Cycling Cafés. Really?

buckles

What makes a cycling café? Is it enough to just open a café in the same building as a bike shop, put a few pictures of cyclists on the walls and have a few bikes on display?

EDIT: As a cyclist, what, if anything would make you visit a cycling café rather than a normal café in a normal everyday situation i.e. you weren't cycling, but going out for lunch with friends, or during your break from work?

LouisNewman

No, I'd presume it's more a bunch of regular cyclists, mechanics, and lovers of all thing cycling that have opened a cafe for fellow enthusiasts who can grab a coffee and a bite to eat, catch up on latest cycling news, buy an inner tube or or spare tyre, have something fixed quickly and off they go on an organised ride etc.

I'd rather go into a cycling cafe and park my bike somewhere and actually enjoy my coffee, rather than have to contend with a mass orgy of breast feeding mums in a local starbucks and given crap coffee et cetera et cetera!!

sloppyschleckonds

Description sounds like Roll for the Soul in Bristol. Haven't tried it yet.

Old_Timer

One LBS here is trying to stay open, they have opened coffee bars in the 3 locations. Never have seen anyone at the bars yet. they dropped their Trek dealership recently, also. I wish they would just try and have decent shelf stock offered.

edhornby

to my mind there are 3 types
1) oldschool been there for ever and know what is important to a cyclist, like the Eureka cafe,

2) more recent opening, attached to a bikeshop or with a retail offering and can appeal to a broader client base but who still know that it survives on cyclists for core business (see polocini for one that does it well)

3) cafe frequented by people who wear cascquettes but may or may not own a bike

Herbsman

What about using part of the profits for something that benefits cycling scenes e.g. sponsor a local cycling club or racing team, or even better promote cycling by supporting something that gets kids on bikes e.g. supporting youth races, cycling proficiency lessons etc.

Call me cynical but a cafe is a cafe at the end of the day. Your intention is to profit from selling me cake and coffee regardless of how you dress it up and no matter how many cycling jerseys are hanging on the walls.

Brakeless

Herbsman wrote:

What about using part of the profits for something that benefits cycling scenes e.g. sponsor a local cycling club or racing team, or even better promote cycling by supporting something that gets kids on bikes e.g. supporting youth races, cycling proficiency lessons etc.

Call me cynical but a cafe is a cafe at the end of the day. Your intention is to profit from selling me cake and coffee regardless of how you dress it up and no matter how many cycling jerseys are hanging on the walls.

Surely any cafe is there to make a profit, if someone decides that cyclists are thier target market then good for them, nothing cynical about it and no reason they're not allowed to make a living from it. Having the odd cafe that has a spare inner tube or track pump available on a sunday morning can only be a good thing as far as I can see.

flasher

Location, location, location.

With outdoor seating area and decent size bike park.

iPete

Look Mum No Hands is fantastic, good food, coffee cake,bike stuff, bike parking, locks to borrow etc. perfect. It's also a bit of a hub for showing small screen cycle movies, the TDF, giro, seemingly the odd rollapalooza event etc.

Of course, this upsets some people, cycling is their sport after all and nobody else is allowed to piggy back on it...

Herbsman

Brakeless wrote:

Herbsman wrote:

What about using part of the profits for something that benefits cycling scenes e.g. sponsor a local cycling club or racing team, or even better promote cycling by supporting something that gets kids on bikes e.g. supporting youth races, cycling proficiency lessons etc.

Call me cynical but a cafe is a cafe at the end of the day. Your intention is to profit from selling me cake and coffee regardless of how you dress it up and no matter how many cycling jerseys are hanging on the walls.

Surely any cafe is there to make a profit, if someone decides that cyclists are thier target market then good for them, nothing cynical about it and no reason they're not allowed to make a living from it. Having the odd cafe that has a spare inner tube or track pump available on a sunday morning can only be a good thing as far as I can see.

I'm didn't say there's anything wrong with them or that they shouldn't be allowed to do it. My point is that I can't see a reason for me to choose to visit a so-called cycling cafe over any other cafe. A few jerseys hanging on the wall and the availability of a track pump isn't going to make my lunch a better experience. However, knowing that the cafe supports or promotes cycling in some way would make me want to spend my money there.

binsted

Herbsman wrote:

Brakeless wrote:

Herbsman wrote:

What about using part of the profits for something that benefits cycling scenes e.g. sponsor a local cycling club or racing team, or even better promote cycling by supporting something that gets kids on bikes e.g. supporting youth races, cycling proficiency lessons etc.

Call me cynical but a cafe is a cafe at the end of the day. Your intention is to profit from selling me cake and coffee regardless of how you dress it up and no matter how many cycling jerseys are hanging on the walls.

Surely any cafe is there to make a profit, if someone decides that cyclists are thier target market then good for them, nothing cynical about it and no reason they're not allowed to make a living from it. Having the odd cafe that has a spare inner tube or track pump available on a sunday morning can only be a good thing as far as I can see.

I'm didn't say there's anything wrong with them or that they shouldn't be allowed to do it. My point is that I can't see a reason for me to choose to visit a so-called cycling cafe over any other cafe. A few jerseys hanging on the wall and the availability of a track pump isn't going to make my lunch a better experience. However, knowing that the cafe supports or promotes cycling in some way would make me want to spend my money there.

I would think the majority of Cafes do well to make a profit full stop without thoughts of sponsoring anything. Garden Centres seem to be the best cafe stop as they are well stocked with cake for the punters needing a break from all that spending

the playing mantis

Could have sworn there was more to this thwead.

Bozman

Stuffs gone

cougie

I only go to cycling cafés on my bike. They're in locations where we start or finish rides or pass through.

I use other cafés too - but they have it be cycling friendly. I don't think a high street Starbucks would ever cut it.

rpherts

Herbsman wrote:

What about using part of the profits for something that benefits cycling scenes e.g. sponsor a local cycling club or racing team, or even better promote cycling by supporting something that gets kids on bikes e.g. supporting youth races, cycling proficiency lessons etc.

Call me cynical but a cafe is a cafe at the end of the day. Your intention is to profit from selling me cake and coffee regardless of how you dress it up and no matter how many cycling jerseys are hanging on the walls.

How about cyclists making donations from their own pocket to fund these schemes? Profit margins in cafes and restaurants are razor thin and many of them go bust. It is a bit unfair to effectively tax them for local cycle schemes. You'd be lucky to shake £100 a week out of them anyway.

monkimark

I don't really care if they have yellow jerseys on the wall or the staff wear rapha aprons but the cafe stop on my mates regular route has a vaguely bike theme in places and a cyclist owner.
There's outdoor seating so I can stay near the bikes & the owner lent me a track pump last week when my inner tube exploded as I finished my tea, he's also previously offered to lend all sorts, including a rain jacket.

i'm not a big fan of the mid-ride tea stop to be honest but a cafe with a few basic tools, somewhere to put the bike and maybe a few spares for sale (quick links, tubes, that sort of thing) would get my vote, even if it means paying another 50P for my cup of tea.

ugo.santalucia

Bozman wrote:

Stuffs gone

Yes, we had to deal with a serial ball breaker and I have deleted al the relevant posts to avoid the saga going on

Apologies for the disruption

buckles

monkimark wrote:

I don't really care if they have yellow jerseys on the wall or the staff wear rapha aprons but the cafe stop on my mates regular route has a vaguely bike theme in places and a cyclist owner.
There's outdoor seating so I can stay near the bikes & the owner lent me a track pump last week when my inner tube exploded as I finished my tea, he's also previously offered to lend all sorts, including a rain jacket.

i'm not a big fan of the mid-ride tea stop to be honest but a cafe with a few basic tools, somewhere to put the bike and maybe a few spares for sale (quick links, tubes, that sort of thing) would get my vote, even if it means paying another 50P for my cup of tea.

What about when you're not on you're bike? As someone who likes cycling, would you be more likely to go to a cycling cafe as a 'normal punter' i.e. for lunch, on foot?

I was underwhelmed by my most recent cycling cafe visit. Was visiting the city for a gig and was curious about what the place had to offer that was different to any other cafe. There was nothing special about it; you'd have thought they'd at least have the latest edition of the Velocast playing!

Herbsman

rpherts wrote:

Herbsman wrote:

What about using part of the profits for something that benefits cycling scenes e.g. sponsor a local cycling club or racing team, or even better promote cycling by supporting something that gets kids on bikes e.g. supporting youth races, cycling proficiency lessons etc.

Call me cynical but a cafe is a cafe at the end of the day. Your intention is to profit from selling me cake and coffee regardless of how you dress it up and no matter how many cycling jerseys are hanging on the walls.

How about cyclists making donations from their own pocket to fund these schemes? Profit margins in cafes and restaurants are razor thin and many of them go bust. It is a bit unfair to effectively tax them for local cycle schemes. You'd be lucky to shake £100 a week out of them anyway.

I'm not sure where you read that I wanted cycling cafes to be forced to give money to anybody, or that I'd expect them to give anywhere near £100 a week. I certainly didn't say that.

All I am saying is that I'd see a reason for me to spend my money there instead of any other cafe, if there was more to it than 'look, we've got a picture of Eddy Merckx on the wall and we sell inner tubes!'.

ddraver

There's one of these in The Hague that's been open a year or so. Lola's - http://www.lolabikesandcoffee.nl/

I like it, it serves good coffee and hot chocolates and I can pick up an english language magazine and sit looking at some bike porn

They started out with a few "boutique" town bikes which are displayed somewhat artily and then sold a few cycling books and that. It's USP was selling "experiences" on fatbikes up at the beach.

It's grown a bit now and it now sells t-shirts and jerseys as well as a smattering of endura and lezyne kit ( It's the sort of place that should sell Rapha...). They also sell proper old school leather cycling shoes that cost a gazillion euros and have recently started selling some arty messenger bag type things. They don't really have normal bikes still (there are plenty of shops in NL that can sell you a road bike...), mostly the boutique city bikes still (think Pashely, Cinelli etc) and some less common types of bike like the Salsa Fargo. It also has a good (it appears) workshop that MAMILS on expat salaries can pay for. I just found out they do a wednesday night club ride that I'm going to tag along to

I would nt go there if it was a crap cafe with a few bike bits on the wall Herbs, the point is that it's a really nice place to sit and the stuff they serve is good and the staff friendly. I know plenty of non-cyclists that go there just becasue it's a nice place. I think they give some proceeds from sales to a charity that supplies bikes to africa or something (I forget), but first and foremost it's a cafe! Perhaps the problem in the UK is that we just don't have a cafe culture like in europe...

ednino

I like to ride my bike, not sit around drinking coffee. Never understood it really.

ddraver

Think that shows it might be the lack of UK cafe culture...

Bozman

If I stop for more than a couple of min I struggle to start again, my muscles start to tighten up so I've always just kept going but I can see a huge gap in the present climate for them.

ddraver

Would it be blasphemous just to go to them for a coffee? Rather than on a ride?

Old_Timer

I cannot get the whole coffee bar/shop/cafe' mindset. It isn't what I thing of when I am concerned with riding and I am not a Starbucks fan anyway (or any of the myriad of coffee places either.) The LBS I posted about earlier isn't doing well at all as far as sales, apparently, I doubt the coffee bar is going to make a difference as they recently closed one shop. All three LBS here sponsor our local road club, our kit reflects this, and I'd rather they concentrate on local events and service/parts than coffee flavors and cakes.

rolf_f

Old_Timer wrote:

I cannot get the whole coffee bar/shop/cafe' mindset. It isn't what I thing of when I am concerned with riding and I am not a Starbucks fan anyway (or any of the myriad of coffee places either.) The LBS I posted about earlier isn't doing well at all as far as sales, apparently, I doubt the coffee bar is going to make a difference as they recently closed one shop. All three LBS here sponsor our local road club, our kit reflects this, and I'd rather they concentrate on local events and service/parts than coffee flavors and cakes.

Why? It's tough these days for the LBS and the mark up on coffee is astronomical. If they can make it work they might find the coffee subsidises some of the bike stuff.

Pross

ednino wrote:

I like to ride my bike, not sit around drinking coffee. Never understood it really.

There's different types of riding though. Our 'proper' club run doesn't stop as people don't like getting cold, most want a fairly taxing ride and many are short of time but then we have a group of (generally older) riders from both local clubs who go out for hours and stop at a cafe. For them the social aspect is as important as the riding and the cafe stop is the traditional home of that part of their past time. Not only will they be able to have a leisurely chat with the other group members there is also a fair chance that they will meet other groups of cyclists there, some they will know and others they won't.

There's also different types of cycling cafes. There's the 'theme pub' type cafe which are starting to spring up where they will have racing on TV, some cycling related decor and possibly some emergency spares or they may be linked to a bike shop. Then there's traditional cycling cafes which tend to just be normal cafes where the owners welcome cyclists and aren't bothered by them coming in wet and bedraggled and stacking their bikes up outside. They will generally be on popular club run routes and as such you'll often get several groups in them giving a chance for a chat. They usually sell good cycling food (I've never really understood cake stops as in my experience we tended to go for things like beans on toast) and reasonable prices. Up until probably the last 10 years I would say that tea was the drink of choice rather than coffee though.

Having been to the Rapha Cafe recently I found it as pretentious as I expected but I still quite liked it. I got to enjoy decent coffee (and not overly expensive by London standards) whilst watching the Eneco Tour in the middle of a weekday afternoon whilst the wife and daughters got to enjoy shopping without me rushing them. I even got to have a chat with an attractive young lady about the racing! To me it isn't really a cycling cafe as I think of them, it seems to be more a cafe where cycling fans can enjoy a bit of racing on TV surrounded by bits of kit and the only cyclists I saw were couriers who looked like they had just stepped out of central casting. However, I think it's a sign of how much cycling has improved over the last 20 years in this country that there are now actually places I can sit for hours watching bike racing on TV.

ddraver

Pross wrote:

I even got to have a chat with an attractive young lady about the racing!

Richmond Racer?

Pross

I did wonder but didn't ask!

Old_Timer

Rolf F wrote:

Why? It's tough these days for the LBS and the mark up on coffee is astronomical. If they can make it work they might find the coffee subsidises some of the bike stuff.

Rolf,
I agree with your point and I am not against what ever it takes to make a profit in tough times. The LBS in question is sinking and I suppose the coffee bar is to try and infuse some capital in the operation. They had to drop Trek, I would guess the overhead requirements by such a large manufacturer were to much but, Trek is the brand my wife chose from them and we are out in the cold there. Fortunately the bike is stone reliable and she loves riding it very much, I now do all the maintenance on our bikes. Still it is a disappointment that it takes going after the hipster crowd in order to make things work, if that is what it takes I wish them all the best. It does seem their hopes exceeded their abilities when they opened a fashionable in town store and closed several branches after opening a large store in a close by town that folded quickly.

I guess I am just too old and set in the old way of bike shops like I had the privilege or working in as a teenager and young married chap introducing his bride to cycling, too. If they can make a go of things I am happy for them as I am for any small business that succeeds in this day and time, it is a tough market out there, granted. I own a Cannondale and I am very happy with the LBS here for them. Cheers.

ugo.santalucia

I like Zappi in Oxford

They make excellent espresso coffee and cakes and panini and all for the kind of money you normally pay for a cup of tea in a plastic cup and some "homemade" Tesco value cake in other places.
The cafe' sits inside a shop and you can bring your bike inside and confuse it among those for sale.
The owner is a former Italian PRO and there are photos on the walls of him riding alongside the 1980s greats... quite cool