Sharing stories and adventures about all things coffee, stories, and stoke
Loam Coffee was started to support the mountain biking community. There are a lot of entry points into mountain biking. This ranges from riding, bike shops, bike and apparel brands, guiding companies, and so much more. We also know countless local trail building organizations make it happen weekly by putting in new trails and maintaining and upgrading existing ones.
Why do we ride bikes? In particular, why do we ride mountain bikes? Yes, we can talk about the health benefits of an active lifestyle, but it’s much more than that. Ultimately we ride because of the community.
So much of my life revolves around coffee. Even without thinking about it, I orient my daily routine around it. The first thing that I do every morning is to brew a cup of coffee using an Aeropress or make a pourover. Later on, I’ll make a manual brew cortado at home with my Rok. But then there’s traveling, road trips, and coffee. That’s a whole different category.
Road trips are great opportunities to stare out the window and watch the scenery unfold. The same is true for mountain biking, gravel riding, or bikepacking. Although to be fair, I'm not too keen on the unfurling landscape while bombing a hill on my bike. My eyes are fixated on the trail looking for rocks, roots, and unexpected drops. But I do think about land use a good bit.
While this may sound like the title of an article in an obscure academic journal, we want to have a conversation. No, we won’t be citing any latest research, nor will this be filled with bottomless footnotes. It’s about thinking through the where and how of our lifestyle as mountain bikers, gravel riders, and coffee drinkers.
One of the topics I want to hear more about is thinking through more sustainable ways to access trail systems than simply driving. No, I am not anti-car or anything like that. I sometimes think about the absurdity of endless shuttled runs and all of the gas wasted, time wasted, and of course, CO2 emissions emitted. Maybe that is why I have been thinking of gravel riding a lot more of late.
