A specialist cycle shop complete with a café ‘striving to be the best place in York for speciality coffee’ opens this week.
Triathlon Bikes on Walmgate will be opened by an Olympic coach on Friday (6 March).
Owner of the shop Drew Mitchell said York was the perfect venture for his shop as it is so cycle friendly – with the third highest levels of cycling per population size in Britain.
“It’s also said to be the safest place in the UK in which to cycle and obviously since the Tour de France graced our streets, cycling has only been on the up and up in the region, so no doubt a great location for any sort of bike store,” he said.
Plus Yorkshire is home to “home to two of the world’s greatest sporting siblings in Alistair and Jonny Brownlee” – and the Olympain triathletes’ coach Jack Maitland will perform the opening ceremony.
Triathlon expert
Drew spent a decade taking part in triathlons all over the world and is a British triathlon coach. And his business builds on that knowledge.
He told YorkMix:
All of the team have been waiting for the new store opening for a long time now, so it’s just a great feeling to know that we are so close to opening after so much work and planning.
We have all been working really hard over the past few weeks to make this new flagship store something truly special and quirky and a place that people will want to keep coming back to time and time again.
The shop sells quality ex demo and refurbished triathlon bikes.
“The major difference between a triathlon bike and a road bike is the geometry of the frame — more specifically, the seat tube angle,” Drew explained.
“A triathlon bike has a much larger seat tube angle (76 to 78 degrees) than that of a road bike (72 degrees for a typical road bike).
“The steeper angle of the tri bike can allow you to get into a much more ‘aero’ position which in turn allows you to travel faster.”
They have exported bikes to Columbia, Venezuela, Canada, USA, Japan, Dubai, Indonesia, India and all across Europe.
Caffeine control
The Kona coffee shop aims to be “the pit stop during your busy day for much needed refuelling,” said Drew. He added:
Whether you’re mid cycle, post run, or escaping the office our cafe is the perfect place to sit and unwind with the healthiest (and tastiest) coffee to offer in York.
After a pretty forensic search for the perfect coffee roaster we joined up with ‘True Start’ to provide carefully caffeine controlled coffee so our customers can trust the drinks they buy are not only boosting their energy but their healthy lifestyle too.
No more caffeine crashes and shaking hands, our coffee is carefully measured to ensure a consistent caffeine level in each cup.
There are charging ports all around the café, so it will be “the perfect space to work away from the drowsy dull office”.
He said the menu is predominantly vegan and offers alternative milks such as oat milk.
And the shop is the only distributor in the North of England to partner with the official Ironman nutritional partner Enervit, who supply vegan and gluten free energy supplements.
And there will be events at the store too, “one of which is the ‘King and Queen of Fossgate’ virtual duathlon which we are holding to raise funds and awareness for a very special cause that we are involved in ‘Team Townend Challenge‘ which raises funds for RoadPeace charity.