New bike day, but why the flowers? And Is the new cafe I found the best sotp in Essex for cyclists?

It’s early July in Essex. The weather is perfect, sunny, hot and not too much wind. I am riding my new custom R.Jack and this time I actually show it and talk through the reason for the design on the custom paint job. At the end of the video I show a new coffee stop I found, Galloping Grind, which is the best coffee stop for cyclists in Essex (I think).

J Laverack: https://www.jlaverack.co.uk/
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It is an absolute scorcher today. It’s 30° already at like 9:00 a.m. Uh, it is super sunny, not a cloud in the sky. Uh, I am back at Tri Farm. Uh, starting here today. Uh, just got off uh just got out the car, got everything unpacked. I’m on the new bike, the Labra. Uh, I’ll try and actually show it to you this time. I realized I did a whole video talking about my new bike. I didn’t show it. So, that was a bit uh bit of a flaw. So, I’ll try and get that in today. Um, yeah. Plan for today. I’ve got 30 just under 30ks up to a cafe called the Blue Egg. I’ll stop, have a coffee if I can. It’s notoriously quite busy and I’m betting it’ll be ran today, but if I can have a coffee. From there, I’ve planned an 80 km route that meanders back through the lanes back to home. So, all in all, I am buzzing. I’m looking forward to it. I hope there’s not too much traffic. Uh I hope everyone’s gone to South End for the day to see the beach and left the country lanes free for cyclists to play in. Let’s see. But yeah, this weather is incredible. I’ve actually opted to carry my tools in my back uh pockets and put two water bottles on the bike. Um so yeah, we’ll see how that goes. Uh I do have I do have one problem with the new bike. There is one small flaw with it and that is I opted for titanium bottle cages. Lavarak makes some uh that match the titanium of the frame and it looks amazing, but they are quite stiff and actually the only time I’ve ever had it where I go to put a bottle away and it actually won’t go in and slips was on this bike. So fingers crossed no issues with my water bottle today because I am going to need my water. It is an absolute scorching day. So yeah, all in all, as always, looking forward to it. Wow, this weather is perfect. End of 28° C. They’re just touching 30° C. Hot, not too hot. Just on that boundary. Uh, I’m staying hydrated. I’ve got electrolyte in one bottle and water in the other. Don’t want to over electrolyte. Uh, I’ve got my Voom bars with me. I’ve got one full Voom bar, actually, two halves, so I can have two different flavors. Uh, and then I’ve got I’ve started uh buying Sturka. I don’t know if that’s how you pronounce it, but they do some rice bars. So, I tried those and they work really well for me as well and they’re great because I got like 300 calories in a bar. So, for bigger days like today, it’s really helpful to be able to just have a few extra calories on me. Uh, so yeah, I’ve got my nutrition plan all locked in. Uh, currently on a bike path. Uh, lovely little bike path just outside just in a little village just outside Chsford. So yeah, had a bit of a chat with uh a cycle club just now, Athon CC. Really nice bunch of people. Uh might check out their club actually. They meet in Chelmsford, which is a bit of a trek from where I live, but they seem like a really good crowd. They seem really organized and they seem like they had really good structure to how they ride. So all in all, it might be quite a nice club to take a look at. Um so yeah, so far having fun. Great weather. Bit of socializing with a random club. So yeah, back to the ride. I’ve made it to the Blue Egg. Uh, it is hot. Really hot. They got some outdoor seating, which is cool. I’ve got the bike uh propped up behind me on the hedge, which is pretty cool. And I have my dongle that will bleep apparently when my coffee and my cake is ready. So, uh, yeah, all in all, it’s been fun so far. I’ve done, I think, 28 kilometers. So, I am going to I’m going to do another 80. So, I’ve planned a route that will take in a ton of new roads. It meanders. It doesn’t go direct home. So, I think direct home will be about 50ks. So, yeah. All in all, should be a fun day. Roads aren’t too busy. seen a couple of cars, but I’m on a more busy I’ve been on more busy roads than I normally would be anyway. And literally a couple of cars and 30ks. Can’t really complain. And uh road surface has been good. And it’s just been stunning. It’s been like sort of feels like you’re in the south of France, just rolling hills, beautiful countryside. So yeah, long and hold massive smiles so far today. Like feels fantastic. It feels light. It feels fast. It feels really, really, really smooth. Like, it just rolls across the tarmac. Titanium frame makes so much difference. Uh, and it really doesn’t feel heavy. It feels super light. I mean, it’s got the ShraMM red on it. Uh, and all the components. So, it is a light bike. Um, and yeah, just absolutely love it. Absolutely love it. It’s such a good purchase. Um, and obviously I love the paint, too. So, I’ve got a got a custom paint job on the bike. So, I had some had some flowers painted on it. That is a nod to a Valentino Rossy because the bike we bought to celebrate 10 year anniversary me and my wife and one of our common interests is Moto GP and we actually got married on a racetrack Philip Island racing circuit in Grand Prix weekend back in 2014 and uh we’re both big Rossy fans. He’s obviously retired now. Well, he’s not retired actually. He’s racing cars, but he’s retired from motorcycle racing, but as a kind of nod to our shared passion for Moto GP on the uh bike, we got the Hawaiian Flowers. Now, most people might think, well, why Hawaiian Flowers? Why not a bright yellow BR46 logo? Well, still to this day, I think the coolest custom paint job on a racing motorcycle is when Valentina Rossy found out uh back in I think 2001, something like that. uh when he was on the NSR 500, he found out he had a fan club in Hawaii and for Mella, his home, well, not his home, but his favorite uh Grand Prix and sort of home circuit because it’s Italian Grand Prix. Uh he had a custom paint job with which was a white bike with blue Hawaiian flowers and he got his leathers done in the same his helmet and it looked absolutely amazing and still to this day the racing paint job out there always. Um, so I just thought I’d get the bike painted as a nod to Valentino as a nod to where we got married, the racetrack in Philip Island. And uh, yeah, and as a nod to the fact that to celebrate our anniversary, we’ll we’ll head to Hawaii for a couple of weeks. So, it all kind of tied together. So, I thought, yeah, get it get it tied into the uh to the build. As an experience, working with Labra has been incredible. Like absolutely incredible. I tried to buy a custom bike off Ribble a few years ago to celebrate my 40th and uh that was a horrible experience. Like absolutely horrible experience. Terrible customer service. Just kept giving me delays. No, different reasons every time. Sometimes two different reasons in the same day. Uh super frustrating and I ended up not buying the bike with them in the end. uh and actually put me off custom bikes for a bit. But then when the idea came up for a 10 year anniversary bike and we looked at Labra and we went to see them in their in their base in Rutland and we just had this incredible incredible experience. They really look after you. They walk you through the design process. They listen to you which is really important. So for example that is the RJ but I was talking to them about the sorts of riding I like to do and I like to do a more a more calm ride, right? I like I want to be fast, but I don’t want to be like absolutely head down gunning it all the time. I like to go for long rides and I like to keep my head up, right? So, we talked about that and we talked about the endurance side and we talked about the aesthetics. Like, for me, the aesthetics were super important. Um, because again, I’m not a racer, right? If it’s like one watt slower, I don’t give a I don’t give a hoot, right? So, For me, it was about the athletics and we had a bit of a chat and uh we talked about like on the RJ the top bar slopes a little bit and I we talked about having a slightly like just dropping it ever so slightly so that it was an ever so slightly more horizontal top bar uh just to give it a slightly more classic look and they were able to do all of that and it was just really really great experience from start to finish. They kept me in the loop the whole way. Uh kept me updated the whole way. Gave me genuine and sensible reasons for any delays. Uh the main main delays actually was I’d asked for this uh intricate paint job where on the wheels have uh roughly a third of the wheel have the flowers painted on which when they actually tried to do they realized was quite a lot more complicated than it looks. So, the painter really had to have a few goes at that. And I’ve got to say he’s a perfectionist because the finish is stunning. Like absolutely stunning. So, you know, when it’s when people are giving you good reasons for delays and it’s understandable, then you don’t mind, right? Uh at all, especially when they’re just doing an excellent job and they’re trying to do a perfect job for you. So, it was a very different experience to working with Ribble and it was a hugely huge positive experience. Really had a great experience and the bike is incredible. It’s the best bike I’ve ever written. I really genuinely is. Um, so all in all, very happy with it. Uh, so yeah, I’ll get my coffee soon hopefully and then I’ll get back on the road. Okay, so uh, Blue Egg bit of a review. Uh, I’m going to say the coffee was better than I thought it was going to be. uh not, you know, Arthur’s well-made uh long black, but reasonably well-made Americano, by which I mean slightly too much water, but but it wasn’t detrimental to the overall flavor. It still had a level of viscosity that meant it was still enjoyable to drink. So, I was I was expecting a watery coffee, to be honest. That’s what you usually get in the outer areas of Essics, but it was pretty acceptable, actually. Probably a seven, seven out of 10. Just uh for the coffee. Slightly too big. Like it came in this very large cup. If they just shorten that cup a bit, that could have made an eight. Um but is what it is. Uh the cake by contrast was excellent. I had a little mini traditional bake bowl tart. So, it’s like a light sponge with a pastry and some raspberry jam and it’s made with almond flour and has a few toasted almonds on the top and uh very traditional British British cake. And uh that was excellent. The cake was incredibly light uh very wellade, buttery, uh not too sweet. Uh, you got the flavors of the almonds. The cherry jam in the middle felt like it was a sort of homemade jam in the sense it had the bits of fruit still uh present there. It wasn’t just a sugary artificial flavored jam. It really was a proper jam. So, that was that was very, very enjoyable. The cake gets I’m going to say solid eight and a half. Solid eight and a half, which is high high. Uh so yeah, overall pretty impressed. Uh one thing I will say, that little bundle they give you uh to let you know when your coffee is ready makes an incredibly loud bleeping sound. And so when you sit here, you just are constantly surrounded by this intense bleeping, which is really, really, really annoying. Like I would knock like three points off this as a relaxing coffee stop because of it. Uh you want to sit outside in this lovely garden having a relaxing coffee and cake and if the whole time you are sat here there is this intensely annoying bleeping going off the whole time then that really detracts from the overall experience. Uh maybe that’s just me. If bleeping doesn’t annoy you, uh then it won’t annoy you, but it annoys me. So yeah, that that personally I feel like they should invest in some tags that just vibrate. That would level this place up significantly. Um but other than that, no complaints. Plenty of space to leave your bike uh away from the main road as well. Stunning views on a day like today when it’s nice and sunny. So, and overall coffee was okay. Cake was excellent. So, that’s pretty good for Essics. So, yeah. Yeah. Following on a good stop. I can see why this is popular with local cyclists. Um, so yeah, review again. The roads are silky smooth. There’s very, very little traffic. Beautiful views. Could not ask for a better day for riding a bicycle. And I got to say, the lanes of Essex are sublime. I do think that Essex is probably the most underrated cycling destination in the UK because it’s never mentioned on any of the main YouTubers. They always stay in central London or they head up north and the north is epic and it is better. But in the south, I think Essex is the best place to ride a bicycle. really is a beautiful, beautiful place and just the road road surface quality is second to none for the UK and the lack of traffic given most places in the south of England are congested to the point you can’t really enjoy riding a bike. So, as as you can see, the lanes of Essics are pretty much empty all the time. So happy days. It’s that secret little destination, but I love it. So yeah, back to the sublime ride. So I was bumbling through the lanes of Essex and I passed a sign that said galloping grind. And because it said grind, I thought coffee. And then I saw the sign and it had coffee beans on. So I thought, oh, I’ll go take a look. and it is a very very cool stop for cyclists and anyone who likes hobby. It is uh just near Triom I think souththeast side of Charmsford. There is a little coffee truck and a little shed with like bike themed stuff in. And there is also somewhere to rack your bike while you have coffee and even somewhere to shower which is cool. Another little random coffee is very nice. The cakes are very nice. This is a 10 out of 10 stop. Really, really, really cool. Wasn’t expecting to stop, but glad I did. Really cool stop. I’ll put a link to anything I find in terms of socials down in the uh description.