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!
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.
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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.
Y Class? When I imagine your travels in my mind’s eye, you are always in the front of the plane.
i checked as well. you’d think with all those miles they would bump him to the front every time!
Unless I am forgetting, Gulf Air isn’t apart of any Alliance or codeshare with an airline Ray likely frequents. I’d wonder where he sat on the Lufthansa flight ;)
Ray,
Hope you have a pool handy, by 10p.m. the water/air combo is perfect.
ST
Safer to sit at the back of the plane unless the tail gets ripped off on impact as per Asiana airlines crash in San Francisco and you fall out and get run over by the fire trucks. That said, if I was able to afford 1st class and sit up front on long haul flights it would be hard to resist.
Hi Ray,
So how come such a returned large interest in Fenix? I see it in most of your new posts.
Mostly just a coincidence. I knew the weather would be hot and that the FR620 doesn’t record temperature, so I figured the Fenix2 and Ambit3 would be more interesting (used both).
Outside of that, I’ve just been testing some stuff on the Fenix2 recently. I suspect by next week or so I’ll be back to the FR620.
G’day Ray seeing your up to probably buying a new suitcase soon, would it be possible for you to do an assessment on the one you buy, to include what I intend to do next year, is bring over a foldable bike and tow the Suitcase around behind the bike for 6 months…hope you can help HooRoo from Australia
This is the one that pricked me to buy and to do it myself
link to kogan.com
Or this one already built, but adds another set of wheels to the equation
link to wicycle.com
There should be a post somewhere documenting Ray’s technique and tools for packing the bike.
One random thing I did this weekend? Drank a tequila shot in my wedding dress! I got married!
There’s probably a guy somewhere that does detailed technical blogging of travel luggage. :)
If luggage had a little more technology in it, I guess Ray could do that himself.
Wow, that’s hot.
Any issues with customs / immigration? A family friend went to Saudi Arabia recently for a conference. The guy he paid to arrange his visa listed the wrong dates, but he couldn’t tell (visa was in Arabic). Upon arrival they put him in a room and left him there for 14 hours with virtually no explanation. Only when he started reading an English copy of the Koran he found in the room did they let him make some phone calls to get things sorted out. The officials gave him a copy of the Koran to take home with him. His lesson: always carry a Koran when traveling to the middle east.
No problems with visas for me. In the case of both of my Saudi Visas, they both specify the duration and the start date (though, no end date), in English.
There were certainly many people milling about in visa no-mans-land. Some of them looked like they were there due to self-inflicted mistakes (like just showing up altogether with nothing), and others looked like they were genuinely confused.
I normally handle all my own visas myself, but for the Saudi ones I use a visa person in Paris that handles it all from a pickup/delivery standpoint. I still have to do all the legwork in terms of rounding up official letters from both the Saudi and French organizations, but that’s all relatively easy when someone is asking/telling you to be there.
Ray – saw your twitter post on so many services down…and not only did Garmin forums have a problem…Garmin connect is hosed up. Send it activities…and they wont post. Search for “Garmin Connect” on twitter and hear the anguished voices through the universe screaming for help.
Suunto MovesCount having the same issue.
“For those wandering about my suitcase…” Ray- It’s “wondering”. But you do a lot of wandering on your adventures, so I guess the mistake is understandable. And speaking of hot, I did the Louisville Ironman yesterday, 93F 80% humidity. DNF rate in my age group (male 40-44) was 22%. That’s nuts. I was one of the DNF’ers. My Garmin Edge 500, which I just bought last week, measured the 112 mile bike course as 111.99. Not too bad.
Sorry, minor typo! Fixed.
Bummer to hear about the DNS. I can’t imagine racing in those conditions.
Ray, you might want to hide/obscure hide ticket number and barcode if you take photos of your boarding pass. ;)
Normally I would, but it was effectively a throw-away one-way ticket (with no frequent flyer membership ties), so it’s not something I’m worried about.
100 isn’t so bad. It was 101 here in South Carolina last week. Just drink plenty of fluids and you can do any workout you want.
My favorite part of the Bahrain airport is the Duty Free between getting off the plane and customs. It’s significantly cheaper than US/Euro duty free and saves you from hauling bottles on the plane.
Ray, don’t try driving to Khobar on a Saturday night. Bahrain is Tijuana for the Saudis. The come across the bridge on Thursday to drink/movies/shop/etc in a much more relaxed environment, and all head back on Saturday. I once asked about why it was ok to do the “bad stuff” in Bahrain and he told me “Allah cannot see across the water.” I think he was kidding a bit, but also some truth. What happens in Bahrain stays in Bahrain. Or something.
Yeah, it’s funny – I spent 6 weeks in Bahrain a few years back for work, always interesting what happens every weekend there with the ‘migration’ of sorts.