An Explainer: Garmin’s New Wearables LTE Strategy

 Garmin’s new Forerunner 945 LTE isn’t your typical LTE watch. It doesn’t allow you to make or receive calls over LTE. You can’t stream music over LTE. In fact, you can’t even make or receive text messages over LTE. | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 3 years ago

Huge List of Spring 2021 Sports Tech Deals (US)

It's that time of the year again, where we see a slate of sports tech deals out there. This typically happens each May, just ahead of Memorial Day in the US, and then carries through to Fathers Day. However, most | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 3 years ago

How To Use Structured Workouts On The Wahoo RIVAL

While the big news from yesterday was Wahoo’s new BOLT V2 bike computer, they also announced structured workout support on the Wahoo RIVAL GPS watch, enabling you to sync in workouts from TrainingPeaks, as of today. Though, it sounds like | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 3 years ago

Wahoo ELEMNT BOLT V2/2021 with Color Screen & Maps: A Review In Progress

It’s been four years since the original Wahoo BOLT was announced, which was arguably Wahoo’s most important bike computer in terms of shifting consumers towards their offerings. Designed to be small and easy to use, it garnered many fans. However, | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 3 years ago

Suunto 9 Peak: Everything you ever wanted to know

In many ways, the Suunto 9 Peak is unlike anything Suunto has ever introduced before. Yet in other ways, it’s everything like everything Suunto has before it. Some differences are glaringly obvious, like the the sleek new watch design – | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 3 years ago

Zwift on New Apple TV 4K (2021 Edition): What’s different?

Many regular readers know that I’m a big user of Apple TV for Zwift. For the most part, unless I’m actively testing something that requires a PC or Mac specifically, I’m using Apple TV as my Zwift machine. I have | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 3 years ago

Zwift Releases Makuri Islands: New World to Eventually Rival Watopia

Zwift has released a new land, called the Makuri Islands, and the first section in that is the Yumezi map, which includes 27.6km/17.1mi of roads on it. However, unlike UCI or real-life-based event maps such as Yorkshire or Richmond, this | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 3 years ago

Samsung and Fitbit Announce Next Watches To Be Wear OS

Google just turned up the heat on their own wearables platform, by announcing that both Samsung and Fitbit will shift to Google Wear OS going forward. In the case of Samsung, they confirmed they’ll launch their next Galaxy Watch on | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 3 years ago

COROS’s Nifty New Keychain Watch Charger: Way more detail than you needed

As longtime readers know, I’ve probably got a bit of a watch charging ‘thing’. One might call it an unhealthy obsession with creative ways to charge a watch, another might call it a fetish. However, what is clear is I’ve | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 3 years ago

COROS Rolls Out EvoLab – Revamped Training Load Metrics: A Detailed Explainer

Today, COROS has begun rollout of their EvoLab, which is a slate of metrics that are largely focused on training load, their impact, and recovery. In addition, for running specifically they’ve also got a number of predictive metrics including marathon | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 3 years ago

Weekend Tech Tidbits: Karoo 2 Color Cases, 4iiii Crank Buyback, and GoPro Session Labs Update

Here’s a quick round-up of a few items that spilled over from the last week (or so) that I’ve consolidated together for your inner geek to consume.Hammerhead’s New Karoo 2 Colorful Cases:Starting off with ‘well, that took longer than I | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 3 years ago

KOM Cycling RPV2 Full Motion Rocker Platform: In-Depth Review

Double-cheeseburger. That’s what the new KOM Cycling RPV2 rocker plate is, or at least, looks like. This double-decker rocker plate essentially takes their existing popular RPV1 rocker plate (which tilts side to side), and adds a new forward/back sliding sensation | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 3 years ago

How To Use a Cycling Power Meter With a Vivoactive or Venu Watch

Officially, power meters are not supported on Garmin’s Venu & Vivoactive watch series. That’s because (in Garmin’s eyes) the target market for those watches is a more mainstream consumer that doesn’t have $1,100 cycling power meters on the bikes in | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 3 years ago

Quick Hands-On: Wahoo Adds Music Controls to Rival Watch, Plans for TrainingPeaks Workout Support

Over the last week Wahoo has quietly rolled out a firmware update that adds music controls to their Wahoo Rival multisport GPS watch, enabling it to changes songs on your iOS device. For those on Android, Wahoo says music control | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 3 years ago

Peloton Tread Screen Falls Off Mid-Workout, Peloton Says to Fix It Yourself (Photos and Story)

While most of yesterday’s Peloton treadmill news was focused on the higher-end Tread+ and safety risks to kids, there was actually a secondary story at work – the recall of the cheaper Tread units (without the + after their mode | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 3 years ago

Peloton’s Bad Day Explained: Recall of Tread & Security Leak Discovered

Hump day is not going well for Peloton this week. After a successful annual ‘Homecoming’ event last weekend where they made a slew of product announcements, the company announced today they’re recalling Tread & Tread+ treadmills, due to safety issues | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 3 years ago

TrueKinetix TrueBike In-Depth Review

There’s a strong chance you’ve never heard of the TrueBike by TrueKinetix, despite being a full functioning, shipping, and retail-available smart indoor bike that works with any ANT+ or Bluetooth Smart compatible app out there, like Zwift, TrainerRoad, and plenty | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 3 years ago

Peloton’s New Spring 2021 Features: Fully detailed and tested

Over the weekend Peloton announced a slew of new features across their platform. Some of these features are minor upgrades, some moderate refreshes, and a few pretty significant signs towards future directions that could aim to disrupt further the rest | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 3 years ago

Aero Sensor Companies Start Own Common Aero Device Profile: Got Tired of Waiting for Standard

Cycling aerodynamic sensor companies Notio & Velocomp have decided they were tired of waiting for the long-discussed ANT+ Aero Sensor device profile, and have simply released their own instead. As a bit of a background refresher here, both Notio & | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 3 years ago

Friday Sports Tech Livestream Q&A Recorded Session Available!

Earlier I dusted off my YouTube livestreaming brainpower, and did a Friday evening sports tech livestream covering a slew of topics in the sports tech space. From aero sensors to power meters, watches to bike computers, action cameras to drones, | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 3 years ago

Zwift Tech Tidbits: Trainer Certifications and Steering Hardware Slowdowns, Retailer Program, ZwiftHub and More

Zwift has been busy as of late, with a slew of various announcements…and in some cases non-announcements. I’m going to roll all of of these together like an elaborate Instagram-worthy sushi roll, packed with things that probably don’t go together. | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 3 years ago

Suunto Expands App with TrainingPeaks Powered Training Load and Recovery Metrics

Today Suunto has started rolling out a pretty expansive upgrade to their smartphone app, which adds in a slate of training load related metrics, all driven by TrainingPeaks terminology. We’ll get into all the details here, but what’s notable is | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 3 years ago

Garmin Rolls out New Features to Forerunner 245 & 745 in Beta: Workout ratings, FirstBeat Sleep Tracking, Trail Running and more

Just a quick item to start the morning off, but it appears Garmin rolled out overnight two beta firmware versions for Forerunner 245 & Forerunner 745 users that include long-awaited features from last fall, but also more recent features from | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 3 years ago

A Look at Polar’s New Heart Rate Broadcasting for Apps like Zwift and Peloton

Polar starts shipping their previously announced Ignite 2 today, which was announced last month alongside the Vantage M2. Stashed away on the Ignite 2 is the beginnings of Polar’s new heart rate broadcasting feature, which enables it to broadcast your | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 3 years ago

Strava Adds 3D Terrain Heatmaps To Site: Quick Overview

Remember the first time you used Google Earth some 19 years ago? Yup, that’s kinda like this. Except, now with all your personal Strava heatmap overlaid atop it. And yes, Google earth is really 19 years old. It was first | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 3 years ago

Garmin Venu 2 & Venu 2S GPS Smartwatch In-Depth Review

Today Garmin announced the new Venu 2 & Venu 2S watches, the AMOLED display successors to the original Garmin Venu watch. The Venu 2 series sports two sizes now (45mm and 40mm), as well as a slew of updated health | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 3 years ago

Wahoo Adds Track Running Mode to RIVAL GPS Watch: Hands-on Test

It’s been 5 months since Wahoo released their RIVAL GPS watch, aimed primarily at the triathlete crowd. The watch has seen a few firmware updates along the way, mostly minor tweaks though. Albeit, one of the bigger updates was adding | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 3 years ago

Garmin Forerunner 745: 8 Months Later Review Update

 Somehow, somewhat oddly, some 8 months after I started using a FR745 last August, it’s become my daily driver – some 148 workouts in total on it. Even while testing a slew of other watches over the last 8 | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 3 years ago

Suunto 7 Update Adds Body Resources, Advanced Sleep Tracking, Komoot Routes: Hands-on

Suunto has started a phased roll-out today of a new firmware update for their WearOS based Suunto 7, which adds in a smattering of new features – both for sports and non-sport aspects. Here’s the consolidated list of what’s in | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 3 years ago

Peloton Power Data Broadcaster (DFC) Launches: Hands-on Details

Way back in December, I started using a tiny red box with my original Peloton Bike. That little red box did exactly one thing: Broadcast my power, cadence, and speed over Bluetooth Smart to 3rd party apps and watches – | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 3 years ago

DJI Air 2S In-Depth Review (with a Sports Tracking Focus)

DJI has announced it’s latest drone, the DJI Air 2S. This unit drops the long-lived ‘Mavic’ from its name, in DJI’s larger effort to simplify product naming. But, it’s gained significantly increased resolution, a bump from 4K up to 5.4K | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 3 years ago

SRAM Rival AXS Power Meter: Hands-on and First Rides

In the world of cycling drivetrain gear, both SRAM and Shimano have three core pricing tiers for their wares. In Shimano’s case that’s Dura Ace, Ultegra, and 105. While in SRAM’s case it’s RED, Force, and Rival. These companies release | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 3 years ago

Apple Rolls out ‘Find My’ to Bicycles and More: Sports Tech Thoughts

Today Apple announced their Find My feature is now available to 3rd party devices, and two of the three device partners for the initial launch are sports related. There’s the Belkin’s sport headphones, and the VanMoof S3 & X3 electric | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 3 years ago

Stryd Launches Premium Running Power Subscription Platform, Reduces Prices

Last fall Stryd announced their intention to add a subscription based service to their offerings, in conjunction with their existing Stryd running pod. That pod provides running power (as well as acting as an ANT+ & Bluetooth Smart footpod). The | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 3 years ago

My Stupidly Overcomplicated 2021 Bike Mileage Tracking Project

So, back on Black Friday (Nov 2020) there was a slight deal on Garmin’s V2 Speed sensors, down to $32USD, which can track and store ride data. Which got me thinking – how much does each bike in our family | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 3 years ago

Week in Review: April 5th, 2021

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 | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 3 years ago

Review: Bike Mount for DJI Drones to use with Active Track

If you’re a long-time follower of the site or channel, you know I’ve got a long history of trying out drones with sports trach capabilities. This has gone back almost a decade in fact, with all sorts of drones at | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 3 years ago

Peloton’s $120 Credit & 10X Points for Chase Sapphire Cardholders (US only)

This one is entirely for US folks, as it has to do with credit cards. But, it’s a pretty notable ‘deal’ when you start doing the math on it – and could be an interesting template for other larger companies | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 3 years ago

Tacx & Garmin Increase Tacx App Integration, Plus Training Status Plans

Yesterday Tacx (via Garmin) sent out an e-mail to users of their Tacx Training platform that on April 22nd the world will change. Or, depending on your view – end. It’s that day that the Tacx app/platform will utilize the | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 3 years ago

Suunto 9 adds Komoot Routes Turn by Turn Integration in Latest Update

Despite coming up on its third birthday here in about two months, the Suunto 9 received modest firmware update yesterday. This update adds the following features, and here’s the exact text from their firmware update listing:New ‘Tour’ battery mode with | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 3 years ago

Polar Ignite 2 Hands-On: What’s New & Different

Last week Polar launched the Ignite 2, alongside the new Vantage M2. While I’ve been using the Ignite 2 for a few weeks now, this isn’t a review – mainly since the unit isn’t done yet. It’s not set to | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 3 years ago

Week in Review–March 28th, 2021

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 | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 3 years ago

Peloton Acquires Atlas Wearables: A Peloton Wearable Ahead?

Peloton has been quietly acquiring various companies over the past half a year, some three of which were mentioned in their latest quarterly filing – however, only one was by name. The rest renamed unnamed. But this week, two companies | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 3 years ago

Garmin Rally Power Meter In-Depth Review (SPD/SPD-SL/LOOK KEO)

Garmin has launched three new power meters today, all under the new ‘Garmin Rally’ brand, which supersedes the Garmin Vector power meter lineup. The Rally series includes three pedal bodies at this point:  Shimano SPD-SL (road), Shimano SPD (typically off-road/MTB), | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 3 years ago

Polar Vantage M2 In-Depth Review

Polar has launched two new watches today, the second iteration of mid-range Vantage offering, now called the Vantage M2, while also launching their updated Ignite fitness watch – the Ignite 2. You’ll remember last fall Polar refreshed the higher end | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 3 years ago

Wahoo Relaunches Speedplay, Announces Power Meter Plans (POWRLINK Zero)

It’s been roughly 18 months since Wahoo announced the acquisition of Speedplay. Since then the company reduced some 50 different SKU’s down to 4 core models, moved factory locations, shutdown factories, moved factory locations again, and started building a Speedplay | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 3 years ago

Scosche Rhythm+ 2.0 Heart Rate Sensor In-Depth Review

Back in January, Scosche announced the new Rhythm+ 2.0 optical HR sensor. This would be the next iteration from their original Rhythm+ released way back in 2014 – arguably the optical HR sensor band that started the trend of optical | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 3 years ago

SRM X SPD Power Meter In-Depth Review

Its been a long time since a major brand new power meter was announced, and today’s post…well…it doesn’t change that. In fact, the SRM X was announced some 18 months ago, and started shipping in super limited quantities nearly a | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 3 years ago