Virtual Tour de France & L’Étape du Tour on Zwift: Everything You Need to Know

Today ASO and Zwift have announced a Virtual Tour de France, which will start taking place this weekend with 23 Men’s UCI WorldTour teams, and 16 Women’s UCI WorldTour teams racing. The truncated event won’t quite mirror that of the | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 4 years ago

Week in Review–June 28th, 2020

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 | 4 years ago

Quick Tidbit: Garmin Adds Dual ANT+/Bluetooth Smart HR Broadcasting to Fenix 6

Slipped into yesterday’s most recent Garmin Fenix 6 series public beta is a new feature that slightly revamps heart rate re-broadcasting. This is where you can broadcast the heart rate from your optical HR sensor on the back of your | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 4 years ago

A First Night with Apple’s New Sleep Tracking Feature

While I had other reviews to finish writing this week, I got distracted spending half my afternoon getting an older phone reset and loaded up with the first iOS14 developer beta, to then allow my Apple Watch Series 5 to | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 4 years ago

Apple watchOS 7 New Features Outlined: Finally includes sleep tracking

As part of Apple’s annual Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC), held each June – though this year totally virtual, the company has outlined numerous aspects of their platforms (iOS, iPad OS, watchOS, and tvOS). However, for this post I’m going to | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 4 years ago

5 Random Things I Did This Weekend

It’s officially summer! And while it’d be easy to say that’s now including how weather here in the Netherlands, the reality is that it’s basically been hot since late March. No kidding, it’s been amazing for outdoor-like activity. However, this | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 4 years ago

Week in Review–June 21st, 2020

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 | 4 years ago

Hammerhead Refreshes Karoo User Interface ahead of Karoo 2

Hammerhead has begun rolling out a refreshed user interface to existing Karoo users, ahead of the Karoo 2 unveiling. Hammerhead has previously announced their intention to announce the Karoo 2, but hasn’t actually made the announcement yet. Or, something like | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 4 years ago

Garmin Edge 130 Plus In-Depth Review

When the Edge 130 came out a bit over two years ago, I think there was general confusion on where it fit in the Garmin line-up. While I don’t think that confusion wasn’t understood by Garmin initially, consumers presumed it | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 4 years ago

Garmin Edge 1030 Plus In-Depth Review

Like with most Garmin products that tack on a ‘Plus’ designator, the changes from the Edge 1030 to the Edge 1030 Plus aren’t earth-shattering. In fact, the Edge 1030 received overwhelmingly more changes last summer when it got a massive | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 4 years ago

How to Load Zwift or TrainerRoad on a Peloton Bike: A Geeks Guide

This post started almost 100% for my own reference as a simple notepad file. But enough people asked about my random Instagram stories using it for Zwift and TrainerRoad, that I figured I’d write it up into something semi-cohesive. While | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 4 years ago

Week in Review–June 14th, 2020

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 | 4 years ago

Strava Rolls Out New Local Legends Feature: Here’s how it works in action

Strava has rolled out a new feature today to a subset of the population that lets all Strava users earn a new type of crown equal to that of the KOM/QOM, simply for doing a given segment more times than | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 4 years ago

Garmin Shows Off New On-Device Sleep Tracking Widgets

On the list of things that I didn’t think would be all that exciting, I’d put forth ‘Widget that shows my sleep from last night’. Turns out, I was wrong. This past weekend I had put a couple of random | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 4 years ago

Lezyne’s Komoot & Relive Integration Update: How it all works

Last month Komoot rolled out a new integration with Komoot and Relive, as part of what they see as their primary substantial firmware update for the 2020 season. It applies to a slate of GPS units (including the higher end | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 4 years ago

Timex R300 $129 GPS Smartwatch In-Depth Review

If you had asked me late last year for a list of surprisingly capable devices I expected to find on my wrist in Spring 2020, I certainly wouldn’t have said a $129 GPS watch from Timex. But here we are, | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 4 years ago

GoPro Rolls Out Labs Feature: Adds Pile of New Features to Hero 8

In a move that comes entirely out of left field, GoPro announced a new GoPro Labs feature (hosted on GitHub no less) that lets you tweak the heck out of your Hero 8 Black camera. With it comes the ability | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 4 years ago

Whoop 3.0 Band & Platform In-Depth Review

There’s arguably no product I’ve *ever* reviewed in over a decade doing this that has me as conflicted as the Whoop strap. It’s both fascinating and perplexing at the same time. It’s got enormous potential, and after four months of | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 4 years ago

5 Random Things I Did This Weekend

Yes, this series is back! It’s been a while, but as the weather warms up, and people start getting a bit more freedom back in their lives, it seemed like a good time to bring back the weeklyish ‘5 Random | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 4 years ago

Week in Review–May 24th, 2020

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 | 4 years ago

Trying Out Zwift’s New Boost Mode Feature in Beta

No, your Zwift bike doesn’t now have a new bottom bracket standard option. But for a select number of people as part of the Club Jarvis test group, there are now events with a new Boost capability that allows you | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 4 years ago

First Look at COROS’s new Structured Workout & Strength Training Features

COROS has announced a slate of structured workout feature for both inside and outside that’ll be pushed to the majority of their watches next week, specifically the VERTIX, APEX, and APEX Pro Series. So basically, everything except the budget-focused PACE. | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 4 years ago

Strava Cuts Off Leaderboard for Free Users, Reduces 3rd Party Apps for All, and More

After roughly five months of appeasing users with new feature after new feature after new feature, the other shoe has finally dropped. Today, Strava sold its segmented soul. At least, if you believe Strava Segments are the soul of what makes | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 4 years ago

Week in Review–May 17th, 2020

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 | 4 years ago

How To: See Map Overlays of Varia Radar Data, with Vehicle Counts

As part of my Garmin Varia RTL515 & RVR315 radar review last week, a few eagle-eyed readers spotted a unique data field within my Garmin Edge device: The ‘Vehicle Count’ field. Except, more meets the eye here than just a | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 4 years ago

FORM Swim Goggles Adds Openwater Swimming with Garmin & Apple Watches

Today, FORM, maker of the heads-up display swim goggles, announced that it’s partnering with Garmin and Apple to bring openwater swim support to their goggles this summer, if you’ve got a compatible Garmin or Apple Watch. The move is notable | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 4 years ago

Garmin Launches Strava & Komoot Route Sync: Works on devices a decade old

It’s rare that we get new features from companies, let alone Garmin, that actually work on devices a decade old. But today, today is special apparently. Because this new feature will work on your really really really old Garmin watches | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 4 years ago

Garmin Varia RTL515 and RVR315 Cycling Radar In-Depth Review

Like clock-work, two years after releasing the last version of the Garmin Varia radar, the company has released its now third generation version. While this new version looks identical from the outside, it’s not internally – sporting new features and | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 4 years ago

Wahoo’s New 2020 TICKR & TICKR X: In-Depth Review

Wahoo has just announced a set of new TICKR & TICKR X heart rate straps that include some modest feature updates, most notably running dynamics support in the TICKR-X, as well as multiple concurrent Bluetooth Smart connections so you can | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 4 years ago

IQ2 Power Meter Pedals: First Rides Testing & Data Accuracy

Two years ago (almost to the day), IQ2 announced their then crank arm spacer based power meter. It would fit in between any pedal type and any crank arm, and allow power on more or less any bike with any | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 4 years ago

New DCR Cave Arrivals: SRM X SPD Power Meter, Wattbike ATOM X, Casio GBD-H1000

In a bit of a quiet week – a calm before the storm that will be early May in sports tech, I’ve got a few arrivals that I figured I’d drop a quick note here and some minor first impressions | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 4 years ago

DJI Mavic Air 2 vs Skydio 2: Cycling Test Shootout!

Today DJI announced their latest drone, the DJI Mavic Air 2. For those of you that follow the gear I tend to use, the original DJI Mavic Air is one of my main drone go-to’s, largely because of its small | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 4 years ago

Tour de Suisse Goes Digital: A Look at The Biggest Esports Cycling Race To Date

Over the past few days, and over the coming days, Rouvy is hosting the Digital Swiss 5. That confusingly named event is basically the digital version of the Tour de Suisse (Tour of Switzerland), one of the major pro cycling | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 4 years ago

Hammerhead Announces Plans to Announce Karoo 2 Bike GPS

It looks like at some point in the year 2020 we’ll have at least one more cycling GPS added to your table of options. This week Hammerhead, in conjunction with one of their lead investors, announced plans for their next | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 4 years ago

Polar Grit X GPS Watch In-Depth Review

Polar has just launched their new Grit X multisport GPS watch, aimed primarily at the outdoor enthusiast crowd that skews slightly more towards ultra runners and hikers than it does other groups. Still, the watch has the vast majority of | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 4 years ago

Strava Cuts Off Ironman Virtual Club: An Explainer To Sports Tech Drama

In an ideal world, I wouldn’t have to write a big post about two major players in the endurance sports world having a catfight. Rather, in an ideal quarantined world we’d just put both players in a Zoom call, stream | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 4 years ago

Fitbit Charge 4 GPS Band In-Depth Review

It’s been nearly two years since the last Fitbit Charge release, the Fitbit Charge 3. Since that time the company has released a variety of other wearables, mostly minor refreshes. And in some ways the Charge 4 at first glance | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 4 years ago

Quick How-To: Garmin Wearable Heart Rate Broadcasting to Apps

If you’re spending a bunch more time lately indoors using fitness apps to maintain your sanity you might not realize that you can broadcast your heart rate right from your Garmin watch straight to your favorite app – thus skipping | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 4 years ago

Fun Tip Of The Day: Using FulGaz Website Videos as a Cycling Screensaver (or Distraction)

Here’s a rare ‘super-quick’ DCR post for ya. Sometimes these end up on Friday, but not this week. This time around I’m giving you the Tuesday edition, mainly because Friday simply seems way too far away. Two weeks ago while | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 4 years ago

Tacx Flow Budget Smart Trainer In-Depth Review

The Tacx Flow Smart is not new. Though, it might be to a lot of people. It’s the least expensive true smart trainer on the market – at least by any of the major players (or even medium players that | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 4 years ago

Quarq Lowers Power Meters Pricing Down to $399 for Certain Models

Not one to be outdone, one day after 4iiii lowered their power meter prices substantially, Quarq has joined the fray. Of course, in reality with a company like SRAM behind Quarq – these are hardly last second moves. These permanent | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 4 years ago

Zwift Rolls Out Third World Choice

Here’s a quickie of an update for you on this Saturday morning, which is especially notable if you plan to ride this morning (or evening in Australia) that you’ll want to budget extra time to get Zwift updated. Though, the | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 4 years ago

The Socially Distant Sports Tech Giveaway Results/Winner!

Earlier this week I held the “Socially Distant Sports Tech Giveaway”, which enabled some 4,083 of you to annotate how you’ve managed to get a workout in over last weekend, despite potentially being stuck indoors running a marathon around your | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 4 years ago

4iiii Lowers Power Meter Prices to $299, Increases Warranty to 3 Years

In a non-April Fool’s day move, 4iiii has substantially reduced their power meter pricing, both matching and undercutting the changes Stages made back in January to their line-up. This brings single-sided power down to $299USD/299EUR and dual-sided power meter on | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 4 years ago

Sports Tech Tidbits: Fitbit Charge 4, Strava adds Weather, Zwift Clubs, Suunto’s TrainingPeaks Metrics, COROS New Features and more!

Fear not, no April Fools joke posts from me. I’ve had a specific idea for one for a few years now, but frankly it’s not really an April Fools joke if I can pull it off (and build it). Funny | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 4 years ago

TrainerRoad Launches Live Group Workouts with Video

TrainerRoad has launched a new group workout function today that enables you to do a workout with friends synchronized together, complete with audio and video of each you suffering. It’s like TrainerRoad cobbled up a little bit of Zoom. While | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 4 years ago

Cycling Trainer App Guide In-Depth: 2020 Edition

It’s been three years. Which is roughly how long I needed to recover from writing the last one of these things. While I had planned to write this last fall, that didn’t happen. But now that a lot of us | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 4 years ago

Socially Distant Sports Tech $500 Gadget Giveaway!

If there’s ever a time for a giveaway, this is definitely it. With a boatload of folks stuck inside, any bit of gadgetry cheer I can help usher in your general direction is a good. Plus, this post helps buy | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 4 years ago