Well this has kept me busy this week.

     It's a bit of a mixed bag this blog entry...

I am pretty sure many people must be feeling like myself, well the ones who are shielding that is. You know when you have been off work for going on roughly 8 or 9 months I think that's how long it has been, on and off, more off than on. Well you kind of get to a point where you have binge-watched everything on Netflix, Amazon Prime and even Disney. You are fed up reading and there is only so much Facebook you can handle, as it's mostly doom & gloom. So what then?

I mean I have Myrtle my we 65 Bug back, however I have discovered whilst she was away and out of sight, as it were, she was also out of mind, and since her return I have felt really anxious... I know sounds stupid, but I think it's because she still requires loads of work, and it's like I am ploughing money into something that feels like will never be complete.

Myrtle I know the rear wheels don't look right just, yet they aren't finished

 

Myrtle is 56 years old this year

I have been out for a few practice drives in myrtle, all very enjoyable, however the clutch is not quite right, so I am waiting to take her back to Bewick Mobility to get her sorted. I can't go for a drive with the fitter until I think it's the 12th of April due to Covid restrictions.

Oh! And whilst I am on about Myrtle I may as well tell you about the new 15 x 8 steel smoothie wheels I bought for her a while ago. I wasn't sure what tyres to go with so rather than go out and guess and buy a new pair, my dad visited one of our local scrapyards and managed to pick up a pair of 195/65/15's for a fiver. The lads up at the General Garage fitted the tyres for my dad for nowt, so a huge thank-you goes to them.

 

Anyhoo we got the new wheels on, and instantly I could see the passenger side wheel was sticking out further than the drivers side. After much measuring, it seems a theme on this car, and writing a post on the Classic VW Forums we had a kind of plan of attack.

More measuring, told you it was a theme, and we discovered that the rear wings are slightly mismatched. Apparently this is common with 'repo' wings. The passenger side is about 10 mm narrower than the drivers side and making the car look slightly wonky.

Myrtle cannot be bent as since having her tracking set up, again at the General Garage, using a laser alignment gizmo, she drives very straight and does not pull or drift. I am now trying to convince myself that it is just a quirk of Myrtle and I can live with it, however my OCD is really niggling me and fighting me every step of the way.

Ern also cut off Myrtles rear bumps stops, which allows her to sit a lot lower at the rear.

Rear Bumps stops gone

Other things to sort in the short term I think I need a new brake master cylinder as Myrtle's brake pedal keeps dropping to the floor. My dad thought he had fixed the old one as it was sticking, however it now appears as if this maybe the culprit in my brake problem again.

And I am sure sometime ago I must have mentioned Myrtle's wipers, they simply will not 'Park'. You have to manually turn them off at just the right moment. Myrtle has a full brand-new custom wiring loom, so it can't be that, so when my dad and I do the brakes job I am going to remove the wiper motor and get it sent away to get looked at. I have checked on eBay for a recon motor, Wow! They are canny dear like.

Following these bits n bobs this is where I am getting a bit anxious as the next jobs are all big money ones. Things like do I go for a new engine and box, a total respray and then of course she needs a new interior.

Ok enough of Myrtle...

On to my bike, my Specialized Turbo Levo ebike to be exact. A good few weeks ago my bike stopped working correctly, it wouldn't switch on by the top tube button. If I fannied on with the handle bar buttons it would start working, think I have mentioned this in a blog too, dear me I sometime think I am going nuts, it's like ground hog day, anyhoo I digress.

After making a telephone call to Rutland Cycles Nottingham, the place where I had purchased my bike from and trying to get it booked in for what I thought was a warranty claim problem I soon became rather pissed off. Initially I managed to get booked in for an appointment no problem, however my dad informed me he had a hospital appointment on that day, so I had to call Rutland the following day to try and make another appointment. The bloke I spoke to was most unhelpful and was making up all sorts of what appeared excuses. I can understand we are in a lockdown, however my bike is really important to me as it has helped keep me sane.

So firstly he got on about lockdown, then he said a local dealer would fix it. I informed him I had been Intouch with a local dealer who advised me they may charge for any repairs. He then advised I call another local dealer which I did, to be told exactly the same information, that they would charge for repairs. Upon calling Rutland up, this guy still didn't believe me, so he advised me to call the Specialized Concept Store in Harrogate. So that was another call, just to be told the same thing, that they would possibly charge and that there was a 4-week wait before my bike may even be looked at. I then rang Rutland yet again and again was not believed, however did manage to get an appointment for the 17th of March.

Anyhoo long story short I decided the amount of fuel to get down to Nottingham and the chance of being fined for being caught out of area I would just take the bike to Infinity cycles over at Durham. They had my bike 2 days, and it was sorted, free of charge under warranty...result.

As I mentioned earlier and gets me on to my next bit of what has kept me busy this week. I have been watching various things on YouTube. Quite a bit to do with cryptocurrency, however I came across a few videos about Redbubble and t-shirt designs. "Ooh" I thought "I might give this a bit play with".

Redbubble

 A few of my designs LoL

And so this week I have been messing about with various web based design programs and also learning how to do certain things with an old version of Photoshop I have installed. I used to use Photoshop a lot back in the day when I was doing custom CD & DVD covers, but haven't use it in yonks, so I have had to learn by experimenting and watching a few online tutorial videos.

I have to say, although my designs are not exactly professional they have kept me entertained and busy I will be chuffed to bits if I make even one sale. I have 43 designs so far. I would have had more, however a few have been taken down as I inadvertently breached some copyright or other, by using images containing Lego and Star Wars. Oh! And not sure if my classic VW designs are available.

  

Well that's about it, it's 3:36 am, so another late night. I am on day 498x of cycling today and I have done 2750 sit-ups this month so keeping up with my challenge to cycle another year in support of Arctic ONE. As usual any donations greatly accepted. 

All for Arctic ONE

Not exactly an exciting blog I know, but hey keeping it real, it's just what I am doing at the moment.