Cycling and coffee go together beautifully, but just how much would you pay for a mid-ride pick-me-up? I took a trip to the capital to find a shot of espresso that costs more than a decent pair of cycling shoes.
It is a truth universally acknowledged that a cyclist in possession of any bike must be in want of a coffee. However, I recently heard rumours of a place in London serving a shot of espresso for a watering-eye £265.
Naturally, I had to investigate. I decided to embark on what must surely be the UK’s most expensive café ride.
To document such a momentous (and expensive) occasion, it would be rude not to film the day out. I got on the blower to Insta360, who were keen to see if the coffee lived up to the price tag. While they wouldn’t shout me the cost of the brew, they did equip me with their latest X5 360-degree camera and a list of challenges to complete on my way to the café.
Challenge 1: the sightseeing tour
Insta360 didn’t want me just beelining for the caffeine. The first challenge was to take the scenic route and I was told to take the camera sightseeing before heading towards Regent’s Park.
The route required tick-list photos of Battersea Power Station, Tate Britain, Westminster Abbey, Downing Street, Big Ben, and Trafalgar Square.
Capturing these landmarks highlighted one of the X5’s best features: the Invisible Selfie Stick. It sounds like magic, and frankly, it looks like it too. The camera cleverly stitches the footage to remove the stick entirely, leaving you with crispy 8K 360º video that looks like it was filmed by a drone following you.
Even better, they’ve released a folding version of the stick, meaning it now fits neatly in a jersey pocket, for much more secure storage than with the old model.
I didn’t want to lug a DSLR around London, and with the X5, I didn’t have to. Flipping it into Single Lens Mode allowed me to snap high-res photos of Battersea Power Station without missing a beat.
But when riding with and simply handling cameras, there is always the risk of dropping them. Thankfully the X5 now has replaceable lenses, so if you do take a tumble, the damaged lens can be removed and you can install a new one in seconds.
Challenge 2: Regent’s Park KOM
Having ticked off the tourist spots, it was time for some proper riding. The second challenge: Take the Regent’s Park KOM.
Now, I’ve never ridden around Regent’s Park, but I’ve heard the record is rather spicy. To give myself a fighting chance, I needed to get aero, so I mounted the X5 under my stem. This keeps the cockpit clean and captures an immersive, low-down angle of the speed.
As is often the case in the UK, the tarmac wasn’t always perfect. This is where Flow State Stabilisation shines, ironing out the bumps and vibrations so the footage remains buttery smooth, even when I’m wrestling the bars.
The massive benefit of 360 capture is that I didn’t need to worry about where the camera was pointing while I was turning myself inside out. I could just ride, and choose the framing later – perfect for sweeping through corners.
Did I take the KOM? No. One red light and several taxis put paid to my effort, but I don’t think the record was ever in danger.
Challenge 3: the edit (and the coffee)
Finally, I arrived at the café and after locking up my bike a worrying distance across the street, I ordered the infamous £265 espresso.
Challenge three came through just as I sat down: “Could you make a quick social edit from today?”, asked Insta360.
This actually saved the day. As it turned out, the cafe was rather camera-shy and didn’t allow us to film the coffee being made or consumed. So, while I sipped the liquid gold, I got to work on the edit.
Using the Insta360 app, I could pull in the files and simply pick the vertical framing for Instagram/TikTok without having to have shot it vertically in the first place.
The verdict
So, was the coffee worth £265? It was certainly… an experience. To find out if I liked it, you’ll have to watch the video.
If you fancy capturing your own café rides (expensive or otherwise), Insta360 is currently offering the first 30 people to use code ROAD at checkout a free replacement lens kit with their purchase. Head over to Insta360’s website to claim yours.
20 thoughts on “I did the UK’s most expensive café ride”
Not too bad if £265 included
Not too bad if £265 included the camera.
How does this article differ
How does this article differ from the one that was put out last year?
Think you might need to be a
Think you might need to be a bit more specific than that – there were quite a lot of articles put out last year.
The article where Liam went
The article where Liam went for the most expensive coffee ride and made a video using an Insta 360.
One of the comments asked if it was the Cat Poo coffee.
“Your search – site:road.cc
“Your search – site:road.cc cat poo coffee – did not match any documents.”
‘site:road.cc expensive coffee’ doesn’t return anything relevant (except this item).
Are you sure you didn’t hallucinate it?
No hallucination – this exact
No hallucination – this exact article (more or less – I haven’t gone through line by line) was published on 17th Dec 2025. Road.cc appear to have taken it down shortly thereafter (for reasons unknown) but luckily the Wayback Machine captured it whilst it was up: https://web.archive.org/web/20251217162530/https://road.cc/content/feature/i-did-uks-most-expensive-cafe-ride-317341
Unfortunately the capture did not include the comments, although I also recall seeing the cat poo comment (presumably referring to Kopi luwak).
Well looking at that, I can
Well looking at that (using a different device, because for some reason work has decided that the Internet Archive is evil), I can tell you how they differ – the original article told you that they were offering 22% off until Jan 2nd, which has, unsurprisingly, now been removed.
Looks like there was a publishing glitch somewhere – the article IDs of the two versions only differ by two, so presumably a duplicate version was created at the time, and that duplicate was updated and republished.
Apology accepted
Apology accepted
Weird response, but ok.
Weird response, but ok.
Thanks for that.
Thanks for that.
mdavidford wrote:
With a more informed search, I was able to locate a comment by “I love my bike” mentioning civet espresso below this article: https://road.cc/content/news/cycling-better-walking-saving-planet-finds-study-274461
To add some info about Indonesian Kopi Luwak (as the cat poo coffee is named), it is gathered from the poo of civets as the digestive process alters the coffee beans and allegedly improves the taste of the coffee.
Unfortunately, as this type of coffee got more widely known, it prompted some coffee producers to cage and force-feed coffee cherries to the captive civets which are kept in poor conditions. Also, the quality of the coffee that is force fed to them tends to be poor quality (due to cost cutting). I have tried some shop bought Kopi Luwak (I didn’t buy it) and it was unremarkable apart from being noticeably stale which tracks with shop bought roasted coffee.
Meanwhile, if you wish to try excellent coffee that has passed through an animal’s intestines, then I can recommend Brazilian Jacu Bird coffee which is similarly expensive, but tends to be ethically sourced. Also, the Jacu birds have a good eye for coffee cherries, so they are more discerning than the civets.
hawkinspeter wrote:
Or just eat the coffee berries yourself, and cut out the middleanimal?
I am happy to skip several steps and just drink the coffee.
chrisonabike wrote:
I’ve never tried eating coffee cherries myself, though they’re perfectly edible. However, they only have a thin layer of the “fruit” so they won’t compare to ordinary cherries.
You can get Cascara which is the dried skin and fruit of coffee cherries – it’s a by-product of harvesting coffee beans.
A bargain at £240 for 250g !
A bargain at £240 for 250g !
Hirsute wrote:
I don’t think expensive coffee beans makes much sense for most people as most people aren’t that well versed in how to make great coffee. The majority would be better off buying the coffee made by a shop which will be more expensive per cup, but would hopefully avoid badly made coffee with expensive beans.
Top tip of the day – if you’re buying roasted beans, make sure that the roasting date is within a couple of weeks of your purchasing date. If there isn’t a roasting date, then you’re buying stale coffee.
Fortunate to have a shop in
Fortunate to have a shop in town that roasts most of it’s beans.
I suppose I could attempt to roast my own (didn’t you write about this before ?)
Hirsute wrote:
I’m very much an amateur roaster – I use a small batch Behmor roasting oven (kept outside as the smoke is fairly acrid). The reason I do my own roasting is that green coffee beans can be stored for months without degrading, so I buy a few kilos at a time.
It is possible to roast beans with an ordinary oven, but I think the best way to start is by experimenting with a popcorn popper:
https://coffeevoila.com/popcorn-popper-coffee-roasting/
I started out with a small hot air popcorn popper – they’re great as they’re around £20 and the hot air blows the beans around and thus roasts them evenly (c.f. fluid bed roasting). The output chute also directs the chaff removed from the beans (best used outdoors) which is helpful. The main problem with them is the lack of temperature control and their small size.
Hirsute wrote:
I tried Jacu Bird coffee many a year ago when Hasbean (now Ozone Coffee) had some in stock. I think I spent around £80 for probably 125g and wasn’t that impressed by it. These days, I tend to buy asian coffee beans (green) such as Monsooned Malabar or Sumatra Lintong as I like the “earthiness” of asian varieties from Redber coffee as they’re the cheapest source that I’ve found so far. As I tend to prefer darker roasts (frowned upon by a lot of coffee experts), it seems a bit wasteful to buy really expensive beans when ordinary beans cost enough as it is.
The other giveaway is the the
The other giveaway is the the idea that Liam would pay £265 for a coffee or that road.cc would have allowed an expense claim for it.
It is a truth universally
It is a truth universally acknowledged that a cyclist in possession of any bike must be in want of a coffee
Well, it is indeed the exception that tests the rule, so I can state with confidence that this is not a universal truth as coffee has been described as extremely nasty (see Monty Python chocolate box sketch) by at least one lifelong 73 year old cyclist in possession of several bikes. What’s more, it contains large doses of a psychoactive ingredient and is therefore suspect on that ground alone.