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I’m DC RAINMAKER…
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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.
Pls. start to sell to Russia, it will be a bomb as we still have no VAT on such purchase!
Hm, no delivery to Norway. So “Europe” should rather be “EU” (+UK in time to come)… On the other hand, the swiss are on that list too. So, just a mistake of leaving out the Norwegians?
Just sent over a note to get clarity on that. I agree with you with the Swiss there, I’d have to imagine Norway would be the same. The CT folks said they’re validating and I should hear back shortly. Thanks!
LOL, it looks like someone doesn’t understand how common markets work. ;-)
Great news, any chance that we get Spartan ultra available from EU site ?
Thx
Yup, I believe I checked yesterday on that and they’re working to get listings put together for it.
Skulpt Chisel would be great – haven’t found that anywhere in Europe yet !
Will there be pre-order for the Cycleops Hammer?
I hope Clever Training is not to expensive.
For example, I like to buy a polar M400 incl. HR, in Holland retailprice from €146, average €155-160.
Clever Training: €185.85.
link to kieskeurig.nl
Same for UK. Most of online retailers and Amazon are 15-20% cheaper.
I’ve used that code last week to buy a Fenix 3 HR. Already using it!
Thank you!
Thanks for the support, and glad it worked out well!
> Ships from the UK, direct to every country in Europe
As others have already noticed, this should say – every country in EU (+Switzerland). We’re becoming tired of this… Still, other UK sport gear sites are able to efficiently handle VAT deductions for years when goods ship outside EU borders. They should better get a grip, soon they might do it anyway when ship from UK :|.
link to en.wikipedia.org
As I noted above already, hang tight while I get some further clarification on Norway.
Note also that CT Europe does actually specify VAT portions on shipments, so adding countries like Russia to the list may be a mere shipping tweak.
To add to Ronald’s comment… a Garmin edge 1000 bundle goes for 459 in a classical bikestore which also sells online. Clever uses a price of 585… Ok, there is the discount but that’s a huge difference.
For not starting a price discussion. I was very happy with the service of Clever when my Viiiiva failed. I was unpleasantly happy with the tax surprise. Great they made the step over the big pool of water between us. This is great!! To be competitive I expect they’ll need sharper pricing. I wish for them to be successful.
I hope they have better service than in the states. I bought a Garmin HRM Tri strap and sent it to the hotel with expedite shipping which I got from the VIP program (no 10% discount!!!). The product didn’t reach me in time. They blamed the US postal service and didn’t take responsibility. The result was I was 135$ short, no product and no VIP treatment!
Just to confirm I was one of the ‘public beta testers’ (a Scosche Rythm+ bought from the site quite some time ago now). Service worked fine for me (delivery in UK), so early indications are good; hopefully now they are officially live the span of products available will increase. Happy customer so far.
I still can’t believe we voted to leave…
I still can’t find anyone that did!
Hello Dave. I did but now I’m regretting it… Only joking. Quite excited to see how it all turns out…
The future of a country shouldn’t be exciting though. The actual goal of government is stability and boringness. We did exciting in the 1940s and most people decided it wasn’t for them…
Good to hear but since you mention a Tacx Neo, even with 10% off, I can find this about £200 cheaper with 2 UK retailers and about £150 cheaper with 4 others including one I could drive 15 mins to and collect it in person.
Hi Tim (and others)-
Just a quick update, as I noted yesterday CT is working hard on pricing. They’ve cut the price of the NEO already, bringing it to £999.99, or £899 with the DCR discount code. Which makes it equal to Wiggle and cheaper than most others. Linkage: link to clevertraining.co.uk
Thanks for the support!
-Ray
Ships from the UK, direct to every country in Europe…
So they didn’t factor in Brexit then?? ?
Great news!
very cool !
shipping, taxes and additionnal costs are always a drag when ordering from the US or Asia…
Excellent news !
Looking forward to seeing them stocking the GoPro series :)
Yup…on the short list!
This looks good. Nice selection and at least some Garmin items are priced really competitively when compared to Finnish prices. Now I have to convince myself not to buy a new gadget. Thanks you Ray!
Any plans for them to sell the bsxinsight?
has it been 4 years already… time does fly.
p.s. also, thanks for the good news
Hey Ray. Great news, well done. Am sure teething issues will be sorted out soon, much like Brexit
what about DCR branded kit like swim floats?
Hi, Agree – how about the DCR branded Safer Swimmer openwater swim buoy? especially as it’s featured in DC’s recent posts.
I’ve sent over a note seeing if they can get it listed. Should be an easy one!
Great news! just trying to order a powerpod but coming up with errors when I try to complete the order- will give them a call in the morning.
Would be good to add paypal to the site,
Cheers!
All sorted now- bank decided to have a random ‘Did you really spend £££ at Clever Training?’ moment- roll on power pod in a few days!!
One more point on the Powerpod, from the description text on the Clever Training site it’s not clear one requires a speed sensor, which I recall from your review, unless this has gone away it would be good to highlight on their site!
Thanks for the support Peter!
On the product listing, typically the way retailers work is they take specific product listing assets from a manufacture (i.e. Velocomp, Garmin, Polar, etc…), which includes exact wording and pics. This helps ensure everyone is ‘in-line’ and doesn’t end up going off with some weird features/text.
But, you’re point is definitely valid and something I can bring up to the Velocomp folks to in turn look at getting the boiler text updated.
I ordered a Powerpod from the UK site then saw that you need a speed sensor. Tried to cancel the order the next day but was told it had already been dispatched.
Returned as soon as it arrived and even though it says on the website “In the event your new training device does not meet your needs, please return the item with all original accessories and original packaging for a refund upon receipt.” I am still waiting for the refund notification over a week later despite having emailed them twice to see when I will get this.
Now received an email confirming refund.
Thanks Phil. As you noted, the CT folks confirmed you received a refund today, they’re also tracking down if there was some error upon return, or other reason why there was a delay.
Again, thanks for the heads up.
looks like they still might have some issues :)
after 2 clicks I get a 404:
click 1: on the image in this article that takes me to the clever trainer site (link to clevertraining.co.uk)
click 2: bottom middle in gift ideas I click on the Scosche RHYTHM+ Armband (link to clevertraining.co.uk)
and voila, 404 it is.
Thanks – I’ll pass it along. I believe it’s because the gift ideas one is hard-coded to a slightly older SKU name for the Scosche which isn’t redirecting properly. Thanks!
Great news this has happened as I like many others want to support the site for the fantastic advice and information provided. The trouble is having just had a look at a couple of items its significantly more expensive for me then Wiggle for like for like products. The Edge 520 for example (with the top Wiggle discount admittedly) is £189 whereas on Clever Training its £225 (when you include the 10%) discount.
As a paid up member of this site I will use CT where its comparable price wise but I suspect they have a tough task against someone like Wiggle, especially when they merge with Chain Reaction Cycles.
Maybe if they could get some exclusive products that could get around the issues for them in the early days of the EU store
I’d love to see Garmin Vivoactive HR. The previous Vivoactive is there but not the new one.
I’m really fighting myself not to buy it from local Garmin reseller.
Already asked Clever Training customer support and it suppose to be available in max. 2 weeks.
Great to see CT in the UK. However… as others have said, they simply aren’t price competitive. A quick look for a Fenix 3 grey with HRM run – Amazon (3rd party, but fulfilled by Amazon with Prime) £320, CT £410!! :(
Gingerneil it will change in time, Ray did say that their business in the states carries no weight with Garmin Europe so they are starting from scratch, in regards to cost prices and rebate tiers etc
Here’s hoping… Because otherwise I’m not sure they’ll sell anything! I’d love them to succeed, and for kickbacks to Ray, but for now I’ll have to stick with the Amazon affiliate link.
Fear not, changes are in the winds on pricing. Some things actually have already changed, and others have pending meetings.
Starting from scratch is indeed part of the challenge, however, I suspect it won’t take long to stabilize.
Also, in general the pricing seems far more CT-favorable when looking at brand new things (i.e. Edge 820 isn’t really found in many places, and in those that it is, CT is competitive even before 10% discount).
Anyway – I’m sure you’ll see changes. I had a conference call this afternoon with them to discuss all the comments, and they have read all 43 comments to date, plus any Twitter/Facebook notes on it and are working to address each and every item.
Thanks for the support!
Thanks for the update – great to hear.
Pity there is still no easy way for Australia to buy from Clever Training.
I’m very happy with my ViiiiVa, mainly bought based on your review. That thing is just great. Since 4iiii products are hard to get in EU, that would be a great addition to their portfolio and stand out from the croud!
Thanks,
What about 4iii power meter, will it be avaible?
Clever Training Europe is definitely not yet ready :
I tried to order a Garmin Fenix 3 HR on Monday (evening around 19:00) but hit a problem with payment: PayPal was not available as an option and the credit card option gave an error (Transaction cannot be processed) so I sent them an e-mail about it.
On Tuesday afternoon I hadn’t received a reply so I called them and was told to wait. It could take up to 48 hours to reply to my mail. Not sure why they couldn’t help me on the phone.
On Wednesday afternoon I still hadn’t received any reply so I called them again. This time I was told a technical guy would call me back asap.
It’s now Thursday 11:00 and still haven’t heard from them, either through e-mail or via phone call. Not the best customer experience so far…
5 minutes after posting my comment I received a mail from Clever Training with information that should have been available on Monday evening, but at least the problem got sorted out.
I do wish they would enable PayPal though.
Thanks for the support, and sorry for the troubles.
I circled with the CT folks yesterday to see what occurred. It sounded like there was a an error given by your bank on Monday, which due to a mistake on their end took too long to get back to you on. It sounds like they’ve addressed that so it won’t happen again.
They are looking into Paypal for Europe, but don’t have a specific timeframe/availability defined yet.
Hi Ray, i want to support your good work and buy a Powertap P1 via clevertraining europe but have a similiar or the same issue like Hans. Transaction cannot be processed.
I sent an email about two days ago, but haven’t recived an answer until now, two business days later. If they don’t solve the problem soon, I have to move to another shop, because I want to have the powermeter in two weeks for my training camp.
Thanks for the support attempt!
I just chatted with them about this. There are two parts:
A) The transaction failing: It’s currently being rejected from your bank. Approximately a dozen times actually. Unfortunately, there’s nothing they can do in this case. Maybe reach out to your bank and see if it think it’s fraud or something?
B) The delay in answering you: They’re tracking this down and should come back to me shortly on this.
Thanks again for the support!
Thanks for your really fast answer! I tried again after your comment and now it is working. I’m glad that I can give you something back. Keep up the good work!
Just noticed it’s really hard googling for CT Europe.
Unfortunately all Garmin products are *not* available: could not find the Vivoactive HR :-(
Same goes for the Favero bePro.
as for the Scosche Rhythm, only the black strap is available.
Do they plan to have more items available?
I believe the Vivoactive HR should be up shortly. It’s really Garmin there limiting that for reasons that make little sense. For Scosche, hmm, I thought there was color straps, I’ll check if they went out of stock and why.
On bePro, I believe that was on the short-list to add.
Delighted CT is operational in Europe. I wanted to buy two mounts. The Velocomp Combo Garmin/Powerpod Mount and one Velocomp Combo TT Garmin/PowerPod Mount.
Not listed on their EU site but are listed on their US site.
Hopefully, they’ll add them soon.
Hi Ray,
do you know whether clever training will start selling Stages on their European platform as well? Would be great :-).
Cheers
Stefan
They’re working on it, but probably not immediately.
Thanks for the quick reply!!
Cheers
Great with the European site! Dont see the DCR code working on the Wahoo Elemnt Bolt, is there a reason for that?
Thanks,
Anders
Not a good reason. At moment Wahoo and CT are fighting over the discount code in the UK, with Wahoo disallowing it currently.
I see that issue is still ongoing. Just tried using the code for a Wahoo Kickr but no dice…
Hi,
Are they going to sell Stages and 4iiii in the european shop? Right now, just a couple of products, a very small percentage of the items that are avalaible in the USA version.
They’re working on getting those two listed – should be soonish I believe.
Thanks for the update Ray
Hello Ray!
I ordered my Assioma duos one month ago. The ordered still wasn’t shipped. The item info says it should be sent in 5-7 days. I got an event comming in one week and it is unlikely i will have my powermeter. Is this normal that it takes so much time to get those? I alredy contacted support and they vouldnt provide me estimated shipping date so I have no clue what is happening… Is the supply in uk store so much smaller than in main side? In the main site this item is in stock all the time.
Tnx for info!
Hi Vid-
Sorry, I missed this. I talked with CT about the Assioma pedals last night. They too have been waiting on Favero, it’s been a bit of a tug of war.
That said, they have shipping confirmation that all but 8 orders will go out Friday (meaning, the units are already on the way to CT). They were getting me an exact order cut-off date, but I’d be 99% certain that if you ordered a month ago, then you’ll definitely get yours shipped this Friday.
Thanks for the support!
Tnx for your reply. And of course tnx for your discount code :) Can’t wait to get them :)
Have you received your Assioma duos yet? :-) I am considering to buy my own pair of these. Currently they are listed as ‘in stock’ on the UK website. I wrote them a mail and asked about shipping estimation.
I am already using them and I am very satisfied. Their support response is normaly fast. I usualy got the response in one day! If they are really in stock, then you will probably recieve them fast. I am from Slovenia and recieved shippment in 5 days since they got pedals from Favero.
There seems to be quite a big problem here. I ordered my pedals in April, with the dispatch date still listed as 5 days. It is looking highly unlikely my order will arrive before June. I don’t mind waiting normally but the lack of communication on a £500+ item is concerning. The fact that this was a problem in March as well seems to point to a big problem at play here. Maybe I am wrong.
Hello Ray,
I ordered a Drivo from Clever Training Europe using your code. Just received it 15 minutes ago and there is one huge problem. This unit has been clearly USED.
Indications: the box had been opened (the tapes etc cut, not even retaped/reselaed), everything inside was very messy, the documents were all over the place, the small boxes inside ripped open and all over the place, styrofoam broken, OIL and cog marks on the freehub, marks on the feet. The adapters were put into the ziploc bag that usually contains documents. The feet were somehow squeezed into the box that I think normally contains the adapters etc. ANT+ USB key seems to be missing. The main box has two “DOCUMENTS ENCLOSED” tapes on it outside. Previous one ripped. New one containing my receipt etc. It has obviously been returned by a previous customer and sold as new to me. I haven’t even taken the unit out of plastic yet, need to go to back to work but what the hell. This situation is new to me.
Woah – that’s crazy. I’ve just escalated immediately. I’ve never heard of this before. So this sounds like a solid shipping SNAFU somehow of perhaps a unit that was returned not getting tagged correctly.
I expect I’ll hear back within about an hour or so.
Ok, heard back already. It’s already being escalated further. This should have never-never-ever happened.
Customer service should be reaching out to you shortly as well.
Sorry again!
Thank you very much, Ray, it is all right. They actually reacted almost immediately to my email, probably before you even read this here. Has been top notch customer service and by the looks of it will be solved very quickly. I’ll be returning this unit here and getting a new one in the mail with some extra bonus as gesture of good will. I’m satisfied with the solution and feel a bit embarrassed now for panicking and making such a fuss :). Mistakes happen… I’ll give a final update when the story is finished.
I’m 3 weeks late with this update, sorry. So I got the replacement trainer very quickly. Clever Training shipped it on 21.03, day after I had received the first Drivo. I received the replacement on 26.03. They also offered a bit of compensation on their own initiative for the hassle which I was glad to accept and received on 18.04 as a partial refund. I guess the processing of returned goods etc just took some time. So everything is great. It was just an honest mistake and I’m very satisfied how it was dealt with. I recommend Clever Training .uk and I would definitely order again myself as well :)
Awesome – good to hear. Thanks for the support!
A little confused with their availability on certain products such as the Garmin Edge 530/830 (link to clevertraining.co.uk) They’re still showing as “Expected Early June”. Any idea on stock of this? Ordered almost a week and no reply or update on anything. Are they usually this slow to respond?
Same here whit the Garmin fenix 6..
Early sept they say, but you can bauy them en on the invoice they say 3 till 5 working days.
My order was om sept 12, and the status is still pending shipment. ( no stock).
Dear DC,
Following your recommendation, I bought a Fenix 6 through Clevertraining UK on Sept 12th. The site stated that they would deliver the watch within 5 working days from that date. However, until today they hadn’t delivered it and, more than that, they don’t give any information regarding this order.A few minutes ago I decided to search online about Clever UK and this is what I found:
link to uk.trustpilot.com
As you can see, a lot of frustrating experiences
I know you don’t have any responsibility for this, but if I were you I would not recommend this company since it’s also your reputation that is at risk.
Regards
Abelardo
Hi Ray,
I just rang up Clever Training Europe and they’re telling me that they’re having problems dispatching orders but have no idea what the issue is nor when it will be solved. Do you have any strings you can pull to work out what the issue is and whether the wait is going to be long?
Many thanks,
Judah
Just for reference DCR10BTF no longer works. Get the message below when trying to apply the code.
Coupon ‘DCR10BTF’ does not exists. Please call (01772)331852 if you feel you have reached this message in error.
Maybe need to update your page to reflect that.
Thanks
Maybe the collaboration was terminated due to poor reviews of clevertraining UK online shop. They had/have a lot of problems with delivery timeframe. I am not sure if there are problems with suppliers or something else.
If the shop cannot deliver on agreed time frames then fair play for the negative comments. Still worth updating the article though if that is the case as it saves people trying to use a discount code that is no longer applicable.
can’t reach clevertraining.co.uk
Now it redirects to .com
Wondering if it has been closed.
I got the same problem
So Yes I think it got closed
Indeed, they’ve pulled out of the European market to focus on the US market, unfortunately. I’ve just updated this post to indicate such.
Appreciate the support in the past with CT UK! I’ve got a new partnership in place with Wiggle, for those that want to use those links, it does support the site: link to dcrainmaker.com
Thanks all!
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