To qualify for the gold versions of this ride you must have had a previous Iron Butt ride successfully certified.
The ride protocols described in the Rider Guidance document and the Ride Documentation pack must be strictly applied.
The Coffee Cup series of rides consists of:
Coffee Cup 1000 - Drink coffee at 4 different permitted locations - 24 hours
Coffee Cup Gold Blend - Drink coffee at 6 different permitted locations - 24 hours AND either get a DBR from a town with 'coffee', 'java', 'latte' or 'bean' in its name (e.g. Latteridge, Gloucs; Bean, Kent); OR take a picture of your bike alongside an official road sign with one of those words in the name - this can be a town/village name or a road name, then get a DBR within 10 miles. You may drink one of your required cups of coffee in your 'Coffee' town.
Bean Burner 1500 - Drink coffee at 6 different permitted locations - 36 hours.
Bean Burner Gold Blend - Drink coffee at 4 different permitted locations - 24 hours.
The basic rules are the same as for other IBA UK rides:
1. Ride the designated distance in the designated time (see below) on a safe route of your choice.
2. IBA UK requires that you document your ride with photographs. The photo must show BOTH the receipt AND your bike's odometer (mileage) reading IN THE SAME PHOTO. Receipts and odo readings must be legible. Record the Start and End details on Ride Documentation 2 and Ride Documentation 3 respectively.
3. Collect fuel and other receipts along your route and photograph each against your odometer. Track them, along with rest stops over 30 minutes, on Ride Documentation 4.
4. Complete all the remaining documentation in the Ride Documentation pack.
5. Copy all completed documentation and receipts and submit the copies, with your name on every sheet.
A. You must ride at least 150 miles between each coffee selfie. This will be checked using your odo readings. A permitted location can only be used once during a ride - though multiple permitted locations in one town or city can be used, subject to the 150 mile minimum.
B. With the exception of the Bean Burner Gold, your ride MUST start and end at a permitted location.
C. Your ride starts at your first coffee location, at the time shown on the receipt; your ride ends at your last coffee location, at the time shown on the receipt.
Here's the important part: Permitted locations are cafés and coffee shops selling coffee - but national/major chains are NOT permitted (apart from wildcards - see the next paragraph). That means no Starbucks, Costa Coffee, Caffé Nero, McDonalds, Burger King; no coffee from a service station vending machine; no coffee from a supermarket café or a pub. Many garden centres have cafés; the 'no big chains' rule still applies, so don't go to Dobbies or Notcutts. The aim of this challenge is to visit independent local cafés and coffee shops. That said, we will allow the use of cafés at National Trust, English Heritage, RSPB and similar locations, simply because they're not the sort of places you usually visit on a ride! And if you don't like coffee, tea is a perfectly acceptable substitute.
Now, we recognize that few, if any, independent coffee shops are open 24/7; therefore on the non-Gold rides we will permit up to two wildcards to be used in place of the permitted locations mentioned below. To use the wildcard, you may take a selfie drinking coffee in front of a service station or any24hour convenience store/supermarket or from a national chain such as the ones mentioned above. As described earlier, you must ride at least 150 miles between each selfie. In keeping with the spirit of the challenge, you cannot use a wildcard between 9 am and 6 pm. And on the Gold Blend rides, wildcards will not be accepted.
A DBR is a machine generated receipt with the date, time and LOCATION on it. Check it - do not assume it is correct. A receipt with an incorrect time/date/location can scupper your ride. Check and re-check.
This ride was adapted by Martin Buck #57757 in 2025