Hobbies

[jdude]

Hey everyone. I just finished a project in one of my hobbies (other than TDM) and thought I'd share it with everyone here at TDM.

 

I'm really into mountain biking. I did a lot of mountain biking in high school but then around grade 10 I stopped. Fast forward a couple years and now for the last two years I've gotten back into it. Apart from going down dangerous trails at stupid speeds (and breaking ribs), I've also been learning a lot about bike maintenance. I learned to adjust my parents department store bikes which was an okay experience (at least I don't have to pay 40 bucks to have some guy do it now). However I recently rebuilt a bike completely!

 

One day I was helping a friend move and I noticed he still had a bike that my father had owned, which we gave to him about 3-4 years previous. I had given it as a gift because my dad was going to throw it out. I asked if he uses it and he said he hasn't used it ever, so I asked if I could take it home with me and fix it up. He agreed.

 

The bike is a 1988 Schwinn mountain bike. The type of Schwinn it is, is unknown to me because it had no visible product name or number on it. When speaking to my father about the bike he informed me that when he got it in 1988 it was $1,400 and was specially designed to race. The bike had loads of rust on it, a horrible black paint job covering up the original blue paintjob and rusted out components. When I had it opened up the amount of rust on the inners of the components was astounding. Some pieces were literally just red and brown blocks.

 

For the most part you cannot purchase Schwinns in Canada anymore. I looked up dealers within Canada and there is only a handful scattered across the nation. Compare that with popular brands like Kona and Specialized bikes which you can get easily anywhere. The bike was in awful condition.

 

So I set off to fix it up, here's what I did:

Two days using iron wool to remove all the rust.

Three days sanding the old paint off by hand.

Three days priming, painting and clear coating it.

Two days repairing the brakes which required me to fabricate my own bolt.

One day adding the cables, housing and chain.

One day finding suitable stickers and vinyl so it didn't look so plain.

 

I didn't have enough foresight to take a before shot, but this was the closest I could find to one on my hard drive from before we gave it away (it was worse when I got it back):

 

 

Here it is after all my work:

 

Some things I learnt about it while working on it was the components were made of titanium which was interesting to me, the handing is really sensitive and tight, and the front fork which was added in 2002 weighs 2x more than the rest of the bike! It is also operated by springs which exist on the outside of the suspension which is very odd, the center of gravity is further back than any mountain bike I've used before and it accelerates much faster and has a much higher maximum speed than anything I've used before.

 

I'd would have liked to get some Schwinn graphics for it, but I couldn't find any affordable ones anywhere (Ebay). It also needs a new seat seeing as how the current one feels like a cement block between your legs.

 

I took it out for a couple hours today on the mountains today and it performed great! It's too bad they didn't make full suspension bikes back then

 

Does anyone else have some hobbies they'd like to share?

[Glyph Seeker]

Man I bet it's really satisfying to have something like that that you've salvaged from the scrapheap, almost! Kind of like fixing up an old family car and getting it working again.

 

My main hobby is my love of drawing - and my attempt to do some Warhammer 40k modelling - more as something relaxing than because I think the models will turn out looking good. x-D

 

 

And doodles:

 

Edited August 18, 2011 by Glyph Seeker

[Baddcog]

I've been an avid mountain biker for oh.... 20 year? now? Almost but not quite I guess. I also spent 12 years working in shops, specializing in high end stuff. A proto type bike I built up (partially, lol) for Bender was in Bike magazine on top of him... Well, he was doing a flip after a cliff drop.

 

Anywayz, it's cool that you're into riding and restoring bikes. You did a nice job cleaning that one up, it looks brand new. However, I seriously doubt there's any titanium on it. Titanium is a very expensive material, and due to it's properties it is only useful for certain applications.

 

1 : Tubing. Rigid frames made from Titanium tubes have a very resilient smooth ride. But go for about $2500 for a decent one. The tubes tend to be too flexy for suspension rigs though (though some do exist, they're more cross country orientated than downhill/freeride).

 

2: Bolts. They weight half as much as steel. So a lot of 'Titanium components' aren't titanium at all, they just have a ti-bolt 'upgrade' kit to lighten them up. Again, half the weight of steel, twice the price.

 

Your shocks might be steel spring, but I rather think they are elastomer springs. Hard to say, they look like RST brand, or Suntour SR. Depending on year/make (they are not original in 1988 they are more like 2004) they could be either. But the springs are most definitely inside the legs. The rubber spring looking things outside are just dustboots.

 

I'm not surprised Kona is everywhere in Canada, they are a Canadian company and are really responsible for the 'Freeride' section of todays mtn bike market. They pushed it hard and stuck with it making solid bikes and growing a huge grassroots base. My Freeride bike is a Kona Coiler and while a bit heavy takes everything I throw at it. (I've done about 10 foot drops but nothing bigger). Just a solid, dependable ride I'm sure I'll have for many more years.

 

But mainly I ride my Single Speed these days. I'll try and drum up some pics. I handbuilt the frame and custom built the bike, airbrushed the graphics but had someone else do the base powder coat.

 

I used to skateboard too, took it up again last fall and broke my wrist, so, probably not much anymore, lol.

 

Here's a pic of my Moots, titanium frame. I traded that in for my Kona and $1,000.

My Singlespeed

Looking down on some local trails

[Sotha]

Me? Ever after the family increase, most of my free time goes into

..and..

 

Luckily, I am also -for the time being- allowed to go to my work, which I like a lot and consider it as a hobby too.

 

The last fragments of free time I use into

 

Details of the first topic will not interest anyone. The second topic is so obscure nobody will see the trouble to understand it. Of the third I could mention that I do it only for the sport, not competitionally nor professionally. I do like to train with the competitional and professional people, especially with the ladies since they are often gentle enough with me and such an exercise will always teach me a lot of new moves.. Luckily, no broken nose so far (almost 10 years), although there was a close call recently.

[jdude]

@ Glyph Seeker:

That's cool, I've always admired people with the ability to make tiny detailed models. I've tried before and I don't have the hand control to do so. I think maybe drinking coffee so long has resulted in permanently shaky hands for me

 

 

@ Baddcog

 

Cool pics! You have a great eye the front suspension is Suntour SR from 2002ish But when you lift up the dustboots on the front fork you can see springs. I've never seen anything like it before and asked the guy at the shop if he had and he said no. I'll take a pic later!

 

I looked up the name of the crank, it's a Shimano Biopace. I can't find anything about them being titanium so I think you are right. I'll go out and check the rest of the components when I get home. The frame is a steel alloy IIRC.

 

Those trails look excellent! I'll have to take some pics for you of the ones I go on. It will be hard though because they tend to be in valleys with lots of turns and trees.

 

 

@Sotha

Cool! What type of boxing do you do? I trained with my dad for fun for about a year in Kick Boxing but gave it up because of other priorities (school and work).

[demagogue]

I don't do bikes.

Last time I rode a bike was a trail by the Dead Sea (literally the site of Sodom & Gomorrah), which you can imagine is full of canyons made of salt racing down into a deep valley, and at one point I flew off and skidded across the salt. By the end my knees & hands were bleeding. Then someone had the awesome idea we go swimming in the Dead Sea. *Worst* *idea* *ever* lol, for me. But I did it, & still worth it for the experience. In a way the searing burn was cathartic I guess, certainly true to its fire & brimstone reputation.

 

As for me, there are lots of things I could call hobbies, but the thing I'm disciplined at is piano, jazz & classical, either reading music, improving, or composing.

[Sotha]

@Sotha

Cool! What type of boxing do you do? I trained with my dad for fun for about a year in Kick Boxing but gave it up because of other priorities (school and work).

 

I'ts ordinary boxing / western boxing. I started long ago with simple fitness boxing, but after my skills got over the basic scope, I started to lean towards the competetive side for the added challenge and interest.

[Baddcog]

@jdude,

Yeah Biopace was a Suntour invention. The one that killed them actually. They had another name which I can't recall. It was basically Suntour and Shimano in mtn bike components at the time. The oval rings were developed so you got more power in the downstrokes, but it made it harder to keep a smooth spin. So they eventually got phased out. Suntour basically bit the dust and Suntour SR still makes some stuff but Shimano now rules the bike component market and their only competition is Campy in Road bikes.

I thought that was biopace but couldn't tell if the rings were oval or replaced with round ones. The crank arms are cold forged aluminum. Most are these days, but Shimano's new stuff is channel forged and they weld a plate on the back, making them tubular. Very light/stiff and strong.

 

You should look for marks on the components like XTR, XT, DX... Those were component lines. And in those days you'd by a DX bike which was slid mid ground, yours is probably XT or XTR for that price point. These days they mix groups for price points (cheap crank, nice rear derailer for better shifting).

 

I think I may have seen some springs like that before actually. It gets hard to keep track of after awhile. Each company has 4-10 shocks per year, every couple years they redesign the entire line. There are probably 20 companies that make them now... After 12 years of that you have hundreds of shocks and internals and whatnot to keep track of...

 

I love tight twisty trails in trees and most of the places I've lived are like that. But currently I'm in the high desert. That's the Colorado river down there right before it goes into Utah. We got tight and twisty, but not too many trees.

 

Just got to watch the vid. I'd love to be able to ride in Kamloops, long way away though. Weird angle though from beside the head, was kind of a hard vid to watch, a bit of weird distortion from that angle.

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@demagouge, you can probably tell from my bike geek history lesson that I've had my fair share of crashes... So many I can't count but I do have some good stories

 

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@Sotha,

Jumping in toxic waste sounds fun in post apocolyptic way. Definitely more fun than being punched in the face. (Though the ground has punched my i the face a few times biking).

[jdude]

I've checked the derailleurs and other components and they are XT brand. The frame is 'Chrome moly' (I think, that's the only sticker on it). There's a tiny switch you can flip to enable or disable clicking the rear gears gear to gear. I've never seen that before I thought it was pretty interesting. The wheels are Weinmanns and Joy-tech axles.

 

I had a nasty fall yesterday when my front wheel hit some invisible object and threw me over the handlebars. I couldn't figure out what I hit. Now I got road rash on my left leg

[Baddcog]

XT is solid. That's the solid duty race gear (XTR is 'pro level' race gear). Those components, while dated, will last forever.

 

Chrome moly is Steel. Just a mix of alloys in steel to make it stronger and lighter. Steel bikes come in 2 flavors. Hi-tensile (Huffy's, cheap ass bikes) that bends very easily and is very heavy. And Chro-mo of which there are endless varieties (some are very expensive now, very thin wall and light). My single speed is a mix of several brands of chro-mo (Tange, reynolds...), I just picked the tubes I wanted based on shape/size/double butting.

 

road rash sucks!

[jdude]

Cool! I'm glad I posted here, sounds like I saved some good stuff from the dump

[demagogue]

I don't know how much this fits into a hobby, but lately I've been interested in making maps for TripleA, which is an open source engine for Axis & Allies gaming (normally online PvP, the AI is just functional, but it's getting better). I like strategy & war games generally... But there's something about the Axis & Allies model that's almost irresistible. I don't know what it is, but the system just clicks perfectly for a strategy game that's not too overburdened but not too "simple" either, right in that sweet spot.

 

Anyway, of course people have been trying to move the game into new wars... I pretty much like all of them, especially the maps for WWI, the Napoleonic wars, Ancient world wars (Rome, Carthage, Parthians), Arab-Israeli wars, Sino-Japan wars, somebody did the *entire* US Civil War... But the best scenarios seem to be when you have a huge theatre with multiple parties, and everyone has at least 2 fronts to worry about & prioritize, so judgement is a must. What I want to see is some *really* different theatres though, things outside Europe or WWII-like, things that bring me to some corner of the world I don't think about often.

 

I just made a map for the "Cold War in Asia cir. 1947-54" which includes the Korean War, Chinese Revolution, and 1st Indochina (Vietnam) War, and an alt scenario that adds a Japanese Civil War (under the alt scenario where the USSR occupies N Japan), so you have these 4 theatres raging at the same time, China Communists can roll into N. Korea & Vietnam, the Viet Cong have their own Ho Chi Minh "canal" to skip straight into S Vietnam, etc. The part I particularly like is the French don't rearm in Vietnam (to simulate the deadline until they pull out), so they have to build the S. Vietnam army ASAP to take their place, and then the S Vietnamese have to hold on long enough for the US to pull out of Korea (& Japan in that vers) to commit... It's a really cool dynamic where you have to have a global strategy for all the allies to work together. Just a matter of getting the balancing & timing right, not a trivial thing, especially since this is my first map and a lot of old school players are so demanding. Maybe when I get further along, one of you guys might help me playtest it some.

 

I was trying to think of some other ideas for maps too on the drawing board like the 1880s scramble for Africa, the European conquest for the Americas (Natives included), or one focusing specifically on Comancheria (Comanche, Apache, Spanish rivalry), or pre-Columbian Aztec conquests, the S. American revolutionary wars, the Mongol invasions, Byzantines vs Ottomans, Russian empire-building & its civil war, the Arab expansions, ancient conflicts in the Levant & Egypt or Mesopatamia, conflicts around India or Iran or the Asian steppes... There are just so many cool possibilities and corners of the world for people to just keep using the same European maps for the big Western conflicts -- even then why not some more obscure things like the wars of religion, the Franco-Prussian war, the Crimean War, or more Naval based wars too like the Russo-Japan war. Well anyway, just something I've been having fun with recently, still technically a "video game" but enough like a board game to seem special.

[Diego]

Glyph Seeker, did you make those models? they look awesome! I used to collect lead figures and (try to) paint them (this hobby didn't catch because I was always afraid of ruining the figure hahah)

 

 

I have a hobby collection problem. I call it that because it's better than calling it obsessions

 

Anyway, the ones I've dedicated more time are: (on the music category) bass playing, keyboards, orchestration and learning how to use samples and midi sequencers. Drawing, painting, animating, modeling etc (2d and 3d). Games, obviously! and programming (closely related to games), bread making.. yeah, the rest is either too recent or I didn't dedicate more than a year to call it a hobby

 

Physics was once a hobby too, but I had the fantastic idea of making it my main activity and now I have to study it even when I don't feel like

[Glyph Seeker]

Glyph Seeker, did you make those models? they look awesome! I used to collect lead figures and (try to) paint them (this hobby didn't catch because I was always afraid of ruining the figure hahah)

 

 

I have a hobby collection problem. I call it that because it's better than calling it obsessions

 

Anyway, the ones I've dedicated more time are: (on the music category) bass playing, keyboards, orchestration and learning how to use samples and midi sequencers. Drawing, painting, animating, modeling etc (2d and 3d). Games, obviously! and programming (closely related to games), bread making.. yeah, the rest is either too recent or I didn't dedicate more than a year to call it a hobby

 

Physics was once a hobby too, but I had the fantastic idea of making it my main activity and now I have to study it even when I don't feel like

 

Thanks, Diego! I'm going to make a thread in Off-Topic I think to show them off I think - especially as I finally get around painting some!

 

I spent a HUGE amount of time over the past few months buying extra bits and pieces online and reposing them - experimenting as I've NEVER done a proper modelling project before so stumbling over hurdles like how Modelling Putty won't magically read your mind and turn out the way you want it to... ;-P

 

I bought all this and more unassembled in January, been slowly adding to it over time, there's some more than that now and to come - but I really want to get an HQ character assembled so a full army photo doesn't have a gaping hole in the middle. =-P

 

=======

 

I'm very interested to see more artwork from you over time if you'd like to share. =-3

[Diego]

Thanks, Diego! I'm going to make a thread in Off-Topic I think to show them off I think - especially as I finally get around painting some!

 

I spent a HUGE amount of time over the past few months buying extra bits and pieces online and reposing them - experimenting as I've NEVER done a proper modelling project before so stumbling over hurdles like how Modelling Putty won't magically read your mind and turn out the way you want it to... ;-P

 

I bought all this and more unassembled in January, been slowly adding to it over time, there's some more than that now and to come - but I really want to get an HQ character assembled so a full army photo doesn't have a gaping hole in the middle. =-P

 

=======

 

I'm very interested to see more artwork from you over time if you'd like to share. =-3

 

Do show more! Once I tried to assemble a helicopter model, everything went great.. I've polished every piece, glued them, polish the seam etc etc.. when the thing was almost done I suspended the helicopter with a string so I could position the last sticker on it! .... and it FELL ON THE GROUND INTO A MILLION TINY PIECES. I think I stood there, frozen, holding a string with an empty stare for 5 minutes (it wasn't funny at the time)

[Glyph Seeker]

Do show more! Once I tried to assemble a helicopter model, everything went great.. I've polished every piece, glued them, polish the seam etc etc.. when the thing was almost done I suspended the helicopter with a string so I could position the last sticker on it! .... and it FELL ON THE GROUND INTO A MILLION TINY PIECES. I think I stood there, frozen, holding a string with an empty stare for 5 minutes (it wasn't funny at the time)

 

I can't help but feel that that's a metaphor for life! =-P

 

Here, this is a much smaller scale of Epic: Armageddon, same world as Warhammer 40000, but a mostly discontinued game. I just recently managed to get some Warhound Titans - which used to be super rare.

 

 

Unpainted at the moment, this is my Space Wolf Army. The holes in the infantry stands are for interchangeable characters who affect the stats: Librarians, Chaplains and Commanders. Things are so expensive I couldn't afford to glue them in permanently and make multiple stands. >.>

 

I also have an Eldar army in this scale but I'm trying to paint strip it and I'm finding it very... reluctant.

[demagogue]

In the neighborhood of wargaming, I made a map for the Cold War in Asia (Chinese Rev, Korean War, 1st Vietnam War, edit: and in one version a Japan Civil War variant tacked on too) & got it running in the open source Axis & Allies engine (TripleA) today. Everything before now has just been trying to get it to run in the engine... Now that I can actually play-test it, I can figure out which pieces go where & balance it. These maps are a lot of fun if you like the Axis & Allies mechanics.

 

Here's a screenshot:

[Glyph Seeker]

@Demagogue

 

Do you rate Hearts of Iron at all? I greatly enjoyed HoI 2, even though I was just playing around with it doing silly things...

 

HoI3 has been on sale on Steam a bit but I still wasn't convinced that I would enjoy it much.

[demagogue]

I saw Hearts of Iron 3 on the shelf at my used bookstore for like $3, so I bought it (along with IL-2 and Darwinia). But my new laptop doesn't even have a CD drive, so I haven't even had a chance to play it yet, lol. It sure looks like the kind of game I'd like. I'll get to it someday.

[Glyph Seeker]

I saw Hearts of Iron 3 on the shelf at my used bookstore for like $3, so I bought it (along with IL-2 and Darwinia). But my new laptop doesn't even have a CD drive, so I haven't even had a chance to play it yet, lol. It sure looks like the kind of game I'd like. I'll get to it someday.

 

Oh man IL-2 is the best flightsim ever! Like HoI2 I didn't play it "properly" I just played it on the lowest difficulty but it was glorious. The 1946 version is a DREAM COME TRUE, an alternative reality timeline simulated beautifully. Rocket planes, thermojets and jets and hybrids. BEAUTIFUL <3

 

Just using instant action with that was a joy. I also enjoyed playing the FInnish campaign against the Soviets.

 

Darwinia is a great little game. Very much relies on you being nostalgic for 80s home computer and arcade gaming though.

 

HoI2 === I tried playing that LAN with an RL friend. It was weird but strangely hypnotic. We played from 1936 with me as America steering towards fascism to ally with his Germany. My entire fleet was annihilated by the ROyal Navy and they even tried to invade through Canada, very exciting. I got super frustrated with him letting me stew without transports and not letting me have all the islands I'd need to invade other nations and station my troops. I tortuously invaded New Zealand, Australia, Indonesia, South Africa... Whilst he swept through the whole of Europe and Asia. In a pique of irritation I began lying that I didn't have any rocketry or atomic research to share... When one of my "Peacemaker" bombers dropped a nuke on Bolivia it made him sit up and pay attention >:-3

[DeTeEff]

 

 

Excerpt from my imperial guards army, painted to match the real life Swedish colours

[Glyph Seeker]

Hey!

 

Great to see some stormtroopers! I've got my fingers crossed they'll release some plastic stormtroopers and Valhallans at some point in the next few years! Resin and metal are expensive. =-<

[Melan]

"Great to see some stormtroopers!"

 

Now that's not something you hear every day.

[lost_soul]

Tonight I pulled a hard drive out of a Tivo that was headed for the trash. The drive works fine; no bad sectors or anything. I have it in a computer now. Ever sense I was little, I've always managed to find uses for parts of equipment people were discarding. It blows my mind to think about how many perfectly operable components are thrown away every day.

[stumpy]

there's a site somewhere on the internet where you can get free computer stuff that no one wants anymore, lots of companies update there hardware every year and that junked computer hardware has to go somewhere.