My first coffee was, as for many people in Holland, coffee from a pour over machine with a filter. As I got older I started taking coffee a little bit more seriously so I bought a Quickmill machine. When the first machine started to fall apart I bought a second one, the classic 820. The first grinder I used was a Hario manual grinder (later followed by a Porlex grinder) which is great for pour over coffee but is struggling when you desire a finer grind for espresso. I used it with the Quickmill 820 machine and it worked quite well, or at least I thought so at the time.

When I upgraded to a second hand BFC Junior Levetta espresso machine, a HX based on the well-known e61 group, I immediately noticed the Hario couldn’t keep up. So I bought a Mazzer Mini Electronic and pretty quickly changed the burrs to those designed for the Mazzer SJ. I still have and use this combination and am really happy with it, although I would like to try a lever machine some day. But that’s a different story.

After using the Mazzer for a few years I got a little annoyed by the ground coffee that stays in the machine, gets old and is pushed out when you make the next shot. This phenomenon is known as grind retention and is the starting point for many threads on coffee forums such as Home-barista.com. A lot of grinders are developed for commercial environments where the time between shots is a lot shorter, so retention probably isn’t such a big problem.

At home this is more relevant, so at one point I started to throw away the first three or four grams before making coffee. After doing this for quite some time I got a bit annoyed by the fact that I wasted so much coffee and started looking for an alternative. I came to the conclusion that manual grinders often have low retention and I started looking for one that had a grind quality that is similar to the Mazzer.

Of course Orphan Espresso is one of the usual suspects if you are looking for a competent hand grinder and they coincidentally just released a new manual grinder that was an improved version of the Lido 2/3: the Lido E. This was supposed to have a finer thread adjustment ring so it should be easier to find the appropriate grind for espresso. I had to order the grinder in the UK at Coffee hit, because it wasn’t available in Holland. It arrived a few days later and when I opened it I was impressed by it’s initial looks.

It was nicely packaged and came with a few accessories including:

• grinder
• stand
• brush
• allen key
• anti-static jar with accompanying cone-shaped top lid

Upon closer inspection there were a few small flaws that, although nothing major, prevented the Lido E from being perfect. The first was that the Lido had something that felt like burr rub in the espresso grind range. I withheld myself from taking the Lido E apart to see if I could do something about it. After reading that the Lido could be stiff in the beginning I just decided to start grinding coffee and see what would happen (other people also talked about this and did the same). It soon disappeared and there is only a small noise left that I can hear during a small part of every revolution. After a while I took the Lido apart to inspect the burrs, but there are no signs of actual rubbing so my guess is that it isn’t the burr but a little friction in the bearings.

The other things that I found were some small marks in the anodisation of the aluminium and the rubber stand that comes with the Lido E. It looks like the finish before anodising wasn’t even and this still shows after anodising the metal parts. And the rubber stand is a bit loose fitting: it won’t prevent the Lido from falling over but it will protect the underside from scratches. Even though the fit and finish of the Lido E isn’t perfect it still works very good. The shots taste great, no clumping of the coffee and if you wait a minute before dumping the coffee into the portafilter, the small amount of static is gone. The Lido E can easily be cleaned by a brush, I use a large(r) paintbrush than the one supplied with the Lido E. And it can be taken apart by just removing one screw on top so you can clean the burrs and inside. The Lido seems to be sturdy and I think it will last a long time, but when the burrs have to be replaced remains to be seen. I will post an update after some time to give some feedback about the durability.

So, is the Lido E worth the (almost) 200 euro I paid? Yes. But I can image it is too expensive for someone just starting with coffee. And for the aficionados it probably won’t perform as good as the upmarket grinders with bigger burrs. So I think it is a niche product, perfect for a small group of coffee lovers that need a second grinder for pour over coffee, or one for the holiday. Or just for people like me, who want to try something else and like a device with a small footprint that requires a small work-out.
That’s the last thing you need to know about this grinder: it requires some muscle. Not much, but enough to make the girlfriend reluctant to use it. To be honest: she’d love to start using the mini mazzer again…

Update:

After one year of using the Lido I am still very happy with this grinder. I never went back to the Mazzer Mini E, which I recently sold because we didn’t use it anymore. The Lido is holding up beautifully: the anodization isn’t showing any marks or scuffs and it still turns and grinds beautifully. The friction in the bearings completely disappeared. The only thing that shows some wear is the plastic jar, but that can be replaced if desired. I have a spare jar that I ordered with the Lido but it is still in the box. I have cleaned the Lido a few times, which is a 10 min. job, as it comes apart by unscrewing one small bolt.
Conclusion: After one year of daily usage the Lido  is still going strong and looks like it just came out of the box. Highly recommended!

The post Orphan Espresso Lido E coffee grinder appeared first on Low Noise - Double Coating.

But of course I have been expanding my vinyl collection, drinking espresso (a lot!) and tinkering with my bikes. And since I will be biking with an extra passenger for the next few years I thought I would build an extra bike that can be outfitted with a child bike seat. We already bought a Yepp mini for my girlfriend’s bike that can be used with an optional A-head adapter. The adapter is mounted between the spacers and secured with a clamp over the stem. It works great and you can take off the seat with a button on the underside of the seat, leaving just the adapter on the bike.

Frame

Second was deciding which frame: I wanted big tires and fenders, rack mounts, the possibility of using disk brakes and I wanted an Internal Gear Hub (IGH) because of low maintenance. There aren’t that many frames that tick all these boxes so after some research I opted for a Surly Ogre (link) frame that I ordered from Jelle at JustPedal.nl.

The Ogre is a steel frame with everything you could ask for, including eyelets for racks and fenders, bottle mounts on the fork and under the downtube and you can also use it in singlespeed modus or with a derailleur. After choosing for the classy green color it was time to look for some wheels.

Wheels

This bike is mainly going to be used on the road, with maybe an occasional gravel path, so I didn’t see the need for a lot of gears. Choosing between an 8 or 11 speed was quite easy with this in mind and since the asking price for an 11-speed is also much higher, I chose the cheaper 8-speed. Because there were no off-the-shelf wheelsets available that included a Shimano Alfine rear hub and a dyno front hub, I contacted Marten Gerritsen of M-Gineering.

Marten Gerritsen has made some nice wheels for me before and if you don’t mind waiting a few weeks, you are rewarded with beautiful wheels for a competitive price (coincidentally he had the Alfine 8 speed on sale). The wheels that arrived on my doorstep were built up using silver (Shimano dyno LX front & Alfine 8 rear) hubs, Ryde Sputnik rims and Sapim stainless steel spokes. I chose the sputniks because they are a cheap alternative if you want to use rim brakes.

When I ordered them I was convinced I would use either v-brakes or cantilevers. But while ordering and wating for all the components I gradually moved towards discs because the hubs are disc-compatible and because of the promise of better braking.

Drivetrain

Third was figuring out which crankset and spindle length would result in the correct chainline. The Ogre uses the 73mm size bottom bracket that is used for atb/mtb’s, so you can’t use the Shimano Alfine crankset. It is only available in a 68mm version for road/trekking bikes and it is, in my humble opinion, not the nicest crankset your money can buy. Other mtb cranksets, a lot of them use external bottom brackets, have a chainline of 50mm (the middle chainring for a triple or in between the chainrings for a double). That’s way off with the Alfine and it’s chainline of 42mm. So, to get the chainline straight you have to:

1. move the sprocket of the Alfine outwards, or/and
2. move the crankset inwards

The first can be achieved by using a Nexus sprocket, these are dished and you can flip them outwards to get a chainline of 47 mm. That’s a lot better! I think you could use this with a mtb triple and use the middle ring (the Ogre has room for a 36T middle ring). But, since I don’t believe in all the external bottom bracket hype and I keep hearing negative things about the short bearing life, I wanted to use a ‘traditional’ square tapered axle. This also gave me the possibility to find a combination that would move the crank a little bit inwards.

I settled for a combination of Sugino RD2 double road cranks with a 113mm Shimano bottom bracket and a Surly 40T  chainring. When I mounted this combination I saw this wasn’t going to work, the chainring was hitting the chainstay, even with the use of a bb spacer of 1 mm. on the drive-side. So I exchanged the 40T for a 36T and now the chainring cleared the frame. But it still was very close, a clearance of about 2 mm is still a little small so in the end I replaced the 113mm BB with a 118mm and now it’s perfect.

Chainline summary: Shimano Alfine 8 will give you a perfect chainline with a Nexus sprocket and a combination of a Shimano BB-UN55 118mm., Sugino RD2 double crankset and a 36T chainring when mounting the chainring on the inner position. I’m still looking for a bashguard for the outer position, for both the looks and a little protection for the chainring.

To get (and maintain) the correct chain tension I decided to use the Surly Tuggnut on the driveside, on the left I used the Shimano non-turn washer. In this case this is the white one (6L) because of the track-style dropouts on the Ogre. Normally there is also a 6R washer that goes on the right side (hence the ‘R’) but it does not work with the Tuggnut. But the combination of Tuggnut and one washer on the left side seems to work well and I haven’t had any problems.

15-7-2014: I received an e-mail from Marten about the use of a single washer. According to him it is better for both the axle and the drop-outs to use both of them. In theory you could damage the drop-out in the lowest gear when applying a lot of power. So if you want to be sure, use both.

Handlebars & Other Stuff

For the handlebar I wanted something like a Jones H-bar, wide and with lots of backsweep. But since the Jones bars are expensive I went for a Soma Clarence, although l also could have bought a Jones Bend H-bar, it’s the same shape as the original H-bar but it’s a lot cheaper.

The disc brakes are Shimano SLX and the stem and seatpost something from Ritchey. Of course the saddle had to be a Brooks B17, since I have Brooks saddles on all my bikes, I already own a B17 and two Team Pro’s.

Hub & Cable Routing

I routed the gear cable along the downtube and the chainstay. This gives the best clearance between cog/chain and the cable mount thingy on the hub. It also looks quite nice and it shifts very smooth. Adjusting the gears by aligning the yellow dots on the hub has to be repeated a lot during the first few days. And small increments seem to make a big difference. I felt something in my crank while pedalling that felt like play in either the bottom bracket or the hub. After replacing the bb and torqueing the hell out of it, I concluded it had to be something in the hub. After being grouchy for two days and disappointed about the hub, I noticed during cycling that the symptom had disappeared. I had readjusted the yellow dots so many times that I could not say for certain that it had gone because of the adjustment or because the hub had to break in.

Fenders

Because it rains quite often in Holland I wanted fenders. According to the Surly Blog the Cascadia 29″ fenders work well with the Ogre. Fortunately, Jelle also had these fenders in stock, So I mounted them as instructed by Surly. But to get the fenders follow the wheel closely I used the Problem Solvers Fender Flute, this prevents a large gap between tire and fender so the fender works better and it also looks a lot better.

Riding the Surly Ogre

On this bike I sit definitely more upright than on my other fixed gear and racing bikes. Which is a good thing because at lower speeds with a kid sitting in front, it’s nice to get some pressure off my arms and hands. But it’s not just for cruising or touring. When I take off the child seat, the bike is serious fun! It looks big and might be heavy but it’s definitely not slow or sluggish. It simply is a joy to ride and would recommend it to anyone who is looking for a fast and comfortable multi-purpose bike.

I bought all the parts at:

Justpedal (frame, handlebars, fenders, fender flute & small parts)
M-gineering (custom wheels, crankset)
Rose (disc brakes, seatpost, stem & small parts)

The post The Surly Ogre and a Shimano Alfine 8 appeared first on Low Noise - Double Coating.

The frame I bought for my first project was an old Koga Miyata that was powdercoated white by the previous owner and had already been used as a single speed bike. When I got tired of the white hipster frame I tracked down a second Koga Miyata using Marktplaats, the dutch equivalent of eBay. I stripped all the parts (a combination of newish and incredibly old stuff) and slowly started buiding a totally different bike.

At some point I decided I wanted a more comfortable ride, which meant bigger tires, and fenders to keep me dry in the winter. The Koga already had eyelets for fenders but there wasn’t much room for the 32C (or bigger) tires I was thinking of. By that time I had already read about the 650b wheels, a size between 26″ and 700C, that was/is going through a revival. After reading the article about a 650b conversion on M-Gineering.nl, I decided to order a 650b fixed wheelset. I asked Marten Gerritsen to build a wheelset with the Velo Orange Diagonale rims and Aby-K hubs and after a few weeks the mailman dropped off a nice & shiny pair of wheels.

I have been using them for the last six months and the wheels are fantastic. The Grand Bois 32C tires ride a lot better on cobblestones and the 650B wheels are really nice and a perfect match with the stainless steel fenders (also from M-Gineering). Of course I had to use a longer caliper brake, but the R559 Tektros stop in a heart beat, have a quick release big enough for the Grand Bois Cypres tires and are really well made. Every once in a while I wipe the bike down to keep the wheels nice and shiny, the rims are polished and I’d like to keep them that way. I really like the box-section rims by Velo Orange because they have a nice vintage look,  a lot of the available 650b wheel rims are a lot more modern/flashy.

I like the Grand Bois tires so much that I am considering getter bigger ones for my other fixed gear and geared bike as well. I just have to decide which ones!

Anyway, if you need more room for fenders and fatter tires I would encourage you to get some 650b wheels, they are a very good alternative. But because of the limited availability of these wheelsets they are not going to be as cheap as a pair of 700C wheels. And also read some general guidelines, for example those by Rivendell Bikes or the famous Sheldon Brown, to decide if your frame is a suitable candidate!

PS: This is my first post about bikes and the first one in English. Because a lot of the things I have learned and read came from English blogs and forums, I thought it would be nice to ‘give’ something back.

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