Testing Grounds: An Instant Coffee Round Up

Radar

Testing Grounds: An Instant Coffee Round Up

When it comes to creature comforts, it’s hard to skimp on coffee, especially with so many instant coffee offerings popping up. While we love to savor freshly ground beans and an Aeropress on a bike tour, in the interest of space and weight savings, it’s hard to beat a solid instant brew.

We asked some of our editors–Hailey, Spencer, Josh, and John–to bring some of their favs on a recent Radavist Retreat in Tempe, Arizona and after a morning ride, we sampled them. After our tasting party, we have some thoughts to share with y’all. Check out a quick instant coffee roundup below!

Inside / Out at Musette Bicycles and Coffee in Bordeaux, France

Reportage

Inside / Out at Musette Bicycles and Coffee in Bordeaux, France

After six months of traveling the world–sans bicycles–Gideon Tsang and his partner Christie touched down in Bordeaux, France. With a full month’s stay ahead of them in the southwestern French city, the couple scooped up two 80s flat-bar “road bikes” for commuting and almost immediately fell in with the wonderful community-centered Musette Bicycles and Coffee. Read on below for Gideon’s insightful shop visit and interview with co-owner Rob Lawrence…

A Different Kind of Coffee Routine: Espresso Forge is Owned and Run by Cyclists

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A Different Kind of Coffee Routine: Espresso Forge is Owned and Run by Cyclists

I value my coffee ritual each morning. As I’m sure, many of you do. The five minutes it takes me to make my americano/long black in the morning is a way to ease into a busy day. I’ve been using the Espresso Forge for the past year and couldn’t be happier. It’s not compact enough for on-the-bike outings, but I throw it in a bag and bring it on the road when I travel for events, car camp, or photoshoots.

Let’s take a look at this unique no-nonsense product that makes a killer shot of espresso…

A Pit Stop at Roly Poly Coffee in Bozeman: Vintage Threads, Old Trucks, and a Madrean Touring Bike

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A Pit Stop at Roly Poly Coffee in Bozeman: Vintage Threads, Old Trucks, and a Madrean Touring Bike

I still look back at my time in Austin, Texas, with the fondest of memories, thanks to the many people I met while living there. I got to know the most amazing, down-to-Earth, truly unique souls in the five years I called Austin my home. Many of which I’m still quite close with today. A few have since moved on to other cities and are doing big things in their respective new homes.

One of which is Taylor Wallace, a fella I met at Flat Track Coffee years back and have since gotten to see the life he’s made for himself in Bozeman, Montana, where I’ve been visiting for a little over a week now. Taylor owns a coffee company which he operates with his brother, Gavin, called Roly Poly Coffee. We haven’t featured many coffee shops here at The Radavist but Roly Poly, as an extension of Taylor himself is much, much more…

Velo Canteen’s Double Walled Stainless Coffee Bottle Fits in Your Bottle Cages

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Velo Canteen’s Double Walled Stainless Coffee Bottle Fits in Your Bottle Cages

If you love to roll by a local coffee shop on your way to work, sometimes on your gravel, road, or mountain bike, then you know the amount of skill it can take to navigate a city with one hand on your bars and one hand on your paper coffee cup, sloshing and spilling all over your work clothes. Well, hopefully by now you get coffee in a reusable bottle or mug but if you don’t, check out the Velo Canteen. This 13.5 ounce stainless steel, double-walled, insulated coffee bottle features a leak-proof twist-on cap, weighs a mere .45lbs (200grams), and yes, it fits in a standard bottle cage. These canteens retail for $44.95 direct from Velo Canteen.

Archive Re-Up: Escaping Black Friday with Bicycle Camping, Bourbon, and Black Coffee

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Archive Re-Up: Escaping Black Friday with Bicycle Camping, Bourbon, and Black Coffee

When we lost our image bucket from 2014-2015 a few years back, a bunch of really great content went blank. Over the years, I’ve been slowly re-upping our archives when I want to add a back-link to a current post or story. That happened last week when writing about the Buckhorn Bags Panniers. I remembered our “Escaping Black Friday” Reportage and tracked down the film scans, allowing me to re-up the fun. I also added the RideWithGPS route to the archive as well. If you’re in the Austin, Texas area and are looking for a good (and difficult) road tour, don’t miss this one!

Archive Re-Up: Escaping Black Friday with Bicycle Camping, Bourbon, and Black Coffee

If there’s a story you remember and really would like to see re-posted, drop it in the comments!

Resourcefulness and a Community Endeavor: Silver Stallion Bicycle and Coffee Works in Gallup, NM

Reportage

Resourcefulness and a Community Endeavor: Silver Stallion Bicycle and Coffee Works in Gallup, NM

A while back, we featured the photography of Shaun Marcus and the writing of Jon Yazzie in our Reportage section, documenting the Dzil ta’ah Adventures Navajo Youth Bike-Packrafting Adventure Series. That story took place in Nazlini, AZ, and it served as an introduction to the readers of the Radavist about the Silver Stallion Bicycle and Coffee Works. All last year, the Navajo Nation fought the Covid-19 pandemic, as it spread across the expansive reservation which covers over 27,000 miles of Arizona, Utah, and New Mexico. This year, with the vaccination efforts pushing forward, I felt like it was finally safe to travel three hours south to Gallup, New Mexico upon invitation to get a first-hand experience of what the Silver Stallion has been up to…

How a Coffee Farmer Should Have Been (One Of) Colombia’s Greatest Cyclists

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How a Coffee Farmer Should Have Been (One Of) Colombia’s Greatest Cyclists

THERE IS A DISTINCT SHARPNESS in the Sunday morning Andean air as José Villegas plucks a tiny coffee shoot from the ground, barely as tall as an espresso cup. Looking out over the valley on the edge of the steep slope, the setting is idyllic, like something from a late 20th-century film epic. Dressed in little more than slippers, gym shorts, and a t-shirt, he studies the greenery carefully nestled in his palm, nods in approval, and continues scouting the steep slope around him for other shoots. His son, Juan Pablo, explains that this is how his father propagates new coffee plants on the farm, eschewing the far more common method of using commercial seeds. It keeps the fields GMO-free, organic, and high-quality. This is single-origin coffee grown at the perfect altitude (1800m/6000ft), something prized the world over. Everything on the farm is done mostly by hand. There are no chemical fertilizers or pesticides. The family has been farming like this “from the beginning”, José explained, not because it was popular, but because it was the right way to do things. The only way.

Austin’s CyclEast and Flat Track Coffee Continue the Bikes and Coffee Tradition

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Austin’s CyclEast and Flat Track Coffee Continue the Bikes and Coffee Tradition

Wow! It feels like yesterday I was still calling Austin my home, riding the rolling hills and ripping around on the limestone and cedar tree-lined singletrack. Those were some magical years for me, filled with a lot of amazing memories, solid friendships, and watching my friends open their own businesses, only to have them bloom and grow when I left town.

I’ve been back through Austin a few times since leaving in 2015 but never really had enough time to settle in and document the spaces of these businesses. This past trip, we had all the time in the world, so I got to work documenting my favorite of the Austin scene: the space at Cycleast and Flat Track Coffee

Good Coffee, Clean Bathrooms: Being a Breezer for Two Weeks at Angry Catfish in Minneapolis

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Good Coffee, Clean Bathrooms: Being a Breezer for Two Weeks at Angry Catfish in Minneapolis

FOREWORD: Back in May and into June, I had the pleasure of helping the crew at Angry Catfish for a couple of weeks as their summer season began to pick up. The following is a series of entries from a journal I kept during my time there. My hope is that through these vignettes you will get a glimpse of what it’s like to not only work at one of the most successful bike shops in the country, but be a bicycle salesperson and mechanic in the city of Minneappolis. Think of this as an extended shop visit, one where I get my hands dirty and experience the area and community the way those at Angry Catfish and other locals do. All photos are film, shot on 35mm and 120mm. Enjoy!

Captain + “The Most” Stoker Coffee

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Captain + “The Most” Stoker Coffee

If you’ve been to the Sea Otter Classic in the last couple years, it’s very likely that you’ve been to Captain + Stoker Coffee. It’s become quite the staple for bicycle nerds making the annual pilgrimage to the event. I’d even say that Captain + Stoker has become a home base for many people attending the Classic. Hundreds of people meet there before and after rides, they host movie screenings and even live stream races in their beautifully converted service station.

It hasn’t been easy for Tyler Ellis and Kelsey Richmond the owners of Captain + Stoker to get to this point, but from what I’ve seen each time I’ve been there, I believe they’ve both found their calling.