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: FIT File: Garmin Instinct 3…Let’s Chat
Tuesday: Garmin Instinct 3 vs Garmin Fenix 8: Every Difference Detailed!
Thursday: Garmin ECG Now Available in EU (But not Fenix 7 Pro & Epix Pro)
Stay tuned for the final Instinct 3 review this week, following me putting it through the paces the past few weeks, including a 60KM trek this past Wednesday. Atop that, there’s a smattering of smaller company news I want to catch up on, and one moderately-sized announcement this week coming up. Maybe more, who knows.
Sports Tech Deals:
Some new ones have popped up this past week. I think the Fenix 7 at $429 is probably the most interesting for people eyeing that new Instinct 3, since this is basically cheaper while having more features. I’ll continue sweeping and adding in a few more of these later tonight, so keep checking back.
| Product | Sale Price | Amazon | Other site | Sale Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Garmin Varia Radar (RTL515) - $50 off | $149 | Amazon | REI | This is Garmin's standalone radar+taillight option, and $149 is pretty much the standard sale-price. |
Note that all of the above are Amazon affiliate links, which do help support the site. I appreciate it!
YouTube Videos This 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!
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:
Some of these are mixed in from the last few weeks that I don’t think got much attention (if any) from the CES timeframe, but caught my eye.
1) Stolen E-bike Batteries Could Be Made Worthless if Bosch was Less Greedy: Such a good article from Thomas on Bosch’s new program. As one who has had an e-bike battery stolen (which in this case ran about 800EUR), everything about the situation sucks.
2) COROS Feature Updates January 2025: I’m a sucker for anything to do with sensors, and COROS allowing you to rename sensors in their latest update is A-OK with me. They’ve also added both during and post-workout sensor low-battery alerts. As well as a few other items.
3) Zwift Rolls Out Personalized Route Time Estimates: I thought this was kinda cool, if for no other reason than my wife was asking for the feature the night prior, and boom, it magically appeared.
4) Peloton continues to test Zwift-like game in private beta: Will be super interesting to see where this lands. Keeping in mind, during one of the big layoff rounds, Zwift let go of one of their lead engineers…who was quickly scooped up by Peloton.
5) Bankruptcy judge approves Giant’s purchase of Stages: In the list of “things that are no surprise”, this continues to move forward. It’ll be interesting to see which product categories Giant ultimately continues. I’d imagine they’d ditch bike computers, though perhaps there’s a market for them within Asia. And I’d imagine they’ll probably exit the consumer indoor bike scene, though certainly keep up on the gym side.
6) Assembling a minimalist travel-sized bike tool kit: As always, Dave Rome’s gonna cost me a lot of money. Sigh.
7) DJI Flip announced: I’ve ordered one, but it doesn’t arrive till tomorrow. No idea why DHL decided to take nearly a week to get from Amsterdam to Mallorca, but…I guess such is island life. I’ll be putting it through its sports-focused paces as usual. That said, I’m still a bit skeptical of the new design, in terms of travel compactness compared to the Mini 4 Pro (or inversely, the NEO). Seems a bit like a NEO Pro or Mini 5 Pro would have been a better fit for most people.
8) Stryd converts TrainingPeaks & Final Surge Pace-based workouts to Power workouts: This is actually pretty interesting. Essentially, if you’ve got a coach (or otherwise) creating pace-based workouts in TrainingPeaks or Final Surge, then Stryd will automatically convert those targets to be running power targets. While I’m kinda skeptical on the business viability of Stryd in the medium to long term, I do think this is a pretty useful feature for users of their device. Kudos.
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With that – thanks for reading!
Great low key week for Coros and Styrd. Coros update is super. The ability to do workouts in Trail Run mode is something that made me question some life decisions. Running with power/Stryd is also a new frontier for many. Trail Runners be super happy!
I’m in the indoor cycling community as an educator to indoor cycling instructors and teach at a club with Stages bikes; I also have one at home so I’m invested in their success. We’re anxiously waiting for news about customer support for the bikes. I know most of the Stages indoor bike team went to work for Giant, so I’m curious to know why you think they’ll exit the indoor bike scene. Do you think those executives might peel off and create their own separate company? Stages bikes had been the preferred bike in the industry before the bankruptcy.
As noted I’m specifically talking the “consumer indoor bike” scenes, rather than the industry (e.g. gym) one.
The reasons being that:
A) Stages couldn’t get rid of SB20’s to save their life, literally in this case: While they found some consumers, they were just horrifically overbuilt for households. Sure, that design is awesome for long-term life in gyms, but the weight/size killed them in consumer shipping realms, as well as hurt them from an aesthetics standpoint in the home.
B) The Zwift Ride has fundamentally shifted industry thinking on indoor bikes. While Zwift Ride V1 has some minor fit issues (e.g. crank length/saddle fore/aft), Zwift themselves has been clear these will all be addressed in a V1.5 or V2. The benefits of splitting the trainer apart from the bike part is massive for companies, especially when things go wrong. A single return on a bike indoor bike wipes away any profit, if not putting them in the red. Whereas by splitting it in two pieces that are very modular and easy to ship, makes it far more efficient for companies, but frankly, also consumers. People can upgrade trainers, and companies can also upgrade all the whiz-bang features of a frame. As a result, I don’t expect to see Tacx do another indoor bike either. I suspect we’ll see Wahoo do another, but I’d be surprised if we see another KICKR SHIFT unless they can substantially change either the features in that model, or reduce the price.
Thank you, this is very helpful. I’d spaced out on the difference between “consumer” and “industry” indoor bikes.
My husband just bought the Wahoo KICKR SHIFT during the Black Friday sales and is loving it…but we aren’t the typical home consumer—we don’t mind setting up heavier more durable equipment!
Waiting for the DJI Flip!
FR955 has been lately for sale in EU for way sub 300e.
Last I saw it was 259e or smth like that.
Very hard to beat that deal!
Were did you find a deal like that? Cheapest one i found right now is like 340€.
Have you found a place to do drone wind tests in Mallorca?
Yup. My backyard. :) Actually, technically I suppose it’s my frontyard.
Either way, I live within a few hundred meters of the water/cliffs edge, and the winds are pretty strong out here. Surprisingly, the wind conditions are similar to Amsterdam’s in terms of typical storm strength that rips through here.
The only difference is the frequency is slightly higher in Amsterdam. There, I could roughly count on a nasty wind spell within any 10-day timeframe. Here it’s more like within every 15 days. Also, I find the Dutch weather service a little more accurate at predicting them than the Mallorcan weather (and, there are better official wind sensors in the Netherlands, versus fewer here). But ultimately, it’s pretty easy to look out and see how nasty the whitecaps are, to figure out wind.
That is great news! Those videos are always a favorite!
1.
While companies want an “everything is a subscription” model, security features shouldn’t be locked behind those subscription walls. Bosch’s justification is ridiculous; because bad actors have no idea if a battery is part of the secure ecosystem, those actors will just steal every battery and discard those that are.
Thank you for this – always interesting to check if I’ve missed anything I don’t want to have missed, but especially for the links at the bottom.
I suspect it was a bankruptcy “judge” though, as opposed to a new posting you’ve perhaps made up there.
Or maybe you are about to launch some fanfic for “Udge Dredd”? 😉
Ray, are you still going to publish a review on the X1 Pro/ProMax? Would like to see a comparison between the standard X1 and these ones.
Sorta random comment/question… I recently was on a run with my dog he stopped suddenly for a potty break, something about the jerking of the leash caused my watch band to snap (it must’ve already been worn down) and the watch fell and cracked the screen :( It’s a Garmin Venu 2 Plus. Apparently they don’t do screen repair, only full watch replacement and it costs $160 which gives you a refurbished unit with only a 90 day warranty. Don’t love that option (some bad experiences with refurbished units from other companies), so thinking maybe I should just splurge and get a brand new Venu 3. But, that watch was released in August 2023…and I know I’ll be annoyed if the Venu 4 drops shortly after I buy the 3.
Ray or anyone else know if there’s been any hints at a Venu 4 release timeline?
Alternatively, can anyone convince me why I shouldn’t care about this and should just get the Venue 3 now?
Ray can’t tell you. Either he doesn’t know or he’s under NDA. He needs to do that because this is his job, and I think he likes it more than his old job which was probably better paid 😂
You love the current watch. The 3 is better so you’ll probably love it more. The next version will be better but were you annoyed that the 3 was better? Progress always happens but generally pricing reflects that. When Garmin are ready to replace they usually have deals so you pay less. Would you pay more for a newer version than the best deal right now?
If you wanted a better watch you’d buy a Fenix 8s.
Were those good enough? For what it’s worth by partner just went from Venu 2 to Fenix 8s and loves it but wasn’t unhappy with the old Venu. She also seemed happy to upgrade to the new Venu but I convinced her the flashlight was worth the weight. I think whichever you get you’ll be happy 👍
I am surprised that Ray, you are not reporting live on this year’s Chipotle-Strava challenge. Jamil Coury, a 6-times Barkley marathons participant, really seems to want free Burritos:
link to youtube.com
Biggest issue before with Route estimates was the rounding… I mean, rounding something in the 30 to 60 minutes ballpark to the nearest half hour was ridiculous.
Obviously, computing it based on FTP and weight makes sense, too.