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TECH NEWS
2021 Rapha Rocket Espresso R Cinquantotto coffee machine - 1.jpegFancy a Rapha coffee machine? That’ll be £2,735, please
Rapha has introduced a limited edition R Cinquantotto coffee machine in association with Rocket Espresso of Milan that’ll set you back £2,735.
Let’s be honest, cycling wouldn’t exist without coffee – or, if it did, it would happen much later in the day – so this Rapha + Rocket partnership makes a lot of sense. In fact, it’s not the first time the two brands have teamed up to offer a coffee machine, a limited edition of the Premium Plus model having been produced way back in 2011.
This time, Rapha + Rocket R Cinquantotto (the Italian for ‘fifty-eight) espresso machines will be available exclusively to members of the Rapha Cycling Club (RCC)… so if you’re not already a member, that’ll be another 70 quid.
Rapha says, “For as long as there have been cyclists, there have been coffee stops. The two go hand in hand, and over 140 years since an Italian inventor filed a patent for the world’s first espresso machine, a Milanese manufacturer still leads the way. Rocket Espresso produces the world’s finest espresso machines by hand for coffee connoisseurs around the world, including most of the professional peloton and now members of the Rapha Cycling Club.”
Well, you couldn’t imagine Rapha teaming up with Morphy Richards, could you?
If you’re not familiar with Rocket Espresso, its entire range is exactly what you’d expect of a high-end Italian brand: shiny and beautiful with switches, knobs and gauges all over the place… You know the sort of thing.
Just 100 Rapha + Rocket R Cinquantotto espresso machines will be made to order, each of them numbered.
We would ask Rapha to send one over for ‘review’ on road.cc but we just can’t see them falling for that one.
Mat has been in cycling media since 1996, on titles including BikeRadar, Total Bike, Total Mountain Bike, What Mountain Bike and Mountain Biking UK, and he has been editor of 220 Triathlon and Cycling Plus. Mat has been road.cc technical editor for over a decade, testing bikes, fettling the latest kit, and trying out the most up-to-the-minute clothing. He has won his category in Ironman UK 70.3 and finished on the podium in both marathons he has run. Mat is a Cambridge graduate who did a post-grad in magazine journalism, and he is a winner of the Cycling Media Award for Specialist Online Writer. Now over 50, he's riding road and gravel bikes most days for fun and fitness rather than training for competitions.
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34 comments
Faema.
Mat, we need an article on overpriced stuff we secretly want. Rapha, Silca and Ceramic speed would fill a couple articles alone !
Waiting for the Park Tool set for maintaining it and Microshift doing a "indexed" converter so you can just push a button and get the coffee rather than needing to turn the handle.
Get a mokka pot and either a Nestle Aeroccino or a microwave and a £1.99 milk frother from IKEA.
Spend the money you've saved on cake. Or bikes. Or socks. Or all of the above.
aero press and spend the rest on bike stuff
Yes!
I love a cup of coffee, but it is by far the most overated beverage of all time.
Take that back right now!
They're right you know...
No - that's raktajino.
So about £500 more than the regular machine for painting it black and puting Rapha on it?
I don't have a problem with expensive coffee machines, if it's a thing you really enjoy then why not, if you buy two cups of coffee from a coffee shop and replaced that with a machine and beans it wouldn't tak all that long for it to pay for itself. However, I don't like how much of a premium they're charging for a supposed limited edition.
.
Why "supposed" limited edition? A run of 100 machines only would suggest that it's an actual limited edition, no?
True, but painting it in a coulour they offer other machines in and putting a logo on it feels like a token limited edition at best.
Is it fungible though?
I'll stick with my £25 bialetti pot that i picked up during the black friday sales. Spent a few extra quid on some filters so im set for a long long time
Instant's fine. All else is sophistry....
Barista coffee is the SUV of the hot drinks world.
bite me.
No, it's the carbon frame of the hot drinks world - sounds exclusive but everyone's on it now.
Aeropress is your recumbent - fast, smooth but niche so expensive. Cafetiere your trusty omafiets - not fast but dependable and capacious.
Nescafe is what you can get for less than 100 quid at Halfords.
Is it Maxwell House compatible?
Only the best Gold Blend I would have thought.
Oh, I like this. I imagine using it would feel more like driving a steam train than making a cup of coffee.
But even if space and funds allowed I don't think I'd get one. I use a cafetiere at home and like to save up the cafe-stop espresso (plus big wodge of cake, natch) as a reward for getting those miles in or climbing that hill.
Words you never want to read in the same sentence. "Italian" and "by hand"
Having said that I'm on my third Sage coffee machine in 6 years as the first 2 broke - so who's the stupid one?
My Gaggia Classic has been cranking out coffee three times a day for over a decade. I've had to replace a gasket or two in that time. Wonderful things. The budget end of espresso machines are the coffee equivalent of Bike-Shaped Objects - given that you are messing around with steam, pressure etc, you need to spend a minimum amount to have quality that will last. I think a Gaggia Classic is about £200 - cheaper than that is a false economy.
I've always wanted a Gaggia classic, but they are more like 400+ . At which point I just chuck more money into capsules.
Agreed, although the new ones are a lot more expensive but they do last and make great coffee. I also smiled at the reference in the Rapha press release to an Italian inventor - I believe his name was Giovanni Gaggia!
Italian ice cream, shoes ?
Campagnolo? (Well, some of it...)
I'm on my first and only Delonghi Dedica in over 6 years. Still working like new, cost 25% less than ￡200.
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