Heads up!!! Here’s your massive Cyber Monday sports tech deals list! This includes the Garmin Forerunner 965 for just $499, Garmin Epix for $429, the Apple Watch Ultra 2 for just $619, the GoPro Hero 12 Black for $299, (or Hero 13 bundle for $339!) and plenty more! Go check out the full list of 100+ deals 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.
4
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.
Great perspective on the Nix and agreed that it’s – not great. Garmin (at least my F945 and E1040) already provide estimates of water loss/hydration needs for workouts, is anyone aware of a systematic or informed look at accuracy of these? Minimum it seems to track to actual training temperature and indoor/outdoor activities.
The F1 article is behind a paywall. :(
I believe you get a certain number of free articles per month with Escape. In this case though, it’s also available via the internet archive: link to web.archive.org
No idea why they would try to get rid of the F1 article… Sure, it’s not praising F1, but other than that… nothing spectacular at all.
I am guessing but it might be that they invited a journalist on a trip to write nice things about F1 and get more US audience but she said things like this:
“Ferrari used to be the king of F1 but has been reduced to an often-futile chase of Red Bull’s dominance. Instead, Red Bull has so dominated the field of late the sport is barely worth watching at all.”
and
“That’s a lot of money for an ordinary person to splurge just to see Max Verstappen on pole and Max Verstappen P1”
and
“…no one there thought it made much difference whether we went on qualifying or race day. The results would be the same: Max Verstappen pole, Max Verstappen P1.”
Plus the comments about the wealthy and insta-famous probably didn’t help either.
Nice insight on Lewis though.
Just my thoughts.
Sadly, this is 100% true. Yes, Red Bull should not be punished for developing a better car, but why do they not replace Checo? Someone like Fernando, Lando and even Lewis will drive for Red Bull if given the opportunity, and provide much better competition for Max. Unfortunately, no journalist are asking this question.
The F1 drone video is unbelievably cool. Thanks Ray.
Go back and watch 1988 and 1989 Tour de France. The bikes are not so different but the guys are suffering so much more. They don’t always bounce back 100% from day to day.
Particularly look then at 1990 and 1991. Chisppuci in particular went from being ground down day by day to just attacking every day in the mountains and riding by himself off the front for hours like it was nothing.
Now everyone seems superhuman. People are going at absurd speeds over mountain passes in grave at 20% grade now.
It’s not that bikes are 4kg lighter and “incremental gains”. There is something else. It’s not that Lance Armstrong was some kind of outlier. This is a sport of high tech and not just in the training, nutrition, and gear.
Watch the changes in Indurain too. It’s a miracle that I don’t think is possible on effort alone. Indurain is such a mensch that we don’t want to think badly of him. But he and Banesto worked with Conconi and Delgado tested positive and got off on a technicality of a variance in UCI and Olympic doping rules.
Michele Ferrari who masterminded the Postal / Discovery doping program was trained by Conconi.
It is all conjecture and circumstantial. But my assessment is that it has never stopped. The outlier is that Armstrong and Landis were American and so they were thrown under the bus. (Also Lance not very likable.)
When I was a cat 2 in the 1990s in the US drugs were common. Especially asthma inhalers for people without asthma. (Like Froome and Salbutamol.) And steroids and stimulants.
It’s a brutal sport and there is no doubt these guys race hard and suffer for victory. But I doubt anyone is clean in the pro peloton.
“This is a sport of high tech and not just in the training, nutrition, and gear.”
I think it’s both a combination of everything that’s been gained from tech and not tech, and undoubtedly a bit of doping still occurring. Likewise, doing things right at the very edge of that line (what is considered doping vs not).
Tech advances are certainly huge, but so are massive advances in how to train, how to ensure the body is more recovered, and how to properly fuel it before, during and after a race. Some of these things matter more for a 3-week race, than they do a one-off crit or single stage race. The non-tech things are arguably the biggest advancements in the last 20-30 years, heck, even fueling strategies in the last 3-4 years has gone a massive change. Same goes for cooling strategies.
But certainly, doping is still a part of it.
If performance enhancing drugs somehow did not exist, we would have still seen a huge drop in race surprises from the introduction of power meters and the increase in understanding that comes from that data. This happened roughly in parallel with the EPO wave, so we can’t really separate one influence from the other.
thanks….garmin sos info is a good read
No comments on FCC filing for new Hammerhead Karoo?
That should be this one: ?
link to fccid.io
Looks like it, not even the slightest attempt at keeping the product name out of the pre-release files.
Noteworthy is the absence of cellular frequencies in the certification, guess they did some statistics about how many buyers actually put in a SIM.
Ray certainly won’t comment on anything while under NDA.
Sorry can’t edit:
Screenshot of menu:
link to fccid.io
Device measurements:
link to fccid.io
Sir, yes Sir!
In addition to your STUFF I FOUND INTERESTING AROUND THE INTERWEBS:
link to mantel.com
Although the link says 2, the site says 3 already.
Is there, finaly, news comming in march/april Ray?
For the lack of anywhere else to put:
Ray, has your dog a Strava account yet?
When will we see the review for Fi: link to tryfi.com
Haha, no Strava account for Lucy yet.
Have you done and review of the hdrop vs nix.
Any news on nix review? and have you heard about hdrop?