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!
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
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 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.
Aka “i do what i want”… Drops mic, walks of stage.
This would fit in the “Summary and Final Thoughts” section. ;) Thanks Ray!
Do you know how awesome of an April Fools Day post that title could have made?
Good luck to the Girl and to my many friends running Boston as well.
Ray, I think it’s worth saying your work is great and essential for many athletes. Trying to cover every little topic in the sport technology world is impossible by one person. Actually, I think this is also your advantage (the one person thing) – the way you and only you integrate and compare different products in great depth across companies/time/technologies etc.
Maybe it’s worth considering, if at least some traffic to your site is left unanswered, to offer a new separated platform (e.g., forums/Wikipedia style review in which people can write and edit texts, etc.) for those who wish. It won’t have your quality seal nor will it be accurate as the polished reviews you write, but at least people can communicate their Q&As.
I have considered forums, though, I fear that I wouldn’t quite have the time to manage them properly. A Wiki is actually something I’ve been given a lot of thought to recently, as it might reduce time dedicated to answering common questions on review (which, on average take 2-4 hours a day).
I’ve also been pondering some method of elevating a handful of readers that have responded frequently and with significant interest on certain topics. For example, reader Frank Young has done that on some of the activity tracker posts (Vivofit, Loop). He’s answers almost every question with detailed, fair, helpful and technically accurate answers. There are others in other reviews doing similar things, but that’s just the first example off the top of my mind.
Great post Ray, I get similar questions all the time about shoes, but would have to run myself into the ground to review them all. You have to pick and choose and my criteria are very similar. I review what I think my audience is most interested in, and avoid things that might injure me or make my runs less enjoyable.
Looks like you need to build your audience in the Sahara desert :)
or stuff you have to pay for.
I buy a fair number of the shoes I review, and most that I don’t buy get donated to other runners or Soles for Souls after I write a review. Shoes aren’t like fitness electronics, you can’t really return them to the brand after they are worn.
Thanks for what you do, You do it very well!
We trust your judgement, keep them coming.
Have a great weekend!
Ray, just so you know. I have read your website a couple of time while connected from a hotel in Chad. N;Djamena. In Central Africa. I guess I must have been the only one ever… but it s not showing… !!!!
:-)
6co
Yeah, I think if there’s less than a few thousand readers from a country, it all showed the same. :-/
Reader Brian up above offered to make a map, and I’ve taken him up on his offer. I’ll definitely publish it – looking forward to it!
Ray,
Really appreciate your work. Looking forward to meeting you in June! Keep up the good work.
Lew
@lewsview
I think I’m in good company among those who really enjoy your reviews and what you do here, but the review activity does see a bit thinner lately. It could be that I skip over running gear and mostly tune into bike stuff. Maybe there isn’t much of that lately, but I can tell you that my heart always leaps a bit when I see in my feed reader that you have a post. Keep up the good reviews.
Yeah, things go in waves depending on season. Right now it’s fairly run heavy, whereas the fall is very bike-heavy. Just mostly the launch timeframes.
That said, I expect May/Early June to be very bike heavy:
Garmin Edge 1000
Polar V650
Mio 505
Sigma Rox 10
To name a few, plus some other things bike-related in the next few weeks (smaller stuff, like the heart-rate helmet I’ve been using all winter).
Hi ray,
This is an old post, but did you ever tested the Rox 10?
Any advise if this is still a good unit for the money ( 190 € with full accessory)?
Mathias
I poked at it briefly, but just didn’t find it all that competitive when you looked at the whole platform and the display quality.
For 190EUR, you’re basically teetering on the Edge 510 price, which is just so much more capable.
Can you export the reader counts by country? I can make it prettier for you. LOL
Ahh- I see you included an image of your ‘behind the scenes’ product review team.
Nah, that’s just my team that focuses on answering Samsung employees commenting as regular people in yesterday’s post.
Good one Ray!
From what I saw you may need a larger staff…
So happy you just informed me of the Bryton stuff. I use Garmin, because it’s all there is really; if you want ANT and GPS. But Garmin plays a lot of consume games, taking full advantage of its market domination.
I guess I’m sad to hear that you, having to triage your time, must do reviews that reflect popularity. Can I toss a vote out there for the occasional “charity” review of something interesting? Or, anything that might take market share from Garmin.
Garmin’s insistence on not using Bluetooth until recently, the high prices for hardware, the way-too-early releases, the abrupt abandonment of google maps (since rescinded), and intentions of competing with Strava, etc etc, etc, it’s a company that pains me to give money to. The instant they have solid competition, I’m jumping ship!
Oh, I definitely continue to look at any product (big or small) that does bleeding edge or cool/unique stuff. The Mio unit from a few weeks back is actually a lot like Bryton in that it’s not available in the US. The key difference is that the new Mio unit threw-down the gauntlet on new and innovative features that nobody else is doing (even Garmin). Ultimately I want to highlight innovation.
Holy crap, that Mio is the BOMB. that should have Garmin execs worried (I doubt it, there’s only hubris there). The instant I can get a Mio, I am, finally, I can skip a song from a BT enabled head unit? Welcome to 2008! See texts from my wife without reaching back into my jersey?
Another example of Garmin incompetence: the infamous GPS drift on the 500. The 500 is the best device they make so long as you don’t mind constant, but minor inaccuracy.
Anyway, no matter, Ray I love ya man. Thanks for everything. Sorry to have forgotten that you’re a sucker for technology and well made gadgets.
Good luck to the girl on Monday! I’ll be posted up cheering on the runners on heartbreak hill!
Hi Ray, read this post with interest. I’m interested in buying a bike computer for the begining of the season here and am hesitating between a Garmin 510 and the new Sigma Rox 10. I know a review of the sigma is coming, do you know when ? Your expert advice would make a difference. Or can you give me a quick advice in the meantime ? Thanks
My goal is May. I’ve got limited bike time over the next 2 weeks due to travel, so realistically that puts me in May for Sigma.
Great explanation and makes perfect sense! Thanks so much for review and posting!
Maybe I’m just a giant idiot, but, I know there are other products out there, but I know my Garmin products so well, I almost would never consider making a jump.
Cool to see how you figure out what you’re going to review – very very interesting and thorough process!
My concern is that most of the product reviewed are for a certain segment of runners i.e. those with a lot of disposable income. Now people can argue that the cost of a Garmin 620 is the same as an Xbox or 1/4 to 1/2 the price of a marathon and you get better value, but that still doesn’t matter to the set who can’t afford either.
I also worry about the impact of the giant companies vs smaller companies. The clever training deal has me worried as well about absolute objectivity.
Ray has reviewed the Soleus devices. These are affordable. And I have to say, some of the lower end Garmin devices are pretty well priced compared to 910 and 620.
@Mike, Ray’s reviews covers a wide cost spectrum. From the $100 Soleus watch right up to the $400 Garmin 620.
His neutrality is what a tonne of readers admire the most. When we use Clever Training (or Amazon), we are supporting what he does. It is a great formula that brings you and I objective, impartial, and thorough reviews for ‘free’.
I continue to share/recommend his reviews as they are far better than anything I could share with my colleagues/fellow runners.
@Ray – best of luck to The Girl (and all Runners) at Boston….
Ray, Thanks for all the great reviews. Your site is the place to go when I am looking for new gear. That said I would love to see the watches and bike computers broken into two seperate areas in your comparison tool, and maybe add some existing device that you might not have reviewed Ex. SRM PC7, PC8.
Yeah, I’ve been contemplating that actually. The only challenge is that sometimes people are trying to decide between something like the FR910XT, and an Edge 500. Which compete with each other very well.
Ray, as always thanks for your content. Some interesting tidbits from around the interwebs:
Looks like Nike’s out of the fitness wearable hardware market:
link to gizmodo.com
The world’s first surf GPS watch!:
link to ripcurl.com
Interesting idea, but I think the market will be somewhat limited. I personally don’t like having anything but boardies, leash and board when I’m in the water.
You have at least one grateful reader in Japan.
I would really like to see the Garmin hand held GPS units reviewed like their Rino Series and such. Is there a reason why you haven’t done those?
I’d love to, but at the moment it would just spread myself too thin. Also, I don’t get out to hike very much right now, so it’d be hard to get in the right time to appropriate test it.
Ya I hear ya, I imagine you’re pretty busy. Well consider it for the future. Hand-held gps units I think the world would greatly appreciate reviews on since they also can be quite confusing and I can’t find anyone that’s done thorough reviews on them like you would, if you did them. Every day is a good day to start hiking in the mountains :) Take care and thanks for all the posts about triathlons. I am just starting to get into them and will be doing my first in July in Squamish B.C.
Carson McQuarrie
Mountain Equipment Co-Op
Ray, thanks for the background on how you choose the products to review. I bought the 910xt based on the review, and use the 910xt page frequently for support.
So what you’re saying is that those interested in the Bryton need to hit 100’s of times to boost their popularity!?!
In all seriousness, it looks like there would be great interest in a type of ‘in the pipeline’ page to let people know what you’re working on (or thinking of working on – heck, maybe we could vote on it). It could save you in turn getting lots of a ‘when will you review X’ emails to answer. The full blown Wiki would of course be the holy grail.
Such a thing exists…it’s called The Queue: link to dcrainmaker.com
Except, without the voting part. ;)
The challenge I have (even with The Queue) is that my constraints aren’t always easy to get around, and that really limits what I can publish. For example, the next three weeks I’m on the road travelling for work. I think I’m home perhaps 1-2 days, that’s it. Thus, getting bike-focused reviews is really tough (not going to happen). But that’s hard to reflect in The Queue. And because I don’t really much control my work travel schedule, it’s really hard to predict how that will impact things (and that ignore just regular work workload).
In other cases, I’m waiting on a company for finalization of a product. For example, Polar and the V800 and V650. A review won’t go out till those are fully locked.
That said, perhaps some middle-ground of basically estimated targets for different reviews.
Hey Ray,
I am wandering if you can help me make a decision on which route to go with in terms of purchasing products. Here’s a breif background: I am getting into triathlons (will be doing my first one this July) and plan on continuing in the future cause I really enjoy training and data analyzing (not that I do it right now though). I currently have a Forerunner 301 from years ago but it’s served me well. I also really enjoy hiking, rock climbing, skiing, mountaineering etc. so I really enjoy the way-point features and backtracking feature. I’m from Vancouver B.C.
My dilemma: I am looking at either getting the Ambit 2 or Forerunner 910xt. I am unsure if I’ll regret not having the details that come from the 910xt for triathlon training in the future, and on the other side I’m not sure if it will serve me as well as the Ambit 2 in terms of navigation and route finding.
What’s your opinion on getting one of these watches or getting the Forerunner 910xt and then a second handheld gps to serve my back-country navigation features?
On another note, just an idea for your product reviews, I think something like a brief description for each of the features that you list at the end of each review when you compare products. Something like when people drag the curser over a feature a description appears because some features mention under product comparisons are confusing like the virtual racer feature.
Thanks for all you’ve done so far!
Carson :)
Any thought on reviewing Suunto’s other sport watches like the M5, M2 etc?
No, not at this time. Given they aren’t quite as competitive these days and I’m rarely asked to review them – it’s tough to fit them in.
I find that to be highly unfair! I NEED to know how the Bryton rider 60 fairs against the edge 810! Now go and do it, pro favor!
Just kidding. Thanks for the Very insightful reviews, although I’m still stuck in trying to find a GPS bike computer, the reviews that you have done do help a lot!
Obrigado