The Hard Core Mountain Biker's Christmas List

Serious fat tire riders have some just as serious wants on their wish lists. The experienced mountain bike rider will often want far different things than the casual dirt rider. Below is a collection of 5 popular "serious" mtb items for the serious dirt rider in your life. You'll find a trend to more expensive items, but I've dug up a few less expensive ones as well.

1. Fork Rebuild Kit. Many serious bikers are also serious do-it-yourself riders. Approximately every 100 hours of riding time, the front shock should be taken apart and rebuilt. Kits are hard to come by and most bike stores would rather make the money charging you to rebuild it or sending back to the factory. Such kits can be found online at various bike sites. One place that still actively carries kits and shock parts is pricepoint.com. Make sure you know the brand and make. Not all forks are made alike. (You can find tool kits for rebuiliding there as well...) Prices vary considerably, but plan for this to run $50 to $100.

2. Lizard skins. Lizard skins are a wonderful brand name for a variety of bike and protection items. They have excellent teflon coated (not like the pans but more like the bullet proof vest type) shin guards for those occasional spills. For the bike fanatics, they have stick on guards for the chain stays. In non-biker terms, they protect the frame from getting scratched when the chain hits it (called chainslap). These again vary in price from about $20 on up. Some retail stores offer lizard skins. The protective gear can also be found at some motorcycle shops that cater to the dirt motorcycle riders.