Heads up!!! Here’s your massive holiday sports tech deals list! This includes the Garmin Epix for just $419, the Apple AirTag 4-Pack for just $69, the GoPro Hero 12 Black for $249, (or the brand new Hero 13 or $299!) and plenty more! Go check out the full list of 100+ deals 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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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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FAQ’s
I have built an extensive list of my most frequently asked questions. Below are the most popular.
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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 2024 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.
I’m really surprised that the Hero7 is doing so well: not that it’s not a good product, but I thought that with more competitors on the market and just a limit to the market size itself (how many people actually need an action camera? Maybe it speaks a lot about their marketing genius).
Looking forward to your Osmo Action review Ray!
PS: The first graph of that Verge article on GoPro is killing me – I wish more colors existed in the universe than just red.
I’ve got a Hero 4 Session, Hero 5 Black, and Hero 7 Black now. The Hypersmooth is what makes the 7 Black so much more appealing IMHO. I have a EVO SS Gimbal to use with the 5 and 4, but I really don’t need to bother now as the 7 is really that good with Hypersmooth.
Curious to see what the Osmo Action does there. I would think it would need to have some form of “Hypersmooth” to be competitive. If it can do that, and have more battery life, then that would be fantastic!
I’d encourage anyone who’s interested in GoPro as a company (from a product sales/etc… standpoint), to listen to this short podcast from The Verge, where they had CEO Nick Woodman on back in December. Some fascinating tidbits on their stumbles: link to theverge.com
Good shout Ray – I’ll have a listen.
Interesting stats:
“About 85 percent of the 842,000 cameras GoPro shipped this past quarter were the Hero 7 Black, and the camera accounted for 90 percent of the company’s product revenue.”
I wonder if the other non-H7B cameras lose them money if they regret launching those?
I’m surprised that gopro haven’t somehow protected their form factor – the ability for DJI to copy the shape, and therefore get reuse of mounts etc, is a, major issue for gopro.
I suspect they don’t lose money, only because they’re just Hero 5 or 6 (can’t remember off-hand) that are given an exterior refresh. Same thing they did the previous year. So their cost to market is much lower than a totally new camera.
The mounts is tougher, because GoPro wants 3rd party companies to use the mounts to increase the overall accessory landscape. So once they opened that door (without licensing it), then it’s kinda hard for them to close it back on companies. In other words, that ship has sailed. I think overall though it’s helped GoPro tremendously.
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. I suspect as a race direction. I suppose you mean race DIRECTOR.
Have a good week
Good catch!
Who needs spell checker when you got readers like yours ?
Ray, in the recent batch of Garmin reviews you promised a future write-up of the female health tracking (“later that day…”). Is that still coming?
Yes, sorry!
Isn’t the Clevertraining VIP sale now overdue? Is that not a thing this year?
Starts Thursday. :)
Any indication if Garmin are likely to add incident detection to other devices too (specifically the Instinct) or is this our lot?
I haven’t heard. Keep in mind a big restriction is specific accelerometer/gyro bits inside.
Hi Ray,
From the article you linked to on this, the VA3M is getting it, but not the VA3! Seems like a pretty arbitrary line in the sand, not a specific accelorometer/gyro issue (but could be wrong, possibly different bits???).
If this really isn’t a physical limitation, seems dumb. Can’t imagine Garmin’s strategy should be anything different than “Keep customers alive… so they can buy more stuff in the future.”
Maybe not having this feature convinces someone, somewhere to upgrade, but (just like your thoughts on Garmin and their regional maps) this is a quintesential example of what rubs me the wrong way about Garmin.
The Fulgaz on Windows must have just dropped…I checked yesterday setting it up on the ATV for my wife. Fulgaz needs to fix the login issue across multiple devices though. Not working for me.
Oh…and the windows thing…must be selected by Fulgaz so not a sure thing.
@Ray, you mentioned above with the price reduction on the Fenix 5 Plus that you still don’t expect a new Fenix variant soon. Recently, the VA3/3M had a price reduction. Could that imply a VA4 could be soon or is it the same situation as the Fenix (i.e. towards the end of the year or 2020)?
The Vivoactive series has found a pretty consistent fall timeframe release cycle, effectively mirroring Fitbit and Apple.
That heatseeker video is awesome, thanks for the link!
Nice Cinderella reference!
Haha…thanks!
Not sure how useful they will be, but it’s a little frustrating that the 935 would not get safety features that several far cheaper devices are getting. I don’t believe there is any hardware limitation. I guess if you’re looking to differentiate the 945 you have to make some unpopular decisions.
Hi Ray, ref the FIT File and your discussion on the 2yr Giant warranty announcement. Specialized have had a lifetime warranty on their frames/wheels for a number of years which they do honour (they replaced my broken frame with no quibbles) – you need to be the original owner etc – but certainly seems best in class.
Interesting – I wasn’t aware of that – is that a crash replacement warranty though?
nope – just a general frame warranty and looking at the detail online; crash is an exclusion.
Gotchya – ya – that’s the key thing that Giant is covering – crashes. :)
“Garmin 5 Plus – $150 off: Obviously, this is mostly timed to make you think about whether you want a FR945 or a Fenix 5 Plus (since now the Fenix 5 Plus is $100 below the cost of a FR945). I definitely do not expect a new Fenix variant anytime soon”
If you were in search for a new watch, what would you buy now that the Fenix 5 Plus is cheaper than the FR945? You would go with the newer watch FR945 or you would take the offer and take a Fenix 5 Plus or Fenix 5sPlus?
Yeah, that’s a tough one. The FR945 clearly has more features – one the Fenix 5 Plus isn’t going to get.
Me personally, I prefer the lighter FR935/945 anyway – so it’s kinda an easy decision. But if you were planning on the Fenix 5 Plus, the you’d probably want to decide if those new FR945-specific features were valuable to you…or just noise.
Hi Ray, you indicated that no more Fenix models are expected. What about an update to the 735xt (i.e., 745xt)? I love the form factor and the fact that the 245 now has lap swimming, but the open water works so well on the 735xt (for me) and is lacking on the 245. I have small wrists and the 935/945 are too big.
I haven’t heard anything in that realm. I feel like the FR735XT is perplexing for Garmin. Partially because they’ve got legacy watches like the FR920XT that continue to sell well on sale – so it’s trickier to introduce a replacement FR735XT without killing their higher end offerings.
Ray,
Have you ever considered using/reviewing Electric Muscle Stimulators products such as Compex (link to compex.com) ? (I haven’t found anything similar in your list of reviews)
I am quoting this brand because it’s the main one I know but I am sure there are others.
I’d be interested on the potential performance/recovery gain it can bring. At least that is what I hear from the trail running literature and I feel like it is similar to the type of products you use/review.
Frederic
I haven’t done much with them. My challenge is that in order to have a hope of reviewing them fairly, you have to have a super structured training schedule where the load is consistent and enough that you actually need the units. Else, there’s just too much else going on to be sure.
Fair enough. I suppose I’ll have to seek for reviews done by other trusted reviewers
Thanks!
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The Fulgaz on Windows must have just dropped…I checked yesterday setting it up on the ATV for my wife. Fulgaz needs to fix the login issue across multiple devices though. Not working for me.
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