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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!
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Have some fun in the travel section.
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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!
5
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.
Not the least bit surprising for Ray, but I’d also wager that many triathletes are deep into the points/credit card rewards game. Marginal gains…
Haha…true.
I think it’s just fascinating how easy it is, in some cases, to get something for nothing. In this case, if you were a Chase Sapphire/Reserve person already, you can tap an account connection link and get back $120/year. Or, if you were considering buying a Peloton, that’s a free trip (or more, if you get creative with it).
Of course, sometimes, folks end up spending more for artificial gains. For example spending twice as much to fly a given airline to save up a small amount of points (and not for airline elite status type reasons). Or, using those Chase points to buy an Apple Watch (seriously, don’t – it’s a horrible spend of points ROI-wise, relative to the potential travel value when transferred to partner airlines/hotels).
But on the whole, there’s a lot of opportunities for minor tweaks to ones existing process for large benefits.
Jeff is triathlon still a thing?
Something for nothing! No such thing as a free lunch, those funds are coming straight out of what you pay, and you’re paying more as a result. When you’re on corp funded expeditions to the far corners of the world that’s a small reward, but if you paid for the flight/peloton then you’re effectively still using your own money :)
The nothing I’m referring to though is that if you buy a Peloton on a regular credit card (or even the Chase Sapphire/Reserve cards), but don’t link it – then you don’t get the points/etc. Thus, the simple acts of linking it gets you something for no added cost beyond what you were going to do (nothing).
The concept is the same for other miles/points cards. Of course, in general, the US miles/points game is well beyond what’s in Europe (there’s a bit in the UK, but nothing near the level of US stuff).
Inversely, as noted above, if people are paying sums more for tickets on a given carrier to get points, without doing the math of whether it’s worth it – then yes, it’s definitely dumb.
Chase also recently extended the “Pay Yourself Back” feature for points so those 25,000 points could also be worth $375 worth of purchases at grocery stores, home improvement stores, and restaurants. That’s at the Reserve’s 1.5 cents per point rate. Another way using this credit could be worth it.
Ray, I think you have some of the details wrong about the points:
– It’s 5x points for Sapphire Preferred/10x for Sapphire Reserve/JPM Reserve
– The Minimum spend to get 10x is $1800 – so you need to get at least the lower-end bike
– The max is 25k points for Sapphire Preferred/50k points for Reserve
So if you buy a Tread+ on your reserve, you get 43k points.
— See here: link to cnbc.com
Thanks Yonah – I didn’t catch that the base Preferred is 5X only.
However, the rest of your points I already covered in the post, including the $1,800 min spend – which is below the price of the Bike anyway, so it’s a moot point. I also covered the 25K/50K max too. The point about $5,000 cap is that an increasing number of people buy both a Peloton Bike & Treadmill – thus, beyond that $5K level, it doesn’t matter.
Missed the minimum spend earlier. Interesting to note though – you can buy a Bike + and a base tread and hit the max (4990 for both).
50k points for a $5k spend is a nice bonus – almost akin to some of the new signup bonuses they offer for credit cards.
Not that you have time these days but I would find it very, uh, interesting(?) to see an example of how far down the rabbit hole you went with frequent flier points. I can only imagine the spreadsheets that were created.
Many, many spreadsheets.
Though, the vast majority of my spreadsheets actually skewed more towards EQM than straight miles. Base miles were a benefit, but honestly with flying 250-300K/year for work in my corporate work, most of it international, and most of it further towards the front. So ‘plain miles’ were kinda falling out of the sky in most cases. I was largely more interested in optimizing EQM & lifetime status with various programs, knowing eventually that travel would end.
So I’m just shy of 2 Million Mile Status on United (which is another step-up in lifetime benefits). Had it not been for the Pandemic, I likely would have cross it this year easily. But I haven’t been across the pond (any pond) in over a year+ now. After I moved to Europe in 2012 I split more of my mileage between United (+Star Alliance) & British Airways (+Oneworld), about 100K a year each till I left the corporate world – so that slowed my United status.
Marriott I have lifetime Gold Elite, and for Hilton, I’m also pretty darn close to lifetime Diamond too.
Fun old post on hitting UA Million Miler: link to dcrainmaker.com
Using credit cards for personal expenses is MORONIC. Has been proven again and again that it leads to overspending and larger debt loads. Pay CASH or you can’t afford it.
Ultimately, people are free to make the best financial choices for themselves. If one pays off the bill entirely, and is fiscally responsible – then there are significant benefits to using a points/miles credit card versus paying cash/debit.
Agreed Ray, especially if you do any sort of travel for work at all. I would counter the above to say that if you do work travel at all and don’t use a credit card you are moronic! Jk, to each their own. But while on work travel you get oodles of points from food, hotels, etc. Even if you only travel a couple of times a year its worth it.
Now I am not anything close to you on travel Ray. The fact that you have lifetime Marriot/Hilton and all of these airline lifetime benefits is crazy.
People are getting so savvy with airline miles and such is actually making it a requirement that you do the same otherwise you will be permanently boarding the plane last and fighting for overhead space.
Thanks for the info! This is super helpful I have a Sapphire Preferred and I’ve already received the $120 credit per year for Peloton subscription fees, but how do I get the 25,000 points? I purchased my Peloton back in November, will that have an issues?
Given this is a new ‘program’ (the 5X/10X bonus), I don’t think it’s retroactive unfortunately.
Did I miss something??? Peloton bought Precor for $420M.
link to investor.onepeloton.com
Is it $120 credit each monthly statement?
No, annual.
Great article that I enjoy reading so much that It gives me a lot of positive feelings but I wanted to add that it is really hard to earn those credit points to buy what you want every time you want to do that. Like when I was 20 years old I saw an advertisement with something like “Go Now and read financial articles” and I have done that and now I know a lot about finance and can easily say that taking a lot of credits is not good as it seems to be.
Thanks for this article.
Thank you
Thank you