly that you’re never-endingly sinking to … Read More Here
Garmin Edge 1030 In-Depth Review
** Update: The Edge 1030 has been superseded by the Edge 1030 Plus. Check out the Garmin Edge 1030 Plus In-Depth Review here for the latest info** After over three years, Garmin has updated its flagship GPS navigation computer with … Read More Here
Garmin quietly drops the price of Edge 520 to match Wahoo BOLT
The Battle Royale between Garmin and Wahoo on bike computers continues to heat up with each side sending up stronger and stronger serves…all to the benefit of us consumers. After a number of weeks of Wahoo throwing down (first with … Read More Here
Investor Call Tech Tidbits: Garmin Q2 2017
When I’m sufficiently bored, I listen to investor calls for companies in the segment. Or, I read through investor reports – such as Amer Sports (parent company of Suunto), last weekend. In actuality, these calls are often filled with interesting … Read More Here
Best Action Cam 2017: GoPro Hero5 Black vs Garmin VIRB Ultra 30
In virtually every post or video I make where I use an action cam, I’m asked which camera I’m using and why. And even more commonly since this past fall I’m asked whether to go with the GoPro Hero5 Black … Read More Here
ISPO 2017 Roundup: Kuai Fit, Coros, Garmin, Salming RunLAB, Digitsole, LG, Casio, Kettler, Bonx Grip, Wiralcam
Sunday was a whirlwind day for me. As I noted previously, the annual pilgrimage to the largest sporting show on earth occurs in early February (this year anyway). And in my case, I make it a one-day trip. I leave … 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
Garmin releases Strava Live Segments for Running, Muscle Oxygen on devices, Photo Watch Faces
Phew, all sorts of Garmin news over the last few days on numerous fronts, and this post seems the easiest way to bundle up three totally different things into one tidy little package. Let’s get on with the show! Strava … Read More Here
Garmin Forerunner 630 In-Depth Review
It’s been almost two months since Garmin announced the FR630, alongside the new Garmin FR230 & FR235. They started shipping the FR630 about 5 weeks ago, and I’ve been using it on and off since, in conjunction with the other … Read More Here
Garmin releases new Edge Explore 1000 Edition: Tells your friends when you crash into a ditch
Minor Confession: A small part of me simply wanted to title this post: “Garmin Releases Yet Another Product This Summer, Because It Can”. But alas, I hear that’s not terribly great for search engine optimization (SEO) and since I get … Read More Here
Hands on with Garmin’s new Varia bike radar and smart light system
Today Garmin has introduced their Varia lineup of what they call ‘smart cycling devices’. This marketing terminology basically translates to connected bike lights and a bike radar system. These two products connect to Garmin Edge cycling computers for additional functionality. … Read More Here
Hands-on with Garmin’s new Edge 20 & Edge 25 GPS units
Today Garmin has rolled out two new bike GPS computers, the Edge 20 and Edge 25. These products add to what has seemed to be a near monthly (or more) cadence of new products from the company within the fitness … 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
Garmin acquires Backtracker bike radar system (and company iKubu)
This morning Garmin has announced the acquisition of iKubu. Of course, nobody knows the name iKubu, but many of you likely remember them by their product name – Backtracker. I took a look at this product back in July during … Read More Here
Garmin announces ability to develop apps on wearables, with Connect IQ
Today, at the ANT+ Symposium in Kananaskis, Canada, Garmin has announced a sweeping change to how 3rd parties can interface with Garmin wearable devices a new platform called Connect IQ. This will ultimately allow 3rd party developers to write applications … Read More Here
Garmin announces Vector S: $899 power meter, also announces Cycling Dynamics
Today, at the start of the outdoor portion of Eurobike, Garmin has made two cycling specific announcements. The first is unveiling the Vector S power meter, while the second is announcing upcoming ‘Cycling Dynamics’ metrics that will be applicable to … Read More Here
Full details on Garmin’s new FR15 combined GPS watch + activity monitor
Please note that I’ve now published my full in-depth review of the FR15. You should head over to that post to get all caught up. Today Garmin has announced their newest product, the Garmin FR15. The FR15 is the latest … Read More Here
