Too Much Coffee

Northampton has a cute little market once a month called the Bicycle Basket Bazaar, where one can sell their wares from the basket of a bicycle.

So I'm going to have a bike selling beans, with a filter rack on the front to make samples. I can get hot water on site but there's no power for a grinder. So what can I use to grind 250g at a time quickly and without making me sweat? Are those cast-iron meat mincer style jobs good for this purpose? I am playing with the idea of modding one to chain drive so I pedal the bike to grind the coffee.

All ideas welcome. Use your imagination.

By "filter rack," I presume you are going to be doing pour-over extractions. An old wall grinder will work well, especially if you can gear it to be driven by the bicycle pedals (you'll need to do some experimentation on the drive ratio). I would not use anything but a grinder that was designed to grind coffee. An old wall grinder should be easy to come by at a flea market or on ebay.

Yes, absolutely, I was thinking of the sort of hand coffee grinder with a large flywheel which clamps to a bench and always reminds me of a meat mincer. I Like the wall grinder idea. I'll be pre-bagging 125g and 250g bags of whole beans then grinding to the customers' requirements so will need a decent adjustment. I'll probably try to gently steer them away from espresso grind, given the equipment.

Most of the bench grinders I know of would be somewhat too large and heavy for bicycle transport. Look around a bit and I'm sure you will find something usable.

In fact, many of those old grinders could grind to powder for "Turkish" coffee, however they still are generally not suitable for espresso use because the grind is too homogeneous. You might be able to suggest bringing espresso-grind coffee on order with you for the next month (paying up front would make sense). The whole thing sounds delightful. Have fun.

This could be just the job if I straighten out the handle and braze a gear onto the shaft. Win. If Peugeot freres are the same folks as the Peugeot bicycle company then double win. But I doubt it.

sounds like a great market to visit too