Getting the Christmas Tree Home via Bike: 2019 Edition

In now it’s 7th year, we’ve been moving the Christmas tree home by bike. It started when we lived in Paris, using a bike share Velib to make the trek from our favored Christmas Tree vendor at the flower markets | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 5 years ago

Friday Tidbits: Trainer App news, FR945 gets major update, KICKR Bike gets profiles

Here’s your quick round-up of news that I didn’t quite get to this past week. Or, that wasn’t quite worth of an entire separate post. Either way, it’s Friday, let’s get on with it.Rouvy & RGT (Road Grand Tours) News:No, | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 5 years ago

DJI Mavic Mini In-Depth Review

The DJI Mavic Mini is DJI’s first drone under 249 grams. It’s a fact you’ll see and hear a lot when anyone talks about this drone. And in some more limited than people realize situations, that means something. For example, | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 5 years ago

A 2019 Sports Wearables Recap with DesFit (Video)

Okey doke, happy Sunday! Here’s a quickie of a post for you. Albeit, not a quick video. But that’s alright, quality over quantity. Or something like that. As you may remember, DesFit was over here for the DCR Open House | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 5 years ago

Zwift Begins First Day of New Crit City Race Course: My first go of it

To my surprise, that was more fun than I expected. Also, it hurt my lungs more than I had planned for this Saturday afternoon. But more importantly – I could actually see doing it again. Which is not something I | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 5 years ago

Fisher-Price Smart Cycle Trainer In-Depth Review

We have arrived: The pièce de résistance of my five consecutive days of indoor smart trainer reviews. We started the week at $3,500 with the Wahoo KICKR Smart Bike, and yet we’re going to finish the week with an $89 | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 5 years ago

Kinetic R1 Smart Trainer In-Depth Review

It’s been 16 months since the Kinetic R1 was first announced at Interbike 2018. That was back when Interbike still existed. Since then Interbike has dissolved, Kinetic started shipping the R1, then stopped for half a year, then resumed again | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 5 years ago

Fascinating Stats from Strava’s 2019 Year End Report

Ahh yes, December – time for eggnog, pepernoten, and Strava’s year end report. Bu yes, of course I’ll once again point out that the report technically only covers data from Oct 1st, 2018 to Sept 30th, 2019. I think for | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 5 years ago

4iiii Fliiiight Smart Trainer In-Depth Review

The Fliiiight is a different kind of trainer on so many levels. First off – it doesn’t use any sort of traditional trainer resistance technology to provide resistance. Instead, it recreates gradients and wattage levels by moving magnets, which depending | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 5 years ago

Elite Suito Smart Trainer In-Depth Review

It’s been about five months since the Elite Suito was first announced back in July. The Suito made a name for itself by essentially copying the same Elite formula as a few years ago: Offer a good medium-range product that | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 5 years ago

Wahoo KICKR Bike In-Depth Review

At $3,500 the Wahoo KICKR Bike is Wahoo’s most expensive product. And one of the most expensive indoor training products you can buy. It’s also the company's first go at creating not just indoor bike, but actually an entirely different | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 5 years ago

Garmin Venu GPS Smartwatch In-Depth Review

It’s been a bit over three months since the Garmin Venu came out, and since even before the announcement day it’s been on my left wrist – day in and day out. It’s definitely been one heck of a long | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 5 years ago

DCR Open House Winter 2019 Photo Recap!

This past weekend we held our 6th annual DCR Cave Open House (now the 2nd winter one in Amsterdam, or 3rd counting our first summer edition this past July). It was once again a sold out crowd, for both the | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 5 years ago

Skydio 2 Autonomous Sports Drone In-Depth Review

It’s been just shy of two months since Skydio announced the Skydio 2 drone, which is virtually entirely dedicated to sports tracking (in the consumer realm anyway). I previously tested the R1 drone about two years ago, which did incredible | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 5 years ago

Black Friday & Cyber Monday 2019 Sports Tech Deals Round-Up!

It's that time of year again when there are tons of sales on all sorts of sports technology items.  Everything this year is pointing to earlier sales than normal, as manufacturers and retailers alike try to lock in your dollars | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 5 years ago

Sports Technology Buyers Guide: Winter 2019-2020

Each year around this time I publish my complete guide of sports tech recommendations, covering a wide range of sport gadget areas.  My goal here being to give my specific recommendations – exactly the same recommendations I’d give to my | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 5 years ago

Tacx NEO Bike Smart: $700 off, Scratch & Dent Sale

You know when you hear a story, raise an eyebrow, shrug, and then continue along your day? That’s roughly what happened back about a month ago when I heard that a huge shipment of Tacx NEO Smart Bike’s got delayed | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 5 years ago

Stages Dash Gets Radar Supports, Outlines Future Firmware Plans (and a 30% off sale)

Today Stages released firmware 2.0.0, which adds a whole bunch of performance tweaks and an even bigger pile of bug fixes. It also improves the battery life. But in conjunction with that, they’ve announced the next firmware version (2.1.0), which | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 5 years ago

Apple Watch Series 5: Sports & Fitness In-Depth Review

It’s been two months since the Apple Watch Series 5 came out, and the watch has been on my right wrist every one of those days. Swim, bike, run…and plenty more. You may remember my initial thoughts on it back | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 5 years ago

5 Random Things I Did This Weekend

I feel like my butt was permanently planted on the cargo bike seat this weekend. Also, paired with the fact that we never stopped moving this weekend. And when my butt wasn’t on the cargo bike – it was on | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 5 years ago

Super Quick Reminder: The big 20% off all trainer sale ends today!

This is your incredibly quick reminder that if you were looking to tap into the annual fall 20% off sale of trainers, that sale ends later tonight (11:59PM US Eastern Time, to be precise). While most other Black Friday-specific deals | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 5 years ago

The Best Garmin Charger: Only $9 for a Two-Pack of These Pucks

The Girl hates the standard Garmin charging cable. And I can’t really disagree with her. While I appreciate Garmin has mostly managed to standardize on the little four-pin connector for most wearable products in the last 3 years, it’s still | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 5 years ago

Elite Zumo Smart Trainer In-Depth Review

One. Year. Later.Some trainers arrive on the scene happy as a clam (though virtually none in 2019). Others take a few weeks to mature. Some take months. The Zumo though – it decided to take its time like an Italian | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 5 years ago

5 Random Things I Did This Weekend

Despite being a chilly weekend here – at least it was dry. Of course, that ended this morning – but hey, can’t win them all. Here’s what I was up to! 1) So much sale searching A significant portion of | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 5 years ago

Week in Review–November 17th, 2019

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 | 5 years ago

All The Garmin & Suunto Holiday Deals Are Now Live (plus a few others)

As promised from yesterday’s post, a slate of new deals are live as of today, including Garmin’s holiday deals, as well as Suunto’s deals. These encompass a huge swath of wearables from both companies, but also cycling items from Garmin. | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 5 years ago

Huge Fall Sale: 20% off including trainers, power meters, watches and more

Like clockwork, it’s that time of year again! The now annual 20% off sale.  Now technically, it’s semi-annual since it happens now and in the spring.  But I don’t think anyone’s complaining about the chance to buy a brand new | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 5 years ago

Zwift Confirms New Hardware Division: Posts Job Positions To Build Indoor Smart Bikes

Ahh yes, the rite of passage for any tech company is posting job positions that give away your future plans. Be it Apple posting autonomous car engineering positions or Uber trying to build flying things, eventually companies have to show | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 5 years ago

COROS Releases New ‘Running Track’ Mode On Watches, Adds Running Power & Efficiency Pod

Now we’re talking – some legit new features here coming from COROS. First up, they’ve launched a new track mode that increases the accuracy of running on a track, by somewhat ‘snapping’ to the track and even the specific lane | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 5 years ago

LVL’s ‘Hydration Sensor’ Rises from the Dead, Gets Acquired

A few people have asked this morning my thoughts on the news that BSX’s LVL was acquired by Gideon Health, and further yet gave the backers the option of either getting a refund, or getting a mystery box device at | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 5 years ago

5 Random Things I Did This Weekend

I still fail to understand how it’s mid-November already?!? The rain and ugly weather is mostly non-stop here, but at least that means (yet) more trainer time indoors. With my parents in town this week, here’s what we were up | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 5 years ago

Tacx NEO 2T Smart Trainer In-Depth Review

It’s been just over two months since Tacx announced their NEO 2T smart trainer, the latest in the line of high-end NEO trainers. You may remember back in my launch post, it wasn’t all sunshine and unicorns for the new | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 5 years ago

Garmin Starts Rollout of PacePro to FR945 and FR245, Also Adds More Data Fields Per Page

Here’s a Thursday quick heads up for ya – Garmin has begun the roll-put of PacePro to the Forerunner 945 and FR245/FR245M series watches. You might remember PacePro was introduced on the Fenix 6 about two months ago, and essentially | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 5 years ago

Mid-Week Tidbits: Canyon supports trainer riding and Suunto clarifies platform future

Here’s a couple of updates that have trickled across my desk over the last two days that I figure are worth chatting a moment about. Some of them also have some catches as well, so while you might have seen | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 5 years ago

Bkool Exits Trainer Hardware Business, Shifts Focus to Training Platform

The fact that indoor cycling company Bkool has just announced today it’s exiting the indoor trainer business isn’t terribly surprising. What is the most surprising thing out of the last 24 hours is the number of active users Bkool has | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 5 years ago

Google Acquires Fitbit: What it actually means to wearables and the industry

Google has just announced the acquisition of Fitbit for a cool $2.1 billion (USD).  The move will undoubtedly drive change in the industry, though, not as much as one might think – at least initially. Don’t worry, I’ll explain in | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 5 years ago

Smart Bike Shootout: Wahoo KICKR Bike vs Tacx NEO Bike vs Wattbike Atom

It’s the moment you’ve probably not been waiting for – the complete DCR Smart Bike Shootout! And by ‘smart bike’, I specifically mean one that’s an indoor resistance controllable unit shipping today-ish that’s also supporting all the appropriate industry standards | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 5 years ago

VirtuGo Announces It’s Shutting Down: Where’d things go wrong?

One of the most viable alternatives to Zwift from a graphics standpoint just announced it’s closing up shop. VirtuGo has sent out an e-mail to all registered/paying users that the service will shut-down effective November 25th, 2019. Users will be | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 5 years ago

Suunto 9 Series Gets New Sleep & Fitness Metrics from FirstBeat

Suunto has pushed out an update today to the Suunto 9 series (Baro and non-Baro variants, plus all the colors of the rainbow) that adds in three fitness focused features that originally premiered back on the Suunto 3 and Suunto | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 5 years ago

Strava App Sensor Pairing Is Now Dead: My Last Workout Taking Out The Trash

As of today, the Strava app will no longer allow you to pair to sensors like heart rate straps or cycling cadence sensors. Instead, Strava is now actively recommending you download other apps instead of using Strava’s own app. Well, | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 5 years ago

Week in Review–Oct 27th, 2019

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 | 5 years ago

Weekend Tidbits: Hammerhead Adds Radar Support, Elite Releases Upgrado app, Garmin adds Edge connection to inReach

This is the segment in the week where I spent an inordinate amount of time on two other posts and two videos, and realize I still have some thoughts I wanted to go more deeply on on a few topics, | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 5 years ago

The Smart Trainer Recommendations Guide: Winter 2019-2020

The trees are turning colors and the leaves are falling. Except if you live in Australia. But for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere you’re probably thinking about spending more and more time indoors on a trainer, and perhaps | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 5 years ago

GoPro Max Action Cam In-Depth Review

GoPro implies (and even says) that the new Max does everything the Hero series does, but extended “to the Max”. Unfortunately, that’s not exactly true. Still, despite that, the GoPro Max a hugely compelling upgrade over the previous generation GoPro | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 5 years ago

DCR Cave Winter Open House Registration Is Now Open! Nov 30th, 2019

Yup, you read the title right! It’s the annual winter DCR Cave Open House! We’re keeping things to the exact same weekend as last year, which almost means we’re getting organized and consistent these days. Almost. But far more important | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 5 years ago

Polar Releases Major New Features to Vantage M & V Series

Remember back in June when Polar when they announced Polar Ignite GPS watch? That unit had a huge of new features not previously seen on any Polar device. The $220 device was mainly targeted at non-endurance athletes though, competing for | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 5 years ago

Garmin Swim 2 GPS Watch In-Depth Review

Yes, for real: The Garmin Swim is back, baby. Over 7 years later and Garmin has finally incremented to the second edition in their swimmers-only watch. And, it’s basically exactly what you’d expect in a swimming first watch from Garmin | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 5 years ago

Week in Review–Oct 14th, 2019

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 | 5 years ago