19 May 2024
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 what to do with all of the coolness that people write, and while I share a lot of it on Twitter/X and Facebook, this is a better forum for sending it on to y’all. Most times these different streams don’t overlap, so be on the lookout at all these places for good stuff!
So with that, let’s get into the action!
DCR Posts In The Past Week:
Here’s all the latest on the site:
Sunday: Week in Review – May 12th, 2024
Monday: Polar Grit X2 Pro In-Depth Review: A Flagship Watch?
Wednesday: Hammerhead Karoo 3 In-Depth Review: Worth the Upgrade?
Thursday: SRAM RED AXS & Power Meter (2024) In-Depth Review
Thursday: Strava Announces Family Plan, Dark Mode, AI Cheat Finder
Saturday: Big Garmin Edge, Fenix, and Epix Sale (US): Quick Thoughts
Phew, it’s been a while since I had a threesome in-depth review week. Almost felt like September again! For better or worse, things gonna be busy for a while around here though!
YouTube Videos This Past Week:
Here’s what hit the tubes over on the You of Tube, definitely don’t forget to subscribe there to get notified of videos the second they hit!
[This post contains video, click to play]
[This post contains video, click to play]
Spring Sports Tech Deals:
There’s a slate of new sports tech deals, primarily from Garmin, but also a few other companies jumping in on the almost summer-themed sales.
ProductSale PriceAmazonOther siteSale Notes
Garmin Edge 1040 – $100 off$499AmazonREIThe is the lowest price we’ve ever seen on the Edge 1040, and only the 2nd time it’s ever been on sale in two years. It’s still Garmin’s top-end units, and still receiving new features via quarterly firmware updates.
Garmin Edge 1040 Solar – $100 off$649AmazonThe Pro’s Closet
Garmin Edge 540 – $50 off$299AmazonREIFirst time this has been on sale, and the lowest price to date. I personally prefer the Edge 840 due to the menus being a bit easier to use with a touchscreen. Both Edge 540/840 have identical buttons though for days you don’t want the touchscreen.
Garmin Edge 540 Solar – $50 off$399AmazonREI
Garmin Edge 840 – $50 off$399AmazonThe Pro’s ClosetThis is, best I can tell, the first time Garmin has put the Edge 840 on sale.
Garmin Edge 840 Solar – $50 off$499AmazonThe Pro’s Closet
Garmin Epix (Gen 2) – $200 off!
$899/$999$499N/AREI⚡⚡ This is an incredibly strong deal. Especially viewed in light of all the non-Garmin AMOLED competitors charging far more for far fewer features. This non-sapphire edition doesn’t have multiband, but testing has pretty clearly shown that Garmin’s Epix non-multiband GPS is basically on-par with their competitors multiband config (see my NYC tests for that).
Garmin Epix Pro Series (All variants) – $200 off!
$899/$999$699AmazonThe Pro’s Closet⚡ This is only the second time we’ve seen these on sale. This is probably my go-to watch these days (middle-sized one), with the singular reason I tend to choose it over the Forerunner 965, being the built-in flashlight for night.
Garmin Fenix 7 Pro (All variants) – $200 off (7S/7/7X Pro) – $200 off!
$799+$599+AmazonThe Pro’s Closet⚡ This is only the second time we’ve seen the new Fenix 7 Pro series on sale, and it’s a nice strong sale. The smaller Fenix 7S Pro watch has become my wife’s go-to watch since it came out, for all of her training and 24×7 usage.
Garmin Fenix 7 Series (All Models/Styles) – $200 off!
$699+$449+N/AREI⚡This is a strong deal if you don’t care about the new optical heart rate sensor (including ECG) of the newer Fenix 7 Pro, especially given the Fenix 7 series has received virtually all of the Fenix 7 Pro’s new software features, keeping them essentially identical. $449 is the lowest price I’ve seen to date.
Garmin Forerunner 255/255S Music – $100 off!
$349/$399$299AmazonREIThis is Garmin’s mid-tier running watch, and is a very polished option with good multi-band GPS, and of course, a boatload of running metrics. This model also includes offline music such as Spotify and Amazon Music.
Garmin Forerunner 955 – $100 off!$399AmazonREIThis is one of Garmin’s most popular running watches, and it’s back down to the lowest price ever. I often use this in my accuracy testing comparisons when validating other watches, due to it’s very strong GPS performance. Note this is the base edition without solar. It’d be hard to find any better deal in sports watches today, from any company (given this has full mapping, tons of new features even this week, etc…)
Garmin Forerunner 955 Solar: $100 off!
$499/$599$499AmazonREISee everything I said above on the Forerunner 955 base, except this one also has solar.
Garmin Varia Radar (RTL515) – $50 off
$199$149AmazonREIThis is Garmin’s standalone radar/taillight option, and $149 is pretty much the standard sale-price. This product is universally loved, and works with Garmin/Wahoo/Stages/Hammerhead/etc, and other bike computers.
Garmin Venu 3 – $50 off!
$449$399AmazonREI
Garmin inReach 2 Mini Satellite Communicator (2-way) – $100 off$299AmazonREI⚡ This is my defacto satellite communicator when out of coverage area, and I’ve used it on a number of major treks over the past two years when well outside of cellular service, both in a 24×7 tracking mode for friends and family, but also there in case of emergency. Would strongly recommend for anyone doing anything in the wilderness.
Google Pixel Watch 2 – $70 off!$329Amazon
HoverAir X1 Drone – $80 off!$349AmazonNote: There’s virtually always a $80 coupon that can be clicked on the Amazon page.
Suunto Veritcal (Solar edition) – $50 off$699Amazon
Stuff I Found Interesting Around The Interwebs:
Here’s a not-so-small smattering of all the random things that I stumbled on while doing my civic duty to find the end of the Internet:
1) Polar (Sorta) adds NFC Payments: Polar has partnered with Fidesmo, who makes NFC bands/straps that can be used for contactless payments. These bands now perfectly fit Polar products. To be clear, there *zero* tech inside the Polar watches that’s aware of these bands or anything (which is why they work on a bunch of older Polar watches too). The bands cost 59EUR, and are limited to European consumers. I’d have though we’d see Polar do something with Curve or such directly, for their V3 & Grit X2 Pro watches, but I guess this kinda sorta works too.
2) Denmark is throwing sharks on bike paths: No really, real actual sharks. I’m so confused.
3) WearOS 5 announced, claims lower GPS battery burn: Specifically, they note that a user running a marathon will see a 20% lower battery burn rate. Will definitely be interesting to test out these claims!
4) Peloton adding new ‘Look Cam’ ads before classes: So far, this isn’t going over well, which is good to hear. I don’t mind Peloton’s existing pop-out shelf option if people want to buy the same gear as the instructors. But an additional 30s ad before a class on $45/month paid platform is just dumb. Seriously, it dumb.
5) Spanish City Wants to Require Insurance for Cyclists: Hmm, not a good trend.
6) Performance Gains Round-up: A new round-up of all sorts of semi-aero-focused, semi-performance-focused stuff. A good quick read.
7) How to perform a ‘factory’ spin down of a Wahoo KICKR: It’s been a really long time since I’ve done one of these. Kinda neat, but do note all the warnings. And also, really only do this if you know your unit is dorked.
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With that – thanks for reading!