A Wishlist

Now is the time of the year that everyone comes out with their gift picks for the holidays. Everyone has one, a Buyers Guide, Gift Buying Guide or Wishlist. This is what you can pass along to your significant other, your mother or possibly Granny?

My Grandmother lives in the heart of the South, and if I thought that she could possibly comprehend my lifestyle (spending and riding) on the bicycle I would send her my Rapha Wishlist, which is one of the newest functions of the ever expanding Rapha website.

I will break it down a little bit for you here. Starting with my own personal wishlist (a man can dream can he not?) and then moving on to a few suggestions that I have for the savvy bicycle rider.

1) Rapha Rain Jacket.
I've seen Slate riding around warming up at cross races with this one and the pangs of jealousy may soon be too much to handle. That, and I have heard that it works really well.

2) Rapha Trousers.
Ira Ryan cannot stop talking about these since he has been back from Norway. If the Trouser is something that Ira can give his stamp of approval to, well, then I am in. I have seen how he works, viewed his workshop from within and if these trousers are holding up to that, they must be great. Road.cc had a look as well (pay no mind to the folding bike).

3) Merino Crew Neck
Grey might be the color of the year here. It looks great as a standalone piece and quite possibly works well on the bike too. Substantially thicker than the base layer but constructed from the same Merino, this could function as a great winter base layer (so glad that I do not live in the extremely frigid temps anymore) or under your work shirt if it gets cold at your place of work.

I have taken the liberty of offering up a few suggestions of things to add to your own Wishlist. It should be noted that Rapha is offering to supply one lucky customer (number 1000) with the most expensive item in their wishlist. I heard earlier yesterday that it was up to something like 700, so get on it people.

My suggestions…

1) The Rapha Silk Scarf
Obviously the first thing that I turn to. I am not going to try and hide the fact that I am a big fan of this piece. At one point I even tried to get people on board with a Silk Scarf Friday and my friend Kaiko was the only one to take the bait. So, if you are looking to get this going in your area, I suggest getting one. (That is not entirely true, as our good friends brian palmer and trackosaurous also took part, Kaiko has been the only one that has kept the tradition alive.)

2) Grand Tour Gloves.
White? Check. Perforated? Check. So, with that being said we have style and function covered correct? These are great for the warmest days, but I am still praying that the full fingered ones make a comeback. Someday. Most recently spotted on Craig Roth on the Superb blog.

3) Pink Logo T-Shirt.
Calling this a "t-shirt" might be a little bit of a understatement. A little thicker than most of your off the shelf shirts this one stands out in more ways than one. In fact, it may also be used in barter form at various and sundry establishments on the Las Vegas strip. I can attest to that. Also a known favorite of Competitive Cyclist's Andy Clark.

There you have it, a full Wishlist Tour of sorts. At least from my perspective. What are you putting on yours?