26 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 19th, 2024
Monday: How My Garmin Endurance Score Skyrocketed In One Boring Ride
Wednesday: Hammerhead Sends Out 7-Year ‘Old Karoo’ instead of ‘New Karoo’
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. Some of these end May 27th.
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) A Crazy Cycling Race Motor Doping Story: Except, this doesn’t end there. It continues with the athlete running to a getaway car, having an accomplice drive, and then the race directory ending up on the hood of the car. Not kidding.
2) Samsung Galaxy Ring Rumors Heat Up: Naturally, it’s expected this will have a subscription fee to it. No surprise there, though, I’d argue that Samsung and other major companies could better compete with just a one-time hardware cost. After all, this would undoubtedly require a Samsung phone – helping to tighten that ecosystem.
3) Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 also looks square-ish: But more importantly – more buttons! This continues the general trend we’re seeing from wearable companies the last couple years of bringing back the buttons. Finally, big tech realizing what everyone else has for years: Buttons are best.
4) Zwift Labs Features Announced: A whole burrito-bowl full of them, from group FTP tests to coached audio workouts, and more. As always, not all of these things will live. Some might die.
5) Tube vs Tubeless Gauntlet Test: I had put this on in the background initially, and was pleasantly surprised by it. This video reminded me much more of the old days of GCN where there was less polish and more ‘buds out back with beer seeing what happens’. Except they also visited the hardware store and got sharp objects. Give it a watch, it’s funny and useful.
[This post contains video, click to play]
6) Converting bike to rail bike: I’ve seen a few bike/cart/rail conversions on YouTube over the years, but this is actually one of the first I remember that can be portaged easily. Most of them are beastly setups, or not super flexible. Also of note, I appreciate that this very small YouTube channel can randomly surface in my ‘Recommendations’ feed, for something that was legit interesting. Again, kinda reminded me of the GTN video above in a way.
7) Nearly 400 athletes DNF at Morro Bay 70.3: I’m sure you’ve probably seen some of the videos of the swim situation on Twitter/TikTok/etc this week. It’s insane. In short it sounds like a sand bar or something changed recently, which in turn caused a weird current situation that got exponentially worse with each successive wave – to the point even reasonably good/strong swimmers simply couldn’t make forward progress. Some normally 30-min swimmers were coming out of the water in 90 mins. Kudos to Ironman though for at least quickly offering all those who DNF’s to a free entre at another race.
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With that – thanks for reading!