What Every Cyclist Wants
From stocking f illers to showstoppers, check out our product picks to guarantee yours is a Christmas f illed with two-wheeled festivity
01 Garmin Edge 1030 Plus £519.99, garmin.com
Dear Santa, I never want to get lost on my bike again plus I want to be able to find all the best cycling routes anywhere in the world.
Even Santa would have struggled with that one until recently, but now there’s the Garmin Edge 1030 Plus. Its 3.5in colour touchscreen sets a high bar and it comes preloaded with detailed global mapping including Trailforks MTB trail maps and a wide range of training metrics too. More impressively, run time is a whopping 24 hours 02 LIVALL BH51M Neo Smart helmet £149.99, livall.co.uk
Standing out when cycling in urban environments isn’t easy, but LIVALL’S BH51M Neo Smart helmet incorporates front and rear LEDS to give the rider 360° visibility, with those same LEDS acting as brake warning lights when it senses the rider slowing down too.
Bluetooth connectivity and speakers are built in, allowing you to listen to music, answer phone calls and follow GPS navigation in safety, while in the event of a crash the helmet can ping off an SOS alert and GPS location information to a designated contact.
03 AMP Human PR lotion £35, amphuman.co.uk
Sodium bicarbonate is a commonly used way of boosting performance on the bike, effectively allowing you to keep working harder for longer. It’s typically ingested orally, but that can cause gastric distress.
To sidestep this, AMP Human’s PR Lotion is rubbed into the skin, so the bicarb can be absorbed directly where it is needed. AMP Human claims it increases a cyclist’s ability to complete highintensity intervals to exhaustion by up to 25%, improves muscular efficiency and results in up to 53% less muscle soreness post activity.
04 See.sense BEAM light £80, seesense.cc
See.sense’s BEAM is a powerful front light able to adapt its brightness to the ride to optimise visibility, and if connected to the free app can provide crash and theft alerts, ride stats, light customisation and more.
The LED puts out 1,000 lumens in a light weighing just 132g and is water-sealed to IP67 standard.
Runtime can stretch to 30 hours in Adaptive Mode and the BEAM will notify you if the battery drops below 20%, switching to a low-power ‘get me home’ mode.
05 Lazer Genesis helmet £169.99, freewheel.co.uk
Helmet of choice for probably the best rider in the world right now, Jumbo-visma’s Primož Roglič, the Genesis is the lightest lid ever produced by Lazer, weighing just 199g for a size medium.
Incredibly, Lazer also claims that the vents have been designed in such a way to offer the head better cooling than if you were wearing no helmet at all. Alternatively, a clip-on Aeroshell can help transform it into a watt-saving air battering ram. Impressive stuff – no wonder Roglič had such a great season.
06 Tacx Neo 2T Smart turbo trainer £1,199, garmin.com
The Tacx Neo has always been one of the most futuristic-looking turbo trainers on the market, but with this latest revision it may be one of the quietest and most responsive too.
The setup is just as pleasant an experience as the ride itself. The Neo 2T Smart doesn’t require calibration or even a power source - you can generate the energy needed to run it through pedalling. It measures power to within 1% accuracy and offers pedal stroke analysis too, ensuring you can get the best from every session.
07 Small Beer low-alcohol beer From £15 (for six beers), theoriginalsmallbeer.com
Small Beer is a lower alcohol beer specialist that delivers classic beer flavours at an ABV below 2.8%, or ‘world class taste at a sociable strength’, as the brand puts it.
The name comes from the forgotten category of small beer (0.5-2.8% ABV), which originated in the 1700s when poor water quality meant lower alcohol, ‘smaller’ beer was a staple of daily British life. The beers are kept in vessel for a minimum of six weeks to ensure flavour maximisation over alcohol creation.
08 Rehook PLUS multi-tool £26.99, rehook.bike
On the third day of Christmas my true love sent to me… a Rehook Plus multi-tool.
A natural evolution of the original Rehook, the Plus still includes the clever chain tool that lets you fix a derailled chain in a heartbeat, but has now morphed into the ultimate multi-tool too.
Tyre levers, wrenches, spoke keys, screwdriver and hex heads are all covered in a light and compact tool that is a match for almost all of your roadside repair needs. Much more useful than three French hens.