The holiday season is here, and according to shopping trends over the past several decades, that means folks are looking to open their wallets for themselves and those close to them. We’re here to help, as it can be overwhelming when trying to figure out exactly where to send your hard earned dollars with so many options out there. Not only that, if you’re shopping for someone else during this season of deals, it’s almost impossible to get the perfect gift for a mountain biker without them explicitly telling you what to buy.
We mountain bikers are an incredibly picky bunch in most facets of mountain biking products, but there are some areas that we can remain general enough to appeal to a wide range of riders. If you follow our guide, it’s unlikely the recipient will request the receipt. If you’re shopping for yourself and looking for some ideas to spruce up your rig for next season, check out our 2025 Staff Picks, where we showcase products that are a little more individualized and better suited for buying for yourself. Without further ado, let’s check out our gift guide!
Bike Wash Kit
“Mountain Biking” can mean very different things to everyone. For some, it’s all about getting outside and exploring new zones. Others are in it for that pure adrenaline rush. Lots of riders are training to perform in their next race. These are all mountain bikers, and while they approach the sport in very different ways, the one thing they have in common is that their bikes are guaranteed to get dirty. We’re all out playing in the dirt at the end of the day, and it’s no fun losing that new bike shine after a day of puddle splashing. Having the right tools for the job is imperative in anything you do, including washing your bike. We’ve curated the perfect bike wash kit, complete with brushes, cleaning products, and lubes, to not only make it sparkle, but keep your drivetrain running perfectly from now until the next muddy day.
At the heart of this kit is the Park Tool Brush Kit, which includes the four brushes that you need to get into every nook and cranny that you could jam mud into. With a mix of soft brushes that won’t hurt your paint, stiff bristles that will get gunk off your drivetrain, and plastic picks to hit those hard-to-reach spots, this kit is purpose-built for cleaning up mountain bikes efficiently and safely.
To go along with the brushes, there’s a spread of Maxima cleaning products that include everything you need, and nothing you don’t. As the name suggests, their Bio Wash is completely biodegradable, and does a great job as a general purpose mountain bike cleaner for all the mud and crud you’ll pick up out there. After giving your bike a general hose down, spritz the Bio Wash everywhere and let it sit for a minute before using the large soft brush to easily brush away everything sticking to your rig. Maxima’s Degreaser is perfect for drivetrain maintenance, and I love using it on my cassette, especially to get it looking brand new. Once you’ve got a fresh slate, lube your chain with either the dry or wet lube, depending on the time of year, and apply a fresh coat of SC1 to give your bike that shine it had when you bought it.
Reserve Fillmore Tubeless Valves
In my mind, a perfect gift is the nicest version of itself. You don’t want the recipient wishing that you’d gotten them the better or more expensive option in the same category. The perfect gift isn’t necessary to indulge in, as there are better value options out there, but it always has a certain allure to it.
That’s exactly how I’d describe the Reserve Fillmore Valves, because they don’t actually do anything differently from a standard Presta tubeless valve, but they go about doing that same thing with a bit of flair and high-quality engineering that leaves nothing to be desired. With 3x the airflow of a standard valve, Reserve has removed the valve core, which has always been the limiting factor in how much air can pass through from a pump or air compressor. By removing that bottleneck, the Reserve Fillmore valves make it much easier to get tubeless tires seated, and it’s also much less prone to clogging. It’s pretty typical to remove your valve core prior to attempting to seat a tubeless tire via a presta valve, and the Fillmore valves save you that step.
Another reason these are the perfect gift is that they’re compatible with all bikes that use tubeless tires, and the vast majority of riders just have standard Presta valves. The majority of riders who already have a set of Fillmore Valves only have them because they came preinstalled on a set of Reserve wheels, and it’s likely an extra set for the commuter bike would still be a welcome gift.
Digital Air Pressure Solutions
Speaking of perfect gifts, the digital shock pump and digital tire gauge both hit the requirements right on the money. While it’s almost certain that your mountain biker friend has a way to pump up their tires and their air suspension products, budget minded methods aren’t very effective when it comes to precisely checking how much air you’ve added or removed from the system. Tinkering with your suspension setup or your tire pressures is critical to getting your bike to perform how you want it to, and high-precision digital shock pumps and digital tire gauges crank that door wide open. Personally, I won’t go for a ride without confirming tire pressures with my digital tire gauge, and while I don’t check suspension pressures every ride, I always use a digital shock pump when setting my pressures for maximum accuracy.
With accuracy down to the half psi, both the Fox Digital Shock Pump and RockShox Digital Shock Pump are incredibly precise and take the guessing game out of setting your suspension pressures. Every true suspension geek out there eventually upgrades to a digital shock pump, and when they do, they never look back. We’re a full-time suspension service center here at our shop in Bellingham, WA, and our mechanics exclusively use digital gauges to get an accurate reading with ease and consistency. Both Fox and RockShox offer their own digital shock pumps, and we’re big fans of both of them. The differences between them are negligible, and because the Fox Digital Shock Pump is $10 cheaper, that would be our recommendation for this season!
Topeak makes our favorite digital tire pressure gauges, and they have two very similarly named options. Their SmartGauge D2 and SmartGauge D2X offer incredibly similar functionality in two different packaging options. Topeak’s original SmartGauge D2 uses a more rugged and old-school design language, while the updated SmartGauge D2X is sleeker and offers a more modern take on the digital tire pressure gauge. I’ve used both extensively, and can confirm their functionality is identical. Both work with Presta and Schraeder valves, both have the same three buttons by the screen, and both offer the same incredibly accurate decimal precision year after year. Choose the tire gauge that matches your design ethos!
Lights
Here in Bellingham and in the majority of the Northern Hemisphere, post-work sunshine is a distant memory. One I hold close to my heart, and while I know those days will come back eventually, I’m adjusting to our new normal by strapping lights to my bikes and embracing the big dark. I’m not alone, and it’s comforting to see how many folks around here are still taking to the bike lanes and lighting up the woods after work. The only gear you need besides the classic mountain biking equipment is lights! Even if you already have a set of lights, an extra set is still a great gift, because you can never have too many riding lights. Maybe your friend wants to borrow some, or you want to increase your overall lumen output, or maybe just have some spares always charged up and ready to go. It can never hurt to have more lights around the house.
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Our offerings from Lezyne have all riders covered, with both commuting and mountain bike riding capable lights on offer. Generally, bike commuting doesn’t require quite as many lumens, and you can get away with a lighter-weight, more affordable light, without sacrificing safety. Lezyne’s Fusion Drive Pro 600+ / KTV Drive Pro+ Light Pair is the perfect pairing to light up bike lanes and get you wherever you need in town. It’s a combination of their 600 lumen Fusion Drive Pro+ front light and the 150 lumen KTV Drive Pro+ rear light, which are simple to mount to any bike and are USB-C rechargeable. Both have a variety of brightness options and flashing modes to ensure that you’re safe and seen, and get home safely every day of the week.
On the mountain biking side of things, it’s impossible to have too many lumens strapped to your helmet or handlebars. We always recommend getting the most powerful lights you can for mountain biking, and Lezyne has some seriously impressive options. These are all fully self-contained units, and don’t have cables running to batteries like other options on the market. Night riders typically opt for a bar light and a headlight, with each serving a distinct purpose. Bar lights are your sweeping coverage, with a wide field of view and generally higher overall lumen output to accommodate that wide sweep. Atop the helmet is your spotlight, illuminating specifically what you’re looking at, and not bothering itself too much with much else. You can get away with just one or the other, but there’s a reason all die-hard nightriders opt for this exact setup.
Lezyne’s top offerings for mountain biking are the Lezyne Macro Drive 1400+ and the Lezyne Mega Drive 2400+, which slot into those helmet and bar light categories, respectively. Mount the Macro Drive 1400+ to your helmet for the perfect spot light to illuminate whatever your eyes are trained on, and allow the bar mounted Mega Drive 2400+ to be your sweeping generalist that gives you the coverage to fill in all the gaps left by the helmet light. Having two angles of attack in your light setup gives you much better depth perception and the capability to ride like it’s 6 pm on a long summer day.
Fenders
Once you can see where you’re going, you’ve gotta keep what you’re riding through out of your eyes, and fenders are the best way to prevent crap from blinding you. It’s often wet during the winter months, and it’s amazing the amount of water that flies around when riding unprotected. A high-quality fender can make a huge difference in how often you need to pull over and blink for a couple of minutes. Some forks offer an integrated fender option, which, if you’re shopping for yourself, are the better option because of their easy integration and sleek aesthetics, but are tricky to give as a gift because you need to know some exact specs of their fork. We have some more general fenders that aren’t fork-specific, using zip ties to attach to any fork, and are much less likely to get returned.
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Ground Keeper is a local company here in Bellingham that’s been manufacturing high-quality, affordable, and incredibly effective fenders for mountain bikes, gravel bikes, kid bikes, and really any kind of bike. Their fenders come in long, regular, and mini, depending on your use case and how much coverage you’re looking for. We always recommend the long fenders for the wet winter months, and they also have the added benefit of keeping spray off your fork seals, keeping your fork buttery smooth for longer in between those service intervals. Ground Keeper also has a line of top caps and frame protection with patterns that match their fenders to keep the custom theme flowing through the whole bike.
Tools
If you’re sticking with mountain biking for the long haul, maintenance bills can stack up, and getting your own set of tools is the best investment you can make. There’s a wide variety of tools that we recommend every home mechanic have in the garage, and there are a few that get much more frequent use than others. For those high-use items, it’s worth having the nicest version, and the Wera Metric Hex Wrenches are exactly that. Manufactured with high-quality steel and high vis color coded plastic sleeves, these are the Cadillacs of hex wrenches, and will last as long as you can keep track of them. We carry the same set of Wera Hex Wrenches in both a stationary and mobile version, and we generally recommend the easy grab-and-go version for the vast majority of riders.
Speaking of Cadillacs, Knipex may not be easy to pronounce, but it sure is easy to get along with their tools. Their Plier Wrenches are Knipex’s bread and butter, and while they’re often imitated by other brands, no one can match the quality and utility of a Knipex Plier Wrench. Our mechanics here at The Lost Co have every size hanging off the wall and use them every single day while servicing suspension and just about every other maintenance job they do. Knipex’s catalog specializes in all things pliers and cutters, and I would wholeheartedly recommend any product in their lineup.
Last but certainly not least, the tool that gets used no matter the job is the trusty repair stand. Feedback Sports currently offers the best repair stand that I’ve used, and it’s easy to take on the road or leave in the garage. All repair stands should be easy to clamp, easy to unclamp, and never at risk of tipping over. Feedback has taken in lots of feedback in the last 20+ years of operation, and really nailed all of these requirements, plus going above and beyond by bringing the weight down to make travel easy. My Feedback stand has been subjected to late nights in the garage, thousands of miles of road trips, and years of holding everything from downhill bikes to dirt jumpers without skipping a beat.
Lost Co Merch
You’ve made it to the end of our list, and our final suggestion is getting some fresh Lost Co Merch, or the safest gift of all, a Lost Co gift card. We recently added some new designs to our shirts, with options for kids, adults, and everyone in between. We also brought back some classics like our Loam Removal hat, so get them while they’re in stock! My personal favorite is the new Topo Tee, but check out the whole collection of shirts, socks, and hats to see if there’s anything you like.
For the opinionated mountain biker in your life that’s difficult to buy gifts for, take all the guesswork out of it by letting them decide! We have gift cards that can be used online or in person in a variety of increments to suit everyone’s budgets. While I believe all of my recommendations are safe bets for the majority of mountain bikers, it’s undeniable that the gift card is the safest option, because how were we supposed to know that they needed a new front tire or some fresh pedals?
