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.
-
Check out my weekly podcast - with DesFit, which is packed with both gadget and non-gadget goodness!
-
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.
Ray,
Thanks for the Pro Trainer 5 heads up. I had lost faith in Polar, now I’ll see why it takes to transfer years of data.
Thanks
Steve,
I transferred four years of data from Pro Trainer 5 to Flow yesterday in only a few minutes. Good to see that Polar finally seem to have got something right. Now if only they can deliver a bulk update function for Training Peaks! The inability to load workouts created on Flow to my V650 is rather limiting too!
To late for me – have 8 years of data on pro, but switched to Garmin this summer. With Windows 10 disabling the iR interface and Polar no longer supporting the pro software I decided to switch to an open system, which hopefully stays relevant longer (though Polar Pro still beats all non expensive software for easy of use and overview of data)..
Ray – In your software/firmware updates you may want to add the 4iiii app and firmware update for the Prcision and Viiiiva.
DOH! Totally forgot about that, and I even wrote it down in like three places because it was such a big deal. Added! Thanks!
Wow this was a surprise. I’ll have to dig the Viiiiva out which will give the Tickr X a well earned rest.
Ray, I think RFLKT got a firmware update this week. You might want to look into it.
I’ve seen a couple of documentaries on that free climber. He’s one of the more famous illegal free climbers from the UK.
Hi Ray,
Any updates from Garmin or Wahoo on adding Wahoo Kickr FEC control using Edge 1000.
Cheers.
Wahoo did push out a beta update last weekend with FE-C support for KICKR. Nothing quite yet released on the Edge 1000.
Thanks for the response.
Do you know how to update the kickr to the beta firmware.
I disagree with your read on hrv apps. Firstbeat athlete hasn’t been updated in a few years and wasn’t a very good ui plus it didn’t really use hrv to track over training as that was only in the very expensive sport version
I tried to phrase the ‘didn’t look pretty’ in a slightly different way. ;)
But I definitely agree with you.
Looks like first beat will have a 50% of black Friday sale later this week and rumors of other companies jumping in to replace the functionality athlete had.
Re Garmin expansion – happened in UK on numerous occasions, one I particularly remember the company applied for planning, was refused and then told the council they’d have to relocate; council said OK. they went and took the jobs with them – this in an area of high unemployment
It looks like Garmin will get the expansion after all.
link to bizjournals.com
7-0 vote in the City Council.
Er, Firstbeat Athlete does download data from Movescount for analysis. I have used it as an workout analysis tool and fatigue/recovery monitor as these as quite basic on the Movescount.
For me it seems that they are dumping low cost/low profit consumer version and continue selling the more expensive Sports Individual version.
Doh, spelling errors ruining my comment.. meant that
I have used it as an workout analysis tool and fatigue/recovery monitor as these as features are quite basic on the Movescount.
799€ for lifetime / 299€ yearly license on Sports Individual seems too expensive.
About the Garmin expansion, from reading the article, it seems that they’re asking for a change in zoning. In sporting parlance, zoning are the land-use rules one agrees to before entering the game. One can change the rules in the middle of the game if both teams agree, but otherwise it’s not unreasonable to be expected to play by the rules you agreed to when you started playing. If the refs (city counsel) suddenly allowed one party to change the rules unilaterally, the nearby landowners, who had bought their land with an explicit understanding of what was and was not allowed nearby, would be unjustly wronged, I’d think.
#7 – FBA discontinued! Help me please to find a replacement…. I really like the way the Training Coach function visualizes the rolling training effect and normally use that to make sure I get up to intensity often enough (lazy by nature). Any ideas?
There is the firstbeat trainer web application. It’s windows only and I have a feeling that it will be sunsetted soon as well.
link to trainer.firstbeat.fi
But if you’d like to try it, I actually paid for some coach account credits years ago and never used them, shoot me a direct message and we can set something up.
Thanks Kevin! Looks like you are correct – tried to find something about the coach but not very easy. Drop me a mail at fw456 at hotmail.com and let me know what you thought about setting something up.
Tacx Utility is now available also on Android. It allows you to update the trainer’s firmware.
link to play.google.com
Last Friday I updated my Tacx Vortex successfully and now it supports FE-C.
Hi there Ray,
Did you notice the new quick release for the garmin fenix 3?
Hi Ray,
The newly released PRECISION Power Meter Firmware version 0.3.0 now enables users to adjust the scale factor to address a left/right leg power bias. For those of us who don’t have access to a left/right power meter to establish one’s personal scale factor, would comparing the power output file from PRECISION to a Wahoo Kicker give us a rough estimate? I am assuming this is what 4iiii was prescribing when they mentioned the following in their release notes ; “This scale factor can also be used to match PRECISION’s output to other training equipment you use.”
I know getting two power meters to agree is a bit of a challenge but I wonder if it might be possible to compare hub and single side power data to calculate the scale factor.
With the Pro Trainer 5 connection to Polar Flow I was _finally_ able to import my ZWIFT workouts into Flow:
Zwift (*.fit) -> GoldenCheetah (*.tcx) -> tcx2hrm (*.hrm) -> Pro Trainer 5 -> Flow
Now, THAT is convenient, isn’t it? ;-)
On the Software update front, there was a recent update to Google fit.
Live tracking, Diet, sleep etc :- link to cnet.com
I have been using Firstbeat Athlete for three years. I currently have a Suunto Ambit2s. What HRV application do you recommend that I replace it with? Thanks.