Be forewarned: I'm a notorious cheapskate.
The entry level Bell road (Draft MIPS) and MTB (Blitz MIPS) helmets are extremely well made, have full shells, have MIPS, have a good retention system and are very comfortable these days. They cost about $50 each. Outside of fashion consciousness, I don't think there's any reason to spend lots on a training helmet these days.
I never buy kickboards, buoys or paddles. Just use the ones at the pool.
Dolfin makes great cheap training jammers.
Speedo Vanquishers remain the best pool training goggles ever made, IMO.
The $10 Head "digital running gloves" at Costco are essentially perfect cool / cold weather cycling and running gloves. They fit better and last longer than the $60 Castellis I have.
Generic threaded paintball / keg 16g CO2 cartridges from Amazon are a fraction of the cost of bike shop ones and are exactly the same thing.
Lastly, if you can swallow your conspicuous consumption, BikesDirect's titanium road frame is really nice all purpose road bike. The frames are made by ORA who makes frames for lots of brands. They have good geometry, standard BB, seatpost and headset, really nice welding, butted tubes, nice cage mount reinforcements, good external cable routing, very strong Breezer-style dropouts, an easy to find RD hanger and a reasonably good carbon fork. The brushed finish is just as good an a Lynskey. The frame is stiff but compliant and handles like a true race bike. It's an awesome deal for $1K for the frame and fork.
Things in my experience to not to go cheap on: shoes, clothing, lights, tires and tools. For all of those, I get one step down from top of the line. Similarly, I always buy Ultegra and Deore XT.
The entry level Bell road (Draft MIPS) and MTB (Blitz MIPS) helmets are extremely well made, have full shells, have MIPS, have a good retention system and are very comfortable these days. They cost about $50 each. Outside of fashion consciousness, I don't think there's any reason to spend lots on a training helmet these days.
I never buy kickboards, buoys or paddles. Just use the ones at the pool.
Dolfin makes great cheap training jammers.
Speedo Vanquishers remain the best pool training goggles ever made, IMO.
The $10 Head "digital running gloves" at Costco are essentially perfect cool / cold weather cycling and running gloves. They fit better and last longer than the $60 Castellis I have.
Generic threaded paintball / keg 16g CO2 cartridges from Amazon are a fraction of the cost of bike shop ones and are exactly the same thing.
Lastly, if you can swallow your conspicuous consumption, BikesDirect's titanium road frame is really nice all purpose road bike. The frames are made by ORA who makes frames for lots of brands. They have good geometry, standard BB, seatpost and headset, really nice welding, butted tubes, nice cage mount reinforcements, good external cable routing, very strong Breezer-style dropouts, an easy to find RD hanger and a reasonably good carbon fork. The brushed finish is just as good an a Lynskey. The frame is stiff but compliant and handles like a true race bike. It's an awesome deal for $1K for the frame and fork.
Things in my experience to not to go cheap on: shoes, clothing, lights, tires and tools. For all of those, I get one step down from top of the line. Similarly, I always buy Ultegra and Deore XT.