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I’m DC RAINMAKER…
I swim, bike and run. Then, I come here and write about my adventures. It’s as simple as that. Most of the time. If you’re new around these parts, here’s the long version of my story.
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Smart Trainers Buyers Guide: Looking at a smart trainer this winter? I cover all the units to buy (and avoid) for indoor training. The good, the bad, and the ugly.
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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.
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!
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.
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!
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.
Can’t wait to get one of these. Although it’s the cheapest power meter out there it doesn’t look like £700 worth of gear!
Naive question….does this just fit on your existing chain ring? As long as you get the correct BB and BCD, you just slap it on your bike?
As long as it’s one on the compliant list, yup, no problem. They’ve got a slew of them on there already, so just a matter of checking with them.
Hi Rainmaker,
First, thank you for a great website. It’s proved helpful on many occasions.
Just wanted to add another voice of anticipation for the updated p2m review. I’ve been looking at this (especially coupled to the lightning crankset, because it’s just so pretty) but it would almost feel irresponsible to pull the trigger without waiting to see what your opinion is. Obviously interested in the drifting issue, as well as how well it works without being calibrated when switching chainrings. Especially the q-rings or osymetrics…
Thanks Jonas-
It’s on the short-term radar. Just getting a bit more outdoor data.
Thanks!
With regards to drift, I heard that some units vary more than others. However, mine doesn’t drift too much. e.g today I opened the windows and put the fan on for 10 minutes to bring the room temp down to what it would be during training (minus my body heat); warmed up for 10 mins and zero value was -781 at the start of my first 15 min interval . After that interval, zero value was -782. After two more intervals training value was at -784. I generally find that from start to finish of a ride indoors or outdoors it drifts by 3-5 units.
ETA on your power meter shootout review? I’m looking at adding one to my indoor winter training bike during winter training, and have been kinda holding off – primarily to see what you think of the Power2Max. I’ve got the (non-SRAM) Quarq, but now that Sram has all-but screwed that up, I’m comparing alternatives.
Also, you haven’t heard any more about the infinite-hold Garmin pedals, have you? These would sure seem like the best choice; I can never decide if in-crank or in-hub is the more sensible choice, and Pedals make that portable. (But I’m not going to go Look/Polar…..)
I had hoped to have it today/tomorrow, but got slightly caught behind with some higher priority stuff unfortunately. Goal is within the week. Absolutely no later than next weekend, since I need to swap it off for another unit coming in.
Any update on this? Holding off before sending mine back :-)
Ditto, getting a new bike and want to know if this is as good as my current quarq. Hopefully better.
Are you seeing issues?
I’m just waiting on some power meter data to come back to me. I’m having some power gurus* doing all the analysis on all the data I’ve gathered.
*They’re way smarter than me on the analytic side of accuracy testing, and are just as independent (not associated with anyone). They’re doing the data comparison analysis, but everything else is written by me.
My Quarq drops. There are some areas that seem to make it drop pretty reliably, some times though it just seems to want to take a nap on its own. I went and got a Joule for comparison with my Edge 800, just to make sure its not a Garmin issue. Some times one head unit drops, some times the other, and some times both. The Garmin seems to get in a state sometimes where it can be hard for it to require the cinqo. Really sucks when your trying to hit your watt target (avg watts for lap). Now my Joule stop working so I’m really unhappy :(.
Apparently I need a firmware update, but Cycleops can’t seem to get it to me. Hopefully tomorrow I’ll get that straighten out.
Thank you so much for so many insightful analysis !
I’ve been using this powermeter for 4 years now, been fully satisfied with it.
I wanted to use it with a Q-rings chainring like this one : https://www.deporvillage.fr/plateau-rotor-route-q-rings-bcd-110×5-aero-interieur-rouge?gclid=Cj0KCQjw_ODWBRCTARIsAE2_EvV5uVyhZw3u7268X18D7sJGQblnNHrCEpriUlViWUnmdypq8bCUHzIaAieQEALw_wcB
The battery piece seems to be in the way to mount it but power2max says it would be 100% compatible. Any idea on this ?
Thanks a lot,