Ray Maker
Sports tech reviewer · DC Rainmaker
DC Rainmaker is his sports technology blog, where reviews of watches, bike computers, power meters and trainers run past sixty pages in print. Running came back in 2006 after a decade off, a first marathon four months later, then Ironman Canada and a 2:54 at Philadelphia. In 2015 he left a fifteen-year IT career to do the site full time. Paris came after Washington DC, then Amsterdam, then Mallorca in 2024. He co-hosts The FIT File with DesFit.
- Watch on YouTube, The FIT File with DC Rainmaker and DesFit, youtube.com (opens in a new tab)
- Website, dcrainmaker.com (opens in a new tab)
- Podcast, dcrainmaker.com (opens in a new tab)
- YouTube, youtube.com (opens in a new tab)
- X, twitter.com (opens in a new tab)
- Instagram, instagram.com (opens in a new tab)
- Entries
- 25
- Does
- 25
- Recommends
- 0
- Discusses
- 0
Gear
14 pieces of gear in this stack
- GearDoes it$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Heart rate monitor
Named the Polar H10 as the one strap he uses most in his 2021 list, for reliability and for carrying both Bluetooth and ANT+. A Garmin HRM-DUAL and HRM-PRO were usually within reach, with a Polar H9 sitting at home as the backup.
Source: dcrainmaker.com: The 2021 Swim/Bike/Run Gear I Use ListView item: Heart rate monitorOn record from 4 of 62 tracked people: 2 do it, 2 recommend it - GearDoes it$$$Mid: Roughly $50 to $500, or up to $50/month.
Running shoes
Rotates a Hoka Mach 6 on road and a Saucony Xodus Ultra 3 on trail, and puts his road and trail mileage at roughly even. The Hokas came from one morning at the local running shop, testing a boatload of shoes on a force plate. He took the pair with the best numbers and the best feel. By his own account, he knows nothing about shoes.
Source: dcrainmaker.com: The 2025 Swim/Bike/Run Gear I Use ListView item: Running shoesOn record from 3 of 62 tracked people: 3 do it - GearDoes it$$$Mid: Roughly $50 to $500, or up to $50/month.
Cycling power meter
Has mostly settled on the Favero Assioma Pro MX and RS pedals, with Garmin Rally left on the triathlon bike. The reason he gives is money rather than accuracy: cheaper for him to keep buying spare Favero sets than Garmin ones, and he says the two work equally well.
Source: dcrainmaker.com: The 2025 Swim/Bike/Run Gear I Use ListView item: Cycling power meterOn record from 2 of 62 tracked people: 2 do it - GearDoes it$$$Expensive: Several hundred dollars and up.
Garmin watch
A Garmin Fenix 8 sits in the crossover section of his 2025 list, filed there so the watch did not have to show up under all three sports. An Apple Watch Ultra 2 appears beside it. Writing up his swim kit he counts a watch, then adds maybe three watches, which is testing rather than training.
Source: dcrainmaker.com: The 2025 Swim/Bike/Run Gear I Use ListVisit garmin.com (opens in a new tab)On record from 2 of 62 tracked people: 2 do it - GearDoes it$$$Expensive: Several hundred dollars and up.
Indoor bike trainer
Rode what he calls a crapton of indoor miles last winter, all of it on test units passing through: a Muov bike, an Elite Justo 2, a Tacx NEO 3M, a JetBlack Victory and more. Hard to say any one of them was his, he writes, since it is rare that nothing is in for testing.
Source: dcrainmaker.com: The 2025 Swim/Bike/Run Gear I Use ListView item: Indoor bike trainerOn record from 2 of 62 tracked people: 2 do it - GearDoes it$$$Expensive: Several hundred dollars and up.Sponsor, disclosed
Road bike
Rides a Canyon Aeroad CF SLX 8 as his main road bike, switched over in late spring 2025 from an Endurace. He discloses that Canyon has loaned him bikes since autumn 2024 so he has enough component variety to test devices on, and notes separately that he bought several Canyons himself over the previous decade.
Source: dcrainmaker.com: The 2025 Swim/Bike/Run Gear I Use ListView item: Road bikeOn record from 2 of 62 tracked people: 2 do it - GearDoes it$$$Mid: Roughly $50 to $500, or up to $50/month.
Running hydration vest
The same CamelBak Marathoner has carried his water for about a decade. It is out of production now, he notes, and a cheap Decathlon pack and a Walmart house brand both did the job on trips when he forgot it.
Source: dcrainmaker.com: The 2025 Swim/Bike/Run Gear I Use ListView item: Running hydration vestOn record from 2 of 62 tracked people: 2 do it - GearDoes it$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Swim goggles
Swims in a Speedo Vanquisher. He rates the technology in the FORM goggles and enjoys them in a pool, but says the narrow side vision rules them out for the open water swimming that makes up most of his time in the water.
Source: dcrainmaker.com: The 2025 Swim/Bike/Run Gear I Use ListView item: Swim gogglesOn record from 2 of 62 tracked people: 2 do it - GearDoes it$$$Mid: Roughly $50 to $500, or up to $50/month.
Action camera
Reaches for a GoPro Hero 13 Black most days to film devices on runs, rides and swims. Quality is half the reason; the other half is the cloud backup, which he says keeps footage from disappearing with a lost SD card. An Insta360 Ace Pro 2 comes out when he needs power or heart rate overlaid, or when the light is poor.
Source: dcrainmaker.com: Photography Gear I Use (Updated 2024 List!)View item: Action cameraOn record from 1 of 62 tracked people: 1 does it - GearDoes it$$$Mid: Roughly $50 to $500, or up to $50/month.
Bike computer
Switched to the Garmin Edge 1050 as his default head unit for 2025. That default means less than it sounds: he says every ride last winter carried a Wahoo, a COROS and a Garmin computer on the bars at once, because comparing them is the job.
Source: dcrainmaker.com: The 2025 Swim/Bike/Run Gear I Use ListView item: Bike computerOn record from 1 of 62 tracked people: 1 does it - GearDoes it$$$Mid: Roughly $50 to $500, or up to $50/month.
Camera drone
Flies a HoverAir X1 for running footage because it folds into a shorts pocket and is in the air in about fifteen seconds. He reckons he has crashed it at least a hundred times and it still works. A DJI Mini 4 Pro handles the faster riding, a Mavic the scenery.
Source: dcrainmaker.com: Photography Gear I Use (Updated 2024 List!)View item: Camera droneOn record from 1 of 62 tracked people: 1 does it - GearDoes it$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.Sponsor, disclosed
Cycling helmet
Lists an HJC IBEX 3 for road and an HJC Bellus for gravel. The same post names HJC as a helmet partner of the site, so these fall outside the bought-it-myself rule covering most of the list.
Source: dcrainmaker.com: The 2025 Swim/Bike/Run Gear I Use ListView item: Cycling helmetOn record from 1 of 62 tracked people: 1 does it - GearDoes it$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Open water swim buoy
Never swims open water without one, and repeats the word for emphasis in the list. Two reasons he gives: boats can see him, and it holds his phone, keys, clothes and sandals while he swims. You stop noticing it is back there, he says.
Source: dcrainmaker.com: The 2025 Swim/Bike/Run Gear I Use ListView item: Open water swim buoyOn record from 1 of 62 tracked people: 1 does it - GearDoes it$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Smart scale
Weighs in on a Garmin Index S2 to track weight loosely. He ignores the body fat reading, saying impedance scales are not accurate enough to bother with, and that weight is all he pretends to care about anyway.
Source: dcrainmaker.com: The 2025 Swim/Bike/Run Gear I Use ListView item: Smart scaleOn record from 1 of 62 tracked people: 1 does it
Apps
4 apps in this stack
- AppDoes it$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
TrainingPeaks
Everything from his own training goes into both Strava and TrainingPeaks, and he called TrainingPeaks his official logbook of the training record when he spoke to Ben Greenfield in 2016. One ride the day before had carried five bike head units, so he strips the duplicates out before they reach the log.
Source: Ben Greenfield Life: The Man Who Has Single-Handedly Tested Nearly Every Self-Quantification Device On The Face Of The PlanetVisit trainingpeaks.com (opens in a new tab)On record from 2 of 62 tracked people: 1 does it, 1 has discussed it - AppDoes it$$$Mid: Roughly $50 to $500, or up to $50/month.
Zwift
Pays for Zwift himself, alongside TrainerRoad, Peloton and several other platforms he keeps for testing. Most of his indoor riding runs on Zwift or TrainerRoad.
Source: dcrainmaker.com: The 2025 Swim/Bike/Run Gear I Use ListVisit zwift.com (opens in a new tab)On record from 2 of 62 tracked people: 2 do it - AppDoes it$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Strava
Posts rides to Strava when he remembers to flip them over from private. Strava is the public, sharing side of his training; the record itself sits in TrainingPeaks.
Source: dcrainmaker.com: The 2025 Swim/Bike/Run Gear I Use ListVisit strava.com (opens in a new tab)On record from 1 of 62 tracked people: 1 does it - AppDoes it$$$Mid: Roughly $50 to $500, or up to $50/month.
TrainerRoad
Structured indoor sessions run on TrainerRoad, one of the two platforms he says most of his trainer time goes to. He subscribes to Rouvy, FulGaz, Xert and the Tacx app as well, though those are there for review work rather than his own training.
Source: dcrainmaker.com: The 2025 Swim/Bike/Run Gear I Use ListVisit trainerroad.com (opens in a new tab)On record from 1 of 62 tracked people: 1 does it
Supplements
2 supplements in this stack
- SupplementDoes it$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Protein powder
Optimum Nutrition Gold Standard whey is the only protein on his 2025 list, sitting in the crossover section with no commentary attached. He bought it himself, as he says he did with everything on the list that is not flagged as a partner product.
Source: dcrainmaker.com: The 2025 Swim/Bike/Run Gear I Use ListView item: Protein powderOn record from 18 of 62 tracked people: 13 do it, 3 recommend it, 2 have discussed it - SupplementDoes it$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.Sponsor, disclosed
Electrolyte supplementation
Drinks Precision Hydration's 1500 mix on warmer days for hiking and cycling. In the same post he discloses Precision Fuel and Hydration as a sponsor of the site, the podcast and the YouTube channel, so this one sits apart from the gear he bought himself.
Source: dcrainmaker.com: The 2025 Swim/Bike/Run Gear I Use ListView item: Electrolyte supplementationOn record from 12 of 62 tracked people: 12 do it
Protocols
4 entriesStructured routines and practices with a defined method.
Ran a mile in spring 2006 and nearly collapsed, he writes, having not run for about ten years. Four or five months later he finished the Marine Corps Marathon in 4:23, losing roughly 60 pounds along the way, and two years after that ran Philadelphia in 2:54.
Source: dcrainmaker.com: About MeMost of his swimming is open water rather than laps, which he puts down to the move to Mallorca and bays a two-minute pedal from home. His wife puts in the pool time; he takes the open water. The whole kit list for it, he notes, fits in an old race swim cap.
Source: dcrainmaker.com: The 2025 Swim/Bike/Run Gear I Use ListGets everything around town by cargo bike, an Urban Arrow, because the household kept no car in Amsterdam. He put it at 3,500 to 4,000km a year in his 2021 list, carrying three kids, their friends and whatever he needed at the office. They ended up owning two of them.
Source: dcrainmaker.com: The 2021 Swim/Bike/Run Gear I Use ListSigned up for a half Ironman before he had swum a single lap, by his own telling, and worked backwards from there through a sprint and an Olympic race. Ironman Canada followed the next year with help from a local coach, Alan Melvin, then Ironman Florida. He has sprinkled marathons and shorter races in since.
Source: dcrainmaker.com: About Me
Habits
1 entryRecurring behaviors recorded in public statements.
Reads resting heart rate ahead of heart rate variability, which he told Ben Greenfield in 2016 was maybe a bit old school of him. His own sits between 39 and 42; a drift toward 50 tells him illness or fatigue is on the way. He was clear the pattern took months of data to see, not a week.
Source: Ben Greenfield Life: The Man Who Has Single-Handedly Tested Nearly Every Self-Quantification Device On The Face Of The Planet
In their own words
Checked word for word against the linked source
“I’m typically not one to buy the most expensive piece of fashionable stuff. I just buy what works for me.”
dcrainmaker.com: The 2025 Swim/Bike/Run Gear I Use List (opens in a new tab) · 24 Jul 2025 “As always, I know nothing about shoes. I let smart shoe people tell me what to do.”
dcrainmaker.com: The 2025 Swim/Bike/Run Gear I Use List (opens in a new tab) · 24 Jul 2025 “I found that for me, my resting heart rate is between 39 and 42, typically. But if I etch closer to, say, 50 or 51 beats per minute as my resting heart rate, then I know I'm about to get sick or I'm just incredibly fatigued.”
Ben Greenfield Life: The Man Who Has Single-Handedly Tested Nearly Every Self-Quantification Device On The Face Of The Planet (opens in a new tab) · 2 Apr 2016 “I use action cams virtually every single day. It’s the main thing I use on runs/rides/swims to capture videos of devices (or me).”
dcrainmaker.com: Photography Gear I Use (Updated 2024 List!) (opens in a new tab) · 27 Oct 2024 “For my own training, mostly everything goes into both Strava and TrainingPeaks. So I use TrainingPeaks as sort of my like official golden logbook of my training record.”
Ben Greenfield Life: The Man Who Has Single-Handedly Tested Nearly Every Self-Quantification Device On The Face Of The Planet (opens in a new tab) · 2 Apr 2016
Episodes from the feed
Show archive, The FIT File with DC Rainmaker and DesFit (opens in a new tab)Last fetched . A title without a link is an episode the feed publishes no page of its own for.
- Garmin CIRQA...Let's Chat! (opens in a new tab) · 34m
- Garmin Price Drops, Apple WatchOS 27, and Google's Obsession With Queso (opens in a new tab) · 41m
- Fitbit Air: Should Whoop Worry? (opens in a new tab) · 44m
- The Watch We Wanted To Love... (opens in a new tab) · 33m
- COROS and Wahoo Partnership…A Complicated Collaboration? (opens in a new tab) · 35m
Stack notes are paraphrased. Anything in quotation marks is a short excerpt copied from the transcript it links to. Not medical advice. Not affiliated with, endorsed by, or reviewed by anyone listed. How this works.