So, those of you who know me, know I went out on Friday night to meet someone I’d met on the internet. I had an excellent time and spent most of Saturday irritating my work colleagues by being revoltingly cheerful – despite us being incredibly short staffed (someone’d forgotten to book shortfalls, so we only had 6 (instead of 8) staff). Next time I go out and intend to come back late I’m going to take a train timetable with me, so that I have a better idea what time the trains run ‘cos it’s really quite chilly in Paddington at 2 in the morning. Although I’ve discovered that the lights around the side of Paddington are really quite warm, if not ‘outright hot’, so that was quite handy…
So, on to the rambly thinking around. I really don’t know what to do about Rebecca. I’ve had one quote for the engine which is about 500 quid. A bit over, actually, if I get everything done. And that doesn’t include getting a new head – although I should be able to get one from a scrappy, or off e-bay for not too much. But it’s more the degree of urgency. The rocker gasket has now failed (I had to switch rocker covers for some reason when I serviced the car (there was a good reason)) and tried to get away without changing the gasket (‘cos I didn’t have a spare, okay!). I’ve not got away with it – and she’s peeing oil out like it’s going out of fashion.
At any rate, it’s another issue – one that’s quick to fix, but needs me to go and source a gasket – and given that she’s not really starting well, and vibrating like hell I feel like I should let her get off the road as quick as possible. But at the moment I don’t really know what to do about it.
I’ve got Howard – friend of a friend – being asked if he’s got something in the 200 quid range (i.e. sheddy but MOTable) that’ll keep me able to get to work. The problem is I really hate driving modern cars, really do, I just get bored and meh about them. And financially, they’re more likely to be more of a drain. I’m not good with front wheel drive vehicles – rear wheel drive is just so much simpler – so if it’s fwd I probably won’t be able to look after it myself. But I’m starting to stress, faintly, about the whole ‘will it be sorted before Rebecca’s engine packs up’. That and, well, I’m slightly concerned about what damage the vibeyness of the engine might be doing to my car – or the rest of it’s transmission. Rebecca’s gearbox, apart from an occasional very excessive whine on first appears to be pretty good (very, actually); and I’ve got no other real problems with her transmission – so running with an engine which feels like it’s trying to shake itself to pieces isn’t going to be doing a great deal of good to all of that.
I guess the ‘sensible’ solution is to ride the bike when it’s warm and dry enough and keep Rebecca running only as long as I have to. But it’s been fracking cold, and frequently wet recently. That and… well… the bike really needs sorting too. Meh. It’s all a bit, well, shat really. This they don’t mention in the student brochures – 3 years of bodging everything on everything I own has started to come to a head…
Anyway. Didn’t really help, no solution is in sight… I’ll just have to see if Howard gets back to me with something simple and look-afterable that I can nab. Depressingly it’ll be the most I’ve paid for a car.
