Heads up!!! Here’s your massive Cyber Monday sports tech deals list! This includes the Garmin Forerunner 965 for just $499, Garmin Epix for $429, the Apple Watch Ultra 2 for just $619, the GoPro Hero 12 Black for $299, (or Hero 13 bundle for $339!) and plenty more! Go check out the full list of 100+ deals here!
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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!
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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.
I’m sure it’s on your list, but I’d like to see more about Power2Max’s new offerings and prices.
Yup, I’ve got information for that in line with the release at Eurobike.
Eurobike: I´d like to see Rapha and Creme Cycles. Thx and have fun!
Do you think Garmin will be offering updates or new iterations to the 910xt and or Forerunner 610 this year?
Thanks and I enjoy reading your posts.
Cameron B
There definitely won’t be an update to the FR910XT this year. Next year would be the earliest for that.
As for the FR610, it’s in line for replacement this year based on historical timetables for the fall running season. Garmin is very predictable when it comes to product release cycles.
While at Eurobike, please check out the new/updated trainers from Kinetic by Kurt and the Pioneer Powermeter.
If you’ve got time at Interbike, drop by the Racermate booth. Racermate is hosting the Tour de Giro team (Art and Eric), and we’d love to swap thoughts on training/racing software.
Is the Brim Brothers Zone going to make it to market?
Another vote for an update on Brim Brothers Zone. Really want to know if they are close to market. Also curious if any garmin vector partnerships are really in the works.
Yup, they e-mailed out an update this past week. Which is interesting because I just noticed it wasn’t posted online. Odd.
I’d like to see hands on with the Recon Instruments Jet glasses.
+1 for Brim Brothers and Garmin Vector partnerships
Ray, maybe you know already, but maybe ask Garmin if they will offer in the near future the vector for other pedals, speedplay in particular.
Thanks
Polar is not on Eurobike, so I think we won’t see something new this year from them.
+1 on Garmin Vector with other pedals, such as SPD-SL, and any other pedal based power meters or cheaper power meter solutions (under $1000)
Yup, regarding Garmin Vector, they stated at the media event a few weeks ago that they do plan to add other pedal types down the road. Initially that would be a mountain bike pedal, and that there was also interest in spin bike applications. They said there was no technical challenges with other pedal types beyond that, but rather it was all business decisions.
But beyond that they didn’t specify a timeframe for doing so.
Hello Ray,
O-Synce for shure as they will show some new gadgets.
If you talk to Zipp, could you ask them why they’re refusing to re-dish wheels more than 1-2 years old for 11-speed cassettes? Please tell them they’re making a lot of people very unhappy with that decision. Thanks.
Request Mio GPS bike computers to market outside EU. At least upload local OSM’s.
Best reviews Ray.
Great photos too.
Hey Ray, do you think polar would bring up New products this fall? I think they’re somewhere behind…
Thanks for your answer, Greetings from Austria…
I think we won’t see a watch like a RC 5, but maybe a cycle computer with GPS. But that’s just rumors.
Hi Ray,
I was planning to go myself to the event but it clashes with my holiday of cycle touring 2 weeks in Scotland. I am still thinking of getting an indoor trainer. The Tacx Bushido is high on my list but can’t understand that it can not communicate with the 910XT based on power. I would like to have the power send to my watch. Do you have any suggestions (besides the Kickr)? Or can you inform at Tacx if they plan an ANT+ update on their Bushido trainer?
Thanks
Correct, it doesn’t send out the power stream as ANT+. I keep asking for this, but haven’t made any progress.
The other suggestion is the PowerBeam Pro, which does send out the ANT+ stream and they’re committed to additional ANT+ control capabilities, so that’s positive.
i also wish it would output power to the 910. surely this is a simple thing to add to a firmware release (rather than being a constraint of the hardware)?
It’s definitely a ‘simple’ thing. I’m sorta confused why it hasn’t been added.
This is all guessing:
– They may have run out of Ant channels.
– I have a feeling the Ant+ data doesn’t completely line up with their data so they can’t just send their proprietary packet and then just send the Ant+ packet. If so it would make it much harder to implement on the firmware of their devices.
– Seems like if the trainer is always hooked up to the computer then the computer should send out the power data through the Ant+ stick on the computer. (The software on the computer can much more easily have a background thread running in the background sending out the Ant+ power data) The added benefit is that the change is less likely to cause the firmware in the trainer to introduce new bugs if implemented there
Anything new from Firstbeat? (most likely eurobike) Or any other company doing HRV analysis with r-r intervals
How about EMS/NMES (Electrical muscle stimulation) technology from Globus, Compex, or Slendertone? (most likely Eurobike, the first 2 are the main companies in that market, the third just started at the lower end. The rest just have crappy devices that don’t produce the output to do the same thing)
I haven’t heard anything, but I’ll check-in.
I feel that until they move away from the ‘charge the watch vendor’ model, it’s going to remain a tough sell. Ultimately, they should be flocking to companies to ask for R-R inclusion, and then charge users for the software (as they do today).
Right now they’re dipping into both pots and I think it’s costing them more than it’s making them. Just my guess…
Their software analyzes the r-r intervals that are in a standard FIT file so no need to pay Firstbeat to be able to record the data. Why don’t more vendors allow recording that data as an option? Did you ever get the chance to ask Garmin about the Edge 510/810 getting that option? Would make it much easier for other companies to come along and do HRV analysis. Firstbeat doesn’t have to be the only company that can analyze the data same as analyzing power from a power meter doesn’t require licencing TSS from training peaks. (I’m hoping others will being introducing HRV analysis to the market)
Watch vendors would only be charged if they want to run the firstbeat analysis algorithms on the device or the backend software/website of the device.
As to EMS/NMES it seems like the true proof of them improving muscle strength isn’t there but then also hasn’t been disproved. Also it seems like many people use them just for the recovery functionality after hard workouts/runs/bike rides to become less sore. The hard part is there are very few reviews that seem to come from an unbiased source. Seems like most positive stuff I see online are from people who have a financial gain from people buying it and the negative stuff I see comes from people who haven’t used it but just think its wrong to stimulate muscles with electrodes so must not be useful. Seems like in a market where people spend lots of money to save a few grams of weight on the bike more people would be willing to experiment.
thanks. (btw clever training does sell the globus EMS unit and amazon sells the compex, although the units sold in the EU seem to have more functionality, so amazon uk shows different compex units)
hey ray i’d love to get some pictures and hear some news on tacx’s ipad app – apparently its getting released at eurobike… haven’t bought tts3 or 4 so hoping this becomes a possible solution to pair with the bushido.
and if you could find out whether it will work only with wahoo’s ant+ dongle or will work with others (such as garmins which is cheaper…)
cheers and enjoy
Hi Ray, thanks for the post on Garmin FR910xt and 610 updates. Have a great round of Expo-ing
Hey Ray.
Come to hall B5 to eleven sportswear to have great czech beer ;-)
I will be there exploring the same days….
would be great to get an idea about the next suunto products or software updates, many thx, greetings from austria
Please check out:
1. Brim Brothers (let us know how it’s changed from your first ride)
2. Ultegra 6870 – is it really as close to DuraAce Di2 as it sounds but for 1/2 the price?
I’d like to hear anything NEW that SRAM will be coming out with! (electronic shifting!!)
Can you drop by Hed for me? I am ready to purchase a set of Jets but they just released a new line of wider/tubeless C2 platform hoops, will they be releasing the Jet line in the wider platform as well? If so when? Thanks so much Ray.
Can you ask Garmin when they are going to fix basic things on Connect?
For instance, if you plan a route through Conect and download to an Edge, the elevation data is lost:
link to forums.garmin.com
Or trim bad data from rides. I didn’t drop in by parachute so should be able to trim the beginning elevation link to connect.garmin.com
Or fix swim data for incorrect stroke or combined / lost laps.
Have you review any electrostim products currenty on the market?
No, a bit out of my norms unfortunately. Sorry!