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.
It takes less than a cynic to be skeptical of Aetna’s motives with Apple Watch deals.
Happen to know of any relevance of the mentioned BETA firmware update to the 935?
Lastly, you are totally in the background of some pictures posted to Jens Voigt’s facebook page! link to facebook.com
The same stuff will come to the FR935 shortly. Historically we see the Fenix group a bit more active/earlier with betas, but usually the Forerunner group is right behind it.
Indeed, definitely in that background. We had some good chats those few days…he’s a good egg.
AETNA emailed me Aug 30th — $100 off pretty much any Apple watch version.
Ray, are Garmin still planning on bringing the all day stress functionality to the 935? Seems odd not to release 5/935 at once.
And I should have read the comments first….sorry…
“…which in turn losers claim costs.” Or even lower them. But maybe just for losers.
Anyone know if walking/cycling elevation profiles are coming to mobile on Google Maps? Last time I checked you could only get the profiles on desktop.
Not that great if you’re navigating in a foreign city with a phone and seems like such a simple thing to roll across
Garmin also released software version 9.40 for 920XT…
I did a pool swimming with HRM-Swim and this time the device did not dropped the connection.
If this was done within the update, I am going to cry happy tears, or maybe bake a cupcake…
Have not tried for Speed and Cadence sensors yet, as the triathlon racing season is over, but would be curious whether that issue is fixed as well. You know, when in depo you connect HRM-Tri, Seeed and Cadence sensor, then you swim your laps and back in transition 1 all sensor connections has been dropped. And you have to reconnect them, because you have plenty of time in T1…
errata: did not drop
Hi, I’m curious. Am i correct in thinking that All day stress is a licensed feature from Firstbeat? Has there been any other examples of Garmin adding licensed feature to their products after they have been released?
I ask because this is often raised on the Garmin forums, especially so around training stress, recovery times, performance indicators and syncronisation between devices. Thanks.
Correct. Much of the HR-driven features are licensed from FirstBeat.
Garmin has long used FirstBeat on their $300+ watches. But in the last year, especially starting with the Fenix 5, we’re seeing a much tighter relationship that extends down to the sub-$200 units too. All Day stress, VO2Max, Training Stress, Recovery Times, all that stuff is all FirstBeat.
Sync between devices isn’t so much a FirstBeat limiter, as it is a Garmin Connect limiter. We’re seeing them make slow progress there. For example earlier this year you couldn’t see all the new performance metrics in Garmin Connect. Now many of them you can. It’ll be a slow one step at a time thing.
Vitality in the UK has been doing Apple watch for a long time.
£69 upfront fee on a 24 month ‘contract’. The more you exercise, the less you pay. (4 sessions per week -> no monthly payment.) Also, the ‘activity’ doesn’t have to be recorded by the Apple watch. Garmin counts, along with Fitbit, Moves and tons of others.
(They also have access to the full data – Garmin activity counts as long as you reach 60% of your max HR on avg for 1 hour or 70% for 30 mins)
Nor sure if you want to add/mention the really nice Zwift update that came out over the weekend. :-)
I was at a race last week and I was surprised how many runners had on TomTom watches. I saw mostly garmins (of course)
Here’s a human translation of the first section of the article on TomTom – pretty much what you figured out yourself.
After four years of trying, TomTom will stop with fitness gadgets like sports watches and action camera’s. In a few weeks time, TomTom will most likely pull the plug on that company division, that has hold over 2.7 mln gadgets, but did not turn out to be a valuable addition to the Dutch tech company. TomTom will keep producing stand-alone navigation devices (“boxes”) , which are still profitable.
I plotted a route this past weekend near Mont Tremblant QC for a quick bike ride. It too had elevation data.
Hi Ray,
I was wondering if you’ve ever thought of trying out the “Xiaomi Huami AMAZFIT Sports Bluetooth Smart Watch” as a running watch?
I was browsing the website Gearbest and stumbled upon it, was wondering if it was worth anything and thought I’d check my go-to website for sportswatches, but nothing!
No, not at this point.
I hope you will review the Xiaomi Huami Amazfit Stratos. I have already seen reviews on other sites and it looks like a credible contender to the Garmin sports watches.