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…
I swim, bike and run. Then, I come here and write about my adventures. It’s as simple as that. Most of the time. If you’re new around these parts, here’s the long version of my story.
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You can use the above link for any Amazon country and it (should) automatically redirect to your local Amazon site.Want to compare the features of each product, down to the nitty-gritty? No problem, the product comparison data is constantly updated with new products and new features added to old products!
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Think my written reviews are deep? You should check out my videos. I take things to a whole new level of interactive depth!
Smart Trainers Buyers Guide: Looking at a smart trainer this winter? I cover all the units to buy (and avoid) for indoor training. The good, the bad, and the ugly.
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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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FAQ’s
I have built an extensive list of my most frequently asked questions. Below are the most popular.
- Do you have a privacy policy posted?
- Why haven’t you yet released a review for XYZ product you mentioned months ago?
- Will you test our product before release?
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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.
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!
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.
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!
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.
link to moveslink.static.movescount.com
Ambit3 got “3D-Distance” (needs Barometer, so no 3D-distance for the Sport version) – so if your workout includes TONS of vertical, it includes the elevation-change into the distance evaluation/calculation (not only 2D – latitude-longitue change).
The difference is almost negligible: for a 10k (2D) run @18% – you get a “real-3D”-distance of 10160m.
Nevertheless it’s a nice feature to play with!
Blimey re Longchamp – it’s a segment up for grabs if you fancy 200+ miles! Only this person so far.
link to strava.com
You would be annoyed though if you did not do the same little start bit and so did not match…
And there’s a longer one which is just circuits. link to strava.com
after this ‘mandatory update’ on my Ambit2, I noticed even bigger problems with activity times.
When it sync to strava (with tcx file) the difference was 3hours! (both strava’s and movescount locations are set correctly, movescount shows correct starting hour, strava shows +3h). When I deleted the activity on strava and uploaded manually gpx file from movescount, the difference was +1h – which is equal to what I always have (before firmware update).
I really got lost where is the fault? Is it movescount generating tcx/gpx files? most probably since start hour on the service itself is ok (also on the device). I even created ticket in suunto’s support but they never looked into I am sure (standard stupid reply mail to clear cookies in my browser- WTF!!!!???).
Anyway, has anyone else notice sthg like that?
I am located in Greece and my friend using Ambit2s experiences the same story.
I’m off by five hours with my Ambit3 Peak. Strava said it’s “a known issue,” and that they’re working on it with Suunto.
sorry to hear that, but nice that I am not alone :-P
normally I wouldnt really care so much about such detail, but 2 things are a bit annoying:
1. I often runlate at night (starting 10-11pm), so +1hrs (and +3 for sure) changes the date of the run! Which I dont like in log view :-/
2. I like to compare in details races that I do with my friends and using flyby for this makes it super easy. But when I am 1( or 3) hrs behind it’s useless and I have to do it ‘manually’.
same issue with upload in Runalyze: start time is now + 2 hours; prior to moveslink2 update there was no difference to time in Movescount.
‘Last’ week of review? Is this the last one you’re doing?
Typically speaking the ‘Week in review’ is done on the weekend. But, things got a wee bit hectic this weekend and I didn’t have a chance to post this till now. Thus, it’s more like ‘Last week in review’, as in ‘Last week’. ;)
Something like John Oliver?
More or less. Except not as cool or funny as him.
DCR should definitely get a free pass on all typos, grammatical errors, etc, this week. He might just be a little short of sleep and somewhat distracted!
link to instagram.com
Huge congrats to Ray and The Girl!
David
Just saw the message on Twitter and went here for the full story, nothing yet.
Congratulations!!!
Congratulations to you and the Mom! When can we expect the in-depth review or at least first impressions? Although I can tell from the picture, this one will be a winner!
Full reviews, especially something as complicated as a baby take a while. I hope for everyone’s sake there’s not an exhaustive unboxing section!!!
I had the same email from Suunto, quite disappointing that there was no additional details about the firmware update. I could have had a peak with hr for £210 delivered. Oh well roll on tomorrows release of the Spartan Ultra/Racer/Trainer
Ray,
Do you happen to testing the Suunto Spartan Ultra? If so, are you able/allowed to give us any impressions of the device?
Regards,
Matt
Tomorrow buddy, Ray does have a NDA in place with Suunto or did from hitting the search box
The vivoactive-update suxs. do no install that crap and wait for update. see garmin forum.
Grats on the new edition. Way to get the love of The Tour started early.
Re: Combine “Garmin Varia Radar unit with a Garmin VIRB camera”. I’ve been asking Garmin to make this happen some their radar unit was announced? A proverbial match made in Olathe. Any chance you can ask what the holdup is?
*since their radar unit was announced
Oh, and congrats to you and The Girl on the new bundle of joy!
:-)
Congratulations both, Tis awesome. Enjoy this special time because at some point she’ll be borrowing the Fenix 12 just as you want to run long lol
I rode my bike out to Mont Saint Michel yesterday and I was allowed to get pretty close before being asked to stop and walk it on the way there. On the way out I was forced to ride on the wood deck for a little bit but I could ride at least. I don’t think the “ban” (that’s a bit harsh to describe the situation) is too bad. Really it’s more common sense that where there’s thousands of pedestrians it’s probably a good idea to stop and walk. Just like it’s probably not a good idea to ride through a city center. So I didn’t find it too offensive aside from being told not to ride on the road but on the wood deck instead.
Congratulations to you and The Girl on your new addition! She is beautiful !
NSW police in Australia have a particularly bad reputation for not being bike friendly. That’s not really going to help.
I would agree NSW police do not have a cyclist friendly reputation. Nonetheless the video looks as though it was on the Moss Vale Road on a long weekend. There is obviously a lot of holiday traffic on a two laned road with a narrow shoulder. What the patrolman said about finding a safer place and time to ride is quite correct.
On another subject congratulations to Ray and The Girl!
Gimme a break!! When is it ever a good time to ride on the road, especially in NSW or so I’ve heard since I don’t live there? Hey we’re all guessing aren’t we: “looks as though it was on a long weekend”. This is a case where local and state road authorities need to assess the lack of a proper shoulder and fixing the roads.
If you listen to the video the long weekend is mentioned. As well the date of the recording (June 12th) was a long weekend. Both the cyclist and the policeman agree that the traffic is a lot heavier than usual. Common sense would suggest that choosing a quieter road or another day would be safer. In the longer term it would be great if this road and all busy two lane highways everywhere were built with a proper road shoulder.
Congratulations! Probably just as well that the delivery wasn’t made on July 14th – would probably have been a bit chaotic with everything else going on then!! (plus that I’d like to keep that day for myself ;-) )
Congratulation for your new full time job.
Exhausting but marvelous ;-)
Seems like Garmin is teaming up with LifeQ: link to ventureburn.com
Wonder if that is just post analysis or on device too
It’s only for backend corporate health program data bits, and not for any Garmin on-device or consumer facing things.
With the Vivoactive firmware update, my active stopped recording my sleep properly. Basically if I’m not running backward and forward, apparently, I’m in deep sleep. Lodged a ticket, but was this ANYONE elses problem as well?
Congrats to you and The Girl! And welcome to… The Baby? The Little Girl? The Wee Lass? In any event, hope the entire family is doing well!