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Week in Review–July 23rd, 2017

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The Week in Review is a collection of both all the goodness I’ve written during the past week around the internet, as well as a small pile of links I found interesting – generally endurance sports related. I’ve often wondered what to do with all of the coolness that people write, and while I share a lot of it on Twitter and Facebook, this is a better forum for sending it on to y’all. Most times these different streams don’t overlap, so be on the lookout at all these places for good stuff!

So with that, let’s get into the action!

DCRainmaker.com posts in the past week:

Here’s all the goodness that ended up on the main page of DCRainmaker.com this past week:

Sunday: Week in Review–July 17th, 2017
Tuesday: Wahoo Rolls Out ELEMNT/BOLT Live Tracking with Data & Routes
Wednesday: Xert rolls out free real-time FTP app on Garmin devices
Thursday: Garmin Acquires Cycling Aerodynamics Company Alphamantis
Thursday: Hands-on: Airdog’s new ADII sports-tracking drone
Friday: Wahoo’s New 2017 KICKR SNAP Trainer: Hands-on
Friday: Strava will now fix your Garmin or phone when you break it riding…or not.

Sports Tech Deals This Week:

Below is the current list of deals in the sports tech realm.  Of note is the addition this week of the Cycliq Fly6 (back-light/camera combo) and Fly12 (front-light/camera combo) at $97 and $199.  That’s a solid deal, especially for the Fly6.

ProductSale PriceAmazonOther siteSale Notes
Apple Watch Series 10 - $50 off
$399/$499 (cellular)
$349
Apple Watch Ultra 2 Black Titanium - $75 off$725This is a nice little deal for this unit which just came out.
Fitbit Ace LTE Kids Activity Smartwatch - 22% off$179This was just announced this summer, and is their first full smartwatch focused on kids activity tracking and gamification.
Fitbit Charge 6 - 38% off!
$159
$99This is the go-to sale price for the Fitbit Charge 6. It happens often, but it still doesn't take away from the fast that it's argueably the best bang for your buck fitness tracker out there.
Fitbit Inspire 3 - $30 off$69
Fitbit Sense 2 - $70 off$179
Fitbit Versa 4 - $40 off$119
Garmin Edge 1040 Cycling GPS - $100 off!$499This is a good deal, especially since it's gotten virtually all of the Edge 1050 updates, and then a boatload more. That said, it wouldn't surprise me to see this drop further to $449, as it did this past summer.
Garmin Edge 540 - $100 off$249⚡⚡This is the lowest price we've seen on the Garmin Edge 540 to date, which has gained virtually all of the new Garmin Edge 1050 features as well. This is kinda an insane deal for this unit.
Garmin Edge 540 Solar - $100 off$349This is the lowest price we've seen on the Garmin Edge 540 Solar to date, which has gained virtually all of the new Garmin Edge 1050 features as well.
Garmin Edge 840 - $100 off$349⚡⚡This is the lowest price we've seen on the Garmin Edge 840 to date, which has gained virtually all of the new Garmin Edge 1050 features as well. This is one of my main units I use daily.
Garmin Edge 840 Solar - $100 off$449This is the lowest price we've seen on the Garmin Edge 840 Solar to date, which has gained virtually all of the new Garmin Edge 1050 features as well.
Garmin Edge Explore 2 - $40 off
$299
$269This is a great little unit, though, with the sales on the Edge 540 and 840 series, you might want to look at those instead.
Garmin Epix Pro Series - 20% off!
$899/$999
$649⚡ This is the lowest price to date for the Garmin Epix Pro series, likely due to the Fenix 8 coming out a few months back (Epix as a brand was merged into the Fenix 8 branding). Still, if you don't care about diving or voice bits, this is an incredible deal.
Garmin Epix Sapphire/Titanium (Gen 2) - $400+ off!$449⚡⚡⚡ This is a crazy super strong deal. Note the Epix received all of the software updates of the Epix Pro. While we saw a slightly better deal at $399 for a day back in October, this is otherwise the lowest price we've seen it sustained at.
Garmin Fenix 7 Pro - 31% off (All Variants)
$799+
$549+⚡ This is the lowest price to date for the Garmin Fenix 7 Pro series, likely due to the Fenix 8 coming out a few months back. Still, if you don't care about diving or voice bits, this is an incredible deal.
Garmin Forerunner 165 Music - $50 off!$249This is the first time we've head a meaningful sale on the Forerunner 165, released earlier this year, down to $249 for the Music edition, and $199 for the non-music edition.
Garmin Forerunner 255/255S - $100 off$249This is Garmin's mid-tier running watch, and is a very polished option with good multi-band GPS, and of course, a boatload of running metrics.
Garmin Forerunner 255/255S Music - $100 off!
$349/$399
$299This is Garmin's mid-tier running watch, and is a very polished option with good multi-band GPS, and of course, a boatload of running metrics. This model also includes offline music such as Spotify and Amazon Music.
Garmin Forerunner 265 - $100 off$349This is the first time we've seen the Forerunner 265 on sale, and it's solidly priced right now at $349
Garmin Forerunner 265s - $100 off$349This is the first time we've seen the Forerunner 265 on sale, and it's solidly priced right now at $349
Garmin Forerunner 955 - $100ish off!$399This is one of Garmin's most popular running watches, and it's down to a very strong price. I often use this in my accuracy testing comparisons when validating other watches, due to it's very strong GPS performance. Note this is the base edition without solar. It'd be hard to find any better deal in sports watches today, from any company (given this has full mapping, tons of new features even this week, etc...). I say '$100ish', because it's usually been on forever sale at $499, so $399 is a strong price, though, it dipped to $319 for Amazon Prime Day.
Garmin Forerunner 965 - $50 off!$499This is the lowest price we've seen ever on the Forerunner 965, since it's launch. It's still Garmin's top-end Forerunner watch, and I expect it to stay that way for a while. It's one I often use in comparative testing as a reference device.
Garmin Instinct 2X - $100 off!$349This is a solid deal. Garmin Instinct 2X - $100 off!It's best thought of as an Instinct 2.5, as it has almost enough features to really be more of an Instinct 3 (which doesn't exist at this point).
Garmin Tactix 7 Pro - 20% off$1,049This is the largest discount we've seen to date on the Tactix 7 Pro unit. Note the other Tactix 7 Pro units/variants are also on sale for 20% off too (this link takes you to all of them).
GoPro Hero 12 Black - $100 off!$299The new Hero 13 just came out, which mostly just adds a bunch of new accessory options. If you don't plan to purchase those accessories, then this is a solid deal.
GoPro Hero 13 Black - $60 OFF!$399This is the first time we have seen the newly announced GoPro Hero 13 Black on sale. Solid deal, this is my daily use action cam!
Google Pixel Watch 3 (41mm) - $70 OFF$279Click to add $70 coupon into the cart. Bringing price down to $279!
Insta360 Ace Pro Action Cam - $50 off$299This is the previous edition, as the Ace Pro 2 just came out a few weeks back, but this is still a very solid camera from a year ago.
Insta360 GO 3S Tiny 4K Action Camera - $60 off!$239This is a great deal for this tiny little thing, which should really be named the Go 4, given how many new features it has (including 4K). It also has all the Insta360 sport integration features with Garmin & Apple, to overlay your Garmin/Apple data automatically on your footage.
Jackery Portable Power Station - $60 off!$199This is something I use frequently when shooting out and about and I need to re-charge a crapton of drone batteries, action cameras, or just cameras and such. I also use it on trips to Eurobike and elsewhere to keep equipment charged. I've even bought a solar panel to hook up to it (surprisingly effective). Heck, I've even powered a KICKR trainer ride from it!
Tacx Flux 2 Smart Trainer - $200ish off
$899
$499I mean, I guess. Really, I don't see why anyone would buy this trainer at any price above $299. With the JetBlack Victory at $399 being more accurate, quiter, including WiFi, including Zwift Cog support (or mechanical cassette), including dual-Bluetooth, including Race Mode, and...one could go on and on.
Tacx NEO 2T Smart Trainer - $200-$300 off
$1,399
$899This is the go-to sales price for the NEO 2T, though has become more frequent over the past year. It's still an incredible trainer, and is the top-end non-moving trainer from Garmin/Tacx.
Wahoo KICKR CORE Zwift One (COG V2) + Play Controllers
$499
$499This package includes the KICKR CORE with the Zwift V2 Cog, but notably now also includes the Zwift Play controllers. Basically, this saves you about $100 or so, and is the first time we've seen them bundle it.
Wahoo KICKR MOVE - $300 off!
$1,599
$999⚡⚡ This is actually a very solid deal, and the first time we've seen this discounted. In fact, frankly, this is the first time in years it feels like Wahoo is actually doing a legit sale on something. Kudos.
Wahoo KICKR ROLLR - $100 off
$599
$499
Wahoo KICKR SNAP - Lowest Price Ever
$499
$199This is lowest we've ever seen the KICKR SNAP priced. While the trend has moved towards wheel-off/direct drive trainers, this is still really solid deal if your budget it tight. That said, if you're in Europe, Decathlon has the D100 on sale for $199 also, and in my testing, I'd go with that almost every time.

Also of note is that ELEMNT $80 rebate for the larger unit.  Helps to equalize the price compared to the smaller BOLT.  Both contain the same software, though the larger unit has an additional LED stripe.

Oh…and ProTip: Swing back by this page sometime mid-morning on Monday US Eastern time for a very time-limited deal on some products.

YouTube Videos I Published:

Here’s some YouTube goodness that I published this past week, don’t forget to subscribe!

DCR Podcast:

By the time you read this, another episode will hopefully have dropped.  If not, I suggest keeping an eye out on your feed.  We recorded one Friday night so it should be out as soon as Ben finishes golfing or something.

Stuff that I found interesting around the interwebs:

Here’s a not-so-small smattering of all the random things that I stumbled on while doing my civic duty to find the end of the Internet.

1) It’s dead, Jim: This will come as no surprise, but Intel has killed off their wearables division.  What remains slightly unclear is if Recon is technically part of that or not.  Of course, they previously pseudo-killed Basis by recalling the product and then shutting down the site.  It’d be interesting to know how this impacts New Balance, who worked closely with Intel on their Run IQ Android Wear watch, whereby Intel did much of the work (including ongoing updates).

2) Alaska Airlines now charges $25 for bikes: Sweet! Far more reasonable than the $150USD (one-way) that United or others charge.  I still have really good luck with my bike bag, but if you get pinched, I’d rather only pay $25. (via Race Radio)

3) Well that was cold: I was looking forward to seeing how the Alaskaman triathlon (first year) went last weekend.  The pics don’t disappoint!

4) A different look at the Tour de France live tracking platform: A week or so ago I showed you a behind-the-scenes on Dimension Data’s live tracking platform.  This past week Cycling Maven put together a video during his TdF Vlog about it.  Cool stuff.

5) What’s on Team Cannondale-Drapac’s bike computers? Ask and you shall receive. Each rider lists what data fields/pages they use. (via Harald)

6) Why ‘the unicorn’ shouldn’t be used for health startups: Interesting perspective on health startup valuations from a business angle.

7) Tesla is paying employees to commute by bike: File this into the list of things you didn’t expect.

8) Update on this: GoPro water bottle mount: Last week I mentioned this, and my skepticism that it would arrive within the previously stated August timeframe, or that it might arrive at all for the price.  Astoundingly it actually came on Wednesday this past week.  Seriously, fastest crowd funding thing ever for me.  Quality seems just fine, though I haven’t really done any super detailed testing.

Sports Technology Software/Firmware Updates This Week:

Each week I quickly highlight some of the new firmware, app, software and website service updates that I see go out. If you’re a sports technology company and release an update – shoot me a quick note (just one-liners are perfect, or Tweet it at me is even better) and I’ll make mention of it here. If I don’t know about it, I won’t be able to post about it. Sound good?  Oh – and if you want to get a head start on things, this page is a great resource for watching Garmin firmware updates.

Garmin FR735XT Beta Firmware Update: Added swimming countdown timer, also some other tweaks/fixes.

Garmin Varia Radar Firmware Update: Radar and LED improvements, some other bug fixes.

Garmin VIRB Edit update: Minor tweaks and fixes.

Garmin Vivosmart 3 Firmware Update: Actually a whole pile of tweaks and new things.

PowerTap P1 Firmware Update: Minor bug fixes, some additional fixes for the P1S

Wahoo Fitness ELEMNT/ELEMNT BOLT Firmware Update: Added live tracking and a few other tweaks (discussed in full post up above).

Thanks for reading!

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29 Comments

  1. Kelly

    Participating in the Alaskaman race was an amazing experience! Every swim stroke, pedal revolution, and running then hiking step was a challenge. The course was very well organized, despite being an inaugural event in a relatively remote location. Weather was great. Views were breathtaking. Ahhh… Hard to believe it’s been a week since my husband and I crossed the finish line.

  2. Robin

    Podcast still hasn’t dropped.

    Either Ben is a poor golfer, or he’s stuck on the 19th. I suspect both :)

  3. ReHMn

    Good report on Alaska trithlon… The race is now part of the X-tri world tour, with 2 more newbies…

  4. Paul

    Hi, I’d be interested in your thoughts on the ongoing Withings/Nokia debacle. It seems a textbook example of how to upset customers for no discernible benefit.

    • Yeah, it’s been on my list to look at, just been travelling a bunch lately w/o a lot of access to my scale. As of this morning I have no more travels till the end of August, so going to dig into it more.

      But I do agree, they really seemed to have F’d this one up in an impressive way.

    • gingerneil

      Do that many people actually use the withings app rather than integrating the data within 3rd party platforms? My scale still measures my weight, and other bits bobs, and squirts the details to sporttracks.

    • Paul

      I used to use the Withings app a lot as I have a number of pieces of Withings hardware (Go, BP, Scales, Thermo) which I bought as it brought everything together on one platform. The weight graph was particularly useful as it allowed a quick check of trends (or for inspiration/reassurance). The new graph is useless as it isn’t possible to set axes to meaningfully depict the data. All very basic stuff. It should also be possible to fix very quickly once they accept the problem exists.

  5. Chris

    Do you know if the Fly12 discount will be available in UK/Europe?

  6. MAGNUS

    Any word on when F5 will get the Stress tracking update?

  7. Marcio

    What bike computers could be traded-in by Wahoo Element?
    Must it be GPS computer or any type?
    I could not find this information anywhere…just found about the condition of the computer must be.

  8. Bob

    Great link to the Alaskan tri Ray. Your Week in Reviews are among my favorite posts.

  9. Nedim

    I wonder how much the RunIQ debacle has contributed to the final downfall of the intel division. What will New Balance (and TAG Heuer) now do with their new digital division?

    Interestingly, we still have not seen a DCRainmaker RunIQ review yet! For a while it sounded like it may be released any moment and it would be an epic fail. While I like New Balance (they are helping maintain running trails in the Winter in Boston!), I was looking forward to the review, out of pure schadenfreude :))) Ray, any chance for a RunIQ review being published?

    • Yeah, I may take another look at it now that it’s on Android Wear 2.0 (I’d guess about 30-40% of the problems were attributed to AW1). But it’s not going to solve the dismal optical sensor they borrowed from Basis (via Intel). That’s not a sensor for workouts, it’s for non-fitness use.

  10. Eli

    Is the mid-morning on Monday deal the wahoo sale?

  11. David Manley

    Seems the @recon twitter account is gone (or I’m going mad)

  12. Ray

    The alaskaman was a lot of fun, the swim was not all the bad but I had my longest t1 trying to get my arm warmers on as I couldn’t close my hands enough.

    The longest part was the hike up the mountain twice

    Fun times for sure.

    Chris

  13. Brendan

    Hi Ray,

    Power2Max have some fairly big discounts on their type S line at the moment.

  14. MAGNUS

    Ray – Fly6 or Garmin Varia?

    I like the price point and the camera feature of the Fly6 is nice but it’s not a deal sealer for me… I feel like the radar feature of the Garmin unit is far more useful. Thoughts?

    • If you live in the city, I’d go Fly6, if you live more in the country (or plan to ride there), I’d go Garmin Radar.

      For me, the radar is totally useless in the city (just too much traffic), whereas it’s at its best out on the countryside.

  15. Alex

    Did the podcast ever get posted? I still can’t find it..