Thanksgiving kicks off the Christmas shopping season.

Although we really don’t subscribe to the early shopping ourselves, we figured it was a good time to discuss gift ideas for the cyclist in your family. Over the years I discovered that its fairly difficult for friends and family to find that gift for the avid cyclist since they are unsure of the equipment.

You can always visit your local bikes shop to get assistance and ideas, but we’re going to give you a few of our favorites.

Several simple, yet easy to find items are things such as nutrition and hydration needs. Every athlete needs energy and there are plenty of products out there to fill this need.

If you look closely, you’ll probably find a wrapper or two or even a few extra energy gels or bars they have ready for their next ride. This will tell you what they like. Be cautious of just buying anything because many people can only tolerate certain products or flavors while exercising.

Some of the more popular brands are Honey Stinger, Cliff Bars, Hammer Nutrition , Pro Bars and Bonk Breakers. Hydration is another easy one. Powder supplements are the most common and are made by several companies such as Gatorade, GU, Infinit, Skratch Labs, Hammer Nutrition and NUUN tablets. Some of these are pre mixed in a variety of flavors and others such as Infinit are online orders that you can custom mix the ingredients to tailor it for a specific need.

Accessories for their bikes are a step up from the nutrition needs. There are literally dozens of different safety lights available for bikes and just about anyone riding except those who only mountain bike could probably use a flashing light for their safety.

Less expensive lights will use replaceable batteries while the better ones will have a mini-usb port for charging. Most, if not, all should be LED.

If your rider likes the trails and paths, then consider a bell to warn other trail users. Seat-bags which mount under the saddle make great gifts and you can go a little further with it by filling it with a multi-tool, tire levers, tube or patch kit and even a CO2 kit for quicker flat repair. All those items are good gifts by themselves, also.

Apparel is the next best thing to a bike itself. Everyone loves a great wind jacket or rain jacket. How about gloves or a windfront base-layer? Bontrager, Smartwool and even Pearl Izumi make some very soft wool base-layers and some with optional wind front panels to cut down on the cool winter breeze.

Make sure you research a little or talk with someone at an outdoor gear store. You have to remember that cycling gear is cut different and is made to fit when you’re sitting and slightly leaned forward on a bike.

This means other general sports gear doesn’t always work out well for cycling. Rain wear is a good example because cycling jackets will be cut lower to cover the backside from the rooster tail of water off of the back tire. Rain wear also comes in a few different categories of water resistant to water proof.

Most recently I received an inquiry about rain wear for someone’s son who commutes by bike in Portland. The mother was very surprised to learn of all the differences and levels of “waterproof” vs. “water resistant” that are available.

We sent her to a few web-pages and gave her details so she could find the perfect gift for him and promised to follow up with her once she’s had time to digest the information. Other simple clothing items such as shoes, socks, jerseys hats helmets and shorts are all good choices.

Assuming your cyclist already has a bike, another option is to purchase a repair/maintenance service for them. It’s the winter months, so shops are less busy, which makes it a great time to get their bike serviced for the spring season. If they are like us, then maybe it’s a service for the winter months ahead which have become our favorite months to ride.

Shopping for your friend or family member that rides doesn’t need to be difficult. However, there are a few things we suggest that you avoid unless you really know what they like. Gifts such as tires, which can be very specific for their handling and the terrain they ride, or new saddles which may look great because it’s new —but may actually not fit them well — making for an uncomfortable ride.

If you see that they need items like these, go the gift card route to be safe. Once you have some ideas in mind, talk to your associates at your local retailer who will be glad to narrow down your choices.

Travis and Julie Saeler are cycling columnists for the Butler Eagle