Want to find the best coffee place during a ride?

Former British cycling champion Russ Downing has created a new brand, Cycle Espresso, to help riders find the best coffees while out on their ride.

Cycle Espresso is a Cycle Cafe network, featuring the best cycle stores, cafes, and events across the country, and will cater to both cyclists and cycle store owners alike. An online Cycle Espresso map allows cyclists to plan routes around registered Cycle Espresso cafes and stores serving speciality coffees. So far, Cycle Espresso has 57 cycle cafes on its map from Brighton to Edinburgh.

These people like coffee.

The brand is planning to add mobile vehicles to the Cycle Espresso network in 2022, and there are plans for Cycle Espresso events called ‘Rocket Rides’, ‘allowing avid cyclists to ride between different café pop-ups’. Could be a good place to spot all those ‘avid cyclists’ in the comments sections on road safety news articles…

“Over the past few months I’ve been doing a lot of travelling across the UK, visiting cycle shops, cycle cafes and cycle clubs. On my travels I’ve seen how the ‘cycle shop’ is reinventing itself. How cycling, coffee and most importantly community is coming together to emerge into a new breed of bike shop. No longer are they just selling bikes, but offering bike fits, serving great coffee and organising vibrant events for their customers.

“Our mission for Cycle Espresso is to be the driving force behind this new breed of cycle store, which has ‘customer experience’ at its heart and uniquely blends cycling, coffee and community. By creating a UK-wide network of Cycle Espresso Cafes and an online hub that lists all the Cycle Cafes in the UK, cyclists can use it as a resource tool and plan their route to take in cafes and refuel for those long journeys.”
Russ Downing

Cycle Espresso has also announced a partnership with RWRD, a mobile application focused within the coffee industry that connects independent outlets with coffee customers. The partnership focuses on enabling independent cycling shops across the UK to reach a wider audience through speciality coffee, encouraging people to get out on their bikes across leading cycle routes and discover small businesses while they’re at it.

Cycle Espresso stores and cafes receive a free listing on the Cycle Espresso directory and map, and 60 days’ free use of the loyalty reward app, which is designed to drive more customers to stores by promoting to the app’s 55,000 existing users.

If all of that sounds great, download the app and get pedalling. Or you could go old school and make your own coffee, thereby avoiding all risk of discussion with other riders about vertical compliance or the importance of sock length. Let Singletrack help you with that, with our range of coffee related products.

Coffee on the go

You’ll need a cup to carry it in and keep it warm, or you can go full bikepacking style and make your own out on the trails.

Good coffee, at home

Maybe you’re the kind of rider that needs waking up before you go – or warming up when you get home. Good coffee can be yours, even if your neighbourhood lacks artisan charm or a hip high street.

Comforting and convenient coffee

With our coffee membership, you never even need to leave the house. Singletrack Magazine comes to you one month, coffee the next. We bring the beans and the beauty of the hills to you.

Coffee tastes better in a better mug

It’s some kind of weird fact that the mug your drink from can make your coffee taste better. We have a selection of great big mugs for you to choose from, so not only will your coffee taste great, but there’ll be more of it too.

Hannah Dobson

Managing Editor

I came to Singletrack having decided there must be more to life than meetings. I like all bikes, but especially unusual ones. More than bikes, I like what bikes do. I think that they link people and places; that cycling creates a connection between us and our environment; bikes create communities; deliver freedom; bring joy; and improve fitness. They're environmentally friendly and create friendly environments. I try to write about all these things in the hope that others might discover the joy of bikes too.