I've been researching spring lever machines that have a 58mm portafilter and are good with medium and light roast beans.

The Bezzera Strega appears to be a viable option, but I've noticed it is frequently modified. Is that because it needs to be modified to perform well, or because it is easy to modify?

The only modification I am considering down the road is switching from tank and pump preinfusion to direct line plumbing.

Are there other spring lever machines that excel with medium and light roast, use a 58mm portafilter and cost under $5,000?

Sadly no,

There are no 58mm levers that are good with light roasts.

Have to heavily disagree with the above.
Londinium is a best-in-class machine across all roast levels.

Cuprajake wrote:Sadly no,

There are no 58mm levers that are good with light roasts.

Interesting.
What is your definition for light roasts? How many 58mm lever machines have you owned or used for a reasonable period of time?

All contemporary home machines with commercial lever groups are good for light roasts because they can profile the pressure and flow, and are fairly temperature stable. The Strega does this in an original way, with a cartridge heater in the group, along with a pump or line pressure fed true HX. But even a plain dipper (or the handwaving Londinum dipper) will, if the heat transfer is properly designed, work just as well. All of these can make repeated shots with light roasts

This is not quite true of lever machine with small home groups, since they are too light to shed the heat they gain during a shot. They can do a great two shots in a row for any roast level, but then need to take a rest. The popular ones have various add ons that can help for pulling more than a few shots in a row.

The lever revival, and their peculiar suitability for light roasts, has prompted the development of flow control pump machines that are a touch more controllable, a touch more temperature stable, and can do exotic shots like super lungos or cafe cremas, which levers cannot. So the attraction of levers compared to these newer machines is more about workflow than product.

another_jim wrote:This is not quite true of lever machine with small home groups, since they are too light to shed the heat they gain during a shot.

Open boiler machines might be an exeption to this rule. My Caravel never overheats, but it is certainly not well suited for pulling many shots in a row anyway.

Nahhh.

My original post was tongue in cheek.

This forum, levers in particular seems to get trolled to death.

It seems to be all out lever wars

Personally

I've owned a

londinuim l1
Londinuim lr24

Currently own a acs lever

Personal opinion, is the ACS tops both my londinuim due to the fact I can see and alter my temperature for my certain bean.

When I upgraded from the l1 to the lr24, I saw no real improvement in taste.

This is my own personal experience.

If I were to get rid of the lever I'd go back to the Bianca, which is what I had in-between the lr24 and the acs.

Quick edit to say my acs will out put about 70ml of water per shot, how ever I'd never pull a shot that long.

I am using lever machines for light roasts since 2013 and never experienced that those machines might be less suited for lighter roasts than pump machines. Their declining pressure and temperature profile is especially suitable for use with unimodal grinders.

With more traditional lever designs temperature management can be a bit tough in the beginning.

What are lever temperature profiles?