Getting "Aero", Aeropress that is.

One of these days I'll get back to bikes. Which I hope is pretty soon with a Century coming up in a little over a month.

 Now on to my new toy, the Aeropress I got from About the Coffee the place in KC where you will find all kinds of coffee gadgetry. The Aerpress makes a richer, stronger, coffee than using the pour-over method. Since you are forcing the water through the filter, instead of letting gravity do the work, you can use a finer grind.

To the furthest right you can see the filters in there filter holder

Get a filter out, wet it down, then put it in the filter cap.

Assemble the base, then put it on top of your coffee cup.

 

 

 I'm not completely pro and own a burr grinder to get precision grounds. I find with a little experience I can do pretty well with this rotary grinder. You just have to shake and move it a lot while it's grinding, so don't wind up with some beans turned to dust, and other beans untouched. Like I said, you will learn from experience. Even though the grinder does have grind settings, just throw those out the window.

I put in 4 tablespoons of coffee, then fill with water till the no.4, stir, then insert the plunger, and plung! They say it should take about 20 seconds. I find that a good time for extraction on a lot of methods.

And there you have it. Like I said it's richer than a pourover, but different from the metal filtered gritty taste of a French press, or Moka pot.

If you would like to taste coffee brewed using an Aeropress, Benetti's Coffee Experience in Raytown can make them for you.

 

It's Done

There you have it all built up.


A side view of the chainstays.


. . . and just enough clearance. So far these chainstays have performed beyond my expectations.



Plenty of tire, chainring, and crank clearance . . . your just going to have to trust me on the crank clearance.


The pulley do-dad.


Functionlity I give it an "A". Looks I give it "C". I wasn't very imaginative when a made that cable stop tab. However the cable guide before the stop is something I added to insure the cable leaves the housing straight. Many will say it doesn't need it, but I've noticed many times when you take the housing end off (That silver cap on the end of the black cable) it's notched from the cable rubbing the side of the hole. Also sometimes you will feel the stranded wires rubbing on that stop. This prevents all that. assuming the cable stop and the yoke are parallel.



A shot of the paint brass in the sun's glare. The new brass and flux from Cycles Design USA made for the smoothest joints I've built.


It's a HammerHead. I've found most cyclists don't like it; but everybody at work, who are not cyclist, liked it. What's that tell you? I don't know, might think about it later if I think about it.


Finally it was time to ease on into a bag of Benetti's Silhouette Series #1. I give it a thumbs up.

Here's their description.

"Goal: #1 is the first in our Silhouette Series: a darker coffee experience. In this series, we wil be offering up a few different blends that are targeted toward those who enjoy the attributes of a darker roasted coffee.

What To Expect: Baker's cocoa up front, cranberry sweetness and hints of jasmine, with the deceptively dry, sweet finish of applewood smoke. This blend is also worth trying with just a little cream."

I've been drinking the darker roasts lately, and this did not disappoint.

Swing Bike Frame pt.2

The swing bike so far . . . sans Headsets

All the tubes are in place. I still have some cable guides and stuff to "modify". That mean the stops will have to be made into guides. Since the frame pivots at the seat tube you have to use housing all the way. Hopefuly after tonight I'll have the frame in position to paint. One modifcation you might notice is that I flipped the down tube around so maybe those water bottle braze-ons will be usable.


Got my MWI team jersey . We race Cyclo-Cross.

Got my MWI Coffee. It's a custom blend made by Benetti's. It a medium roast coffee, so its got a charge; and a flavor you want to sip all day. It's also a coffee that tastes the way it smells. By that I mean for example if you grind a coffee like Indian Monsooned Malabar, that smell doesn't really caputure the slight mustiness that gives Indian Mansooned Malabar it's distinction.

Got my MWI Embrocation. It's a custom mix made by Mad Alchemy.

Inch Pitch in a Pinch

A vintage (Vintage: Characterized by excellence, maturity, and enduring appeal; classic.)
Western Flyer bicycle came into the shop this week. From the definition I'd say more than anything it has enduring appeal. Who wouldn't want to get on this bike and go from a ride around the neigborhood?


The frame features a step through design. Today most people would identify this frame as a "Lady's" frame. However "Step-through" is a better description. Ladys who would wear skirts found the diamond frame cumbersome to get on and off of, so they lowered the top tube so then ladys could "Step-Through" the frame to get on the bicycle.


A distinguishing feature of this bicycle is the Inch-Pitch chain and skip tooth gears. As you can see the chain's pins alternate 1/2", 1", 1/2" . . .


. . . and the cog skips every other tooth to permit the 1" chain plates to ride between the teeth. I don't know why they used this protocol for bicycle chains and gears. I can only suspect it was because they borrowed it from machinery from the 2nd industrial revolution.
-

Is that a seat or a saddle? I think it's more looks than function. Did you know Brooks still makes saddles like this one?
-

Simple . . . yet simple.

-

Speaking of simple, Ben at Benetti's does it again. I found a new favorite . . . Sulawesi Kalossi . . . and I can simple call this coffee . . . "Dangerous" . . .

. . . I call it dangerous because you can drink this coffee all day. As they say it's very clean. Could this coffee be the Golden Ratio?

Saturdee

The look out the front of Midwest Cyclery at 6:30am . . . Yep A.M. . . . Ante Meridiem . . . Over to KKFI FM . . not A.M.

Who Sleeps in on Saturday.

-

Heads Up . . . In 2 weeks Those ShiftlessBastards are brings us the Fantastic Four Alley Cat. More info on KansasCityFixed.com. Should be fun.

-

I get my coffee from 2 places mainly. Benetti's Coffee Experience in Raytown, or Broadway Cafe in Westport.

This day I tried the OCIA certified Organic Peru CAVCRA Coop, not that COOP, this COOP in Apurimac River Valley.
-

As you can see it's a light roast. It's makes for a good cup of coffee in the morning. I recommend it.
-
As if coffee at Broadway Cafe wasn't enough, I had to go check out Benetti's , Fall Classic Concert Series

I suspect over 30 people were there. I'd have to say I liked it more than I thought I was. pictured is the closing band, "The Sunday Paper". They were pretty good. If you can get out, it's a good time.
-
Oh that darn Bike

I tried to install my PowerCam on this bike. I got the lobe dialed in so the cam advanced the gear at the right place, then I find the left crankarm hits the chainstay . . . arrrrgh! . . . a lot of work for nothing.

And here's the finished product. It's been a while since I had ridden it, but I still have to say that extra brace stiffens it up.

Indian Monsoon Malbar

Indian Monsoon Malabar is my favorite coffee. Get it when you can, and while you can, because I find it's not always available. I've been able to get it at both Broadway Cafe, and Benetti's Coffee Experience.

If you didn't feel like going to the hyperlinks, in short, the coffee beans are exposed to the monsoon winds for 3 to 4 months in India, causing the beans to lose their acidity, resulting in a sweet and syrupy brew basically.
-

It's also a lot lighter roast than a lot of other coffees. The result is also a more caffeinated cup of coffee. I know a lot of people believe that the stronger tasting dark roasts have more, but one method to decaffinating coffee is to roast the beans till the caffeine is burned out. So it's only logical; the darker the roast, the less caffeine. Not that caffeine is important, I just thought it was worth mentioning.

-

From time to time I do like the volume turned up on the pure coffee flavor. However it's hard to compare Indian Monsooned Malabar to other coffees. I say this because I drink dark roasted coffees with Half&Half most the time, and I don't usually ever add anything to Indian monsooned Malabar.

Benetti's Day 1000

It's 5am, it's 5 degrees outside, It's time to ride to my favorite coffee shop for Benetti's 1000th day of business.


First in line! Got the espresso, and the commemorative pin.

Then I read the paper, with their new blend of coffee, and a cinnamin roll.

Then for the ride to work.

Was the exciting or what?