Orphan Espresso Lido E coffee grinder

16-11-2016: Update after one year with the Lido E

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. Continue reading

The Surly Ogre and a Shimano Alfine 8

For the last year I have been busy getting adjusted to a beautiful new familiy member: a son called Boris. This big change in our lives has been the main reason that I don’t have, or make, enough time to regularly post on my blog. Also, I have been DJ-ing a lot less because I’m getting up earlier than I used to and I’d like to get some sleep before going to my day job. Continue reading

Fixed gear bike with 650b wheels

I have been toying with bikes for some years now. First there were the mountain bikes and after a hiatus of two years I started with my first fixed gear bike. I can’t remember how I got triggered to build a fixed gear bike, but it probably had something to do with the simplicity (I very much like the clean look) and the fact that they do not require a lot of maintenance.

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. Continue reading