Heads up! Here’s your massive list of sports tech deals! This includes the Garmin Forerunner 965 for just $499, Garmin Epix for $449, the Apple Watch Ultra 2 Black Titanium for $735, the GoPro Hero 12 Black for $299, and plenty more! Go check out the full list here!
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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:
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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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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.
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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 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.
Funny the Shine is “Coca Cola” red. As John Sculley, the man behind the Shine used to be the PepsiCo CEO before he famously became Apple CEO.
I thought you were going to go with the completely shocking branding failure of calling a fitness tracker ‘coca cola’ anything. The Shine guys seem to have their marketing pretty buttoned up and this was literally jaw dropping for me. wow! (Gunnar I do like your ironic twist too). Is the association supposed to suggest that Coke is in any way ‘healthy’?
Well, they do own Vitamin Water, Danon, Dasani, Evian, Honest Tea’s, Powerade and many other diet or sugar free beverages. So, I’d have to say Coke it pretty “healthy.” Nothing wrong with enjoying a good beverage in moderation.
How much of a pain is it to upload from the TomTom to Garmin Connect? Do you have to treat it as a bulk storage device, pull the FIT file, and then upload? Or is there some nifty program that automates the process?
Thanks!
The TomTom desktop connection software can be setup to export a fit file when you upload to their very basic site. To the best of my knowledge there is no shortcut available.
Yup, correct.
You *might* be able to jury-rig something with SyncMetrics though via MapMyFitness (since that’s the backend for TomTom). See this here: link to dcrainmaker.com
Nuts. Still might do it. It’s a heck of a lot of value for the money.
Stages app. I can connect but the update firmware button is greyed out
What’s it showing as the current firmware?
Here’s the firmware update/history release notes: link to support.stagescycling.com
Once I took the bike and phone in rang of wifi it worked. All updated and food.
*good
Any news from brim brothers on their powermeter?
I noticed on Facebook that Brim Bros alluded to an announcement to their pre-order customers (I am not one). I was expecting to see something on DCR about it. Any news on your end Ray?
I don’t have too much more to share there at the moment beyond what they send to their pre-order customers/mailing list (which is that they’re selecting a bunch of beta testers). Hopefully soon I’ll have more to share, definitely looking forward to them reaching market delivery. Cheers!
Been giving some serious thought to buying a Misfit Shine Ray, so I’m very excited to hear you’ll be reviewing it. Will hold off on making a purchase until you’ve weighed in.
I’m quite curious to see the pricing xpedo will put on their Thrust E power meter pedal.
Most likely will be way below the Garmin Vector..
Might be really interesting if they manage to put it in a price range that is acceptable for a regular cyclist (how obviously is a bit geeky concerning data :P )
Indeed. Though, at the same time I feel like the xpedo is sorta on the ‘someday it will actually launch for real’ band wagon. Which, is perfectly fine since many other big names are or were at one point in the same boat (for example, SRM’s new head unit).
Indeed, altough I think their plan was to have it available at Eurobike.
Only time will tell….
Do you think tomtom will drop the price of the old runner in Europe? Still £149 today which is like $255 at current exchange rates :(
Eek, I’m not sure there to be honest. I can never understand the international pricing strategies of some companies. I get that things cost more to support/produce/ship/etc in Europe (trust me, as a business owner here, I painfully understand it), but I’d agree that $255 is a bit high…
I talked to RotorUSA over the phone about a week ago (about Q-Rings and their Power Meter) and was hinted to by the rep that thier current offerings were overpriced, and at the Garmin Vecor could be a good fit… But she also said Rotor planned to have something coming soon in a lower price range (down from about $2,400 she was upto for the Rotor 3D+). I asked if this would be in the Euro/Innerbike timeline and it was suggested as yes. That was all I could get out of the rep (based in Colorado Springs, CO). Would be nice if you could keep an eye out while you are at the shows to see if this was true.
Looking forward to your review of the Misfit Shine, Ray. My wife lost her Vivofit (which she loved) but was hoping for a tracker that could capture basic swimming data, too.
I have both misfit and tomtom runner, my major concerns regarding the misfit are
1) accuracy: I have the feeling that steps counting are inaccurate (it tends to count more than actual steps/calories even if I am aware of the fact their app during the day adds 1000 calories as “body consumption”. Looking forward for DC review to see how misfit data compare with other trackers on same activity
2) integration with myfitnesspal: it’s too bad that misfit has a closed system and data cannot be exported. I was looking to have all my data inside MFP with wireless transmission as for the TOMTOM. I really miss this feature that would allow me to track more accurately my total calories expenditure vs food logs.I tried to ask several time on Misft social channels and the answer is always a generic opening toward other platforms in October. Considering their constant flirting with Apple the timing suggests me am inclusion in iHealth (but still not on MFP). My regret is that I can’t still find on the market a tracking solution with 3 requisites: wireless upload of activity on MFP, discrete/fashionable wrist bracelet wearability without displays (I like wearing all the time my watch – I mean my real watch) and long lasting battery (garmin Vivo could be nice if it was a more discrete/fashionable unit as for the Misfit.
At the opposite I am very satisfied with the TOMTOM. I do only running and I hated the cardio belt, getting rid of it it’s just amazing. So for me this factor justify other glitches like incomplete data on the TOMTOM app (wich I don’t use btw as I check data on map my run)
Looks like Misfit is teaming up with Beddit for sleep tracking: link to beddit.com
I am very curious about the Misfit Shine review. Would it be possible for you to give a hint about when it will be published? :-)
I’m working on it this week on some of my flights. May see what I can do by next week. Have a few competing timeline-specific reviews to knock out first though.
Thanks for hint and also big thank you for interesting reading and very good reviews!
Did I miss this Misfit Shine review, or did it never appear? I like the look of the Shine, but I’m even more interested in the newly announced Flash since it’s half the price!! With all the same features, I was hoping to see what it was really like to use, and what better way than a DC Rainmaker in depth review!
+1 to the comment on what happened to the misfit shine review. I was thinking of getting one for my parents for Christmas. It seems potentially ‘parent proof’. If there is a possibility of a review Ray then i’d be a very happy person!
+2 to the comment on what happened to the misfit shine review.
Any updates on the “Misfit Shine Activity Tracker”? I like the sound of it, but would hang on for a review by you… or any little updates.
The problem I have with the Misfit is that while it tracks steps well, I haven’t seen that be the case on specific workouts – it’s a bit more nebulous than the Apple commercials would have you believe. Adding to the lack of display, it seems sorta so-so to me at this point compared to all the other options on the market that have a display and can track so much more, more accurately.