Bonneville America Forums Forums Off Topic Discussion Forums Lounge Other Hobbies / interests

Besides cruising on your Triumphs, what else does everyone do in there free time? I have only had my '05 America (the green one) for about 6 weeks, and love it. I also fly RC Aircraft, I'm the guy that brings all the "frankenstein" planes to the field and get told "that thing will never fly". I had a 1/4 scale 17 pound high wing "taildragger" that had a 32 cc Stihl chainsaw engine on it, complete with the detachable pull cord to crank it. Everyone laughed, but stood in awe as it flew by at 60+ mph inverted 2 feet off the ground...it was indeed a hoot, until the on-board battery disconnected in flight at full throttle and it flew for 40 yards or so inverted on it's own, then crashed in a spectacular ball of smoke.. that rocked!!!!
I also try to imitate Tom Scholz, the guitar mastermind with the band "Boston", with my Ibanez RG running through a Rockman sustainer, and Rockman chorus, then finally into my Peavy / Celestion 100 watt amp, blended with my CD player at full volume belting out Boston tunes. The wife and kids actually evacuate the property when this occurs....then I have to get my own beers from the fridge upstairs!!! The more beers I drink, the better I get (hmmm, how could that be?!?!?). I am also a "springtime only" fisherman with my 1958 Johnson outboard and my 13 foot "Sea King" runabout I paid $500 for....talk about a nightmare....bring lots of tools!!! We mostly fish for crappie on the local reservoirs here in Atlanta in April and May, then we are done, as the heat ends the season for us....
More of a bike (Triumph) enthusiast since last spring when I bought a 1981 Honda CB 650 from my neighbor for $400. I put 11,000 miles on that bike from April through October of last year, and suspect to put as much or more on my America this summer (already at 1700 miles since Feb).

I thought my grandfather was only one who made airplanes with chainsaw motors. More often he uses weekwacker mills. The funniest franken plane he made was with one of those cheap plastic baseball bats. Actually flew pretty well, and repairs didn't break the bank.
Dill

I like old cars and trucks, especially Chrysler related. Currently have a '51 Plymouth and a '69 Dodge truck. The truck had been badly butchered by a previous owner, so I don't mind making a hotrod out of it and am building a 400 inch V8 to replace the wee 6 that it came with.
Railroads of all sizes have always fascinated me. If the weekend is decent, I plan to go to Filmore and visit the vintage railroad there. I have the beginnings of a garden RR. I had an HO scale layout, but that had to be disassembled to make room for the bike shop. Plans are to rebuild it on a shelf running above the doors in the living room as soon as I work out a way to keep the cat off it.
Used to do 1:1 scale "model" aircraft, but it got to be too expensive, so I sold my Gruman Tiger. Tried to look it up some time ago and found out some idiot crashed it trying to make a downwind takeoff at Reno.

I like Home theater and have been into this as a hobby since the very early days of DVD. Its a hobby I cannot afford and I have spent way to much money on it over the years. I own a Hitachi widescreen CRT rear projection TV mated to my wifes Directivo and my set top HD Sony satellite reciever and Panasonic E-80 DVD recorder. We use the Hitachi for everyday TV and for special occasion movies we use a standard definition Optoma H-31 front projector that I table mount and shine on a portable 92 inch 1.85:1 HD aspect ratio pull up screen. I run movies to the projector from a Denon 2200 DVD player. We watch major sporting events on the projector as well when we can recieve them in high definition.

I utilize Miller & Kriesel THX select mains and surrounds coupled to the M & K sub that came with the package and then several years later I added an SVS downfiring tube subwoofer. I manage low frequency response with a separate Outlaw audio ICBM (integrated controlled bass manager) This allows me to divert low frequency sound from each individual channel at a point I desire and send it to the subs allowing the mains to breathe easier in the midrange bass and on up to the highs. I push the speakers with a separate Outlaw Audio five channel amp and I use an old receiver as a pre/pro. My wish is to upgrade to a new 7 channel amp and Outlaws new pre/pro but at this point it aint happenin...just to much money. But I can dream.

I like history and I use that E-80 set top DVD recorder to capture many hours of History channel/ Discovery channel/ Military channel to the hard drive and then I strip out the commercials and burn them to DVD-R for archive. I also back up a lot of my commercial DVD via my computer and readily available software from the net.

I look forward to HD DVD which is just around the corner (First players are available soon).

I go to the gym at least three to four times a week since last Summer when I determined to get in shape. (mid life concern) it worked and has become a habit. I lost a lot of weight down from 225 to just about 176 pounds so it must be working.

The other half and I typically take West Coast Swing lessons once a week at the Tucson West Coast Swing Dance Club. Once in a while we make it out on a Saturday night as well.

With the new bike and the gym and the dancing once a week and going to work five days a week ...I stay busy anymore.

Glad to see someone else likes trains. My dad worked for the New York Central for almost 50 years. I have a collection of O scale Lionel. Hope to have room to build a layout again someday. Had a 8x8 table as a kid in West. New York. Like to find out who has my old 79 Bonneville and if they want to sell and restore it. If not some other old Triumph. Had a 72 BSA, totaled it so I know it can't be found. It was a parts bike last I saw.

Cool, I had a RC plane once , cox engine. The first time I flew it, it just flew away, into a cornfield. Never did find it. So I had the controls left, what the heck I'll try RC boats. That lasted a bit longer, one day the rudder broke, the boat just went in circles out there in the pond. Never saw that again either. I still had the controls left, put em in the back seat of the car. One day somebody broke into my car and again, never saw them controls again ...

Once tried rc trucks,, had my a Tmaxx nitrotruck, ran it into my leg running wide open playing around.. 1 cast 6 weeks out of work and one lit on fire and thrown in the trash rc truck I was done with that..I raced motocross from the age of 5 till I was 25 when i accidnet ended that.. I have owend a few diffrent guitars through out the years.. would not call my self good, but I enjoy makeing paritys(sp) of current songs.. Right now I mostley do my paint stuff ride and work with my 6 year old newphew on his motocross racing.. He is #1 in SC with the AMA littlesnot is good lol..

Well, I'm in the last half of restoring a 1978 Triumph Spitfire. I hang out with my dog, and I bicycle, and I read (mostly non-fixtion historical), and I drink beer while BBQing on my deck, and I enjoy museums - the more off beat, the better - and I work around the house, and I travel a lot, and I pleasure my AGF as much as I can.

Rimfire and centerfire benchrest shooter. 2004 Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas state champion in rimfire. NTSA Texas state champ in centerfire.
I took 2005 off to take a break from the intense competition and the price of gasoline.
I'll be hitten' the trail again in 2006.
Dale McClure

I am a political junkie, lurking on www.lucianne.com among others for news and commentary.

I also caught the HT bug. HD Panasonic AE500 front projector, 92" screen, Yamaha receiver, SVS sub, Klipsch Cornwalls front speakers, RC-7 center, RS-7s sides, KG5.5's in the rear.

I do archery (longbow) but haven't shot for around 18 months now
I'm trying to find time to learn the banjo (I can play 3 chords, 4 if you count G - which you can't ) ..
I'm planning on taking my PADI soon and start SCUBA diving ..

I'm a avid Bass fisherman.I fish for money about 30 times a summer.That's not counting the 10 Wensday night tournys my son and I put on every year as a sort of payback for what we get out of the sport.We put on tournys at three different streches of the St. Joseph river here in northern In.

Well, I have my own business, so... I work from 7am to 5:30PM then have a relaxing 20 minute dinner, then back to work until 10 or 11. Then to sleep. The weekends are much better. I only work from 7am to 11am on Sat. and Sun. It saves me money since work is my hobby! 18 months to go and I sell this business.Hopefully I'll make it before dropping dead!

I work on my 2 old john deere l&g tractors. They work for me all year plowing my drive and mowing the lawn so keeping them going and finding parts is a rather expensive hobby. I also practice TaeKwonDo and that takes up 3+ nights a week. Lastly, camping, got to do some stuff with the family even though I have my 2 daughters in Taekwondo with me, the boy will join when he is old enough.

Currently installing four wheel power disc brakes and sway bars on this old beater. I've been working on the old gal since 1984.

steelhead fishing ,salmon fishing they are almost all year pursuits ,i,m learning to flyfish at the moment .hunting moose and deer(or camping with guns as its been called)the outdoors here in bc is outbloodystanding we got it all desert to snow, cant get enough of it,you cant beat standing in middle of nowhere by a huge campfire blasting pink floyd out. im also a big movie fanatic, havent got the HT bug but i did buy a big screen and a surround sound system theres nothing like watching the good the bad and the ugly or great escape on a big screen (or dads army for that matter). so much stuff to do so little effing time

I collect unfinished projects:

1973 Porsche 914
1974 Porsche 914
1965 Mustang Fastback
Garage interior finishing
House interior remodeling

Oh, and I recently started a web design business on the side. I collect unfinished projects for my business too. But I'm not a total slacker. I currently have two web sites in progress as well as my portfolio site (finally).

Love big game hunting. Just started coyote hunting, those critters are all over the place! Of course my son and daughter love to hunt also. Do alot of farming on the side helping my dad and uncle. Raise market steers for the kids 4-H projects, help coach Little League Baseball and youth soccer. Plus, finding what little time is left to spend time with my wife sitting on the porch making small talk.

Hey ARD and Greybeard, I also have a Lionel train set. I had the 0 gauge set up on a 12 foot length of plywood, winter village, ski slope and farm village. Wife got tired of it, took up too much room she said, I thought it looked good. My set is a 1935 Lionel Yankee Flyer commuter train. The train is the old 027 gauge but the 0 gauge track works. This train was my Dads when he was 10 yrs old. Cost me $300. to get the 1935 Engine rewired, the set was appraised to be worth $600 in 1993.
But my favorite hobby has always been motorcycles.
Sixmil

uhh... couch potato/computer junkie... oh yeah, and beer drinking!

Wendell
18 Days to my first ride of 06!

good one wendell, thats exactly what my OL says i should have wrote

Hey Steve, Thought your hobby would be filling your tub full of water and playing with those toy aircraft carriers you probably would collected over the years. My dad has alot of Lionel Trains from the '30s

Kerby

I too have the Rockman gizmo going through a 450W Peavey Renoun. I'm frequently known to generate noise via a '71 Gibson ES335. I concoct my own homebrew and have reached nirvana on a regular basis. I enjoy staring at the end of a fishing pole dipped in saltwater for hours on end. Catching fish is unimportant.

I’m an ordained minister with the Universal Life Church and prefer to be called “Reverend Tom”, or “Your Holiness”. I’m the founding father of the Church of American Secular Humanists, or C.A.S.H. for short. We worship the likenesses of dead presidents, but also greatly admire the likeness of Benjamin Franklin. In concert with the good people that bring you Depends incontinence wear, our sect is developing “Magic Underwear” (not a rip-off of the other guys) with our embossed emblem for future Ebay sales in an effort to garner funds for my impending retirement.

My retirement goal is probably the same as yours. I plan to buy a small island off the coast of Thailand, float an elephant over from the mainland on a barge, and ride it bareback (no relation) wearing nothing but a loin cloth and an AK-47 strapped to my back. I plan to let my remaining grey hair grow wild and free (like Nick Nolte) and insist the locals refer to me as “King Tom”. The island woman would run nude through my poppy fields and I would scrape the resin off their glistening bodies to remain in an opium induced fugue for the remainder of my existence in this insignificant plane of reality.

Flotation is groovy.

Or, I might just buy a trailer in Arkansas somewhere.

Regards,

Tom

I like to drink, ride 4 wheelers & shoot.

Hey Kerby, Naw,I sank the Model of the Saratoga, You know what, I really hate to see anything that resembles the Ocean. After 5 cruises I'm kinda burn't out. Don't have to worry about that here, we are definetly Land locked in Indiana. Someday I'll tell you how we got here. As you know I lived within a mile of the Ocean when I was growing up.
Steve

Aside from spending too much time here and wrenching, I like to build the occasionaly Lego set. I have a HUGe table in my parents' basement which is basically a Lego city, including a train. My sis and I have been growing it for years. I am a Sax player (bari) but I also play a little harmonica (green bullit mic, Peavey classic 50 amp), and I ride a mountain bike for fun/exercise. Need to get back in the gym too.... TOOO many hobbies.

I've been playing guitar since I was fourteen, have had a Gibson Les Paul for about ten years now (run through a Marshall combo), plus a Fender Acoustic (used to be in several bands but now I give lessons to a few kids here in town--grew up I guess). I was finally able to afford to buy a '72 Chevy Chevelle from my brother recently, so that's my newest obsession. I'm also an avid mountain biker with some of the best trails in the country in my backdoor (Tsali Rec. Area anyone?). Oh yeah, in a former life I was a techno DJ who traveled the southeast in search of the eternal buzz (Florida Funky Breaks please...); that duty has now been relegated to my new girlfriend who spends hours hunched over my turntables spinnin' some CRAAAAZZZZY beats (not a bad sight I'm told hahaha). That's about it; what else is there time for? Oh yeah, tattoos and Triumphs!!

Lee

hmm, there is life after biking? Used to do PHP bulletin boards and web portals, boat/ski constantly. Now I am like Wendell lol

I bang around in the hills behind the house in my beat up Wrangler. I was an avid prarie dog shooter as there used to be several towns around here.Now there are only a few dogs left in those towns due more to the 6 years of drought we have been enduring than anything. Used to shoot a lot of pistol and revolver and did a lot of re-loading. Then I bought my America. I had other motorcycles but the America caused me to forget about pretty much everything else. My whole off work time has been centered around riding, servicing,cleaning and polishing, and biuying stuff, for the America for nearly two years. My poor old horse looks at me with much disdain when I pull out of the barn on the America.There is other stuff that I do but I do it mainly because it needs doing.

Riding, work to pay for riding and living. Living to ride. It's a vicious cycle

Soren

Guitar picker, Gibson Mark 81 and a Wechter Jumbo Acoustics. Used to ride Observed Trials, went into coaching and paying for my kids habits in the sport as I can't seem to do it all so to speak. Did missions work overseas for ten years on a part time basis smuggling medical supplies and Bibles to people who wanted them despite the fact their governments and crooks didn't want them to have them. Found out you can do most anything that seems impossible, but first step is to try.
I am hopelessly addicted to risk taking and motorcycle riding. Which are not necessarily one and the same!

Like Tom I've also been ordained by the ULC, so that I can serve as the minister for weddings of my friends. Various interested strangers too, as the officiant fees go right towards more stuff for the ride.

Suburban yardwork. I try to hear live music at least every other week, whether a local Irish group or someone passing though the area. Camping once the weather warms up. Planning a vacation for a dozen or so friends in a new locale every year. The wife is working on her degree and we have a 9 year old daughter running around to umpteen events so I've been keeping a low, helpful, profile around the house lately.

I guess it seems more exciting living it than trying to write it up. It sure feels busy day to day and I can't recall wondering if there is something else I should add to the mix.

Reverend Matty

Over the next couple of weeks my hobbies will be practising my pipes for a wedding in early April and starting some landscape work in the garden.

Just ordered a solo seat for the speedmaster to go with the £10 pillion pad I got from ebay.....

Also just ordered the AI kit for it too, so the bike will be getting some TLC as well.

Most of my spare time during the weeks seams to be taken up being Dads taxi service as well

So did you go up to Fillmore for the Train Festival this past weekend Greybeard?
For Hobbies I craft boomerangs, watch my kids play sports, serve on the city Council in Fillmore and just dabble with stuff like street luge and try to ride a long board at my age. Keeps me young at heart. I also serve on a youth football board and help run the program.

I used to have alot of other hobbies....then I found this site and bought a BA...is there a 12 step program for BA.com

GOLF, Golf and more golf.

I also collect guitars - don't have much time to play them what with riding and golf?!

I love fishing and golfing.

I've decided the more you do the faster life travels around you, so i've cut back a little. I golf, mostly after work skins league and weekends with the kids now and then (33 and 30). I had a custom golf club business for a while (seemed like everyone wanted clubs when I wanted to go golfing) just do family and freinds now.
We (camp?) in a 30' Motorhome every other weekend or so, have a trailer so I can bring Bonnie with us. We have 3 grand boys (5-2-1) and babysit when needed.
And my newest hobby is I was recently certified as a Kansas City BBQ judge and will be judging around 9 contests during the summer. Take the rig and travel the circut and eat the best free BBQ in the good ol USA. Will be sticking around Iowa mostly this summer though.
I'll be retiring in a couple of years and always had a hankering to learn how to butcher pigs and cows. How's that for a hobby?
So you see my year is already pretty packed and I have'nt even mentioned any road trips with the Rat boys.
Too little time for too much to do.
ModelMaker

Bass Guitar... Weekend party band..