It's that time of year again, where you start to stress out about finding just the right gift for that crazy cyclist Uncle Fred... You are worried that that piano key neck tie waiting under the Christmas tree won't exactly bring the smile to Fred's face that you were hoping for? Well fret no more, because we have put together a list of a few items that we think will turn his frown upside down AND won't break your piggy bank either because honestly you don't really want to spend that much on Fred in the first place... So without further ado here are a few (cheap) present ideas for that cyclist in your life for this Christmas.

You read that right, we sent a bike into space… OK, well technically we sent A bike into space…it just happened to be a tiny Lego bicycle(sporting our custom mini BikeWrappers too) to the edge of the atmosphere that was piloted by our fearless  Benny the astronaut. Benny knew the risks associated with this dangerous mission but was unrelenting in his dedication to this undertaking and was gung ho to ride this bike into space to advance the bicycle condition. Benny has been training tirelessly over the past….week, to get himself into the physical condition to take on this grueling task. On the morning of November 7^th, 2015, Benny bravely boarded Apollo 36 and buckled in for takeoff. The launch was successful and up, up and away he went until he was no longer visible to the naked eye from mission control outside of Denver, CO and our telescopic lenses(cheap binoculars). Astronaut Benny was valiantly on his way to pilot the first bicycle out of this atmosphere into the nothingness of space and nothing was going to stop him from achieving this goal. For the next XX Benny ascended until he successfully achieved his lifelong goal of riding his bicycle in space and experienced the feeling of pedaling his little red Lego bike in weightlessness. You can see how happy this made Benny as he had a cheek to cheek smile on his face for the entire trip… Eventually he ran out of gas, could no longer go any further, and began his descent to the earth. Shortly after he began this return, Benny was concerned the atmosphere had become too dangerous for his shuttle upon re-entry and took it upon himself to save the capsule so the proof of his mission was successfully recorded and made it to its final goal. In one of the most selfless act of courage we have ever witnessed, Benny ejected from the capsule upon re-entry with no regard for his own safety to save the craft, without any parachute in order to complete his mission. Benny was never to be seen again and can only hope that he found himself a nice quiet life in a new home somewhere in the plains of Colorado. Because of Benny’s brave act, our capsule was able to gently drift its way back to earth to a safe landing location away from all populated areas in order to be recovered by ground control. Thanks to Astronaut Benny and his valor, we have this incredible footage of his mission and bike ride to space. We will always remember you and appreciate your sacrifice, Godspeed Benny.

UPDATE: We've written a post on how to send your own weather balloon into space as well as the backstory of how we sent our's up. Spoiler alert, we actually sent two balloons up after the first was unsuccessful.... You can read about it here.