The days are short, and it's definitely getting colder, but there's still Christmas to look forward to! Buying gifts for bikers can be a tricky business, especially if you want it to be a surprise - gear needs to be tailored to their physical dimensions, but this shouldn't stop you being able to delight your biker husband/wife/dad/mum/friend on the day, and that's where I'll try and help.
Ear plugs are a biker's best friend - they reduce hearing loss, fatigue and generally make a ride more pleasant, especially at higher speeds. They come in many varieties from £7.99 for basic Oxford multipacks to the advanced Auritech silicone kind. I swear by the basic ones as they do the job without any frills, while the Auritech ones offer reusability and superior sound filtering.
Bike Stop currently stock Dainese t-shirts in a range of designs. I've personally had three separate Dainese t-shirts and they've all been great quality, look good and survive a multitude of washes. For the biker who wants to be a biker but not on a bike, look no further! Bike Stop also stocks Red Torpedo (Guy Martin) t-shirts at £24.99.
Beanie hats (£15.00) are also somewhat essential, especially if you're not endowed with a full complement of hair on your head - designs from Guy Martin, Shoei and John McGuinness are available in the shop to keep the chill from your head.
Onto more practical gifts - bikers need supplies and accessories of a useful nature to keep their bike running smoothly and make their lives easier.
First up I recommend some Kriega luggage - one of the most popular soft luggage manufacturers there is. You could plump for a simple US-10 (£65.00) or US-20 (£89.00) pack (especially handy if they've already got one to expand their capacity), or even an R3 (£65.00) or R8 waistpack (£99.00) so they can go for a ride with the bare essentials. It's hard to go wrong with Kriega luggage to be quite honest, and with it all being interchangeable it's hard to give someone the wrong thing too.
Next I recommend SDoc100 cleaning spray (£15.99), which may as well be liquid miracle. It's not the cheapest cleaner, but it makes up for it in how well it works - simply spray all over, leave for a bit and rinse off for remarkable results. Refill bottles (£59.99) are also available if you know they already use it.
With it being winter it pays for bikers to keep their gear in shape, which is why giving them Shift It Leather Waterproofer or Textile Reproofer (£7.50 each) is sure to improve their time on the bike during winter. They help leather repel water or restore textile gear's waterproof properties which will fade over time.
Electronic gadgetry is becoming a common addition to many riders' journeys now, and it's probably one of the easier things to gift (just check they've not got one already!).
First up it's the Drift Ghost 4K action camera (£299.99)- arguably the most motorcycle suited action camera of the lot. Many riders use cameras nowadays, sometimes for insurance purposes, sometimes for fun, but the range available can be mind-boggling. Drift has made its name by producing cameras with solid picture quality and designs that are actually suited to putting on a helmet (looking at you GoPro). It has a sleek design with Wi-Fi to create a remote viewfinder on your phone which massively increases ease of use, and the aerodynamic drag is much reduced by its shape. The lights can be seen easily in mirrors when mounted to a helmet, and the battery life is far superior to many rivals (up to 2.5 hours) which is one of the common flaws with small cameras.
Next it's the Sena 20S (£259.99 for one, £479.99 for a pair) - one of the best helmet intercoms you can buy. It used to be the case that intercoms were for simply for talking to your pillion or your fellow biker, but now they can link to phones and sat navs via Bluetooth giving you music and directions, and even voice control to keep your hands on the bars. The Sena 20S has a very useful feature in that it can link to Scala Rider intercoms too, a feature which is sure to help on group rides. Sound quality is very good, and sounds even better with earplugs, with automatic volume based on wind noise.
My final electronic gadget is the TomTom Rider 410 satellite navigation system (£429.99). I've always had something of a love/hate relationship with sat navs - I'm quite good at navigating and I like to plan journeys, but when you're somewhere you're not remotely familiar with it's hard to beat a decent sat nav. Linked via Bluetooth to an intercom it'll provide turn by turn directions directly to your ears, and you can even set it to take you via a nice twisty route.
If a dedicated sat nav isn't their style, then maybe a high quality phone handlebar mount is more for them. Many modern smartphones can be highly capable sat navs in themselves, so the SP Connect mounting system (£89.99) can fill that need. The system is very elegant - simply put the cover on the phone (with the waterproof front part if needed), push on the mount and twist 90 degrees. Removal is just as simple, but the phone remains secure while riding. The standard mount fits directly to the handlebar tube in a matter of moments - and there are a multitude of other mounts available such as suction and velcro.
So that's the top ten gifts from Bike Stop - however there is a final extra gift that may make your life easier. If you're really stuck then a gift voucher may be the answer, and to make it even better it's possible to get the gift voucher packaged in an empty helmet box - that way they can either buy the exact helmet size and shape they want, or even something completely different. If nothing on this list is what you're after then view our other Christmas gifts here.
