Light-blue steel frame crossbike leaned up against a railing with the mouth of a river in the background. The sky is blue.

in Bikes, Life, Providence |

Coffeeneuring challenge fall 2024

After a long break from participating in a bike challenge, I’m returning this year! New city, new bikes, same me, same ol’ silly bike tricks. After chatting with some coworkers on Slack about randonneuring, I remembered that Chasing Mailboxes sponsors bike challenges – and lo and behold, another one was starting that week!

WTF is coffeeneuring?

Closeup of a cortado in a glass, sitting on a wooden table. A brick building is in the background.

A cortado at Borealis in Riverside.

A riff on randonneuring, coffeeneuring is, at its core, riding your bike to drink coffee. This year’s challenge was as follows:

Between October 6 through November 18, 2024:

  • ride your bike 7 times,
  • to at least 6 different places
  • at least 2 miles round trip every time
  • drink 7 total cups of coffee (or another fall-type beverage),
  • and document your coffeeneuring

I’ve done similar challenges in past years:

The rides

The front of a light blue cross-bike leaned against a tree, across the street from a low-slung city cafe.

Lil’ City Ripper.

  1. October 5: over/under long way to a short way home. 12.8 miles on the City Ripper. Out to India point and back to New Harvest coffee for a maple pecan cold brew. Looooots of meandering, wandering, going over and under bridges.
  2. October 6: west end winder. 8.5 miles on the Ripper and my first time at Long Live Beerworks. I enjoyed a lil’ taster of their Oktoberfest.
  3. October 18: bike to (co)work day. 4 miles on the ebike. Another workday at my coworking space in Olneyville. Enjoyed a large mug of drip coffee during my morning meetings.
  4. October 20: idyllic Riverside rambler. 12 miles on the City Ripper. Another stunning Saturday in Rhode Island. I drove to the East Providence parking lot to hopped on the East Bay bike path down to Riverside. Saw a yacht rock cover band playing near the water, stuffed some crab cakes in my face, and enjoyed a cortado on the patio at Borealis cofee.
  5. October 26: secret coffee shop visit with Jeremy. 3.6 miles on the City Ripper down to Olneyville. Enjoyed an Americano while catching up with Jeremy and gazing out over the Woonasquatucket River.
  6. November 10: Woonasquatucket bike path to Moniker Brewery. 10 miles on the ebike. Took the long way around on the Woony bike path in the waning daylight. Enjoyed a smoked helles and a book.
  7. November 18: quick lunchtime jaunt to new coffee place Reprise in the West End. 4.4 miles and a cortado. My first ride as a 40-year old and I felt way too old for this cool new coffee shop crowd. #influencing?

Reflections

  1. External pressure motivates me. The weather has been far too mild (thanks, climate change!) and far too dry, which means I would’ve been out on my bike a lot anyway in this unseasonably pleasant weather. But this challenge gave me the extra motivation to leave the house and go for a ride.
  2. The Woony abides. Throughout this ride, I really got to see the quick progress being made on the newest part of the Woonasquatucket River Greenway, which is a key component of my route anywhere east of our neighborhood (i.e. most of the city). I am very excited to see this work nearing completion!
  3. Riding bikes makes me happy. I did my first errandonnee the year I turned 30. I turned 40 this past week, and lots has changed in 10 years, but this one thing has remained the same. I am feeling grateful to be able to ride, and to have such good infrastructure to make it far more fun.

See you next year.

The handlebars of a ebike in the foreground, and a freshly-paved bike path stretching before me.

Progress on the Woony bike path.

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