It's the Ho Ho Holiday Gift Guide

It’s precariously late for holiday shopping, but it’s better to deliver the RIGHT gift late, than the wrong gift right on time. Santa agrees which is why he sometimes relies on FedEx, UPS, and his friends at the post office for those deliveries that arrive a few days after December 25.

In the history of the world, has anyone ever said, “that’s too much maple syrup?” Let’s be honest, even this guy didn’t think he had too much of the liquid gold. If you’re familiar with UnTapped, then maybe you already have your favorites. Here in the winter, it’s hard to beat the Cocoa Waffle and Salted Cocoa UnTapped combination. And maybe best yet, I put hot water in an insulated bottle when it’s really freaking cold and mix it with Ginger Mapleaid for a spicy, spunky bevy unlike anything else in the sports nutrition aisle. Try it. You’ll dig it.

One of the best gifts we’ve received, umm, ever is a MacRide. If you have someone in your life who is 2-5 years old (as recommended by MacRide, or more realistically 1.5 to 4 as suggested by yours truly), then MacRide is the ingenious product that allows your favorite little one to ride along with you. It’s wildly fun for you and the kiddo, and you’ll start conversations wherever you go.

If we’ve learned anything over the past 18 months, it’s that the best gifts aren’t always tangible things. Sometimes they’re software. So thank goodness for Ride with GPS. I’m a long long time user of their product, it’s the only mapping tool I use, and if a basic account is good, then premium is extraordinary! I really enjoy the new surface types, a whole bunch of great heatmap tools, real time ETA, supremely helpful voice navigation, and lots more. To take advantage of any yearly subscription, use THIS code for some handy 25% savings. They’re the stand out leader of the pack in mapping and routing, so don’t waste your time elsewhere.

If you aren’t entirely sure what bike you want, you’ll probably go to a bike shop and buy sometime off the rack. That’s terrific. If you do know exactly the bike you want, then you’ll likely be in the camp of buying a frameset, then sourcing the particular wheels you want, then getting your hands on all the components, rubber, and everything else. For a long time Cannondale didn’t offer framesets only, but now not only can you get a frameset, but you can get the best damn bike in my quiver. Behold, the Cannondale SuperSix EVO SE.

I’m enamored with the clothes Velocio produces year round, but it’s as winter approaches and temperatures dip across the country, that their cool and cold weather clothing stands out to me as the hands down leader of the pack. They’re a New England based company and Italian made, so you can rest assured that when you buy Velocio, you’re getting the very best of the best.

The rate at which they produce new and creative product is shocking too, so it’s hard to pick a current favorite. But since I wore it yesterday, washed it so I can wear it again today, I’m going with the brand new Alpha Merino Air Jacket. It’s warm, but not too hot, it’s breathable, it’s pliable, it’s supremely comfortable, and by golly it looks great. Behold.

Cycling is not an inexpensive sport. There, a spade has been called a spade. So while I do sincerely recommend the Zipp Firecrest 303, I won’t necessarily make you break the bank to get the best hoops on the market. (Even if they are literally half the price as their previous edition.) Instead…

“Ted, what tire pressure should I run?”

That’s perhaps the most common question that lands in my inbox. I don’t know your weight, your height, the terra firma you’re on, your ability, if it’s wet or dry, your tire compound, or a dozen other things that will effect your suggested pressure.

So the first gift here is another piece of software that from our friends at SRAM, Zipp, and Quarq that costs approximately $0 and I still use it quite frequently: the SRAM Tire Pressure Calculator. Use it. Play with it. Learn to love it.

And to even further up your game, behold, TyreWiz. Hardware meets software and it’s the cure to ail your tire pressure woes. I love’m.

Another round of hardware+software that I’ve relied on especially over the past month and a half with my busted elbow, is the new WHOOP 4.0. To see my body deep in the throes of recovering from a shattered elbow, then to rebounding to a healthy and productive place, it’s really fun to monitor it all from a whole bunch of tangible analytics. The new 4.0 is like an iPhone 13 as compared to the previous model being an iPhone 4. Hit that link above and get yourself a WHOOP for free.

It’s funny that when you race in the WorldTour you generally have one home bike and the team takes it back from you at the end of the season. Nowadays, I have a whole bunch of bikes. A road bike, some gravel bikes, a hardtail, full cush MTBs, a fat bike. I’m lucky. I’m blessed. They’re all different and they all serve a different purpose. Similarly, there are all on different sets of tires for different purposes and with some bikepacking adventures stewing in my mind, I can’t speak highly enough about the Fleecer Ridge tires by Rene Herse. I’m a rookie’s rookie in bikepacking, so you don’t have to take my word for it. Trust Lael Wilcox who uses Fleecers all the time.

What’s up millenials! Need a place to store your bikes in your van? Look no further than the Saris Traps Fork Mount. If you’ve struggled with different mounts needed for different thru axel diameters, different road bikes, different mountain bikes, then this is the ticket! In the van, truck bed, or bolted against the wall in your garage, this serves a huge purpose and it’s as simple as it is brilliant.

As a long time ROKA fan, I could tout the stylish ways of the Rory for casual sunnies. But I really want to applaud the Matador Air. The original Matadors are rad, but just don’t fit my face well. Which of course is not indicative of whether they will fit your face well. The Airs, however, are freaking amazing. For whatever magical reason, by removing the bottom of the frame, these glasses went into radical overdrive and I wear them all the time. Bonus, use code A-25-TEDK for some significant savings at roka.com.

BOOKS! Books are great. I read a lot of those one or two paragraph summaries that are located on the back of books. They often don’t catch my attention, I put the book down, and never read it. I then go to the next book at the book shop or airport and the next and the next, same thing happens. I end up reading a lot of book summaries but I don’t read a lot of books. I wish I did. Alas.

Then I broke my elbow and with a little bit more free time on my hands, suddenly I’m ripping through them.

Here’s another TK rule about books: I generally don’t like books about cycling. Why? Beats me. I was recently gifted the book, Riding in the Zone Rouge, which chronicles the hardest bike race… ever, the 1919 Circuit des Champs de Batailles or Tour of the Battlefields. It took place just six months after the end of World War I, so while modern day classic races pedal similar routes in 5-6 hour races, this is an all-day, multi-day slug fest that makes the October 2021 muddy edition of Paris-Roubaix look like a pleasant jaunt to town. Admittedly, this is the kind of book that I normally read the summary, then promptly put it down and never read it. I went for it and loved it. I think you will too.

It wasn’t until my friend Ben Wolfe introduced me to my now friend Matt Moosa that I started using handlebar bags. I had a small collection of bar bags, but they weren’t being used. Matt, I should point out hand makes all his bags with the company he founded, Moosepacks. I highly recommend you make your way to his website and choose something beautifully handcrafted, as artisans say. I now use my Moosepacks bags all the time. Their fanny pack is a particular favorite. And while he might ream me for saying this, if there’s a color that you really want but don’t see on his site, I wouldn’t be surprised if he makes a custom bag.

While I’m a total beer nut and could likely point you in the direction of a tasty, hoppy libation in any corner of the country, January is often Dryuary as it’s time to work off some of the seasonal over-imbibing we’ve recently enjoyed. And while there are lots of non-alcoholic beers out there, there are very few good non-alcoholic beers out there. Laura and I recently went on a taste test bender (is it a bender when it’s NA?) which is equally appropriate for Dryuary as it is Laura being pregnant. The point being, 3 Magnets Brewing out of Olympia, WA makes the best NA beers we’ve tried and I betcha the best you’ll try too.

And as I bid you farewell and to explore what else is out there besides a computer screen, I can’t help but encourage the XPLR line from SRAM. In particular, I’m a big fan of the 10-44 tooth cassette. For sure the massive range found on an Eagle cassette will have you riding up vertical walls, but the 44 teeth on the XPLR is still enormous and truth be told, I’m never searching for more gears. And from there, going to harder gears, the jumps between cogs are nice and tight when it’s time to get up and go.

And with that, it’s time to get up and go. Happy holidays my friends!