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Hey Hey!

Welcome back to yet again another edition of the DCR Newsletter. We continue to see new peeps join the readership, so welcome to you! Also, if you are new and what to play catch up on what you’ve missed you can find the Newsletter archives here.

Since the last newsletter, Ray has again been a busy bee. Sadly for him, none of these efforts were related to completing pizza oven chores! But, you’ve all heard enough of that by now.

So what was Ray up to?

Well, last Thursday he dropped a very interesting in-depth review. It was the Magene Gravat2 Smart Trainer. The review did kick up quite a bit of conversation, even though it’s mostly applicable to those living in the Asian geographic region.

So, why did he bother to review it if it’s only useful to a small percentage of readers? Well, in the end it’s a pretty solid product and something that might bring attention to bigger smart trainer companies to get their junk together in stepping up their software. Basically a no-name company knocked the software out of park enough to make Ray type out “Holy Cow”… Yeah.

Also, after a while it just gets annoying for me to read comments from people saying that Ray only writes about the big guys. While that is wrong on so many levels, that’s a conversation for another day. So there you have it, solid amount of time dedicated to one of the small guys who just made a product the right way.

Next up was another interesting, or maybe better said “complicated” post. Even the title might leave you momentarily head scratching; VirtuPro’s Indoor Smart Bike: The Bike Zwift is Investing In- First Look. Ray starts off encouraging you to click on the video portion of the post to get up to speed, as sometimes it’s just easier to explain “in person” rather than in text the intricacies of this one. So, I won’t try to work my magic to decrypt all of this for you.

It is a great read, leaves us all pondering the future direction of the indoor training world, with the disclaimer that cyclist are not all one in the same with wants and needs. Also, gives us some juicy bits into the inner workings of companies as I quote:

“This led to some internal disagreement within VirtuPro as to the direction of the company (I’m using the term ‘disagreement’ as an umbrella for ‘giant shit-show’).”

Anyways, enough out of me, go read for yourself. But grab a coffee first (or a beer, you decide).

After all of that excitement, Ray rounded off the week with the one-two punch of the Week in Review, and the 5 Random Things posts. This past weekend we made an effort to stay low key. No party hosting, major outings, just relaxed and jammed out with a Sunday pancake breakfast.

So the 5 Random things is a bit more Ray geeking out over updating device firmware, than the latest and greatest from the Peanuts. The Week in Review had some great links. One link was an article for a guy who basically biked Mt. Everest. I didn’t know “Everesting” was even a thing. Also, there is a different guy in NYC who is doing more than his share of Citi Bike “Angeling”. Something else I didn’t know existed. So, as always, go poke around those two posts for a bit more of a light read, and see if you can’t learn something new too.

Last but not least, DC Rainmaker YouTube channel. Are you a subscriber? If not, you’re missing a great video party. Sometimes Ray hasn’t had time to polish off the text version of a product review yet, but the video is sitting impatiently. Unfortunately I have no fresh examples of this phenomenon this week. Sorry.

Oh wait - but just last night Ray published a Wahoo KICKR CORE vs KICKR 2018 vs Tacx NEO sound test on YouTube! So that's actually a good example of a bit of a KICKR CORE review sneaking out before the review itself.

Also, I did the camera work for it (though got no credit for such...sigh). One could also say I directed it too, since I made him re-shoot a few portions as he filmed. Go watch...for me!

In-Depth Thoughts from The Girl

Well here we are, another week’s worth of Ray gossip. I can’t say thanks enough to you readers out there for sticking around and clicking on my email each week.

Last week and this week have just been packed with full days. I’m very much enjoying my Dutch immersion classes, but honestly my brain is about to fall out. The class is awesome, and I think I have a great instructor, however maybe I have bitten off more than I can chew. In the last few weeks I’ve tried to wrap my brain around Dutch business accounting, Final Cut Pro editing software, immersion Dutch classes, trying to uphold my 3-4 workouts a week goal, and relearning how to confidently ride a road bike. All while simultaneously trying to get our youngest sleep “trained” (don’t get me started), and wrangling a toddler 2yo who magically turned 13 on her recent birthday. I don’t even think I have space left in the noggin’ for my usual newsletter sarcasm. So apologies if this week was a little dry. Next week I will fill that coffee cup to the top and do better.

(Photo from the last time I was on camera with DC Rainmaker himself)

Finally, a big thanks goes out the awesome people who sent along questions for our Newsletter interview project. That opportunity is now closed, but if you missed out on that fun, you can still click over to Ray’s post on Facebook as he has upped the ante and is going to add a fun speed round. Basically, questions that will result in one to two word answers, and questions can be anything involving me, him, our life, blog balance, etc. If you want to chime in on that too, go to Ray’s Facebook page to drop the question. The goal there being I won’t see the speed round questions in advance (don't worry, Ray added that link above so I haven't visited it). We are hoping to get that video recorded tomorrow morning and back in your inboxes ASAP!.

That’s all for this week folks. Stay tuned for next week, we have an exciting “thing” set to release by then!

Thanks for reading!
~The Girl.

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