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Week in Review – May 19h, 2024

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/X 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!

DCR Posts In The Past Week:

Here’s all the latest on the site:

Sunday: Week in Review – May 12th, 2024

Monday: Polar Grit X2 Pro In-Depth Review: A Flagship Watch?

Wednesday: Hammerhead Karoo 3 In-Depth Review: Worth the Upgrade?

Thursday: SRAM RED AXS & Power Meter (2024) In-Depth Review

Thursday: Strava Announces Family Plan, Dark Mode, AI Cheat Finder

Saturday: Big Garmin Edge, Fenix, and Epix Sale (US): Quick Thoughts

Phew, it’s been a while since I had a threesome in-depth review week. Almost felt like September again! For better or worse, things gonna be busy for a while around here though!

YouTube Videos This Past Week:

Here’s what hit the tubes over on the You of Tube, definitely don’t forget to subscribe there to get notified of videos the second they hit!

Spring Sports Tech Deals:

There’s a slate of new sports tech deals, primarily from Garmin, but also a few other companies jumping in on the almost summer-themed sales.

ProductSale PriceAmazonOther siteSale Notes
Apple Watch Series 10 - $50 off
$399/$499 (cellular)
$349
Apple Watch Ultra 2 Black Titanium - $75 off$725This is a nice little deal for this unit which just came out.
Fitbit Ace LTE Kids Activity Smartwatch - 22% off$179This was just announced this summer, and is their first full smartwatch focused on kids activity tracking and gamification.
Fitbit Charge 6 - 38% off!
$159
$99This 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.
Fitbit Inspire 3 - $30 off$69
Fitbit Sense 2 - $70 off$179
Fitbit Versa 4 - $40 off$119
Garmin Edge 1040 Cycling GPS - $100 off!$499This 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.
Garmin Edge 540 - $100 off$249⚡⚡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.
Garmin Edge 540 Solar - $100 off$349This is the lowest price we've seen on the Garmin Edge 540 Solar to date, which has gained virtually all of the new Garmin Edge 1050 features as well.
Garmin Edge 840 - $100 off$349⚡⚡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.
Garmin Edge 840 Solar - $100 off$449This is the lowest price we've seen on the Garmin Edge 840 Solar to date, which has gained virtually all of the new Garmin Edge 1050 features as well.
Garmin Edge Explore 2 - $40 off
$299
$269This is a great little unit, though, with the sales on the Edge 540 and 840 series, you might want to look at those instead.
Garmin Epix Pro Series - 20% off!
$899/$999
$649⚡ 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.
Garmin Epix Sapphire/Titanium (Gen 2) - $400+ off!$449⚡⚡⚡ 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.
Garmin Fenix 7 Pro - 31% off (All Variants)
$799+
$549+⚡ 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.
Garmin Forerunner 165 Music - $50 off!$249This 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.
Garmin Forerunner 255/255S - $100 off$249This 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.
Garmin Forerunner 255/255S Music - $100 off!
$349/$399
$299This 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.
Garmin Forerunner 265 - $100 off$349This is the first time we've seen the Forerunner 265 on sale, and it's solidly priced right now at $349
Garmin Forerunner 265s - $100 off$349This is the first time we've seen the Forerunner 265 on sale, and it's solidly priced right now at $349
Garmin Forerunner 955 - $100ish off!$399This 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.
Garmin Forerunner 965 - $50 off!$499This 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.
Garmin Instinct 2X - $100 off!$349This 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).
Garmin Tactix 7 Pro - 20% off$1,049This 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).
GoPro Hero 12 Black - $100 off!$299The 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.
GoPro Hero 13 Black - $60 OFF!$399This is the first time we have seen the newly announced GoPro Hero 13 Black on sale. Solid deal, this is my daily use action cam!
Google Pixel Watch 3 (41mm) - $70 OFF$279Click to add $70 coupon into the cart. Bringing price down to $279!
Insta360 Ace Pro Action Cam - $50 off$299This is the previous edition, as the Ace Pro 2 just came out a few weeks back, but this is still a very solid camera from a year ago.
Insta360 GO 3S Tiny 4K Action Camera - $60 off!$239This 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.
Jackery Portable Power Station - $60 off!$199This 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!
Tacx Flux 2 Smart Trainer - $200ish off
$899
$499I 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.
Tacx NEO 2T Smart Trainer - $200-$300 off
$1,399
$899This 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.
Wahoo KICKR CORE Zwift One (COG V2) + Play Controllers
$499
$499This 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.
Wahoo KICKR MOVE - $300 off!
$1,599
$999⚡⚡ 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.
Wahoo KICKR ROLLR - $100 off
$599
$499
Wahoo KICKR SNAP - Lowest Price Ever
$499
$199This 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.

Stuff 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) Polar (Sorta) adds NFC Payments: Polar has partnered with Fidesmo, who makes NFC bands/straps that can be used for contactless payments. These bands now perfectly fit Polar products. To be clear, there is *zero* tech inside the Polar watches that’s aware of these bands or anything (which is why they work on a bunch of older Polar watches too). The bands cost 59EUR, and are limited to European consumers. I’d have thought we’d see Polar do something with Curve or such directly, for their V3 & Grit X2 Pro watches, but I guess this kinda sorta works too.

2) Denmark is throwing sharks on bike paths: No really, real actual sharks. I’m so confused.

3) WearOS 5 announced, claims lower GPS battery burn: Specifically, they note that a user running a marathon will see a 20% lower battery burn rate. Will definitely be interesting to test out these claims!

4) Peloton adding new ‘Look Cam’ ads before classes: So far, this isn’t going over well, which is good to hear. I don’t mind Peloton’s existing pop-out shelf option if people want to buy the same gear as the instructors. But an additional 30-second ad before a class on a $45/month paid platform is just dumb. Seriously, it dumb.

5) Spanish City Wants to Require Insurance for Cyclists: Hmm, not a good trend.

6) Performance Gains Round-up: A new round-up of all sorts of semi-aero-focused, semi-performance-focused stuff. A good quick read.

7) How to perform a ‘factory’ spin down of a Wahoo KICKR: It’s been a really long time since I’ve done one of these. Kinda neat, but do note all the warnings. And also, really only do this if you know your unit is dorked.

With that – thanks for reading!

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11 Comments

  1. Jack

    The link for the cycling insurance currently leads to a 404 page not found message over at GCN.

    In Japan, cycling insurance is mandatory. There’s a been a few instances of collisions with pedestrians that lead to sever injury and death. The insurance itself is low cost, about 2,000 JPY for the year and is sometimes integrated with automobile, homeowners, or renters insurance. Otherwise they are available at convenience store kiosks. Penalties for not having it is small.

    I view this as a way to avoid having to deal with the other party if something was to happen. I’ve been in a taxi vs. cyclist (me) incident and did not have the cycling insurance at that time. It would have been a lot easier for me to have someone handle the paperwork and negotiation for me.

  2. Pavel Vishniakov

    Before Apple Pay arrived to The Netherlands, I used one of these payment bands and I loved it – it was surprisingly more user-friendly (as there are no buttons to push – it’s literally a payment card chip baked into a bracelet, so you wave it at the terminal and the payment is done). Obviously, it’s more limited because of that compared to Apple Pay (i.e. the spending limit is there and is lower), but the fact that it works every time (no battery to charge, no buttons to push etc) is magical.

  3. Stuart Brown

    The Polar payments solution was done by Garmin and Barclays in the UK in 2016!

    link to pocket-lint.com

  4. Goncalo

    DCR: Specifically, they note that a user running a marathon will see a 20% lower battery burn rate. Will definitely be interesting to test out these claims!

    DCR’s legs: wait, what?! What do you mean by interesting? And test? Anyway, the previous WearOS version worked just fine, nothing to see here.

    😂

  5. Claus Jacobsen

    Well – As a dane i should probably clarify a bit. – First off the shark was already dead when it was planted. The first guy who did it (and yes there have been 2 instances, or a couple of kids who thought it was a great joke the first time) was caught and explained it as a joke. He got it from a local fisherman, where it was caught in the net as he was fishing for herring or cod. The shark itself was about 1m in length. which is quite typical for that kind here in Denmark (we have no great whites or even a hammerhead)

    And yes – it’s not a joke for a lot of danes, but when you fish like that in the north sea, other species will get caught sometimes. Originally he thought he would scare someone in the family, but then got cold feet and left it. (what i read from an article at a danish news outlet who followed the story. – He also got a fine for disorderly behaviour. (when first asked, the police said he would be fined, they just had to find out what he was going to be fined for)

    • Claus Jacobsen

      PS – and this is just the fun part – it does give a whole other meaning to “sharks teeth” and stop signs!!

  6. chukko

    Although a couple weeks old, but i just noticed that on Apr 4th Cyclic released Fly6 Pro with 7hr battery life. Any plans for a quick review?