Heads up!!! Here’s your massive holiday sports tech deals list! This includes the Garmin Epix for just $419, the Apple AirTag 4-Pack for just $69, the GoPro Hero 12 Black for $249, (or the brand new Hero 13 or $299!) and plenty more! Go check out the full list of 100+ deals here!
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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.
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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
1
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.
2
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!
3
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.
4
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!
5
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.
I wondered for a bit if you’d want to know about a few typos, but I decided to let you know anyway. I really don’t want to be “that guy”, however.
2) “They’ve do that for all sorts of infractions” and “if people thing Strava stops mattering”
6) “I have no tried it.”
Thanks for all of the content you provide. I am looking forward to Sea Otter announcements.
Thanks! You can also use the ‘contact’ option up above too. It all goes to the same place!
Cheers!
I’d be worried about the longevity of the cable coming straight out of the metal component, given that it has no extra protection (like you find on headphones, chargers, etc).
BTW, I am talking about the power meter ;)
With their design, you also don’t have any control over where on the “circle” the cable comes out after you have installed it to the crank.
Worst case, the cable will come out parallel to the crank arm, pointing away from the BB, making it extremely susceptible to damage while clipping in.
Yeah, totally agree on the wire connection point. Definitely would die quickly. Especially there, because it’s a super unprotected area against mis-clips/etc…
Wondering why they didnt place the connection inside the crank thread, make the cable a ribbon and m/f connector something like a 9 volt battery. Either that or a magnet connection like Air powercords.
Trying to think what that power meter baby would like, yikes!
Half vapourware half, erm cables and zip ties??
FWIW, Marin County did a similar speed limit enforcement during the late ’80s/early ’90s, including paved paths, fire roads, trails on Mt. Tam, etc. except using radar guns instead of LIDAR. Even the 15 mph limit hasn’t changed over the intervening years.
MTB Speed Limit: Are you sure it’s not an April Fool’s joke?
“…The ramped-up enforcement, which began April 1, is taking place …”
Given they came out on April 5th/6th, I doubt it. I thought same thing at first.
In most states, bikes are legally considered motor vehicles & subject to all the rights & responsibilities “except as to those provisions of this title which by their nature can have no application.” You can’t be cited for a seatbelt violation in your antique car that didn’t come with OEM seatbelts. Therefore, I wonder how enforceable speed limits are given that bikes don’t come with OEM speedometers?
Traditional cyclecomputers are user calibrated based upon wheel/tire size & pressure. Mine is currently useless as the battery is dead. With my Garmin (another optional, & not inexpensive piece of equipment), I may not have the speed displayed at any given time, depending upon what screen I’m on.
you might initially think recycled April Fools since there’s a lot just churning from the April 1 SF Gate story link to sfgate.com but there are a few articles from March 31 like this link to kron4.com
I looked at that F3 beta release and wondered if they’d been reading your blog, I have to say. Though the release notes make it sound as though they’ve found some watches aren’t syncing the EPO correctly and are adding this to support fixing that.
Thanks Ray – I found the article on Shimano-VeloNews kerfuffle very interesting.
Shimano was not very smart in threatening to remove adds… I would have threatened to not share any more
content in advance and letting other publications that respect NDA have access.
However, the fault is on the journalist. Of course if you ask around for people to confirm what you know already through a confidential agreement you will get someone to confirm it. It is not fair game or ethical – and for anyone to defend such behaviour makes no sense…
I agree with you – I like your inside early looks that you get to publish by respecting embargoes… It is understandable that companies want to manage who announces what and where and when. They dont control what you right though… Anyways was pissed at those pompous journalists. Or maybe I missed something :)
Well, to be clear – they are different things. Velonews wasn’t under an embargo/NDA for the items related to their story. They had done research, talked with people (aka sources), and found shots of it in the wild. This is all valid journalism. The didn’t break any rules/laws. Shimano may not like it because it breaks their marketing narrative/plans, but that’s not Velonews’s problem.
If however, Velonews had agreed to an embargo date and been provided information by Shimano under NDA, then yes, that’d be poor form. There are no doubt media outlets in this space that do that, be it breaking embargoes by days, or just a few hours (because it helps their search rankings). But VeloNews isn’t historically one of those.
Take for example my Stages dual power meter shots from yesterday at Paris-Roubaix. Is it wrong that I published photos of an unreleased product? I have no current embargo with Stages. And they were out in public with a dozen bikes passing hundreds of thousands of people with said tech. In my opinion – as long as I wasn’t under an embargo/NDA from Stages on something, I’m free to post whatever I’d like.
Your example of the Stages power meter is only similar in that it’s an unreleased product, otherwise it was out in the public domain for anyone to see and photograph. Being in the public domain beats any confidentiality / non-disclosure agreement and there are no issues whatsoever publishing your photos.
The Velonews one is grey in that it’s not as simple as them not having their own NDA/Embargo with Shimano, it’s whether they knew the source of their information had an NDA. I would say it’s more than likely they did.
Now let me preface this next comment with the reality that Shimano is not going to do anything now anyway because of the PR backlash but ordinarily it is not legal to induce confidential information from someone and then use that confidential information to your gain. Now Velonews say it’s journalism but fact is they gain revenue from publishing that story so they benefited financially from that information.
I don’t particularly like the way Velonews have made this public in respect to the facebook posts, and Shimano are naive in the way they went about trying to close the story down with threats.
Thanks for the additional context on Velonews. If they did not have an embargo / nda in place and did not know then it is all fair game – and what would be investigative journalism.
Same for you and stages – great example. If you dont have an NDA or an embargo and figured it out on your own. All the power to you – and we get the right information
I think you are an example for the industry – and for any other industry where there is such a strong tie between journalism and sales. Others are video games for examples.
Thanks for all the hard work
BTW Magellan was the first maker of a consumer gps: link to mashable.com
It’s Sea Otter Week!!! See you out at the Otter – my 18th year out there! :)
Regarding the question in latest DCR podcast for syncing strength workouts to Strava:
I measure them as well, but they get synced to Garmin Connect as “Running”, since FR15 doesn’t support other workout types. Then when I edit them, I change the type to “Strength workout”.
For syncing to Strava, I use copymysports.com service (because of the delay I’m able to change the workout type in time), which sets the workout type on Strava as “Workout” and this includes the HR graph.
Same works for football games, where I play indoor and only measure HR. On GC I change those activities to “Other” and copymysports transfers them to Strava as “Workout” with shown HR data.
I take all Strava KOMs with a grain of salt. I track my own performance to see how I am improving (most of the time) but many of the KOM times for some of the local segments are just ridiculous.