I'd put a quick vote in for cleaning. On my EP I just take it apart and clean the gunk out of the group head every month or so and notice there is a lot less resistance in the lever. I always heard the lube gets washed away anyways so I figure the cleaning is cheap, easy, and keeps me from putting more pressure than needed on the lever.

Hello again one and all - and thanks for the warm welcome guys!

I had guessed this would head in an engineering/ metallurgical bent - I was kind of hoping someone with more engineering savvy would calculate the stupid pressure I was putting through the lever and tell me I have forearms like a mountain silverback (hey - a guy's gotta fish for compliments somewhere) and then remind me of what an arse I am for having done it in the first place.

I should also add that I have form in this department - no photos at present but I have also bent the comparatively flimsy yoke/lever join on my La Pav. This one looks like I have pulled the pin/rivet through where it passes through the bent metal of the yoke. I'll be repairing that today/tomorrow so I'll post a shot of what I mean.

Vis lubing versus cleaning - frankly I don't feel qualified to say which is better (perhaps I should have said servicing, but alliteration lost to limpidity leaves love and labour agley!) - but really I was aiming to point out that the creeping development of resistance is so easily missed that a timely disaster shot might poke some people into a bit of preventative medicine. The cure costs quite a bit more with shipping included!

Lever length - Longer lever has more potential for damage/pressure but should make achieving the correct pressure easier, no? I have 3 different OEM Olympia levers and not one of them matches for length (especially now ). What I can say with some confidence is that the inherent stability of the Cremina's design meant that I didn't end up with machine skating about or flipping over - not so sure my Pav would have left me uninjured/burnt.

Moral of the story - don't lend me your vintage lever for stress testing!
sneaky

Hey Jack,

Sorry to be off for so long but life caught up with me!

Vis the Pavoni yoke vs the Cremina's: you may remember that Olympia Express were the licensed builder of Pavoni's for the swiss market (see the lever gallery/ old posts for those who weren't aware) and thus the Cremina was almost certainly designed to tackle the quality issues of the earlier design.Your PV/Sama's design would have similarly benefited from the experiences of Pavoni use before it's introduction to market.

So I guess I'm saying that the Pavoni's design was originally minimally engineered for minimal production costs and was never intended to be in place, and some cases in use, 50 years on!

Season's greetings guys.
P