The best way to carry a coffee on your bike commute. I tried 12 different methods.

[Music] i'm tom and this is shifter a channel all about urban cycling and bike commuting thanks to all you new subscribers out there what you just witnessed was a dramatic recreation of a tragic event from a few weeks ago when while i was riding my bike i dropped my coffee it did lead to a bigger question for me which was what's the best way to carry your coffee on a bike and so i did what i always do when i'm facing these big important questions about cycling i asked you guys i went on twitter and the youtube community tab and ask people for advice on how they carry their coffee and i gotta say this was probably the most robust conversation i've ever had about cycling gear everyone seems to have an opinion on how to carry your coffee i took all the suggestions narrowed them down into a bunch of categories the ultimate test on how to carry your coffee on a bike okay i'm going to start with the simplest method and that is to simply ride holding your coffee ride with one hand what could go wrong i should say this is exactly how i got into trouble in the first place but it's worth a test now there is a variation on the one-handed method take the lid off and the rationale there being if you don't have a lid on you can better balance your cup because you can see the liquid in it okay so that was the one-handed method both lid on and lid off and i guess i would say it's possible if your ride is very slow and easy if you have smooth pavement you could ride you know like an easy neighborhood ride by just carrying your coffee in one hand but if you're on a commute and there's busy roads riding with one hand just probably is not the safest option as for the lid on and lid off uh i can't remember who suggested lid off but you are a much better cyclist than i am because that seems crazy i could not keep this thing straight but lit on it's possible okay let's move on to the next suggestion next on the list i'm going to try this thing this is called the handle stash shock absorbing cup holder the original shock absorbing cup holder basically this the idea here is that you attach it to your handlebars and it holds your drink so there's lots of different styles and brands of cup holders but i had a few people recommend this one because of its alleged shock absorbing properties it cost about 30 dollars i want to say i like the idea of it i'm feeling optimistic so let's get the packaging off and give this thing a try okay so there's the handle stash nice name by the way it's soft it's got a foam sort of insert in the middle so you can sort of you can kind of adjust it based on how tall your drink is this one's pretty short so let's give it a shot pop it in there you can uh tighten it up it's like almost like a little dross drawstring right here good to go okay it's working so far [Music] okay the handle stash works pretty well one minor problem whenever i would hit a bump coffee would bounce and it would fall out of the cup and i got coffee all over the frame of my bike and on my boots so what i'm going to do is switch to a proper container that has a lid that closes properly probably shouldn't be using these anytime on a bike probably shouldn't be using them anytime these single use items so i'm gonna pour my coffee in here let's go there we go there is the handlebar cup holder and this one this handle stash is quite good i'm impressed the travel mug with the sealed lid worked much better i would say the only downside is handlebar clutter and you know i always complain about this i like clean simple lines on a bike and if you've already got some lights on here i've got my peak design phone holder and now you add a cup holder onto it you're on the verge of what bike snob might call a contraption captain so keep that in mind if that's not a problem for you who cares go for it i do like it it's a pretty good option okay the next idea that came from all of you was a simple one and probably the idea that many of you that many of you thought initially was just put the coffee in the bottle cage small problem i did not have a bottle cage on this bike the dug in my bin found this old bottle this old bottle cage i cannot remember remember why it's this color have not tried it yet i've got my spill proof contigo here the question is will it fit into the bottle cage let's give it a shot bam wow actually that's a pretty solid fit in there i didn't think it would fit i imagine it depends a lot on the shape of your spill proof coffee mug but this one fits like a glove let's go for a ride so that seems like a pretty good option the bottle cage held the coffee mug very tightly it was pretty easy to get it in and out as easy as it would be a water bottle maybe a little bit tougher because this is made of a hard material and not the soft plastic of a water bottle but still it was pretty good it felt pretty secure um only a couple times i hit a few bumps it felt like it might bounce out maybe a couple little downsides is you had a really rough patch because this does bounce around in here a little bit it might fall out sort of i guess it depends on the type of mug you've got and the type of bottle cage you've got but overall it's a pretty good option depending on your ride okay the next one is pretty simple we're going to take the coffee and put it in the pannier as we're riding if we need a drink we'll just reach back and pull it out yeah what could go wrong well what could go wrong well of course what could go wrong is you can't reach the coffee when it's way back in the bottom of your bag it's just too deep i just couldn't get back there and reach it so if you want to carry your coffee without drinking it that's probably a good option so if you want to take a sip while you're riding bags like this are not the answer so we determined that the coffee cup in the back pannier didn't work but maybe the back basket will work because a few of you did suggest the basket so i've dug out my trusty rear rack basket and the mug is going in there i think it's going to bounce around too much but let's give it a try [Music] so that wasn't bad actually yes the coffee cup bounced around a lot in the basket but i didn't find it that difficult just to reach back and sort of feel around find it drink it put it back in there but if you had a rough ride this would bounce right out immediately a couple of you suggested putting your coffee cup in your purse in your back basket which i actually think would be a great thing i just don't carry a purse so if you've got a purse that's a good option for you as well so that was the rear basket what about a front basket there's lots of different kinds of front baskets of course i have this soft the soft front basket which i actually think might be better because you might be able to seal it up it's got it's got this kind of so i can put my mug in here seal it right up and uh there it is there it is it might be more accessible let's try it [Music] well surprise surprise the front basket was actually worse uh it did not hold the mug up straight so it fell back in there and then i found myself rooting around inside there trying to find it i actually found it easier to reach back into the back basket and grab it rather than trying to find it inside here so if you have a different basket maybe but it does have its limitations next up is the backpack this was suggested a few times just put it in your backpack but i reject the notion because if the coffee is inside your backpack you can't drink it but if your backpack has some pouches on the side like this one does perhaps you can just slide it in there and then as you're riding just reach back and grab it like that i'm gonna put on this side i feel like i'm a little more agile a little more nimble on this side so this might be a simple [Music] solution well there's the backpack and i'm pretty mixed on the backpack it's doable i think depending on the style and how far you've got to reach around but i found it quite awkward especially while you're riding if you only reach back when you're maybe stopped at a red light or a stop sign it's doable but normal riding i wouldn't recommend it i don't think i have the concentration to do this and safely ride at the same time there is one case i think when the backpack might be the best option and that's for you high volume coffee drinkers a few of you out there asked me to investigate options when one coffee mug is just not enough there are two options i think and uh shout out to doug who suggested you bring your own grinder beans and press and stop on your way and heat up a stove and actually make coffee live great for you doug i'm not sure many people are going to do that but there is another option which maybe the backpack comes in handy and that's just bring a insulated bigger container so this is a yeti rambler and this is my chance to give a shout out to yeti for sending this to me they thought it might be a good option for cyclists out there and i gotta say if you need high volume this is great you probably can't drink it along the way what's great about yetis and they are so good at keeping things warm i've had this out here for several hours now and it's about just around the freezing point and let's see will there be steam that's the big question oh yes they are there's of course there's steam it's a yeti you could stop along the way pour yourself a drink and that's hot and enjoy the moment um in which case this would be a great option for you but let's get back to testing coffees that you can drink as you go okay here's an interesting idea and this comes from several of you out there and that is to use a hydration pack for your coffee uh the most well-known brand is camelback uh basically it's a backpack that has a bladder usually it's used by mountain bikers you fill the bladder up with water you put it in your backpack and it's got a hose that sort of comes around right to your mouth and you can sip as you ride without stopping and the suggestion was put your coffee in there and use this for your commute um so let's give it a shot i mean why not most manufacturers of these hydration packs don't recommend you put anything except water inside they're not all that big on uh hot liquids in here either but the internet tells me some people do it so i thought i would try it rather than try with coffee we are in experiment mode i'm just gonna put some hot water in here so i've got my yeti so we know the water is hot back there we go now a little sip on here well let's go for a ride i honestly thought this was a ridiculous suggestion i thought it was a joke but actually there's some good things about it it's not perfect it's good and bad the good when you put it on your back it's nice and warm so it warms you up these straws are really made for sipping so that's pretty good the bad part is the coffee or in this case the hot water does not stay warm for very long there's no insulation in it so within like three or four minutes outside when it's cold out it was warm it was just body temperature that however also when it is hot and you're sipping through a straw you know what's gonna happen you're gonna burn yourself so i had to wait a bit but once it was down to like a decent temperature and seeping through it was actually not bad i was ready to write this off as a crazy idea but not terrible whether you want to put coffee into your into the bladder of your hydration pack is up to you i guess it does also feel like a bit overkill for commuting or urban cycling you really need all this coffee it's got some advantages who knew no there you go that's the brings us to the end of my tests and i lost track of how many different ways of carrying your coffee on your bike that i've tested hopefully one of those methods will work for you i found the one that works best for me is a combination it is a good quality travel mug that does not leak and a handlebar mount that has a little bit of shock absorption such as this handle stash this is the best combination for my riding which tends to be pretty slow but if that doesn't work for you hopefully there's another method on here that will work for you huge thanks to all of you who gave me ideas i would never would have thought of that many on my own so i appreciate it and if i missed any drop me a note down below see you next time

Channel: Shifter

Views: 86,221

Keywords: Bike, Cycling, Bike Commuting, Urban Cycling, Coffee, Coffee on a bike, Drinking coffee, Latte, Cappucino, Best ways to ride, Single-speed, Fixed-gear

Id: 1dF5jtIp2jE

Length: 14min 58sec (898 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 16 2020