Coffee and Bikes for 24 Hours in Tuscon
What does a guy in his early 40’s do on the weekend of Valentine’s day and the anniversary of marrying his beautiful wife?
Well, he rides his mountain bike in the Kona 24-hour mountain bike event of course!
Night Riding at the Kona 24-Hour
Luckily he has a very understanding and supporting wife.
My name is Matt, and I’m the co-founder of BuzzMug.com. The site was built based on our love of coffee. And bikes. You’ll notice that our store sponsors a number of bicycling events, and we stock products intended to assist bike riders with consuming caffeine.
Anyway, the weekend of February 14 - 15 is the Kona 24-hour mountain bike event near Tucson, Arizona. The course is 17 miles of mountainous desert terrain. I’m on a team of four, and we take turns on laps. We’re shooting for a meager two laps each. Three if we’re lucky. I haven’t trained, and I’m pretty out of shape. I’ve ridden once in the last two months.
But I’m not complaining. I’m looking forward to it. I love a challenge. When it’s over, I’ll either be refreshed and want to ride more (it was only a couple of years ago that I was riding near every day), or I won’t ride for six months because of the trauma.
But this isn’t really the point of this post.
The point of this post is that I’m going to try my hand at writing a PRODUCT REVIEWS!! Yes, I’ll field test some coffee gear. Sweet, huh?
Coffee Items to be Tested: Since I’ll be camping out for a couple of nights, holding my bicycle close to my chest, instead of my wife 
, and with temps as low as the 30’s, I’ll have ample opportunity to have coffee. I’ll tell you below what I’ll be testing. Then, next week, once I can walk again (at least far enough to make it to the computer), I’ll sit down and write my thoughts on these products.
So without further adieu….
GSI Espresso Maker 4-Cup
1) The GSI 4-Cup Espresso Maker:
I’ve used this unit in the house on the stove top with great success. This little inexpensive unit makes espresso as good as some I’ve had in coffee shops. The twist here is that I’m going to be using this in conjunction with my Jet Boil camp stove. We’ll see how well it works on a surface not as stable as the trusty ‘ol stove. I’ll discover any ins and outs regarding cleaning, setup and performance. UPDATED: CLICK HERE FOR THE REVIEW.
2) 17 oz. Stainless Steel Vacuum Thermos - Paprika This vacuum bottle is produced by Planetary Design, makers of some of BuzzMug.com’s best selling products. People love these because they’re heavy-duty, stainless steel, and you can put them in the dishwasher. They’re pretty cool looking. My purpose this weekend is that I’m going to be carrying fuel in it. The espresso and coffee mix will go in here, and I’ll toss it in my camelback. It will be nice little rest stop refreshment! We’ll see how will this baby stands up to the rough stuff of the trail. Check it out here.
3) 18 oz. Glacier Stainless Steel Bottle Cup - Pot This is going to be my cooking pot and bowl. I’ve got plenty of mess gear for packing and hiking, but I’ll give this one a shot. We’ll see if it can hold up to the intense heat of the Jet Boil stove (I’ve killed a few pots and pans with it).
4) Planetary Design 20 ounce Stainless Steel Tumbler Ok, this won’t reaalllyyy be a field test. I’ve been using this for a few weeks now. Actually, a month. But since I’ll be drinking from this all weekend, and on the road, I though it fair to include it. Check this baby out right here.
5) Prescott Coffee Roasters French Kiss Blend This is what I’m going to use for my Espresso and Regular Java. Dark, rich and flavorful! I can’t wait to try it, and I know it’s going to be great companion on the trail and in the campground. You can almost taste it right from the description at BuzzMug. Here it is…
French Kiss - 1 LB Fresh Roasted Coffee Beans
A BuzzMug favorite! This dark, sensual, full-bodied coffee is everything its name implies. Exciting like a forbidden kiss, dark and mysterious as a lover in the night, this coffee tantalizes, seduces and makes you beg for more. This has a bold, yet smooth, flavor with none of the bitterness sometimes found in dark roasts.
Kind of gets me worked up.
See you next week…
Wish me luck. I know I’m under prepared conditioning-wise, but I’m ready and roaring to go. Thank you again, Trish (my lovely wife), for letting me do this THIS particular weekend!
I’ll be back next week with an update and reviews.
Happy trails,
Matt
We grow Estate Kona coffee and wonder why the Kona mountain bike event has never partnered with 100% Kona coffee. It’s the only coffee grown and produced in the US. After reading your description of French Kiss I thought, geez, that sounds like you were describing our French Roast. Samples could be on their way for the asking. We have a local customer here who also lives in AZ. He takes 6 lbs of our coffee back with him for his espresso every trip. Ron, my partner, husband, co-owner and number one hand is also a marathoner and century rider.
Mary,
I would suggest you contact Kona about that. Or even better, contact Todd at Epic Rides (www.epicrides.com). He’s the guy who coordinates these events, and you might be able to sponsor somehow. Kona is (obviously) the key sponsor of this event, but the event has been around for a while before Kona jumped on board.
If you could sponsor that event, maybe you could make some good (Kona) contacts out of that!
On another subject, you have a nice site. I think some of our ceramic coffee mugs would look great in your store (enter shameless sales pitch here) : -). http://www.buzzmug.com/wholesale.asp
Matt
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