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 BlueSky, 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 posts on the site:
Sunday: Week in Review – December 15th, 2024
Monday: DC Rainmaker Cave Winter Open House 2024 Photo Recap!
Tuesday: The 2024 Swim/Bike/Run Gear I Use List
Wednesday: The Girl’s 2024 Swim/Bike/Run Gear I Use List
Top Deals Still Available:
Here are the top deals still available for the holidays, and I think all of these still ship immediately (in case you need a last-second yet still awesome Christmas present):
1) Garmin Epix for $399-$409USD: This deal is amazing, though Garmin has flirted with this a bit over the last month in deals. Still, when you remember that the Epix Gen 2 got all the feature updates of the Epix Pro, it’s awesome. This blows away virtually every competitively priced device at that price point. Note, the deal fluctuates between $399 and $419 on a near-hourly basis. But look, it doesn’t really matter if you get it for $419 or $399, both are equally incredible.
2) GoPro Hero 13 Black for $299: This is this year’s just-released camera. That’s an amazing price, and we’ve never seen GoPro drop it by $100 just a few months later. You can also toggle to get some alternate bundle deals too. Either way, the Hero 13 Black has become one of my mainstay cameras this fall, alongside the Insta360 Ace Pro 2.
3) Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra for $428: This is one of the best WearOS watches out there, with solid GPS accuracy, solid battery life, and all the WearOS bits. While I think the Google Pixel 3 is a better runner’s watch (with better training load), I prefer the design of the Galaxy Watch Ultra, as well as the battery life.
4) Apple AirTag 4-Pack for $69: I believe this is the lowest price ever for a 4-pack of AirTags, and with the recently announced integration with airlines (including even more announced this week) in case your bike bag or luggage gets lost, it’s even better. I never travel without them.
5) Hover X1 Drone for $299: This is the lowest price we’ve seen it, by far. On the page you’ll see the option to add a $100 coupon, bringing it from $399 to $299. I’ve been testing the far more expensive Hover X1 Pro-Max drone (roughly 3x this price once you account for everything), and while it has a higher speed and did exceptional with the Gauntlet test course, I’m honestly not that impressed with the video quality. It’s nowhere near what even a $250 DJI drone delivers. Point being, for anything other than faster cycling, I’d probably go back with the Hover X1, which is also a bit smaller form factor than the Pro-Max.
Note that all of the above are Amazon affiliate links, which do help support the site. I appreciate it!
Oh, and here’s the full holiday deals list, though many of these have either expired or are offered at a lesser discount. That said, quite a few do still work!
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) I’m on BlueSky: I’ve been on BlueSky for a while now, but just in case you didn’t follow on Twitter where I mentioned it, you might not have known that. I mostly post the same as on Twitter/X, though sometimes with a bit more behind-the-scenes/etc tidbits.
2) France Bans Garmin Varia Radar: Well, indirectly. They banned blinking lights, and the units sold currently in France have a pulsing/blinking light feature. In effect, France matched the existing German laws around blinking bicycle lights, which is why Garmin sells a slightly different variant of all their lights in those countries (in addition to complying with other brightness rules). So for example, the RTL-515 is the global name, but in Germany, it’s the RTL-516. Same goes for RCT-715/RCT716. This took effect back on November 28th. I chatted with Garmin on it, and they’re working on a response. They noted that “obviously” they’ll be complying with the regulation. More shortly on how that’s achieved (I’d guess a firmware update).
3) Holy Moly, Amazing Dumpster Fire Items: As many of you know, I have a dumpster fire t-shirt that I’ve saved and worn in selected product reviews where the product is a hot mess. However, the t-shirt is perhaps a bit too subtle. But, I stumbled upon this entire collection of items the other day, and these are the perfect background prop to some b-roll shots in reviews. Perhaps even saved for the final shot in the review ‘Summary’ section. Don’t worry, I’m pretty confident 2025 will deliver in this category.
4) Peloton to Add Bikes to All Disney Cruise Ships: Peloton previously had it on some ships, but this completes the fleet. This isn’t a new concept for Peloton, which they’ve done with other cruise lines. However, it should be noted that these bikes have a strong reputation for often being neglected on some lines, with many times being entirely inoperable.
5) Best Bike Split Integration Launched with Zwift: For those not familiar, Best Bike Split is well known for letting you load up a race route (e.g. Ironman route), then adding in details about your bike/position and pulling in expected weather for race day, can create an exact race plan for you, as well as estimate your race time (and history has shown it’s scary accurate if you can hit the powers). With that backstory, this feature lets you execute those plans as a structured workout within Zwift – effectively allowing you to do race-day simulations.
6) When to trust your power meter (and when not to): Aside from the obvious (never trust a Shimano power meter), everything else is very on-point here. Of course, I’d expect it too, given Shane Miller/GPLAMA had a strong hand in this article. Definitely worth a read.
7) Samsung Ring soon to come in larger sizes: Put this solidly in the ‘finally’ category. I’m pretty surprised they didn’t launch with some of these larger sizes. My fingers are hardly crazy thick, yet I sized towards the top of Samsung’s range when I tried a test ring set. And those larger sizes were virtually impossible to find/order early on. And given how Samsung has pushed this ring heavily towards more of a mainstream audience as a health device, having thicker finger options is key.
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With that – thanks for reading!
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France banned blinking rear lights, but did they also limit the output power, like they do in Germany? There is a difference between the 20 lumens of RTL515 and the 5 lumens of RTL516. IMO a rear light with just 5 lumens is useless.
No limits on brightness thankfully.
The light of the RTL515 is very blinding. It is annoying for car drivers and bike riders, too. And if it blinks, it´s even more annoying. The 5 lumen of the 516 are really enough. You can see it from a whole kilometer far away. You don´t have to blind all other people around you.
I agree with all your points, though I think there is a case for more lumens when you use a rear light during daylight.
Interesting that they would ban the product if it has that feature as opposed to citing a biker that used it. Its not like there aren’t a million blinking rear taillights already out there.
Technically it’s citing (user-focused), though I suppose also technically it’d probably be illegal to sell a bike-mounted light. That’s much more legal French than I can swing on a Sunday.
Either way, I expect Garmin to quickly sort it out. They are a company that skews (overly so sometimes) towards perfect legal compliance.
Ray, any chance you’d be willing to follow @ap.brid.gy on bluesky to bridge your account over to mastodon?
link to techcrunch.com for more info on the bluesky/fed bridge if you’re interested.
No prob, done!
I had/have a Mastodon account, but given the Bluesky surge in popularity, I’m seeing much more engagement there than I did previously on Mastodon.
Interesting to read about the changes to bike lights in France. As a driver I personally don’t fancy the blinking lights whenever there is low visibility, as it may be easy to ‘spot’ but much harder to assess speed and distance. It also can be quite a distraction from everything else going on in traffic. This is exaggerated in groups of riders or when many cyclists are around. I do appreciate there are situations where the blinking might actually be the better option, quiet country roads with a higher chance of distracted drivers come to mind. But herein lies the problem: regulations are a one-size fits-all thing with a focus on being easily enforceable.
My question is though, that auto-translate states the ban as being during low-visibility situations. It does not mention day time. Is this something that can be confirmed? Because both as rider and as driver I do find that during day time a slow-blinking rear light enhances safety in rural areas or forest roads – and esp mountain climbs during holiday season. Solid lights are not really an option during multi-hour rides either die to battery life.
One last thing, if Garmin is going to change firmware to adhere to these changes, will it be backwards compatible?; can I load it in whenever I go to France for a cycling holiday?; and mainly (but offtopic), do you know if there any plans to implement a day time mode where the light is off, the radar works, and the light only blinks when oncoming traffic is detected? Probably questions that should be asked directly to Garmin but I wondered if this may have been brought up during your communications.
I would be very surprised if they aren’t backwards compatible.
Garmin has made some interesting moves lately to ensure compliance with various EU rules, such as making an Edge 530 USB-C edition, so they can continue to sell it. But in this case, it should be a relatively easy software solution.
The only thing that changes it from being “silly easy” to just copy the x16 variants to the x15 variants, is that the x16 variants (German) also have lower light outputs that aren’t applicable here. Thus, there probably has to be some slightly blended mode. Again, not a huge issue, but not as easy as just offering the x16 FW to download.
So why are Varia units bafflingly still not USB C?
So we will not see a review of the hover air pro max model as you don’t like it ?
You’ll definitely see a review, probably The Gauntlet test very shortly (already filmed, just needed to edit).
It’s not that I don’t like it, but rather, for most people the tradeoffs simply don’t make sense compared to the X1.
In the case of the X1, I had that for a long-long time of footage gathering before I did a review.
Thanks Ray, looking forward to your videos. Your comment still irritates me a bit as the Pro Max basically fixed every issue from you with the Pro Max. Only thing is that it’s a big bigger.
I thought that will be your new go to drone.
Looking forward for the review.
The Garmin Radar burns your retina even in peloton mode. It is a shame Garmin was unable to develop an application that allows you to adjust light intensity or create a lightning schedule.
Well done, France! I hope the ban will spread across EU.
I was really hoping that Germany would align with the rest of the world and not the other way around.
With France and Germany going this way, this might become a EU thing.
I find blinking lights much more visible and I like the extended battery life that comes with it.
Well.. cops (at least in Germany) do not seem to be especially ardent about enforcing this part of the Highway Code. Cheers!