The carbon Appleman from our Considering Custom series. © Cyclocross Magazine
Big Ticket Items For Your Significant Other
Easy, quick and thoughtful gift options for your significant cyclocrossing other are hard to come by, but we’ve done the hard thinking to come up with a few that will make his year if you can afford it. Here’s three gift ideas that would have even us jumping for joy:
- A deposit on a custom bike with a custom builder (and a few back issues of CXM with our Considering Custom series, from Issues 18-22). This is actually quite easy to do with most builders, as they’ll happily take your check or credit card to get you in the queue. You can leave the forms, calls, fitting and interviews up to the lucky recipient. [Ed. note: We’ve had excellent experiences with Mosaic Cycles, Rock Lobster Cycles, Appleman Bicycles, Calfee Designs, Alchemy Bicycle Company, Protek Bicycles, and Moots Cycles, and learned a lot in the process, but you’ll have to read about them in detail in our print and digital magazine.]
- A trip (or promise) to the race of his or her choice next season: Think one of the big events, like Nats in Austin, Gloucester, Providence, Jingle Cross, Cincy C3, SSCXWC, or heck, even 2014 or 2015 Worlds!
- A fitting at a local shop. No matter how many years a cyclist has been riding and racing, a fitting is always an enlightening process and a potential way to eek out more performance, especially now that the racing season is over for most, and it’s easy to take the time to a new position in the off-season. Fitting technology has changed dramatically over the last five years, and it’s worth a fresh look at whether a cyclocrosser’s bike fit is ideal. Look for someone with experience and training, plus a knowledge of cyclocross, and then buy a gift certificate.
