You are reading a single comment by @Jacqui and its replies.
Click here to read the full conversation.
London Fixed Gear and Single-Speed is a community of predominantly fixed gear and single-speed cyclists in and around London, UK.
This site is supported almost exclusively by donations. Please consider donating a small amount regularly.
@Jacqui
25 February
Engines and floaters.
I have until recently only ever heard the term “floater” in the context of the little turd that remains in the toilet after a flush.
Needless to say my face wrinkled up in disgust when I heard another boater refer to Miracle as such. Repulsed and more than a bit indignant I stood there frozen unsure what action or reply if any I should hurtle back.
He was smiling.
I was not.
The conversation had unfolded when I mentioned that my 9.9 Yamaha outboard was taken out for service (yes, again). It would appear that the first person didn’t actually do anything, or they missed everything and I paid 80GBP for the pleasure.
The Norwegian’s hippy friend has just officially started his marine engine repair service officially after 3 years of “helping people for nothing.”
He’s risking everything of course, quitting his well paid city job to do this full time. Unlike the last person to work on my engine, I have confidence in the hippy.
He’s lived on boats for a number of years and learned from his elderly mentor since before puberty. When I first met him, he was slowly boring a new hole by hand for a piston in a block canal side for his mother. It took 3 days but from two broken engines he made one that’s by all knowing accounts “very good” for her and saved her two thousand pounds in the process.
So when my engine died 3 weeks ago, it was him that came out to have a look.
The good news is, it’s all fixable.
Great.
It may just be the head gasket, so we’ll change that first.
I called and ordered the parts.
They arrive a week later.
I now know that my head gasket is a piece of hard rubber like substance that should under no circumstaces be bent. The packaging made me think it was massive. That was only the packing.
The hippy arrives and with a tea in hand he starts.
He’s checking the timing with some fancy light thingy.
He's excited about it, so I ask how it works.
He explains.
I listen.
I am none the wiser, except now I think of it as a piece of dj equipment.
Well, that’s ok, he says reassuringly.
A flicker of hope crosses my face.
After 30 mins of faffing about and hearing the key repeatedly failing to turn the wheezing into a purr, I'm ready for an update.
I stick my head out the doors.
Bad news I’m afraid, there’s more wrong here than I thought.
My heart sinks a bit.
I’ve already laid out 160gbp and nothing has changed.
My engine is still broken.
I’m going to take her in to my workshop and lay her out on my bench, then I’ll ring you and tell you what we need.
Ok.
I try to stay chipper but I am failing. My uncertainty and fear is evident.
At what point does it become impractical, I mean, at what point do I stop chucking money at her and get a new one?
He smiles and he blinks slowly. It's a facial expression equivalent to the verbal “ah bless” English people tend to say when someone unknowingly does something idiotic with naive good intentions.
This here engine, new is just under 5k, you may be lucky and get one used for 3.
My eyes widen.
We’ve got a long way to go before its a write off.
It’s not a bad engine, it’s all fixable.
So, a list of parts are ordered, and for now and for another week I am, er.. a floater.