Tried and liked 2025

It's December 31, and over on the iBOB list, people have been posting what they tried and liked in 2025. Here's what I have for this year:

 

Selfie during Dairy Roubaix 2025

Liked

- Riding a skinny-tire vintage road bike. My accidental Serotta Colorado frame purchase has turned out to be a good investment. I finally found a nice fork for it (a scarily light Columbus Minimal), and I did a bunch of rides on the bike this year. As long as the pavement is reasonably smooth, I'm really enjoying the ride, despite the 25/28 mm tires. 

- Assos Arm Protectors: https://www.assos.com/us/arm-protector-188424.html Nice sun protection that works for my long arms and doesn't slide down match. And for an Assos product, it's remarkably reasonable in price

- Dairy Roubaix: This is an early-season gravel ride in the Wisconsin Driftless region. I used to do it regularly but hadn't done it since the pandemic. I had an absolute blast this year. The weather was great, as were the roads. I'll likely be back next year.

- A rear rack on my Stevens MTB. I added a rear rack to the early 2000s Stevens MTB that I have at my parents' place in Germany. Having the option to add panniers, in addition the Carradice saddle bag, is really nice. Should've done that a long time ago. 

- Having as many front lights as bikes. My regularly used bikes all have dyno lights. And now I finally have at least one decent battery front light for all of the other bikes. No more annoying switching around of lights.

- Making bike videos: I'm still not fast or super skilled, but I enjoy filming, editing, and narrating my bike adventures. Here's my YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@ride-or-pie/  

 

Undecided

- For my winter indoor riding I switched back from Training Peaks Virtual to Zwift. Zwift has a whole lot of annoying user interface issue that are much more glaring after coming back from TPV. I also liked the racing experience on TPV more. On the other hand, Zwift's gamification gets me to ride a lot, and it's important to be on the same platform as your real-life friends.

- TPU tubes. I still go back and forth between liking and disliking them. Just yesterday I had a flat that most likely wouldn't have happened with a butyl tube. While on other bikes the tubes have performed great.

- Lumintop B01 front light: One of the battery lights I acquired this year. It doesn't conform with the German cut-off regulations, but it does have a shaped beam that doesn't blind oncoming riders. And it's relatively cheap, has a replaceable battery and seems sturdy. I think I like it, but it hasn't been long enough to be sure.

Disliked

- Not having big goals. I struggled with motivation to ride in the first half of the year. I didn't have any events or tours planned for later in the season, and it showed. I'll have to figure something out for 2026. 

 

Coffeeneuring 2025: Six weeks, seven rides

 I used to be a regular Coffeeneur (and have the patches to prove it). For a few years, though, I have been on a break. I'm not sure why. Probably a lack of new destinations, riding indoors more? Anyways, this year I returned. 

Ride 1: Crossroads Coffeehouse

A mostly overcast fall day took me out to Cross Plains. I'd been to Crossroads Coffeehouse before, but it was a long time ago. It's a very nice coffee shop right on the main street and I had an iced coffee (3/5) and a surprisingly good vegan/gluten free brownie. 

65 km / 40 miles 

 

 

 

Ride 2: Bodihow Brewing in Oregon

My favorite coffee shop in Oregon, Firefly, changed their hours last year and is no longer open on weekends. I considered trying a new-to-me place downtown, Kickback Cafe, but eventually landed on Bodihow Brewing. It's a cool place that combines a bike shop, cafe, and brewpub. During previous visits I had had their beers, and I have to say they definitely beat their coffee. Anyways, it was warm enough to sit outside and the overall ride was excellent.

70 km / 43 mi 

 

 

The Trail of Grades

 

 

Ride 3: Grace Coffee in Verona

The third ride was the first one to take me to a new coffee shop: Grace in Verona. I've been to other Grace locations previously, but this one was new to me. Grace has (had?) a bad reputation among some but I have to say the espresso I had was very good, they have comfortable seats, and staff were friendly.

 

44 km / 27 mi 

 Ride 4: Liv's Drink Emporium in Sun Prairie

I wasn't sure if I'd been here before: I remembered a coffeeneuring ride to this part of Sun Prairie, and how many coffee shops can there be? But the name didn't seem familiar and neither did the interior. Well, after some digging through Strava records, it turns out that I had been in this location, back in 2017, but the shop had a different name and presumably owner back then. The espresso exceeded my expectations and they had a vegan protein bar, which was okay. Notably, I had a blazing tail wind on the way north, which was fun! (And no, I didn't hate the headwind on the way back as much as I had feared.)

 65 km / 40 mi

Ride 5: Alice Good in Verona

Another ride to Verona, but this time to a shop I'd been to before: Alice Good. I really enjoyed my previous visits, but their limited opening hours had prevented me from going there more frequently. I was glad to find out that their hours are much better now and so I headed there on a Friday afternoon. Again, I loved it: Their staff are very friendly, the espresso was excellent, and I also picked up some excellent light roast beans to take home. On the way back I got rained on a little, but that was fine too. 

 

 

 

45 km / 28 mi

 
 

Ride 6: Fat Cat Coffee Works in New Glarus

Mid November. But warm enough to wear knickers and sit outside, with a cold brew coffee! I spontaneously took the day off and set out for the longest coffeeneuring expedition of the year: Fat Cat Coffee Works in New Glarus is an old favorite, right off the Badger State Trail. I included some detours and new-to-me roads and it was all glorious. The coffee itself was as usual: Fine but nothing to rave about. But I didn't care in the slightest on a day like that. 

 

  

108 km / 67 mi

Ride 7: Barriques in Middleton

My buddy Ben had sold me on a new Zwift race series, schedule at 7:45 am on Sundays. The race was long and extremely hard. But it was also another uncharacteristically warm and sunny day and so Nicole and I headed out to Middleton for the last Coffeeneuring ride. Another destination that I'd been too many times: Barriques. While I don't like their filtered coffees, the espresso is reliably decent. 

 26 km / 16 mi

Videos from the Alps!

 It's been awfully quiet here, and that's because I have poured most of my creative energy into video editing. With tons of footage from an eleven-day trip through the Alps, I'm slowly creating one episode after the other. So far I have a teaser and full episodes for days one and two. I hope you'll enjoy them! And if you'd rather read a written account of our trip, head over to Ben's blog. He has a great day-by-day account with lots of beautiful photos.