Garmin Launches ‘Connected GPS’ Functionality For Wearables Without GPS (Vivosmart 4 & Vivomove 3)

Last week Garmin ever so quietly added so-called ‘Connected GPS’ functionality to the Garmin Connect Mobile application, while concurrently releasing a firmware update for the Vivosmart 4 (which came a year ago), as well as incorporating it into the base | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 5 years ago

Apple’s Series 5 Watch Will Have Always-on Display, drops price of Series 3 to $199

Like clockwork, today Apple announced the new Apple Watch Series 5, which includes one substantial change, and only a handful of other modest updates. However, perhaps far more important than that is Apple’s official pricing shift on the Series 3 | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 5 years ago

SRM X Power MTB Power Meter First Look: A Turning Point for SRM?

For the first time in approximately ever, I’m actually excited about an SRM product and where the company is heading. Here, right off the top of this post without a wordy intro, in a mere three bullets I’ll explain why:1) | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 5 years ago

First Look: The 4iiii Fliiiight Smart Trainer

Remember back in May when 4iiii announced the acquisition of STAC the company (which made trainers and aero/fit stuff)? And remember when they hinted that they’d have a new trainer product in time to show at Eurobike? No? Ok, well, | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 5 years ago

Garmin’s Vivoactive 4 Series: Everything you need to know

Today Garmin announced the new Vivoactive 4 & 4S watches, within a pile of different color/material variants. The difference between the 4 & 4S is simply the size. They also announced the new AMOLED display Venu watch, which I cover | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 5 years ago

Garmin Venu with AMOLED Display: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know

I suppose one could simply say that the Garmin Venu was simply just a Vivoactive 4 with a really beautiful vibrant display, but then you’d skip reading over the remaining few thousand words and photos of this post. And nobody | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 5 years ago

Wahoo Adds Cadence Support & Multichannel Bluetooth to KICKR/CORE Trainers via Firmware Update

I think this post should be a quick one. As of today, Wahoo is rolling out a firmware update to existing Wahoo KICKR18 & KICKR CORE trainers that will now calculate and broadcast your cadence over ANT+ & Bluetooth Smart. | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 5 years ago

Zwift Demonstrates Mountain Biking & Steering at Eurobike

As the flurry of announcements at Eurobike get under way, Zwift themselves has two items on the docket. The first is availability of the new Yorkshire course later today, a shorter looped replica of the real world UCI World Championship | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 5 years ago

Wahoo’s KICKR Bike with Built-In CLIMB: Everything you ever wanted to know

In a move that probably shouldn’t surprise anyway – Wahoo has joined the indoor smart bike fray, with their new KICKR Bike. This unit is far more though than just a KICKR and a CLIMB squished together on an L-shaped | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 5 years ago

Wattbike Announces US Availability for ATOM Smart Bike

Almost exactly two years after announcing the Wattbike Atom, the hard to get indoor smart bike is finally going to be available to purchase in the US. The company has made significant tweaks to the bike in the last two | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 5 years ago

Stages Announces New Smart Bike: Hands-on Details

Stages is the first company at Eurobike 2019 to bring a new smart bike to market, though, it’s hardly the first smart-ish bike they’ve made. In fact, it’s likely nobody in the world is more familiar with connected bikes than | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 5 years ago

Hands-On: Tacx’s NEO 2T Smart Trainer With Increased Power

At Eurobike this year Tacx has announced their latest update to the Tacx Neo Series, with the new 2T trainer. For those not familiar with the Tacx lineup, the Neo series is their top of the line trainer. It’s virtually | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 5 years ago

Elite Direto X Smart Trainer In-Depth Review

While Eurobike doesn’t officially start for another 15 hours, Elite is joining Saris in getting a jumpstart on things, this time on Eurobike Eve. Elite has just announced three new products – the Elite Direto X (this post), the Elite | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 5 years ago

Hands-on: Sigma’s iD.TRI & iD.FREE Multisport GPS Watches

I’ve always been a bit impressed by Sigma. Here’s a company that is mostly unknown outside of Europe (or even Germany), yet they tend to put out high quality products that compete technically with those from the bigger-name American and | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 5 years ago

Saris H3 Smart Trainer In-Depth Review

CycleOps…err…now Saris is getting a bit ahead of the Eurobike show announcement flood by starting early. Today they’ve announced three new products. First, is this post – the Saris H3 (Hammer 3) trainer. This trainer gets a bit quieter while | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 5 years ago

Garmin Fenix 6 Series In-Depth Review

It’s no coincidence that in just a few hours one of the toughest trail running races on earth – UTMB – will begin in Chamonix, France. The journey will take competitors on a 150KM loop with literal mountains of elevation | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 5 years ago

Fitbit Versa 2 with Amazon Alexa: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know

Like clock-work, Fitbit has released a new smartwatch for the fall and upcoming holiday buying season. However, with the new Fitbit Versa 2, they’ve also announced a clear shift in strategy away from “episodic device sales ”, as CEO James | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 5 years ago

Hands-on: Wahoo Adds Radar Support for ELEMNT/BOLT/ROAM, confirms TrainerRoad Connectivity

Today Wahoo has rolled out support for ANT+ radar units to their entire lineup of GPS bike computers, including the original Wahoo ELEMNT, the BOLT, and the new ROAM. For the 7 people still rockin’ the old school RFLKT, you’re | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 5 years ago

A Few Epic Days in the French Alps

At currently at 34,999ft cruising over the Atlantic, nearing the coast of Newfoundland. But prior to that I was home in Amsterdam for the weekend – however, much of last week I spent in Chamonix, doing a bunch of meandering | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 5 years ago

Amazon Music Launches on Garmin Watches: Everything you need to know

When Garmin first got into the music wearable industry some 18 months ago, I don’t think anyone would have sat back and said: ‘Garmin will become the most widely supported music streaming services wearable on the market’. But oddly enough, | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 5 years ago

InsideRide E-Motion SmartPower Rollers with Floating Fork: In-Depth Review

In the indoor training world there are roller people, and there are trainer people. It’s sorta like politics or religion. Fighting with one camp over the benefits is mostly futile. The only people who benefit from such discussions are the | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 5 years ago

No, Zwift Racing Wasn’t Hacked. Yet. Sorta. Let Me Explain.

In the computer security world there are a pile of conferences where security folks get together and present various sessions. I use ‘security folks’ as loose term that can broadly cover everybody from IT professionals working for a non-profit like | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 5 years ago

How to: Install Free Maps on your Garmin Edge

Last week I published a piece on how to install free maps on your Garmin wearable, which was a tweaked update of my six-year-old post on how to install maps on your Garmin Edge devices. But as promised, I’d be | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 5 years ago

5 Random Things I Did This Weekend

While the wind was blowing strong this past weekend here in the Netherlands, that didn’t keep us from putting our best bike foot forward. Here’s this weekend’s super-bike themed round-up of what we were up to. 1) More beer bottle | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 5 years ago

Week in Review–August 11th, 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

Polar Ignite GPS In-Depth Review

Back in June Polar announced their Ignite GPS watch. This new watch undercut the higher end Vantage M on price, but yet at the same time also added a slew of features that the Vantage series doesn’t yet have (most | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 5 years ago

How to: Installing Free Maps on your Garmin Fenix 5 Plus, Forerunner 945, or MARQ Series watch

Some six years ago I did a post on how to add free maps to your Garmin Edge series device. Back then, Garmin didn’t include any meaningfully detailed maps for any Edge devices, you had to buy those separately – | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 5 years ago

5 Random Things I Did This Weekend

With a bunch of mid-summer travel to all sorts of places complete, it’s back to a few weeks at home in Amsterdam before…well, a bit more travel for Eurobike and some excitement. Until then, here’s what I was up to! | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 5 years ago

Week in Review–August 4th, 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

Garmin MARQ Athlete In-Depth Review

It’s been nearly five months since Garmin first announced their high-end MARQ series watches, which top out at $2,500 for the Driver edition. Though the Athlete variant that this review is focused on will set you back ‘only’ $1,500. All-in, | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 5 years ago

Jaybird Vista Earbuds Hands-On: An AirPods/PowerBeats Pro Competitor for Sports?

My relationship with music while working out is somewhat moody, and usually depends on how complex everything is to setup and maintain. Sure, pairing is usually easy – but up until really the last year or two, getting streaming services | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 5 years ago

DCR Summer 2019 Open House & Ride Recap Photos

A hop, skip, and two weekends ago was the first ever summer DCR Open house. Technically the 6th open house if counting all the previous Paris and Amsterdam events, but this one was quite different in that it was held | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 5 years ago

The 2019 Swim/Bike/Run Gear I Use List

It’s nice and quiet during the summer lull between product release cycles (which usually start again around the first week of September), so it’s as good a time as any to do my annual ‘gear I use list’. The last | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 5 years ago

Cycling Dynamics for Assioma Power Meter Pedals Released, New Pedal Bodies Too

Yes, the long and oft talked about day is finally here – Favero has pushed out a firmware update enabling Cycling Dynamics on their popular Assioma power meter pedals. It’s been a multi-year journey that first started in Garmin’s camp, | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 5 years ago

Women’s WorldTour Pro Teams: The Trainers, Power Meters, and Other Tidbits

Yesterday I detailed the trainers and power meters of the Men’s WorldTour teams (plus a few odds and ends), as seen at the Tour de France. While I generally do that yearly, I also try and profile the women if | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 5 years ago

Tour de France 2019: The Trainers & Power Meters

Today marks the second time trial of the Tour de France, this one an individual time trial, versus the team time trial of the opening weekend.  While that’s a substantial difference from an athletic standpoint, the underlying technology used by | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 5 years ago

Amazon Prime Day 2019: Sports Tech Deal Tracker

Ok folks,you know the drill – today’s the best day of the year short of Black Friday for deals, sports tech and beyond. What started just a few short years ago as an Amazon-only thing has oddly enough spread beyond | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 5 years ago

Hands-On: Elite’s New $799 Suito Smart Trainer (with cassette)

It’s very likely that the just announced Elite Suito will be the trainer to beat for 2019 in terms of value for the money. In many ways, this is repeating Elite’s successes of 2017 with the original Elite Direto which | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 5 years ago

Strava cuts off Relive: Here’s what actually happened

Here I thought yesterday was going to be a peaceful random July Thursday morning. Nothing but Italian chirping birds at the Giro Rosa, and catching the Tour de France later in the afternoon on TV. Turns out, Strava had different | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 5 years ago

Hands-on: FORM Swim Goggles with Smart Display

Today, FORM Athletica announced their first product, the smart-display enabled FORM Swim Goggles. It’s of course at this juncture that you’re asking yourself: Who TF is FORM Athletica? And what the Helsinki is a smart-display enabled swim goggle?Thankfully for me | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 5 years ago

Wahoo Fitness Acquires The Sufferfest Training Platform, Sketches Future Plans

Continuing the 2019 trend of indoor training and related acquisitions, Wahoo has just announced the acquisition of The Sufferfest. For those not familiar with the platform, the company first started out years ago making indoor training videos. But back 3-4 | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 5 years ago

The Rivet: First Look At This Potential Zwift Competitor

To be fair, using the term ‘Zwift Competitor’ might be a bit…early. Like looking at a pile of ingredients on a table and calling it a cake. But damn, it looks pretty. And everyone likes eating cake batter anyway. Also, | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 5 years ago

Hands-on with Tekrapod: Openwater Swim Safety Device

For whatever reason, I find openwater swim safety devices to be interesting. So, if you’re not an openwater swimmer, then returning tomorrow is your best bet. Or, go check out this past post from 9 years ago when I accidentally | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 5 years ago

5 Random Things I Did This Weekend

After getting back from Greece (obligatory beach Instagram pic here) mid-week, we were back in Amsterdam for the weekend here. Thankfully it wasn’t as hot as the past week, though Saturday did take the cake for the heatwave. Here’s what | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 5 years ago

Week in Review–June 30th, 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

Testing In The Wind Tunnel with Stryd’s New Running Power Meter

It’s been now 4 years since Stryd first landed on the market as a running power meter. Back then, it was initially a chest strap, though the company shifted to a single footpod design about three years ago. Now, with | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 5 years ago

Polar’s $199 Ignite GPS Hands-On: Everything you ever wanted to know

I always like it when Polar gets riled up. It happens every few years (the Finns don’t excite easily), where they turn around and drop a crazy full featured product on the market, driving a significant shift in pricing. I | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 5 years ago

The Because It’s Friday $500 Sports Gadget Giveaway Results/Winner!

Last week I held the “Because it’s Friday $500 Gadget Giveaway”.  It was an opportunity 6,044 of you to express your love of Friday, or sports tech gadgetry in general. Or, just a chance to win some good ol’ fashioned | Continue reading


@dcrainmaker.com | 5 years ago