Bezzera BZ-99 -> Rancilio S26

I have a tank-fill Bezzera BZ99. It has always had a small leak coming from the waste output nozzle that feeds into the drip tray, ie. when you’ve poured a shot the back pressure blow off squirts back into the drip tray via this output.

This works as expected but the problem is, when the machine is heating up, water is sputtering out of this nozzle and flowing around the drip tray and onto the bench. It seems to have gotten worse recently too.

Why would the machine heating up cause water to enter the drip tray? bombcup suggested it might be the boiler max level probe being dirty but I’ve removed it and cleaned it and put it back. The other probe to the right of the boiler isn’t actually connected (see image below).

Also, the water tank has two hoses leading back into it. What are these for? They seem to feed a sputtering of hot water back into the cold water tank.

and so the discussion *cough* raged..

Thread on TooMuchCoffee regarding the leaking Bezzera BZ-99.

In the meantime, I’ve managed to do my usual trick and, thanks to Suzanne & Phil from (Bullet Coffee) who found it and showed me, I’ve upgraded to a Rancilio S26, which I should be picking up this Saturday from Leicester with help from Harvey.

A far bigger machine (4L boiler vs. 1.5L) this will be fed directly from the water mains rather than tank filled. Big Daddy Wayne will most likely be taking the Bezzera off me once I sort out its leak, replace the tired hoses and patch the drip tray hole.

Rancilio S26

Whiteleaf hill & overshoe virginity

Whiteleaf Hill, Chilterns, UK

I was going to ride with the Willesden CC clubrun today but left a bit late so headed to the last place I rode in the Chilterns – Longdown Hill, where I defended my club hill climb trophy a few weeks ago. On the way out I spotted McCarthy and shortly after Willesden’s own Mike the Bike, both heading into town.

Today I finally unwrapped the overshoes I’d bought during last year’s very cold winter. It was the first time I’ve ever used full overshoes, normally preferring toe-warmers. I have to say, I really like these Adidas Climaproof booties. I didn’t really think about them for the ride and didn’t notice my feet getting particularly cold or anything. So job well done. Of course, now it’ll be another one of those things where I go “why the hell didn’t you try these things sooner?!” Stubborn idiot, I am.

adidas climaproof

I’m having some sick ideas at the moment about attempting to break the club’s 24hr TT time trial record. It currently stands at 459.07 miles (19.13mph) or 738.80 kilometres (30.78kph) and was set by Simon Doughty in 1995. Meurig James broke all the other club records last year, including 272.367mi for the 12hr, 3:45.18 for 100 miles, a 51 minute 25mi and a 19 minute 10mi! I’m not sure if he didn’t attempt the 24hr or didn’t break it.

There’s usually only a single 24hr TT in a year so you only get one chance. In 2011 there’s going to be two, the usual Mersey Roads 24 (Rapha inc. video) in Cheshire and a southern one, the Sussex 24hr.

So, I was doing some testing to see roughly what power output I’d need for 32kph and was finding it to be quite high. I’m hoping that was just because I’m running a huge anti-p_nct_re Schwalbe 25 on the rear and I’ve not adjusted my PT from 700×23. As it stands, holding 260W for 24 hours is not going to happen. No way.

I lost interest in that, cycled out the A413 and through Great Missenden then up and down Longdown Hill, then over to Whiteleaf. I picked the wrong turn so missed the intro but there was a through road so I could join the climb again. It looked completely different to how I remember. Lots of red from fallen leaves and quite foggy.

Then a quick little drop to an unfamiliar crossroads, a phone/GPS consultation and I was on my way back through Gt. Miss. and back towards London. Of course, I’d taken off my mudguard so it was now raining.

Just east of Uxbridge there was a guy I’ve seen before, Tim, who asked if I had a pump. He had a slow leak. Unsurprisingly he was using the devil spawn tyres produced by Continental (boo hiss). I ended up escorting him the 15k back to Pitshanger Lane (hinting he should pay the Bike Whisperer a visit), stopping every couple of kay to reinflate his tyre. It was a pain but I should earn some serious karma points right?

Bit of a cold, soggy ending but a good ride with some new (to me) product testing done, some new terrain explored and some miles in the legs, which was the main aim after all.

Zipp 404s w/ Powertap – Bling!

Another wired Powertap died on the Kinesis and Gizmond listed these on lfgss.com so I hatched a plan. Zipp 404s with wireless Powertap go on the good bike and the wireless Powertap with Open Pros can be moved to the Kinesis. The wired Powertap can then be shipped to Paligap for conversion to wireless and then I’ll think of something to do with that wheelset. The sad part about this upgrade is the S-Works probably won’t be ridden for 6 months whilst I wait for England’s crappy winter ‘seasons’ to vanish.