The Lost Co Holiday Gift Guide 2026

First off, we’re starting super duper small, with a couple of bottles of Dumonde Tech Chain Lube. Dumonde Tech actually makes a ton of different oils and lubes and greases for all kinds of applications, but their chain lube specifically is super popular. This is without a doubt the safest bet because chain lube is used on every single bicycle out there from your kid’s first pedal bike to the futuristic bikes of tomorrow. If it has a chain, it needs chain lube. Of course chain lube isn’t going to change how your bike descends like a new fork or some fresh tires can, but a high quality chain lube can definitely take the sting out of a long climb. If you don’t lube your chain and have to listen to it grinding the whole way up the hill, or even worse, your buddy forgets to lube their chain and you have to listen to their creaking and grinding, that climb’s going to feel twice as long as if you had a lubed chain.

Dumonde Tech makes their original chain lube and their lite chain lube, and I’ve got both in my toolbox for different conditions. As a general rule of thumb, I’ll use the lite lube if it’s dry, and the original lube if it’s wet. As the name suggests, the lite lube is just a lower viscosity and lets the chain spin just a little more freely than the thicker original lube. But if it’s wet out, that lite lube gets washed off pretty easily while the original lube can hold onto the chain just a little bit tighter and keep you rolling smoothly even after you splash through some puddles or get caught in some inclement weather.

Both are great to have, and your chainlube game is incomplete without them. They’re relatively inexpensive, and I would recommend picking both up if you don’t have them in your tool box yet.

One of the most under rated or maybe underappreciated products we carry is the Race Face Turbine pedals. These came out last year and I feel like I just don’t hear many people talking about them even though they’re currently my favorite flat pedals out there and I’ll tell you why. They’re made of a high quality aluminum alloy with tons of pins to mess up your shins if you ever slip a pedal, but honestly with how much grip they have, I don’t think I’ve slipped a pedal yet. Everyone that uses flat pedals needs a high quality set of platforms under them, and the Race Face Turbines are exactly that.

The biggest difference between the Turbines and another high quality concave flat pedal is that these are concave front to back and side to side. Most flat pedals are just concave front to back, and the Turbines give you a little pocket for your foot that feels so good in the corners and in the air and just gives that little extra bit of control compared to other flat pedals. They’ve also got smooth chamfered edges that do a good job of glancing past rocks or roots or anything you can catch them on the trail, which I really appreciate, because catching a pedal and going OTB is one of the scarier ways to crash.

With all that being said, honestly I spend most of my time clipped in, and only ride flat pedals in the winter when it’s really gross and slippery out there. That’s when I really enjoy riding flats because I’m definitely dabbing a foot more often, and when the dirt is super soft, my feet don’t get bounced around as much and it’s super easy to keep my feet on the pedals. So if the mountain biker in your life is a die hard clip rider, then switching things up with a pair of flat pedals is certainly going to change their riding experience this winter. The Race Face Turbines are the best way to do exactly that!

Recently there have been some new products that create their own genre of components. I’m thinking of tuned mass dampers, the Aenomaly Switchgrade, and of course, the Ochain. Of these new genre-defining components, Ochain has definitely been the most popular, with tons of downhill and enduro riders slapping these on their cranks. SRAM took notice, and actually bought Ochain last year. If SRAM is willing to pony up some cash and actually buy this company, there’s clearly something going on in this little puck.

Of all the items on this list, you’ll definitely need to consider compatibility if you’re shopping for an Ochain. They mount directly to the cranks, which means it needs to match the chainring mounting interface, and there are several out there. If they have SRAM cranks or an ebike with a Bosch motor then there’s certainly an Ochain that will work for them, but otherwise, then you’re out of luck.

In case you don’t know how an Ochain works, the whole idea is that the Ochain has a little bit of rotation at the crank to isolate your feet from drivetrain feedback. That little bit of rotation allows your chain to flail all around as you’re going down the hill and you won’t feel it at your feet. Chain feedback through your pedals is something you may not have even noticed before, which was my perspective when I first tried the Ochain, but even still I immediately noticed the difference out on trail.

It makes your bike feel like it just had all the pivot bearings cleaned and freshly greased even though you’ve been putting that service off. It also cuts down on the chain slap and makes your whole bike just a little bit quieter. All together, your bike feels just a little more settled through quick choppy sections of trail where there’s a lot of small trail chatter going through the frame, and once you get used to it, you really don’t want to go back. I’ve heard some people call it the Magic Carpet, which I think is a pretty accurate description. It’s worth noting that some frame’s suspension designs will benefit more than others from an Ochain, but the two bikes I’ve tried it on, the Specialized Stumpjumper 15 and the Transition Sentinel V3 both had very similar improvements in ride feel. High pivot bikes will probably get less benefit from an Ochain, but if you’re looking to get as much descending confidence as possible, then it’s definitely still worth considering.

Of course, the Ochain will give you a little bit of deadband in your pedal stroke which you will notice whenever you’re climbing or need to throw in a quick pedal stroke on the descents. If this is a deal breaker for you, Ochain actually makes two versions, and the Ochain R has an external adjuster that lets you control how much float it has, and you can actually completely lock it out if it really bugs you on the climbs. The more affordable Ochain N doesn’t have an external adjuster but can still be modified internally to control how much float it has before it engages. If you’re on a DH bike, I would probably get the cheaper Ochain N and leave it in the setting with the most float to get the most magic carpet feeling possible, but if you’re going to get an enduro bike, the adjustability of the Ochain R is pretty dang sweet.

Mountain biking’s wonder boy Jackson Goldstone is already securing the bag and has his very own signature grips in partnership with OneUp components. Like all grips, these are compatible with every single bike out there, making these an incredibly safe choice for a gift. But not all grips are made the same, and these are totally different from any other grips out there, with more engineering and thought poured into them than any other grip I’ve ridden. There are three features that all just make sense when you think about them in the context of the shape of a human hand, and really add up to one of the best grips I’ve ever ridden.

The most unique part of the Goldstone grip is the big mushroom end. No other grip has a cap this big, and there’s no doubt that you feel it when you’re actually riding. The outside of your hand rests on that ramp and gives you a bit of support to push against. If you look at the geometry of your hand on a bicycle grip, the side of your hand slopes up and away from the grip, so putting a little material in there to take up that space just makes sense.

In the middle of the grip, there’s a raised section with these interesting triangle shaped rubber pieces that fills your palm as you squeeze the grip. There are other grips with a similar raised section in the middle, but the Goldstone grip has more rubber there, and it makes sense because this also just follows the natural contour of your palm. Plus, these little rubber triangles are so soft and just feel so good without gloves that you can definitely ride these grips with or without gloves on.

And last but not least, there are some little bars on the back that sit in the creases of your fingers behind each knuckle. Again, these are filling the space that is naturally left by your hand when you grip a grip, and honestly I might have the exact same hand dimensions as Jackson Goldstone because every single little bit of these grips works super well for me.

Of course they come in a few different colors, and initially I had a white pair that looked sweet when they were brand new but they turned brown pretty quickly so I’m definitely gonna rock the black ones in the future. They’re also super reasonably priced at thirty bucks, which is super reasonable for a good pair of lock on grips these days. They probably could have charged a bit more for these with Jackson’s name attached to them, but there you go, thirty bucks for my favorite pair of grips out there.

Moving on to a physically much larger and more expensive item, we have the Reserve 30 HD AL wheels. That’s kind of a mouthful, but these wheels have been my number one recommendation for anyone looking for a relatively affordable and super good value aluminum wheelset in the last few years since they came out. Much like the Ochain, these are going to be harder to give as a gift, but if done correctly, these are going to be a huge hit. You need to check a few boxes on the way to determining compatibility, including wheel size, brake rotor mount, hub spacing, and cassette mount. If you’re considering giving this as a gift this holiday season, please give us a call so we can make sure that everything will go smoothly!

As you may know, these have a lifetime warranty, and if I remember correctly, I believe they were the first aluminum wheels to have that good of a warranty behind them. That means if you dent or flat spot one of these rims and you can’t get it to seat a tubeless tire any more, Reserve will send you a brand new rim. That’s pretty sweet, but beyond the warranty, these wheels actually do ride very well.

I’ve got them on my ebike, a Transition Regulator, and I think a big stiff ebike like this is pretty much the perfect use case for these wheels for a few reasons. First of all, in my experience Ebike frames have always felt a bit stiffer than a mountain bike because they have that big solid battery and motor that have absolutely no give to them, so a softer aluminum wheel like these Reserves really complements that nicely, whereas a super stiff carbon wheelset would make for a very stiff overall package and can actually be kind of hard to ride. Second, heavy ebikes are harder to get up and over obstacles and you’re more prone to running your rear wheel directly into whatever you’re riding through, so the warranty is pretty darn nice to have.

As far as ride feel goes, these Reserves feel like they place comfort first. These aren’t the stiffest aluminum rims I've ridden, that crown goes to the DT Swiss FR541s, but these Reserves aren’t far behind and are definitely a more comfortable ride and I think give slightly more grip. You won’t get quite as much drive out of the corners, but grip is easier to come by and I’ve really enjoyed riding these aluminum Reserves.

A sweet bonus of these wheels is that they now come with the DT Swiss Degrees of Freedom inside of the DT 350 hubs, which is also a mouthful, but it performs a very similar role to the Ochain. These also have some float before they engage just like the Ochain, but it’s within the hub instead of at the crank. You can super easily adjust how much float these have and totally lock them out if you want that direct drive. Personally, I prefer the feel of the Ochain to the Degrees of Freedom system, mostly because it has a softer bottom out while the DT Swiss system is metal on metal and feels just a little harsh when it engages. I also don’t get the same magic carpet feeling from the Degrees of Freedom system, and I think the Ochain does a better job of absorbing all the chain slap and keeping your whole drivetrain settled on the way down. But the upside of the Degrees of Freedom is that it doesn’t add any weight to your bike, while the Ochain definitely adds a few grams, and you never have to service it, while the Ochain needs a full service about as often as your suspension. Let me know which one makes more sense for you in the comments, but we actually have a bonus 6th item on our list, so let’s look at the final product.

Not many products have caught on as quickly as what we’re about to cover. The ticket to being a hot product is a combination of being pretty affordable, compatible with just about every bike, and having rather polarizing looks, and that perfectly describes the Wolf Tooth Locked In Bar Ends. These dropped this summer and it felt like overnight just about every wanna be world cupper including myself had these hanging off their downhill bike. I can’t lie, I got caught up in the bar end mania and bought a set of these straight from wolf tooth when they were made available because I do struggle with hand fatigue and actually blew a hand off the bars a couple of times while racing my downhill bike in 2025. Those two crashes were absolutely terrible, and anything to keep that from happening again is definitely worth trying. Especially if they only cost thirty five dollars.

The promise with these bar ends is less hand fatigue and an overall better grip on the bars, and to get straight to the point, they do exactly that. Having an extra dimension to push against does give you a better grip on the bars and while I still get tired during a long run and that arm pump does start to build up, it feels more tolerable and to their credit I haven’t blown a hand off since I installed them.

If someone likes riding the bike park, then it’s a pretty safe bet that they’re at least curious about these Wolf Tooth Bar Ends, making them a great gift that they may not otherwise purchase for themselves.