It is, as I'm sure you're only too aware, just a matter of weeks until Christmas. So what, if anything, can you buy the cycling fanatic in your life?
Getting presents for hobbyists whose passion you don't necessarily share is a notoriously tricky business, particularly so when it comes to the myriad sub-tribes and simmering divisions of cycling. However much your loved one adores bikes, if their two-wheeled pride and joy is a gleaming, titanium-framed racing machine, they might not fully appreciate the fluffy saddle cover or comedy bell.
Similarly, even if you know exactly what they desire – perhaps, say, winter tyres or a helmet – there's just so much choice out there and cyclists can be extremely picky. It perhaps takes the fun out of buying when the recipient has to not only suggest the type of gift but an exact product number.
Condor Cycles, one of the UK's most venerable bike outlets, has sent me a list of what they believe are suitable presents, ranging in price from a £7.49 hi-tech puncture repair kit (it would have to be, you'd think, for that money) to an £825 retro-styled steel track bike.
Assuming few of you will be leaving entire bikes under the tree – if there are any eccentric millionaires out there, then I'd like one of these or perhaps one of these, please – it's the lower price range that's most useful.
There is, of course, the refuge of the bike-themed gift, but I'm personally wary. When I used to get the Evans catalogue posted occasionally through my door, I'd look in horror at the bike-shaped pizza cutter lurking near the back pages, and think: more so even than scented candles, this present reeks of desperation.
So what do you think are good cyclists' gifts? And more to the point, what would you like to be given?
