Am I the only one who stops to brew his own drink even on a day ride.

[UshCha]

To me stopping at a good view for a brew is part of the bike experience, am I the only one?  Cafe's are good but nothing beats brewing up in the middle of nowhere with a good view.

[Graeme]

It's really important to have some good quality 'middle of nowhere'. A 'good view' does indeed help, but doesn't make up for 'not the middle of nowhere'. If I was experiencing 'Not the middle of nowhere' combined with 'a crap view' I'd choose a cafe. Especially if it's raining.

Other than that - I'm totally in agreement with you: Middle of nowhere? Good view? In those circumstances I'd be downhearted if I hadn't brought a means of making coffee.

(Unless I was racing or something.)
 

[Cudzoziemiec]

I certainly have done it. Needs good weather though, as well as a good middle of nowhere. I also went through a phase of taking a flask of tea with me. Haven't done that for a few years either. I found the first cup or two were good, but then at a subsequent stop, it would all have gone cold. Also, it depends on the 'type' of ride. Not just racing, but (for me: Graeme I suspect is fast enough to have time) there's no time for this on an audax. Electric kettles are faster than camping stoves! Besides, I wouldn't have a stove with me – unless I was camping, in which case, well it's obviously part of camping.

[bobb]

Hmmm.. when touring, yes. But I guess that's not a day ride. Though some years ago, myself and a friend would head out into the country on our MTBs, stop at a village shop, buy a load of meat - usually in sausage format, some bread, some bottled water and some coffee. Then we'd head back into the woods, spend absolutely ages getting a fire started, constructing some sort of twig based grill and cooking the whole lot up. You know what? I think I might try that again sometime soon 

[T42]

It's really important to have some good quality 'middle of nowhere'. A 'good view' does indeed help, but doesn't make up for 'not the middle of nowhere'. If I was experiencing 'Not the middle of nowhere' combined with 'a crap view' I'd choose a cafe. Especially if it's raining.

Other than that - I'm totally in agreement with you: Middle of nowhere? Good view? In those circumstances I'd be downhearted if I hadn't brought a means of making coffee.

(Unless I was racing or something.)
 

Now there's an idea: a race where everyone has to stop, brew and drink a cuppa halfway round.

[yoav]

Last time I did this was in the middle of a night ride betwee Carlisle and Edinburgh so there was nowhere to stop, even if it had been open at 2am. Coffee and biscuits never tasted so good as brewed in a bus shelter in the middle of the night.

[Paul H]

On full day rides I used to take a flask, now I take a Jetboil.  I'll use a cafe if it's cold/wet and it happens to be on the route, but it's nice to be free of having to plan the stops and the timing.  Last used Christmas Day, when there wasn't much open...

[Wowbagger]

I have done this a few times, most often on the Dunwich Dynamo. Kim will be along in a moment to talk about milk.

Charlotte and I stopped for a brew in the middle of rural Wales once, on a B road that, at the time we rode it, wasn't marked on Open Street Maps. I added it on our return to civilisation.

I'm also quite a fan of the random householder plying a cyclist with tea when they have stopped to mend a puncture. I can think of a couple of occasions that that has happened to me - on one occasion with Mrs. Wow, Del the Bike and Auntie Helen for company. As a development of this, I randomly met another cycle camper at Dingwall camp site one year. She and I were heading in the same direction the following day so we spent most of the day together and parted company in Cromarty. She was "wild camping" on a neatly trimmed grass verge near the Nidd ferry terminal. I heard from her on her return that the owner of the nearby bungalow had plied her with a full breakfast the following morning!

[ElyDave]

I've just never really though about it.  I've done it after a winter MTB ride when back at the car.  Nice hot cuppa before driving home.

There aren't many spectacular views round here though.

[Kim]

Oh yes, it's vitally important to make sure you've got plenty of milk when you ride to Dunwich.  Wowbagger, not wanting to be caught short, inadvertently settled the Ortlieb vs Carradice pannier debate by doing so.


Not a habitual drinker of Brown Drinks, it's only something I've done for a warming hot chocolate in the middle of night rides.  However, I'm fully in favour of the ride somewhere remote with your stove, brew up and/or cook something, then ride back approach.  More of this sort of thing.

[andrewc]

Wowbagger, not wanting to be caught short, inadvertently settled the Ortlieb vs Carradice pannier debate by doing so.

Now that's a use for an Ortlieb I'd never considered.....

[hellymedic]

It's a long time since I rode with Glasgow CTC, who 'drummed up' on most winter rides.

Down south, there are more cafes, more traffic and fewer 'nowhere' locations.

[ElyDave]

Oh yes, it's vitally important to make sure you've got plenty of milk when you ride to Dunwich. 

Milk 

[Wowbagger]

Oh yes, it's vitally important to make sure you've got plenty of milk when you ride to Dunwich. 

Milk 

Don't fret - there's a little bit of YACF folklore attached to that statement.

[Kim]

Oh yes, it's vitally important to make sure you've got plenty of milk when you ride to Dunwich. 

Milk 

It's what Ian Rush drinks...

[ElyDave]

Oh yes, it's vitally important to make sure you've got plenty of milk when you ride to Dunwich. 

Milk 

It's what Ian Rush drinks...

Yeah, and look what happened to Accrington Stanley!

Hang on a minte?

[Bolt]

Having just retired and enjoying the lushness of it all, I am slightly missing the daily ride with a purpose, that was the commute.  My initial thoughts were to substitute the commute with a daily café ride that was until I calculated the expense this would involve   Then the idea of brewing on the go occurred, so I'm kitted out with one of those tiny gas stoves, a titanium mug and an aeropress and ready to find some "some good quality 'middle of nowhere'" in the new year.

[Jaded]

I used to brew on a ride but stopped, largely because carrying the demijohn and bottles round was a pain, and  several weeks of primary and secondary fermentation really buggered up my Audax point collecting.

[Wowbagger]

I used to brew on a ride but stopped, largely because carrying the demijohn and bottles round was a pain, and  several weeks of primary and secondary fermentation really buggered up my Audax point collecting.

I think you may have misinterpreted the word "Tetley".

[Jaded]

I used to brew on a ride but stopped, largely because carrying the demijohn and bottles round was a pain, and  several weeks of primary and secondary fermentation really buggered up my Audax point collecting.

I think you may have misinterpreted the word "Tetley".

Ah! So you are the Tetley Walker?

[Wowbagger]

I used to brew on a ride but stopped, largely because carrying the demijohn and bottles round was a pain, and  several weeks of primary and secondary fermentation really buggered up my Audax point collecting.

I think you may have misinterpreted the word "Tetley".

Ah! So you are the Tetley Walker?

Absolutely not!

[Graeme]

There is a sport devised around cycling and coffee... Coffeeneuring. I spotted a badge on a fellow randonneur's saddlebag and asked her about it. Details here: https://chasingmailboxes.com/category/coffeeneuring/

I've just recently received my Coffeeneur Round The Year ("Always Coffeeneuring") badge and I'm about to sew it on my saddlebag.

#achievement #levelup

[Cudzoziemiec]

I used to brew on a ride but stopped, largely because carrying the demijohn and bottles round was a pain, and  several weeks of primary and secondary fermentation really buggered up my Audax point collecting.

I think you may have misinterpreted the word "Tetley".

Ah! So you are the Tetley Walker?

So it's Gary Lineker as well as Ian Rush!

[rogerzilla]

It's a lot of gubbins to carry; stove (the smallest part!), gas canister, kettle, cup, milk (for tea), tea bags.  OK, you'd probably have water anyway.

A Wilko 330ml flask sits nicely in a bottle cage and doesn't rattle if you put a sock over it first.  It will stay hot for as long as you like - I used to make a flask at 9pm and it was still too hot to swig at 3am, even in really cold weather.

[JenM]

Yesterday, on a ride in France with my sister, we stopped for a hot drink and Christmas cake. Whilst I made do with instant coffee she had brought leaf tea and an infuser......a china cup and saucer would have been OTT. It was a very civilised break.