Velopresso is made to order by us – Velopresso Ltd – here in the UK.
Pricing starts from GBP 10,995 including custom branding. GBP and USD payments accepted. Please see ORDER page for further information and full price list. (Price excludes custom options, accessories, delivery and VAT as applicable).
Velopresso is a unique, highly innovative and fully integrated coffee tricycle, that combines great mobility and excellent espresso machinery with an ultra low-carbon, pedal-powered operation that requires no electricity.
Designed from the ground up around our unique rear-steer modular tricycle, pedal-driven grinder, and robust gas-fired lever espresso machine, Velopresso is a celebratory fusion of human power, sensory pleasures and technology – old tech with hi-tech, bicycles and coffee, their engineering and aesthetics.
The result is a highly efficient, robust and humanised machine with a compact footprint – no motors, no noise – enlightened coffee ‘on the go’, perfect for city streets and piazzas, at exhibitions and events, in parks and markets – wherever people congregate.
‘Customers love the Velopresso. I don’t just sell coffee; I sell an experience. I like to explain what’s going on. I am super impressed with what you guys developed, engineered, and built. Today I was at Lamborghini and Porsche and all the engineers and mechanics were super impressed too. Congratulations and again, thanks for everything.’
— Edilson Cremonese, Coffeehub,
Fort Lauderdale, FL, USA
‘It was incredibly important to me that this trike use no electricity and be as low impact as possible. The public loves the trike. We fill the espresso boiler through pedaling, we grind the coffee through pedaling, and we get to locations through pedaling. This is such a unique device that people can’t help but be attracted to it.’
— Erin Young, Red Buffalo Cafe, Silverthorne, CO, USA
‘The urban bike festival was a perfect start for the Zürich Velopresso and I had a great time with it. We served 650 coffees, and the Velopresso functioned perfectly and was a big attraction for a lot of people. Thank you for making the Velopresso experience possible!’
— Charles Mayor, Café Cycliste, Zurich, Switzerland
‘The IOW Festival was a very busy event, I sold over 300 coffees on the Sunday and ground over 8kg of beans over the weekend. I had an amazing amount of positive and enthusiastic feedback about the coffee and the trike. I love the fact that not only does it make wonderful coffee, but that it is a beautifully made and designed machine. I love talking to people about it. Thank you for making an awesome machine.’
— Mat Tucker, The Break Lever, Isle of Wight, UK
‘We’ve been doing 8-hour days, making espresso, macchiato, cappuccino. The machine works beautifully. At one event, we made up to 45 coffees an hour for 7 hours – that’s good business!’
— Nuria Corbella, The Milk and Coffee, Barcelona, Spain
‘It was great to showcase the Velopresso at the Double Shot Coffee Fiesta! About 5000 people came through the gates and people were totally wowed by the trike! Everyone comments on the quality of the build and engineering once I show them how it all works. I’m getting a lot more confident on the trike and as a result am enjoying each gig more & more.’
— Josh D’Addino, The Bean Peddler, Adelaide, Australia
‘We immediately recognised the potential of the Velopresso as a practical mobile coffee solution for all sorts of events, cycling related or otherwise. Not only does it look beautiful, it’s well constructed. And its human-powered operation means that you can turn up anywhere and be self-sufficient. Perfect for the sort of events that look mum no hands! is getting in.’
— Matt Harper, director, look mum no hands!, London, UK
Features
Velopresso offers many unique features, benefits and opportunities from a business, environmental and experiential perspective. When you buy a Velopresso, it is made to order, by us, for you, and fully branded to represent your business identity, whether you are an independent barista or an international corporation. Owning a Velopresso gives you:
Artisan quality coffee: the Velopresso grinder — the first pedal-driven commercial coffee grinder in the world — offers fast yet cool, on-demand grinding at 300rpm and direct to the portafilter with almost no grind retention, producing the freshest of grinds. Put together with our commercial spring-lever espresso machine, you have a potent combination that – in the hands of an experienced barista – can compete with anything on the market for shot quality.
Mobility: Velopresso is truly rideable — 5, 10, 20km (just avoid bumpy roads and big hills!) — has outstanding manoeuvrability and is a complete and compact ‘go-anywhere’, off-grid coffee-vending solution. This freedom enables optimum pitch potential.
Transportability: if you want to take your Velopresso over a long distance you can load it into a van (you just need some ramps and tie straps) — removing the lever only, or the whole espresso machine and grinder if height is restricted.
Bolt-together modularity: if you want to use your Velopresso (as we did) in a grand old gallery with a restricted-width entrance door, you can dismantle the machine into modules — rear frame, top module, core module. It might take an hour or so to complete the re-assembly process, but if you have an event for a number of days, weeks or months that is still a very minimal set-up time for such an integrated solution.
Lowest operational costs: no petrol, no batteries to charge, no electrical components to breakdown, just robust and simple machinery that is engineered to last, with minimised operational costs. All you need is a gas cylinder, and access to a freezer overnight for your ‘ice packs’.
Minimal emissions & carbon-footprint: with its use of human-power, Velopresso has a very low carbon-footprint and minimal emissions in operation which is important in itself! – but is also likely to facilitate access to operate in more sensitive locations and environments with emission or noise restrictions (which would prohibit generators or other petrol-driven operations), such as national parks.
Innovative and fun: Velopresso introduces to our cities a new and engaging way of making coffee, via the cyclist–barista’s smooth-pedalled dynamic operation of the pedal-grinder, alongside the anticipatory drama of hand-operated pull and slow-motion rise of the espresso machine lever – street theatre for coffee lovers!
Healthy & satisfying to operate: Velopresso offers the cyclist–barista the benefits of both an ergonomically designed machine – being seated yet pedalling during your working day, resting your feet, but also keeping you active and warm – and a tactile and satisfyingly direct involvement with the bean-grinding process: not just another push-button experience.
Brand visibility: the wrap-around branding panels (three square metres) are digitally printed on tough, weather-proof fabric, in full colour and high resolution, from your artwork (included in the price of the standard Velopresso). With great brand visibility comes great brand association with two highly desirable products – artisan quality coffee coupled with innovative low-carbon design.
Manufacture
Velopresso is a complex, hybrid machine that required many (over 300) bespoke components which we commissioned from long-established and leading UK engineering companies including:
When it came to selecting the ready-made bicycle components we chose the best for the job, and Velopresso uses the highest quality parts from leading UK and world cycling brands including:
Story
Velopresso was conceived against the backdrop of the sustained global renaissance in cycling that is being driven by the desire for more sustainable cities and lifestyles. At last, the near hundred-year dominance of motorised vehicles is being seriously challenged, with cities like Copenhagen (Denmark) and Portland (USA) leading a return to the golden age of the bicycle. Services previously reliant on motorised transport are being increasingly performed by bicycles, cargo cycles, tricycles, etc., and this is happening alongside a more general deepening and expansion of bicycle sub-cultures.
Meanwhile the urban coffee scene, on a rapid rise since the mid-1990s, continues to expand and diversify into increasingly specialist market niches, including a new convergence with cycling culture – a long-standing love affair made concrete now in the form of bicycle cafés. Velopresso engages directly with these burgeoning, ‘zeitgeist’ urban cultures while turning this relationship on its head – with the cyclist once the consumer now providing the coffee by pedalling.
Our research into this project began in spring 2011, but draws on several decades of cycling experience, our industrial design and communication backgrounds, and a shared love of bicycles, fine coffee and the beauty and pleasure to be found in efficient mechanical machinery – particularly of the human-powered rotary nature. These passions are coupled with a firm belief in the need for designers to contribute urgently towards radical change in the way we live.
We wanted to showcase efficient human-powered, cycling-based technology that could easily replace electrical equivalents, and to instigate more sustainable urban business models. We quickly found focus with the commercial coffee grinder: while hand-grinding holds certain experiential, culinary and ritualistic pleasures for a few, it is far too slow for commercial use; the application of an electrical motor however is not as logical as it seems and has several pitfalls too. Pedal-grinding takes the best of both worlds: the bicycle-based transmission is one of the most efficient energy transfers ever designed; and the speed (rpm) and torque required for grinding coffee beans quickly, quietly and without overheating them are easily achievable with minimal effort. The ultimate commercial standard pedal-driven grinder became our goal, with a robust, versatile and ‘go anywhere’ tricycle and espresso machine system built around it, which could produce the highest quality espresso coffees with the smallest physical and operational carbon footprints.
Over 3 years, we invented, tested and refined for production, a lever-operated clutch system that switches the pedal drive from the wheels to an independent transmission for use when stationary; and our precision-made pedal-grinder design – a world first – that would be powered by that transmission alongside a pedal-powered rotary water pump. By partnering these with our commercial sprung lever group espresso machine (with its more subtle and artisan human-powered operation), we all but eliminated the need for electricity – a heat source not withstanding. But pedalling was not an option for either generating heat directly or for producing sufficient electricity for an espresso machine’s standard 3kW electrical heating element, so we chose a gas burner* that uses LPG – butane or propane.
LPG is a fossil fuel, but a low-carbon one. It is readily available worldwide and is a clean-burning, reliable and safe fuel to use. Partnered with an efficient and silent burner, it is the most robust and simple solution available today for providing sufficient heat to operate a commercial espresso machine on the move. We see this use of a fossil fuel as a temporary solution that in time will be upgraded with a new burner system, running on ethanol fuel derived from waste – ideally used coffee grinds. This proposed production of ethanol fuel from the sugars in waste coffee adopts the existent progressive model of alternative zero-carbon fuels being derived from abundant urban waste streams, with intelligent collection of the substrate and localised production. We conducted initial laboratory research (to test viability) in 2012 with positive results and began mapping the coffee waste collection and ethanol production scheme. The logistics were favourable but the lab research required to optimise the sugar extraction process would have taken considerable funding and time. As a result we focussed on the development of the Velopresso trike and plan to revisit the alternative fuel project once the Velopresso machine is successfully in production.
We see Velopresso as a small cog in a much bigger wheel of change – a step in the right direction – and are motivated by a determination to be part of a bigger solution. By presenting this kind of efficient, fun and more sustainable low-carbon option for a popular and highly visible application – coffee on the go – we hope to encourage more people to take up the challenge of seeking low-energy alternatives for our everyday transportation and service needs. We see the bicycle – one of the simplest but greatest of inventions – as key to our back-to-the-future approach to innovation.
* The first Velopresso prototype espresso machine was designed around a mountaineer’s multi-fuel stove that could run on camping gas or diesel or ethanol in principle. The idea being that bio-ethanol could in theory at least takeover as the fuel in time. With the bio-ethanol project on hold, this was used on camping gas until June 2013 when we completed development of the FCL1-Velo espresso machine with Fracino – a more compact and Velopresso-specific, gas-only version of their commercial, dual-fuel lever machine (FCL-1). This machine uses a near-silent and very efficient burner running on LPG – propane or butane. Since 2017 this machine has also been made available in a dual-fuel (gas/electric) option for use in UK, EU and additional countries world-wide.
Velopresso Ltd
Velopresso Ltd was founded in December 2012 and registered in England by industrial design partners Lasse Oiva and Amos Field Reid. We remain sole owners and directors of the company that will manufacture, assemble, test and ship our designs around the world, so we’ve kept our independence intact.
Amos Field Reid
Amos received a first-class degree in furniture and product design from London Metropolitan University and worked as a furniture designer/maker and design consultant before completing an MA on the Design Products course at the Royal College of Art (RCA), where he was the recipient of a Man Group Scholarship. This followed a ten-year career in film production as a researcher and project coordinator. Velopresso represents his first large-scale design project and draws on his life-long involvement with cycling, which includes five year stints of road and track racing and working as a London bicycle courier, as well as many years of daily urban riding.
Lasse Oiva
Lasse studied industrial design at Lahti University of Applied Sciences, Institute of Design (Finland). While at Lahti he completed projects with manufacturers and technology firms including Rocla/Mitsubishi (forklift); Kemppi (welders protective wear) and Lahti Precision (precision machinery). Before attending the RCA he worked as a freelance designer in Finland on projects for ISKU (task chair) and the Economic Information Office (children’s learning environment). Lasse is also a keen fisherman and committed cyclist.
The two London-based designers first combined forces while studying product design at the RCA. Velopresso is their first major joint project, and is expected to be followed by further work in pedal-powered innovation.
Supporters
The Velopresso prototype was developed with generous support from within the bicycle and coffee industries, academia and beyond:
Royal College of Art, Imperial College London, Finnish Cultural Foundation, Deutsche Bank, Pininfarina, Fracino, Monmouth Coffee Company, Londinium Espresso, Brooks England, Halo, Gates Carbon Drive, Crank Brothers, Rapha, and Conway Hall.
The fabrication of the prototype also benefitted greatly from the expertise of UK engineers Mark Hargreaves of Kingsmead Associates and Russell Bower of Lockley Bower Engineering Services Ltd.
The project is also particularly indebted to the support of Anita LeRoy, AJ Kinnel, Professor Jeremy Woods, Dr Michael Ray, Reiss Gunson, Frank and Adrian Maxwell, Professor Miles Pennington, Octavia Reeve, Simon Kinneir, Ilya Poropudas, Roosa Tulvio, Marko Kirves, Ivan Coleman, Nicola Tree, Adam Chan, Max Belcourt, Dr Jim Walsh, Philip Varley, Diane Gelon, Christopher Sheppard and Sally Potter, Anna Perring, Frances Haste, Sue Field Reid, Anthony Hirst and Raija Oiva; alongside our colleagues, technicians, senior staff and tutors André Klauser and Ben Wilson at the RCA.
Credits
Logo design by Aleksi Ahjopalo
Photography by Ivan Coleman
Video editing by Mia Obertelli
Books
A Delicious Life – New Food Entrepreneurs Gestalten, April 2013
The Perfect Place to Grow: 175 Years of the Royal College of Art November 2012
Selected Press
Bikevibe London Spring 2017
Breakthrough Funding Winter 2016
Cafe Culture Magazine September 2016
Bicycling Magazine May 2016
Velo Vision September 2015
Cycling Weekly 2 June 2015
Barista 2015
Financial Times 16 October 2014
Quality October 2014
El Mundo February 2014
Vogue, Nederland May 2013
Caffeine March 2013
Millionaire December 2012
Design 360 vol 41. September 2012
The Guardian 18 September 2012
London Evening Standard 12 September 2012
Selected Blogs
Earth 911 28 June 2017
Tieteesta & Taiteesta (Of Science & Art) 9 December 2015
Gates Carbon Drive 24 November 2015
Bear and Bear Journal 29 June 2015
Fresh Cup Magazine 15 September 2014
The Washing Machine Post 14 September 2014
BikeBiz 10 September 2014
Roast magazine – Daily Coffee News 13 November 2012
The Cool Hunter 5 November 2012
Sprudge 26 October 2012
Outside 18 October 2012
Bike Rumor 17 October 2012
Gates Carbon Drive 16 October 2012
Springwise 26 September 2012
Gizmag 26 September 2012
Treehugger 24 September 2012
Trecool 24 September 2012
Architizer 20 September 2012
Awards
The Manufacturer Top 100, 2015
Bespoked Constructors’ Challenge, 2015 (winners)
Finalist SustainRCA Award, 2012
Pininfarina Design Contest, 2012 (2nd prize)
Deutsche Bank Award in Design, 2012 (winners)
Finnish Cultural Foundation, 2012 & 2013 (grant awards)
Exhibitions, Events and Trade Shows
London Design Festival, 100% Futures, Olympia, 19–22 September 2018
High Tide Festival of Live Performance, Walthamstow, 18–30 September 2018
Hemingway Design’s Classic Car Boot Sale, Kings Cross, London, 18–19 August 2018
London Coffee Festival (with Alpro), London, 13–15 April 2018
Barbican Open Fest, Barbican, London, 17–18 March 2018
Urban Hill Climb, Swains Lane, London, 30 September 2017
BSpoke, Leyton Jubilee Park, London, 24 June 2017
Electric Bike Day, Verulamium Park, St Albans, 18 June 2017
Bloomberg Tradebook Charity Day, London, 27 October 2016
Takeaway Innovation Expo, ExCel London, 29–30 September 2015
David Byrne’s Meltdown, South Bank Centre, London, 17–30 August 2015
Tour de France, Grand Depart, Utrecht, The Netherlands, 4 July 2015
Best of Britannia, London, 26–28 June 2015
Bespoked, Bristol, 17–19 April 2015
Fourth Plinth Unveiling, Mayor Of London, Trafalgar Square, 5 March 2015
Covent Garden piazza, with Look Mum No Hands!, July-September 2014
Tour de France, FanPark, Green Park, London, 8 July 2014
Richard Rogers RA: Inside Out, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 18 July – 13 October 2013
Anjou Velo Vintage, Saumur, France, 22–23 June 2013
A Perfect Place to Grow, Royal College of Art, London, 15 November 2012 – 3 January 2013
Copenhagen Cycle Culture, Chelsea Old Town Hall, London, October 2012
SustainRCA show, Royal College of Art, London, September 2012
Eurobike 2012, Friedrichshafen, Germany, August 2012
Pininfarina Design Contest exhibition, Italian Cultural Institute, London, June – July 2012
Show RCA 2012, Testbed Gallery, London, June 2012