Coffeenteering

well howdy, long time no hi-c!

It's been a little slow in wileydogland - not much more more bike riding than the normal commute, even though October is the best biking month - so I'm dusting off some posts I didn't finish or post for one reason or other. This one I think I left unfinished and unpublished because I didn't want to offend the great coffeeneuring lobby

 Anyways, here goes.

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No doubt you keep up on all things bicycle related and have heard of Coffeeneuring.  I'm not sure if there's an official definition, but there seems to be a couple versions:

1. bike on a day other than part of your normal bike commute/ride to a coffee shop and combine this with lots of randonneuring type rules (see the eyes-glaze-over long rules of the Coffeeneuring Challenge over at Chasing Mailboxes).

2. or ride with or without friends to an out of the way spot, bring coffee making equipment (the more esoteric the better), make coffee fresh, preferably from beans you ground on the spot, and sorta make a big deal about it. Be sure to take pics and instygram them.

Option One might be The Official Coffeeneuring Definition and Option Two might be an offshoot or just another way of combining bikes and coffee. Option Two seems like too much work. I prefer to take along Starbucks Via on bike packing trips because it's the quickest way to get a caffeine fix out on the trail. But… I recently bought a Chemex and am officially a coffee snob now so I might have to rethink my opposition. (Aside: check out the Stanley Travel Vacuum Press!)

I like to bike and I like good coffee, and I like to combine the two, I just don't want to make big deal about it.

Shoot, I lost my train of thought…

Oh yeah…I had an idea.

Combine riding to get/make coffee with Orienteering. Coffeenteering. Or CoffeeBikenteering.

According to one definition "Orienteering is a sport in which orienteers use an accurate, detailed map and a compass to find points in the landscape. It can be enjoyed as a walk in the woods or as a competitive sport.".  Just mix this with making coffee somewhere along the trail, call the participants Bikenteers, and you're Coffeenteering. I am too lazy to make any rules, so if someone wants to look into that...

I googawikied Orienteering, and found there's like hundreds of versions of it, one being Mountain Bike Orienteering.  Combine this with coffee and you get MTB Coffeenteering.  Mountain Bike Orienteering is a competitive sport, but Scout Orienteering might appeal more to some.  You can get patches like they do in randonneuring.

There are hundreds of possibilities of combining bikes, coffee and Orienteering. Maybe you want to ride in an urban setting - get out your fixie and plot some Hipster Bike Coffeenteering.  TallBike Coffeenteering. Tweed Ride. Plaid Ride.

But a person can't just make and drink coffee all the time.  Bikes go well with coffee, but it's a well known fact they go even better with beer.  Beerenteering has some great possibilities.  I guess it would have to involve packing along beer instead of biking out and making it.  Wait, we do that already on a lot of bike rides.