Christmas gifts for discerning cyclists — a guide to unearthing the ideal gift for the fastidious fussy cyclist in your life

The humble musette is a cycling accessory that bounces in and out of fashion. It was a staple way back in the day, then it disappeared, came back for the Fashionably Fixie Years and went on a well-earned leave of absence, but is now back in the bikepacking/adventure/ultra arena, reinvented as a lightweight stowable bag as useful extra storage for snacks when you’re pedalling nowhere near shops.

They’re also very handy for just picking up a few bits on the way back from a normal ride; some recovery chocolate milk, biscuits or that special ingredient for dinner you forgot. This musette (they call it a sacoche though) from Fairweather is made from a waterproof ripstop nylon and packs away inside itself to hide tiny and unnoticed in the bottom of a jersey pocket until needed. And it comes in four colours to match your specific riding colour scheme.

With the universal reliance on GPS units, the use of proper maps is unfortunately a wistful thing of the past, but Garmins really just don’t look so pretty stuck to the wall. A custom-made 3D map could be a beautiful way to exhibit where you live, display your favourite range of hills or illustrate a significant ride you proudly completed.

The Unique Maps Co can create a fully customised 3D effect topographical relief map for you, whether that’s centred on where you live or some mountains you climbed. They can also add a custom message or even render the route you cycled onto the map for that extra personal touch. The maps appear 3D thanks to ultra-high-resolution elevation data gathered by low-flying satellites and applying a unique rendering technique that turns 2D flat maps into what looks like sculpted terrain. 

An every-ride multi-tool spends the vast majority of its life doing absolutely nothing, maybe getting a bit damp in the winter – but when it’s called upon to work, it really needs to work. This is a task that many mini-tools can struggle with by being too mini.

Tools that are too short, fiddly to use and without enough leverage… they sometimes aren’t worth carting about for all those miles.

Show your sagacious chops with this Spurcycle Titanium Tool instead. The bit driver and sliding 95mm handle are machined from titanium while the tool bits of 2, 2.5, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 8mm Allen heads, T10 and T25 Torx and a Phillips 2 screwdriver should mean you can fix most things on your bike, or let’s face it, your less mechanically fastidious ride buddy’s bikes. All the bits are held in a rubberised sleeve and in a TPU fabric case to keep rattles and weather away.

Bikepacking is quite The Thing right now and it’s a great excuse to buy small, lightweight and easily packable things just when you thought that the discerning cyclist had run out of small lightweight and reassuringly expensive things to need.

Chichi outdoor coffee accessories are 10 a penny, but tea seems remarkably under-catered for. You don’t really need anything more than a mug and a tea-bag (or infuser if you’re loose leaf fancy) but what if you need to make a proper cup of tea?

SilverAnt Outdoors will happily supply you with any number of lightweight titanium camping utensils from a folding titanium spoon upwards, but this Titanium Tea Set will absolutely elevate your bivvy kudos into king or queen of the hill. Each set contains three double-wall construction titanium tea cups to keep your beverage warm and hands unscalded, a titanium loose tea case, and a titanium teapot. 

Colligo produces a range of lightweight bike covers that stretch over wheels, handlebars, pedals and forks like a nice sock. Easy to just slip on post-ride, they shield your bike and bits from any surfaces they may come in contact with. Or, for non-cycling family members, they protect any surfaces (such as nice white walls) from those pointy, sharp and grubby bits that they come into contact with. So, while the recipient might welcome them as a way of saving their bike from any errant scuffs and scrapes the person that does the cleaning will welcome them with equal joy.

Show the cyclist in your life that you’ve tried a little harder than just picking off the shelf one of those supermarket wines with a drawing of a bike on the label (we all know the ones)… this Tom Simpson bundle includes a bottle of red and a bottle of white, a tribute to the successful, charismatic yet tragic cyclist. Tom and the Peloton is a blend of Syrah and Grenache grapes that delivers lush spiced red fruits with a tinge of graphite on the palate, it says here, and great with cheese, meats and grilled Mediterranean veg. A per-bottle donation goes to the Simpson family for the upkeep of the Ventoux memorial so that’s lovely.

Cyclists kick the “socks at Christmas are boring” cliché in the teeth, we’re probably the only people who might actually get excited by unwrapping a fresh pair. It is a unique tradition of cycling that if you’re given the number 13 in a race you’re allowed to wear it upside down to counteract any of the bad luck that might emanate from the number. These socks from The Handmade Cyclist wear that tradition on their 75% Polyadmide Skin Life/10% Polyadmide/15% Elastane silver microparticles infused ankles.

Clubhouse Roastery does a range of sport-inspired coffees including cricket, golf, tennis and darts, and its Yellow Jersey Coffee collection of bold, premium coffee blends is inspired by a love for the iconic 90s editions of the Tour de France. Coming in a variety of roasts with different tasting notes you should be able to find one to suit your own sprinter or climber. Of course, if your cyclist is as punctilious about their coffee as they are about their bike bits (to be honest it’s quite likely) and this coffee is the wrong bean from the wrong side of the mountain then this could all go terribly terribly wrong… but, in theory, gifting a cyclist coffee should be about as safe as you can get.

A cycling cap, casquette if you must, is a multi-faceted item. It can keep the sweat, sun and rain out of your eyes, sometimes all on the same day.

 There’s also a hidden code embedded in which cap you choose to wear, snuck under a helmet or not. An expression of both individuality and belonging, do you want to show your allegiance to a current team, display a nod to your heritage with an old school team cap, wear the cap you were given at an event to show off your palmares, slip on your lucky cap for that race, wear that one that has the patina of miles, or turn up at the group ride with a cap that no-one else has? 

Alleyhats can help with your discerning standing by supplying a custom cap that’s certain to assert your style and individuality. Each cap is handmade in the south of England by Kate, a costume maker and tailor by trade. Stock caps come in three sizes for adults, two for children and a winter style with a cosy drop down ear band. If those aren’t individual enough for you there’s also a made to order ‘CYO’ Create Your Own option.

Cycling can evoke many scents; riding through a forest in the early morning light, the smell of hot tarmac after the rain, wafting past a boulangerie, silage, a jersey after 150kms in the mountains, the fishy smell of a fresh inner tube.

Acca Kappa aims to capture some of the nicer elements of this in its Volata eau de parfum. The official fragrance of the Giro d’Italia (who knew?) Volata, translates to ‘sprint’ and it’s an ode to the beauty of cycling and summer. Hopefully not the sweaty bit.

This unisex eau de parfum apparently opens with top notes of liquid sunshine bergamot, bracing ginger and uplifting pink pepper, followed by the elegance of iris with misty lavender and musk-like angelica at its heart. Grounded with notes of cypress, it will transport you to the fresh, lingering pine-like landscape of the majestic Italian Alps. You won’t have seen this on every ad break since November either.

With the amorphous anonymity of bikes these days and all those cookie-cutter carbon frames, bling is back in a big way as riders try to sprinkle some individuality onto their rides. Bling can all too easily become brash though, especially if that sprinkling becomes a soaking, so less is more, especially if you can’t really see it.

Ti-Parts Titanium offers a plethora of all that is light and shiny, its 3D-printed Titanium Front Disc Brake Adaptor is a thing of joy and comes in a rainbow of colours to match your bike, but the Titanium Brake Pad Retainer Pin is the ultimate in discreet bling. There is the slight performance advantage in that it’s less like to round off than the stock slot head item, and it’s a fraction of the weight. But that’s floundering justification. The best bling is stealth bling because only you’ll know it’s there. You’ll know.