Creating high-quality video content has never been easier. Small action cameras now feature powerful sensors that capture stunning footage day or night, mind-boggling stabilization, and easy integration with quality wireless mics. But remember that your video is only as good as your adventure, so get out and get after it.

At a Glance

• Best Overall:
• Best GoPro Update:
• Best for Beginners:
• How to Choose an Action Camera
• How We Test
• Meet Our Lead Testers

Best Overall

Insta360 Ace Pro 2

Sensor Size: 1/1.3″
Weight: 6.3 ounces
Battery Capacity: 1800mAh

Pros and Cons
鈯� Buttery stabilization
鈯� Nice low-light footage
鈯� Great color profile
鈯� No need for 8K video

GoPro and DJI have long dominated the action camera market, but Insta360 takes over this year with the Ace Pro 2. Co-engineered with Leica, the camera shoots ultra high-resolution footage, rich 4K slow-mo, and captures high-quality audio. It also has a laundry list of amazing features, including a dedicated chip to help with low-light shooting, a back screen that flips up for great selfie footage, and industry-leading stabilization.

The total package makes it nearly impossible to shoot bad footage. No matter what we were doing鈥攕kiing, cycling, overlanding, etc.鈥攖he Ace Pro 2 produced video that we were always excited to edit and share. Shooters with more experience will find it easy to dial in custom settings, but the camera鈥檚 user interface was also easy to navigate for testers who had less experience.

Insta360鈥檚 accessory ecosystem is not as big as GoPro鈥檚, but there is still plenty to choose from, including chest and handle-bar mounts, tripods, fast-charge battery packs, and ND filter sets. The company is not pushing integration with wireless mics, but it鈥檚 easy to pair a mic from a company like DJI to improve the quality of interviews or narration.

We were hard-pressed to come up with any critiques of the Ace Pro 2. Just one comment: No one really needs 8K footage on an action cam. That kind of resolution is overkill for social media (even YouTube), which is where most action-cam footage ultimately ends up.

Best GoPro Update

Hero13 Black

Sensor Size: 1/1.9″
Weight: 5.6 ounces
Battery Capacity: 1900mAh

Pros and Cons
鈯� Better battery life than previous model
鈯� Class-leading accessories
鈯� Great color profile
鈯� No upgrade to the sensor

The new Hero13 comes with two big upgrades. First, it includes a higher capacity 1900mAh battery that lasts up to 2.5 hours (depending on settings) and is now the standard for all of GoPros flagship cameras (we can hear videographers cheering from here). And second, GoPro has expanded its already robust accessories ecosystem by adding a suite of lenses you can slap on the new camera.

Related: Is the GoPro Hero13 Black Better Than the GoPro Hero?

These include an ultra-wide lens ($100) to increase the field of view, making it 36 percent wider and 48 percent taller, and a macro lens ($130) that lets you get up close and personal with small things like tiny animals or flowers. GoPro also just released its new Anamorphic lens ($130), which allows shooters to capture pro-level cinematic-quality footage. When you affix any of these lenses, the GoPro automatically recognizes it and adjusts its settings accordingly.

We鈥檙e fans of accessory lenses because they provide different perspectives: a new way of seeing and of capturing content. These days, all action cameras offer amazing resolution and stabilization; if you want to capture unique footage, different lenses open up new avenues for creativity. We hope that other action camera companies follow GoPros lead in this department.

GoPro plopped the same sensor from the Hero12 into the Hero13, so there鈥檚 no bump in resolution or low-light video quality. GoPro has been criticized for this, butit doesn鈥檛 bother us much because the lens integration is what you鈥檙e buying with the Hero13.

The biggest downside to the Hero13 is that the new lenses have to be purchased separate from the camera and its included standard lens. As a bundle, all three lenses cost $360. But we think that鈥檚 a smart, long-term investment since these lenses will likely be used with, and outlive, the 13, 14, and other GoPros to come.

Best for Beginners

DJI Osmo Pocket 3

Sensor Size: 1″
Weight: 6.3 ounces
Battery Capacity: 1300 mAh

Pros and Cons
鈯� Easy to use
鈯� Great stabilization
鈯� Best for social
鈯� Lower quality footage

It鈥檚 not lost on us that the most expensive action cam on this list is one we recommend for beginners. It would be cheaper to get a GoPro, but we think this camera鈥檚 user-friendly design makes it a worthwhile investment for novices.

Most action cams are designed to be attached to accessories like tripods, monopods, and various grips to capture footage on the go. The Osmo Pocket 3, on the other hand, is an all-in-one unit with an easy-grip handle and built-in three-axis stabilizer, which allows you to grab the camera at a moment鈥檚 notice, hit the power switch, and start recording silky smooth 4K footage almost immediately. We also love the two-inch screen that you can flip vertically to record social footage and keep horizontal to record wide-angle footage that鈥檚 great for YouTube.

DJI makes the best wireless mics on the market and they seamlessly plug and play with the Osmo Pocket 3 so you can record interviews or film yourself with high-quality sound. If you鈥檙e vlogging, you can also set the camera down and tell it to lock onto your face so you stay in focus while walking around within the frame.

While this camera isn鈥檛 designed to be strapped to a mountain bike (the built-in handle gets in the way), we have reliably used it to capture decent action footage while skiing. It can鈥檛 compete with the likes of GoPro or Insta360 in this department, but it鈥檚 a great option for traveling and hiking.

One note: the Osmo 3 has been around for a while. While it鈥檚 still available for sale, we鈥檇 be willing to bet that DJI is working on an update.

How to Choose an Action Camera

Purchasing an action cam is just like buying a bike or a set of skis in that you need to think first and foremost about how you will use it. Invest in a GoPro if you want a huge ecosystem of accessories, go for the Insta360 if quality footage is what matters most, and we suggest the Osmo Pocket 3 if social is where most of your videos will land.

You鈥檒l need to look elsewhere if you plan to produce full-length documentaries. Action cams are best for gathering shorter videos that go on social platforms or that get spliced into longer edits. Take Cody Townsend鈥檚 鈥淭he Fifty鈥� for example: He had a full-time videographer, , who used pro cameras to capture most of the footage. Townsend was also filming with a GoPro so that we could see his first-person perspective, but the editors would only include his footage when it made sense.

Storing and Editing Video Footage

It鈥檚 easy to shoot fun footy, but without proper organization and equipment, it can be a pain in the ass to store and edit. Make sure you have a hard drive that鈥檚 big enough to store video footage (we suggest you start with something that鈥檚 at least 10 or 12 terabyes), and use a naming convention that鈥檚 easy to search so you can go back and find the footage you shot last month, or last year.

On the editing side, there are lots of apps such as that will help you splice your best clips together to create a short Instagram reel, but they can鈥檛 help you produce a thoughtful three-minute mini documentary. If you want to create something longer, you鈥檒l need to learn how to use video editing software such as Adobe Premier Pro.

Battery Life

Always invest in extra batteries. Companies say their batteries will last hours, but they never do, so it鈥檚 important to have at least two extra batteries on hand if you鈥檙e on an all-day adventure.

How We Test

• Number of Testers: 5
• Number of Products Tested: 10
• Hours of footage captured: 20+
• Number of times we jokingly said 鈥渇ooty鈥� and 鈥済nar鈥�: 100+
• Highest elevation while testing: 10,500
• Coldest temp while testing: 0掳贵

Camera geeks are the best testers because they鈥檙e geeks. While most people just want to start shooting, the geeks also want to dig into the minutia and spend hours debating the merits of one camera versus the other. Thankfully our camera geeks have gotten good at digging into the details but then backing out and putting themselves in the shoes of the regular consumer so they can make recommendations based on general use.

For this year鈥檚 test we sent cameras on a wide variety of adventures and told testers to push the limits to find out where they failed. One tester took his camera on a full-moon skin to see how well the low-light option worked. While you could make out what was happening, the footage was not pretty to look at, letting us know that while action cams have come a long way, they鈥檙e still not as good as a bigger pro-level camera.

Meet Our Lead Testers

Category manager Jakob Schiller was a gear editor at 国产吃瓜黑料 and is now a columnist. The father of four kids and two dogs, he鈥檚 a bit pinned down but still manages to run, ski, or bike every day and often brings a camera with him. Sometimes he nails the footage. Sometimes it鈥檚 total junk.

can鈥檛 sit still so he鈥檚 always thinking up an adventure like driving all the way to Alaska, raving in the Nevada desert, or riding his motorcycle up mountain roads. It鈥檚 easy to hand him a camera and tell him to push record.

More Gear Reviews

The Best Mirrorless Cameras for Novices to Pros
The Best Tents for Camping in Comfort and Style
The Best Trailers and Campers for Off-Grid 国产吃瓜黑料s

The post The 3 Best Action Cameras of 2025 appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

In the corner of my basement sits a dusty Rubbermaid bin crammed with a decade鈥檚 worth of outdated and obsolete electronics, otherwise known as e-waste. It鈥檚 a tangle of cords, cables, clickers, cameras, camcorders, components, as well as graveyard of outdoor gear. There are wonky headlamps and dead camping lanterns, an old avalanche beacon and outdated GPS, some walkie talkies, and a couple of digital pocket cameras.

You probably have a similar bin. We know in our guts that this stuff doesn鈥檛 belong in the landfillI so we hoard it because a) we don鈥檛 know what to do with it, and b) it was expensive and maybe we鈥檒l need that random cord someday.

E-waste has become an enormous problem for our planet. It’s the fastest growing waste stream in the world, even larger than plastic, yet only 12 percent of it currently gets recycled. This unfortunate fact has huge ramifications for the environment, and for people living near areas where the items get dumped, says Justin Stockdale, director of zero waste hauling at , a nonprofit recycling center in Boulder, Colorado.

鈥淗idden inside all the random cords and contraptions are valuable and finite resources like lithium, copper, gold, silver, lead, and palladium,鈥� Stockdale says. 鈥淲hen these materials are disposed of improperly鈥攚hich they often are, in disadvantaged communities鈥攊t can be a disaster for the soil and groundwater and the health of the people nearby, particularly children.鈥�

Because e-waste contains so much valuable material, a shady form of 鈥渞ecycling鈥� has emerged. Companies pose as recyclers, luring consumers to donate their electronics, which are then packaged and shipped to developing countries. Basel Action Network, a nonprofit that champions global environmental health and justice, calls it 鈥�,鈥� and explains why on its website.听鈥淎s a result of this massive, global flow of e-waste, former farming villages in countries like Vietnam, China, and Nigeria are now e-waste dumps. In these impoverished communities, recycling鈥� often means burning circuit boards, soaking microchips in acid, and burning plastics to sort them by order. In short, it means poisoning people and the planet.鈥�

The good news: proper recycling of any and all consumer electronics is free and simple, as long as you know where to take them.

Before You Recycle E-Waste, Ask Yourself This

Is there still life left in that item? Does it still work, just not as well as you鈥檇 like? Does it just need a minor repair? If the answer is yes to any of these questions, your goal should be to find someone who will keep using it until it鈥檚 end of life. You could donate it to a local charity, resell it, or for outdoor specific items, send it to 国产吃瓜黑料鈥檚 program. Just print out a free shipping label and send it off to our repair partner, Gear Fix, which will make needed minor repairs and resell it. We donate 100 percent of the proceeds to charity.

E-Waste Recycling Near You

Some communities have excellent local options (like Eco-Cycle in Boulder). The key is to look for a recycler that鈥檚 This designation听ensures that the valuable materials, like gold, silver, copper, lithium, aluminum, and palladium, as well as toxic materials like lead, mercury, and cadmium are extracted and put back into the marketplace.

Electronics Recyclers International (ERI) is the largest e-Stewards recycler in the U.S. The company processes 100,000 tons of e-waste each year.

Thanks to ERI鈥檚 partnership with two of America鈥檚 mega retailers, recycling our e-waste responsibly is as simple as a drive to the nearest or . Both chains accept virtually any consumer electronics at no cost. This collected e-waste gets shipped off to one of ERI鈥檚 eight facilities around the country, where the recycling process听begins.

鈥淥ur first step when we receive materials is to sort out the items that may contain private data and immediately destroy it,鈥� says John Shegerian, chairman and CEO of ERI. 鈥淎fter sanitization, items are sorted to determine if there is still a useful life for a device through repair or re-use methods. This amounts to 2.3 to 3 million devices per year that we鈥檙e able to put back into use.鈥�

For items that can鈥檛 be repurposed, ERI removes all batteries, which are recycled separately. 鈥淲e鈥檙e left with what we call the electronic carcass which includes all the plastic, metals, glass, and precious metals,鈥� says Shegerian.听 This material goes into a series of proprietary e-waste shredders (check out the video below), which turn it into what looks like coarse gray flakes flecked with colored bits, but is actually a valuable commodity.

Once shredded, the material flows into a complex sorting apparatus that uses robots, artificial intelligence, magnets, and ocular technology to divide it into various and specific reusable commodities, which then get sold to smelters and manufacturers who put them back into the circular economy.

鈥淣inety-eight percent of the material we receive gets repurposed,鈥� says Shegerian. 鈥淟ess than two percent is waste and is diverted to landfills.鈥�

How to Recycle Batteries

Never throw a battery in your trash or a single-stream recycle bin. 鈥淚t will eventually lead to groundwater contamination,鈥� Stockdale says.

Although Shegerian says that ERI they can handle any batteries鈥攕ingle-use alkaline or lithium鈥攖hat remain in any devices that make it to them, some retailers (like Staples, currently) ask that you remove them before recycling. So, what should you do with your used batteries? Call2Recycle is an e-Stewards certified battery recycler with more than . Alkaline and lithium are often different waste streams, so before you drop your batteries in a bin, check the signage to make sure you’ve got the right one.

The bottom line, says Shegerian, is that there鈥檚 no reason any electronics should go to the landfill. 鈥淓veryone in the country has access to a Staples or Best Buy. Get your e-waste there, and we鈥檒l take care of the rest.鈥�

Doing right by the planet can make you happier, healthier, and鈥攜es鈥攚ealthier. 国产吃瓜黑料鈥檚 head of sustainability, Kristin Hostetter, explores small lifestyle tweaks that can make a big impact. Write to her at climateneutral-ish@outsideinc.com.

The post How to Recycle Your Old Electronics appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

I spent the first two-plus years of my professional photography career shooting on a , a camera that those in the know would label听鈥溾�澨齛t best. That single body helped me make a livable wage not because I鈥檓 a photo savant, but because I paired it with premium lenses. One of the long-held yet rarely written rules of photography is this: quality glass rules all.

But as camera technology becomes more advanced and use cases become more extreme, that paradigm is shifting. Full-frame cameras still hold the upper hand in resolution and editability (RAW files have no equal), but the delta between the two has shrunk considerably. While Apple deserves a tip of the hat for clever algorithms that replicate a short depth of field, your smartphone isn鈥檛 the best pocket-size adventure camera, in my opinion. I think that award goes to the new ($500).

GoPro has built a reputation as a maker of waterproof and durable action cameras鈥攚ith capable photo and video engines to boot. But the Hero 10 improves on the performance chops of its predecessors. It incorporates a noticeably faster processor and new video stabilization, among other upgrades, which have earned it a permanent place in my camera bag.

The Ideal User

The true calling card of the Hero 10 is its durability鈥攖hat鈥檚 what the line has always been based on. At just 5.6 ounces, with a burly waterproof casing and lens (down to 33 feet, according to the company), the 10 is able to tackle jobs that even the smallest mirrorless camera can鈥檛. It鈥檚 ideal for ultrarunners, mountain bikers, surfers, kayakers, scuba divers, dirt bikers, and climbers who want to dip their toes in pro-level photo and video editing, without dropping thousands to get their feet in the door.

Among professional shooters, though, GoPros have long been a punchline. Their promise was good in theory, but in practice the footage rarely, if ever, was useful: video was often shaky, blurry, and, until the last couple iterations, relatively low-resolution for pro videographers. The Hero 10 Black is different. It鈥檚 a great tool for immersive point-of-view video clips and a capable still-photography camera too, thanks to high-enough resolution and RAW formatting, which improve postproduction editing.

Notable Upgrades

The biggest improvements start with the new GP2 processor, which delivers double the frame rate of the Hero 9, up to 5.3K at 60 frames and 4K at 120. With the 10, you can now capture photos at 23 megapixels鈥攖hat鈥檚 three megapixels more than my trusty Canon 6D. It can capture 8x slo-mo and allows users to grab 19.6-megapixel stills from footage. These specs make the Hero 10 Black a worthy upgrade from the Hero 9.

Cruising on flowy singletrack (Video: Andy Cochrane)

After a few weeks of testing, those stats are far from the full story. GoPro rolled out HyperSmooth 4.0, a video stabilization and horizon-leveling software that helps make my mountain-biking footage look like I almost know what I鈥檓 doing. Even for bikers who over-brake in rough, rutty, and technical sections of trail, the footage won鈥檛 make anyone nauseated. (国产吃瓜黑料 covered the brand鈥檚 impressive HyperSmooth 3.0 technology before, but the 4.0 makes video look even silkier.) There is better in-camera preview functionality as well, so you can see clips out on the trail instead of waiting until you get home. The 10 also has 50 percent faster file transfers that streamline the download process. The touch interface is more responsive and easier to use, despite the same size screen.

What Could Be Improved

GoPro鈥檚 Achilles heel鈥攑oor battery life in cold conditions鈥攑ersists. The Hero 10 uses the same battery as the Hero 9 (still a 30 percent boost over older versions) but has the same, if not worse, battery life due to higher frame rates and a larger demand from the upgraded processor. Although I haven鈥檛 tested it extensively in winter, on early-morning runs with temperatures floating near freezing, the battery life was subpar. Skiers, snowboarders, and snowmobilers should bring hand warmers to keep spare batteries warm, especially if they plan on shooting all day.

The Upshot

The Hero 10 Black comes with a few nice additional upgrades worth mentioning. The new lens cover is removable, splashproof, and scratch-resistant. The 10 can be used as a webcam with 1080p video and a wide field of view. It can also be used for livestreaming, time-lapses, and scheduled shooting. While I didn鈥檛 test any of these extensively for this first look, I do see them as viable tools in the future.

GoPro also improved its noise reduction in its video, which is especially useful in low light. While it鈥檚 still far from my go-to camera at dawn and dusk, it did capture an evening trail run without feeling like The Blair Witch Project. Like previous versions of the action cam, the Hero 10 offers a handful of unique that can expand the field of view and provide a directional mic, a light, and a flippable screen.

If you鈥檙e still on the fence about upgrading to the in preference to the , another action cam, or your smartphone, the decision will come down to how鈥攁nd how much鈥攜ou plan to use it. The price could feel fairly steep if you plan to use it as an occasional tool for capturing fun clips for friends and family. However, if you鈥檙e looking to frequently record and produce pro-level images and videos with lots of motion, the noticeably improved processor, stabilization software, and photo capabilities make it a worthy addition to the tool bag.

The post The GoPro Hero 10 Black: a Reliable, Improved 国产吃瓜黑料 Cam appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

I鈥檝e been reviewing iPhones for seven years now, and I start every story with a similar disclaimer: if you want a camera system that you can use for professional photography, don鈥檛 spend your money on the newest iPhone. Keep your old phone and invest in a full-frame mirrorless camera instead.

However, if you like the way an iPhone fits snugly in your pocket, and you mostly use its camera for Instagram snaps, then the new 听(starting at $999) is a worthy investment. Apple let me test the phone in mid-September鈥攔ight after the company鈥檚 annual keynote address and before the phone went on sale鈥攁nd I鈥檝e been shooting with it nonstop to get a feel for the improved camera features. Below are some pictures I shot with the phone, as well as a breakdown of the upgrades I鈥檓 most excited about.

Macro Photography

If you were shooting with a normal camera and wanted to pack wide, superwide, and portrait lenses, you would easily fill a camera backpack. Apple, however, has managed to add all of those lenses to the back of a phone, and this year it added a macro lens to the mix. The macro doesn鈥檛 show up as its own lens on the back of the phone, though; it works through the ultrawide lens and automatically turns on when you place the phone close to an object. Apple says you can get within two centimeters of anything鈥攁 flower, a bug, tree bark鈥攖o snap a pic. After testing this mode, I found that the phone shoots crisp, vibrant photos that bring a whole new perspective to what鈥檚 deemed photographable around us. Macro photography is not something I use every day, but it was fun knowing that I have a macro lens in my pocket to pull out on occasion.

A Longer Telephoto Lens

When Apple launched its 56-millimeter zoom lens on the iPhone 7 Plus, I was excited to have a longer lens on my phone. That said, I also balked at the words telephoto or zoom, because a 56-millimeter lens is not a true lens of that type by traditional photo standards. Luckily, the brand found ways to pack longer lenses in subsequent phones. Last year it gave us a 65-millimeter lens on the 12 Pro Max, and now the 13 Pro comes with a 77-millimeter lens, which is pretty close to 85 millimeters, or the gold standard for a telephoto portrait lens. I loved having a 77-millimeter lens, because it makes your subject look more natural (there鈥檚 no wide-angle distortion of their face or body), creates a tighter composure so your subject fills more of the frame, and does a great job of creating bokeh. With a true portrait lens in my pocket, it was fun to push myself to really work on this type of photography. My kids, wife, and dogs got sick of me telling them to stop for a portrait, but I鈥檝e always found that portraits of my family are my most cherished photos.

The Right Balance Between Software and Hardware

Apple uses a lot of smart software to enhance the iPhone camera. Night Mode, for example, is an automatic bracketing feature that helps you nail low-light images. Smart HDR (high dynamic range) is another bracketing feature that uses machine learning to teach the camera how to take different exposures for different parts of each photo, ensuring you get a well-balanced shot in tricky light.

But software is just half the equation. As I hammered home on my iPhone 12 Pro review, you also need high-quality hardware, like lenses and sensors, to make great photos. Those components drink in the light and allow the software to perform its magic. The Apple lenses are sharp and fast, and the brand has been steadily making sensor upgrades, too. A pro-quality, full-frame sensor hasn鈥檛 been squeezed into an iPhone鈥攜et鈥攂ut the sensor behind the Pro 13鈥檚 26-millimeter wide camera is the company鈥檚 largest sensor to date, and it makes a difference. Paired with a faster f/1.5 aperture, that sensor allows the wide camera lens to take in 2.2 times more light than the 12 Pro鈥檚 wide camera, and nearly 1.5 times more light than the 12 Pro Max鈥檚 wide camera. More light equals more data, which results in improved overall image quality, more detail, less grain in low-light photos, and the ability to print bigger and better photos off your phone. A larger sensor also allows for faster shutter speeds across various light settings for sharper images. Thanks to a new sensor and faster aperture, Apple also says the ultrawide camera takes in 92 percent more light.

Photographic Styles, or Filters

Filters, like the ones you can apply with Instagram, seem to fade in and out of fashion. They were all the rage five years ago, but then photographers started to lean more toward natural-looking photos. Now, filters are making a comeback, and Apple is paying attention. With the introduction of Photographic Styles, the Pro 13 can automatically apply one of four filters to every photo you shoot鈥攖here鈥檚 no need to go back and apply them manually.

Each filter (vibrant, rich contrast, rich warm, and cool) can be manually controlled for intensity, and Apple鈥檚 suggested settings ensure that the photos don鈥檛 look overdone. Apple also designed the filters to enhance a photo without messing with the skin tone of your subject鈥攁 smart new addition.

Other Things You Should Know

On the video side, the biggest upgrade is something called Cinematic Mode, which allows you to add bokeh to your footage. In this mode, the camera will lock onto the faces in your frame and choose which subject to focus on, based on who鈥檚 looking toward the camera. (You can also control where the camera focuses by tapping the screen.) Meanwhile, everyone else in the frame gets blurred out, using a low depth of field. It鈥檚 a cool feature that can enhance your storytelling, and it鈥檚 a style of shooting that鈥檚 long been used by professional cinematographers.

Apple says the 13 Pro features up to 90 minutes more battery life compared to the 12 Pro, which is great if you鈥檙e out all day shooting photos. The brand is also offering a one-terabyte storage option, so you鈥檙e almost guaranteed to have enough space on your phone鈥攗nless you鈥檙e constantly shooting long clips of high-res video. And unlike the 12 Pro Max, which had a faster wide camera lens, the cameras on the 13 Pro and 13 Pro Max are identical. I like this mirroring, because I prefer to carry the smaller Pro instead of the Pro Max, as it takes up less room in my pocket and is much easier to use with one hand.

The post I Tested the Apple iPhone 13 Pro. The Camera Quality Is Ridiculous. appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

In this episode of the 101, Bryan Rogala explains why the 听($207)听is one of the best upgrades you can add to听any rig.

The post The Case for Adding a Battery Monitor to Your Rig appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

听believes in 鈥渆ndless curiosity.鈥� That听guiding philosophy听led her to come up with the goal of听trying something new every month. When Blount听told us about her challenge, we thought, Now that鈥檚 something we can get behind. So she and 国产吃瓜黑料听teamed up with the folks at Topo Designs to bring you Beyond Familiar,听a video series about 鈥渢he journey, the joy, and the try.鈥�听Follow along as Blount听explores activities that she鈥檚 never tried before. In the first听episode, she learns to ride a board amid the听redwoods of Santa Cruz, California. Learn more about Blount听in this recent 国产吃瓜黑料 article.听

The post 鈥楤eyond Familiar鈥�: Episode One appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

With all due respect to the makers of real and useful multitools, and with no constraints of what would actually fit in a product,听I designed the perfect multitool. I believe we have to dream big. (But I also believe it is quite probably impossible to stow a pizza cutter inside the handle of any multitool.)

Brendan Leonard鈥檚 new book, Bears Don鈥檛 Care About Your Problems: More Funny Shit in the Woods from , is .

The post A New, Almost Completely Unrealistic Multitool Design appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

When I first began bike racing a decade ago, I quickly discovered the particular horrors of indoor training. I bought a set of , taped a training plan to my handlebars, and spent much of that dark winter鈥檚 night of the soul staring at the wall while听trying to hit 300-watt intervals as听a raging chorus of metal pulsed through my earbuds.

When the online racing and training platform Zwift debuted in 2014, it felt like a revelation. No more solitary penitence鈥攏ow I could suffer along with others, on what looked like actual roads, albeit on a screen. I pretty hard. It was a bit 听but vastly better than before.

Meanwhile, my equipment was in transition. From rollers I switched to a , a 鈥渨heel-on鈥� trainer鈥攂asically a smart roller听for your bike. Then I upgraded to the , in which the rear wheel is removed and the bike is attached to the trainer鈥檚 cassette. I later added the , an indoor 鈥済rade simulator鈥� that鈥檚 attached to the bike鈥檚 front forks鈥攇oodbye front wheel.

I鈥檇 gone from riding a whole bike, intact and free听but听on rollers,听to a semi-attached setup听to, finally, a fully attached rig, in which my bike had been reduced to its frame, resting on peripherals. Like some kind of natural selection, it was slowly shedding vestigial organs.

And so when Wahoo鈥檚 new was delivered to my house recently, it seemed like the logical next step:听a machine purpose-built for indoor training.

At $3,500, it costs more than many decent road bikes. Heck, it costs a grand more than a Peloton bike. The idea of spending that much on a device designed to go no farther than my spare bedroom might have seemed risible a few years ago.听

And yet, as indoor training, largely for reasons of convenience and efficiency, has become more important to me (I鈥檓 now a level 40 Zwifter, which basically means I鈥檝e been riding indoors a lot听for several years), the Kickr Bike suddenly seemed an attractive proposition. Instead of constantly trying to domesticate my outdoor听road bikes, why not ride something that had been bred for the specific requirements of its native environment and not have to switch between them?听

Indeed, an entire market has rapidly emerged to meet this seemingly surging demand: there鈥檚 Garmin鈥檚 , the , the .听

As I鈥檝e been living in the Wahoo ecosystem, I was drawn to its product. But would the Kickr Bike actually be better than my existing setup? And could it remotely justify the cost, which was about $1,700 more than my current setup?

I headed to my pain cave, where the Kickr Bike now had pride of place. Setup was fast and intuitive. Via the Wahoo app, the user has several options: you can import your fit data, if you have it, from one of several established systems,听you can take a set of pictures of your existing bike,听or you can simply input your body measurements.

After taking a few snaps of my current setup with my phone, I was given measurements for my saddle and handlebars (all of which have clear centimeter markings on them), as well as the overall frame geometry. Unlatching the quick-release levers, I slid everything into its proper place. Next听I attached my pedals, then fired up a Zwift group ride and was ready to roll.

My first impression was the smoothness of the pedal stroke. It didn鈥檛 seem jumpy or glitchy, and shifting felt quick and fairly natural. Shifting happens via traditional levers, and the rider can choose, via the app, any of the leading systems (Campagnolo, Shimano, SRAM), as well as any number of gearing configurations. You want to push a 53/39? Go ahead. Feel better with a compact chainring? You鈥檙e a button push away.

The Kickr was comfortable but, more importantly, it felt like a road bike. You not only coast on downhills, but the bike pitches down鈥攚hich feels strange the first time, as, with no front wheel, you鈥檙e essentially dangling into empty space.

The next thing I noticed was the sound, or lack thereof. A few years ago, I had a sound-engineer friend drag his equipment to my pain cave, and we measured the audio signatures of several trainers. The main takeaway was that while some were quieter than others, they all make a different sound; some kick out a rumbly bass, some emit a high-frequency whine. By informal poll (i.e.,听my wife and daughter), the Kickr Bike was my quietest setup to date.听

Early in that first Zwift ride, I suddenly became stuck in one (fairly low) gear. It happened again during my next event, a Zwift race. I ended up doing 24 hard miles at an ultrahigh cadence, an experience I鈥檒l not soon forget. I got someone from Wahoo on the phone, and we walked through various possible problems. He concluded it must be some hardware issue (in all fairness, the bike was a demo unit听and had been shipped to many different testers over a period of weeks). He sent a new set of handlebars, and the next day, the problem was gone.

I was sold after a week of testing. I鈥檇 completed a number of Zwift rides and races with the new bars with nary a hitch. The power numbers I was hitting seemed true and consistent. I didn鈥檛 have to do any time-consuming 鈥渟pindowns,鈥� the process of calibrating your trainer鈥檚 power settings to Zwift, and I didn鈥檛 suffer any dropouts. I no longer had a chain to worry about slipping or lubing, and as I powered through 1,000-watt sprints, I didn鈥檛 fret that I was somehow damaging my expensive road bike. (It鈥檚 a source of whether trainers can be bad for your road bike.)

And it didn鈥檛 just benefit me. The bike鈥檚 sheer range of size parameters meant my wife and daughter could each ride the bike听after just a few minutes鈥� tweaking. Logistically and aesthetically, the Kickr Bike has a slightly smaller and more attractive footprint than my previous trainer-bike combos鈥�although it鈥檚 still not quite living-room worthy.

There were also a few flaws. The shifting display, which lurks to the right of the top tube, is not so easy to see鈥攅specially when I drape a towel over the bars in a vain effort to mop up the torrent of sweat I produce. There鈥檚 nowhere to hold a phone or an iPad, which are as important as a water bottle when it comes to indoor riding (though an accessory is said to be coming). And the wires coming out of the handlebars are a tad unsightly.

So: Is it better than what I had before? Absolutely. Rather than trying to get the best out of a machine designed to be ridden outdoors, I felt like I was on a high-fidelity device that seamlessly interacted with a virtual world indoors. Honestly, it鈥檚 been a bit hard to go back. My demo unit was returned to the company, but I鈥檝e since been plotting to buy one. Do I want to pay $3,500? That鈥檚 more complicated. Like any proper cyclist, I subscribe to the notion that the ideal number of bikes is n plus听one. If you are dead serious about indoor training鈥攊f, say, you ride nearly half your miles under artificial light鈥攎aybe it鈥檚 time to sell one of those other bikes and embrace the great indoors.

The post Is a $3,500 Indoor Bike Worth It? appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

听is a radio host and an activist within her Detroit community. She听partnered with the to equip low-income families with solar panels for their homes. , from production company , highlights the impact a few solar panels can have on a neighborhood.

The post Alex Honnold’s Foundation Goes to Detroit appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

In this episode of the 101, Bryan Rogala shows us听how he prefers to听stay in touch听while on the road. Cell-phone signal boosters, like the , are easy to install听in any vehicle in less than ten听minutes. They鈥檙e a great adventure-rig听upgrade for anyone who spends a lot of time in remote areas.

The post Get Better Cell Service in Any Rig appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.