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:
This 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.
This 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.
⚡⚡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.
⚡⚡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.
⚡ 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.
⚡⚡⚡ 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.
⚡ 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.
This 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.
This 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.
This 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.
This 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.
This 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).
This 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).
The 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.
This 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.
This 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!
I 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.
This 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.
This 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.
⚡⚡ 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.
This 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.
In addition, still a boatload of REI Clearance Sale Deals wrapping up week: Everything from some good deals on slightly older sports tech, including (all on the page linked above):
– Cycliq Fly12
– Mio SLICE
– Garmin Edge 1000
– Kinetic inRIDE
– Polar A360
– Mio Fuse
– 360FLY Action Camera
– Random Fitbit bands and action camera mounts
Of course, keep in mind that there’s actually even better deals for just general sports stuff there – so definitely do some wandering. If it didn’t cost so much to ship to Europe, I’d likely have bought a ton of stuff (things like clothing, etc…).
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) La Course once again undercut: While ASO last year said they were trying to expand La Course by moving to a three stage format, in reality, it was such a stupidly designed format that barely more than a dozen athletes could compete in the final. It was essentially them setting the stage to cut it. And sure enough, for 2018 they’re scaling it back to a single-day event in a place where basically nobody will watch it. And they wonder why it fails? If the Tour Down Under can manage to pull off a 4-stage women’s race, then surely the Tour de France can do the same thing on a far grander stage than the TdU (no offense Australia, you’re awesome).
2) Wanna know which shoes people use at Kona? Actually, what’s more interesting here is that a manual shoe count was posted, and then Strava stats were used to roughly back up that data.
3) Google dumps calorie counts for walks: While I agree the whole no-option thing was a fail, as was the pink cupcake, I do think having it be on by default is not a fail. To show calories is a huge step for many people that simply don’t understand the impacts of the foods they choose. And that yes, it means walking 6-10 MILES to clear out that Cinnabon. Oh, Cinnabon…how come you’re so good?!? Said differently, don’t throw the baby out with the bath water.
6) Samsung shows off 7-day battery life tiny cellular tracker: This could be used for a wide variety of things if the battery life could get a bit better and the package a bit smaller. But even today, you could stick it in your saddlebag. There are ‘better’ options that fit in the seatpost, but many have kinda weird sizing requirements.
7) Tour de France route for 2018 unveiled: While ASO undercut the women, they definitely delivered on what looks to be a very sweet race for next year for the men. Looking forward to it!
8) Taping a GoPro inside a bike wheel: Actually, a unicycle. Also, if you don’t follow Ed on YouTube, you really should. He’s unicycling across Australia (he’s done other continents already), and his videos are always awesomely produced and fun to watch.
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 Edge 1030 Firmware Update: Fixes an issue introduced by 3.40 earlier in week. Meanwhile, 3.40 adds a few minor things, but mostly fixes a bunch of bugs introduced at launch.
Kona running shoes split: most of the athletes came from US, so they prefer US manufacturers (Saucony, Hoka).
Just do not follow elites, find the best shoe for you.
To the user who had issues with fluctuating speed:
It is better and more exact to type the tire circumference manually, then let it calculated by the device. But if you prefer automatic calculation (accepting the bigger bias), then do not change gear, pedal constantly till you get the message “Wheel circumference calculated”.
…and yes, there are differences between manufacturers also. For example, if we compare Mavic Yksion and Schwalbe Lugano (both 700x23C), the Mavic has a width 23mm and lower profile, where the Schwalbe is 24mm wide and with higher profile…
Just to be pedantic, and it’s not your fault, but that’s not a GoPro. It’s a couple year old Yi Action Cam – cheap but one of the better Chinese GoPro knock off. That is the factory color scheme!
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FAQ’s
I have built an extensive list of my most frequently asked questions. Below are the most popular.
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.
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.
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!
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.
Kona running shoes split: most of the athletes came from US, so they prefer US manufacturers (Saucony, Hoka).
Just do not follow elites, find the best shoe for you.
To the user who had issues with fluctuating speed:
It is better and more exact to type the tire circumference manually, then let it calculated by the device. But if you prefer automatic calculation (accepting the bigger bias), then do not change gear, pedal constantly till you get the message “Wheel circumference calculated”.
…and yes, there are differences between manufacturers also. For example, if we compare Mavic Yksion and Schwalbe Lugano (both 700x23C), the Mavic has a width 23mm and lower profile, where the Schwalbe is 24mm wide and with higher profile…
Such a shame about La Course.
Women’s cycling has produced some exciting racing.
It was the best event of the last Olympics and World Championships.
Ed’s videos – definitely awesome. Ed’s cycling all that way on a unicycle – doubly awesome.
Just to be pedantic, and it’s not your fault, but that’s not a GoPro. It’s a couple year old Yi Action Cam – cheap but one of the better Chinese GoPro knock off. That is the factory color scheme!
Yeah, I decided to not get all technical about it. ;)
Errata! Fenix 5 uppdates is a beta-uppdate…
Thanks
New see sense bike lights with ant+ and AI link to kck.st
Its on kickstarter, their previous two kickstarters went well
I find it amusing to see aerobars and a BTA bottle on a unicycle.