- What is the watch that you get,
that you recommend, the trainer that you use,
the bike computer?
Well.
Guess who I met yesterday.
- It's pretty bad.
(upbeat instrumental music)
- Morning trainiacs.
That's it.
Interbike 2017 in Vegas, over.
And as you can see,
I'm at the airport.
Rather than subject you to an entire day of jump cuts
of me going from here to Denver to Denver to home
and then from home to the couch,
we did something really cool yesterday,
and if you have asked me what the best triathlon watch is,
bike computer is, trainer is,
odds are over the past couple of years
I've told you DC Rainmaker, IE Ray Maker.
Well guess who I met yesterday
and got to answer for mid 2017
what the best triathlon watch is,
budget triathlon watch, bike trainer, bike computer is.
And we just had a good chat.
Check it out.
So trainiacs of al ages, I'm here with Ray Maker,
AKA DC Rainmaker.
Do you want to introduce yourself to the gang?
I call them trainiacs.
- I'm here.
I don't know what to say.
It's at Interbike, so obviously enjoying
all that is left of last Interbike here in Vegas.
It's kind of crazy.
We were just chatting before about how like
it seems busy at first if you haven't been to Interbike,
and then as you're walking around,
it's like wait, it's so quiet.
I mean you look behind us, there's no one
on this entire row, there's no one there, it's bad.
So like I went to demo to hang out.
- It's bad.
So Ray runs DC Rainmaker, you've done it since 2007.
- Yeah.
- 2007.
Started out as a blog.
- Yeah.
- YouTube channel, podcast now.
- That's crazy, yeah.
- Just keep adding on.
And primarily with reviewing triathlon tech, right?
- Yeah, swim, bike, run, fitness basically.
No like basketball stuff or anything.
- No basketball stuff, no.
And why we've brought Ray here is because
I often get the question, as I'm sure you get it
100 times more than I do, what is the watch
that you get, that you recommend,
the trainer that you use, the bike computer,
and typically I always say just go check out Ray's site
because I have basically just bought
what he has recommended, and the in depth reviews
that you do are so much beyond what I would ever do,
so to answer some questions about what are
the favorite pieces of tech that you use,
let's do some sort of rapid fire two to three minute answers
of let's start with what is the go to triathlon watch
that you recommend and why?
And we'll say in this case money is not a factor.
- Money is not a factor.
So I, I would say probably the Phoenix 5
or the 935 from Garmin, so Forerunner 935
or the Garmin Phoenix 5 would be the two.
I personally prefer the 935 over the Phoenix 5
because I actually like a lighter watch, personally,
so I just, something a little lighter,
not as heavy as the Phoenix 5,
not as thick as the Phoenix 5.
Triathlon watch, money no object, those are probably
the top two in the market today.
- Why specifically those two?
So you say you prefer the 935 over the Phoenix
because it's, is it 20 or 30 grams lighter?
- Yeah, that's it.
It's the exact same software, so it's the same software.
It's using a plastic shell as opposed
to a metal or whatever fancy metal is on there
on the Phoenix, but it's just lighter.
It's a little bit thinner.
I personally prefer a smaller watch,
that's all it comes down to,
but you know those have, there are so many features.
I think that's one of the challenge
that Suunto and Polar really have competing
in the high end of triathlon is the number of features
that Garmin has in their watches,
whether it be things like structured workouts
or running dynamics or cycling dynamics
or all these different things you could use,
and you don't necessarily use all those features.
Like I don't, I personally don't use running dynamics
and cycling dynamics on a day to day basis,
but someone else might, and therefore if you want
the thing that has everything, this has everything.
On the flip side, like if you're looking
at like a budget GPS watch for example for a triathlon.
- Yeah, let's get to that.
What would be the budget triathlon watch that you recommend?
- For a brand new watch that's not, you know,
a couple model years old, I would say
Suunto's new Spartan Trainer Wrist HR.
It's a super long product name.
- Suunto Trainer Spartan?
- The Suunto Spartan Trainer Wrist HR.
Just came out like a month or so ago maybe,
and it's awesome.
It's 275 I think, 259, somewhere in that ballpark,
and it's got all the core features you want,
a swim, bike, run, really nice and small watch,
different colors.
It's a really solid watch for what it is.
- So let's go now with trainers.
Again we'll start with the money is no object.
- So money is no object, I personally prefer
the Tacx NEO.
I think it's 1,600 bucks, but it's way cheaper
in Europe though, in Europe it's like 12,000-ish, roughly,
even a thousand if you're really lucky to find it,
but I like that because it's silent,
totally silent trainer.
The only thing you're going to hear is the drive train,
so your, you have the cassette
and the chain moving through it.
And it can simulate different road conditions
like cobblestones, and it's kind of crazy.
It has absolutely almost zero trading value,
but it's really really cool.
On the flip side, money no object,
you've also got the Wahoo Kicker
plus the new Climb accessory,
and that is probably the same price point.
You're looking at 600 bucks for the Climb
plus you know 1,200 or so for the trainer,
1,100, something like that, so 1,700 ballpark,
but it goes up and down, that's pretty cool.
That's not shipping until November-ish,
maybe December right now, so.
That's money no object.
One of those two.
I don't know which one yet.
I've spent some time on the Climb,
but not enough on a final unit to like really decide
if it's worth it or not.
- Okay, go other end of the spectrum, budget trainer.
- Budget trainer.
There's some great options there.
I think you've got like almost two categories.
You've got budget and budget plus,
and the reason I say that is because in the past,
you have the high end trainers at like 1,200 bucks plus,
which is all that Kickr and et cetera category,
and then you had budget-ish categories,
electronically controlled trainers at under 600 bucks,
actually, but then you've go the elite Direto,
or the Dorito as it's kind of been joked around at 899,
which is really incredible direct drive trainer,
that if you can find a way to stretch to 899,
I would do it.
Like if you were sitting and looking
at the $600 trainers and going hey,
I wish I could get a Direct Drive, I wish I could do this,
that is what I would spend, like cheap on something else
and spend the extra 200 bucks because the feel's better,
it's just such a nicer trainer
and you don't have to deal with the wheel portion,
just it's awesome.
That said, you go down below 600 bucks,
Tacx makes some great models below 600 bucks.
I think it's the Vortex that is 600 bucks.
There's a Kickr Snap at 600 bucks.
I mean there's all these trainers.
When you talk about a $600 price point are so so similar
that there are minor nuances to each one,
like one will be slightly higher incline,
one will be slightly higher
or better road feel, so they're really, really similar.
I'll have my full trainer annual review guide thingy
up in the next week or so.
- That's fantastic, you should check that out.
- So that's probably the best thing to look at,
but yeah, it's definitely, they're super competitive
at that range there.
- Okay, and let's go bike computer to wrap it up.
- So I think, you know, the best bang for your buck
these days is either the Wahoo Element Bolt
or the Edge 520.
In my mind those are like the two, the Bolt's 250 bucks.
Garmin dropped the price just in the last couple weeks.
They're very similar features.
Again, there's a post I did, just the mother of all details
between those two units and how they,
there's just nuances.
It's like anything else.
Like there are certain things that one does better
than the other, so like the Wahoo one does better
on mapping for sun variance,
or the Garmin does better on some sensors.
And so you've got to kind of decide what's valuable to you,
but those are what I'd definitely look at
for all around best bike computer
that you're not going to break the bank on.
- Like it.
Where do you want people to check you out?
- Dcrainmaker.com, so DC, like District of Columbia,
and then Rainmaker like it's raining, and maker.
It's a horrible name when you have to like spell it out.
- Trademark it.
I didn't think about it actually.
- Get URLs.
- I got it when I was, you know like when you choose
an AOL screen name back in the day.
- It was like that?
- That's how it happened.
Like literally I tried to choose.
It was a Blogspot and I tried to choose Ray Maker,
my name, it didn't work.
It was like no.
I'm like okay Rainmaker, a play on that, that didn't work,
and I'm like I'm living in DC,
I'll put DC in front of it, see what happened.
It accepted it.
- And that worked?
- It worked.
- Now you're married to.
- I'm so stuck with it, yeah, and I don't even live
in DC anymore, so.
- Check him out, fantastic resource,
and yeah, basically if you ask me any questions
about tech, I'm probably going to direct you
over to Ray's site.
- I appreciate it, thank you very much.
- Okay, thanks.
- Nice seeing you.
- Alright, thank you.
Look at this, look at this.
Trainiacs, oh my goodness.
NTK did a hell of a job laying concrete while I was gone.
That is a sizable slab of concrete.
Alright guys, I'm home, later.