Other hobbies

[ack1961]

Where do you ride, Steve? I've a Montesa Cota which I need to rebuild but tooling through the woods on it is great fun!

What year is your Cota?  Trials bikes are neat, and riding trials requires quite a bit of technical agility and skill.

We mix it up a bit. Brushy Mountain (Taylorsville) is great.  NCMP (Henderson - not far from you) is also fun.  I have 3 riding buddies that have between 25-35 acres each, and that they've cut trails on their land.  Mostly single-track/hare scramble type stuff.  Lately, I've been taking my 16 year old down to Laurinburg to ride at Outback ATV park.  He just started showing some interest, and it's a great place to relax and ride.  I was riding at Leesvile (Durham) this past Sunday in the icy woods, and wadded a chain. The chain tore the slave cylinder (and the guard) right off the casing of my KTM. I'm out until I can fix that mess.

[Highlander]

I have a 1/48 XB70 and tons of various 1/48 versions of the Blackbird, A-12. SR-71A and B, and a 1/48 B-1B unbuilt. I used to have two built 1/48 SR-71A's detailed down to the seatcushions, one in Vietnam era markings and the other in low visibility markings.

Some serious modeling going on... A nearly four foot XB70 - !!!!! - gotta pic...?

Seen the EF numerous times - I'll post some pics - why the fasconation with the 12/71...?  (the one that flew fastest is over here - posted that pic some time back but will post again...)


the only "live" one I ever saw was the one that set the speed record (now held by Concorde) for the fastest Atlantic crossing in 1974 and displayed at Farnborough that year - I missed the F22 that displayed in '08 but did see the last European appearance of the F117 in '07... got to work on Concorde back in the day... (British Airways from 76-81)



The Viscount window was an "in" family joke - that first flight was a trip to Scotland in the very early 60's with my mother and sister - I ended up stuck on my own by the emergency exit door, with no window - the pilot came back, and seeing my miserable face had a chat with another passenger who swopped - "his" son had the window seat, but at least I could see out - something very magical emerging from grey and wet to blue and white... now, I can always have a "window" seat... (cost £10 at an airshow)

Ther some exceptionally good birdie shots and stories, Gents... There are Peregrines nesting in Central London (all them tower blocks - so many pigeons, so little time... sorry pidgies... ) and a well known site by the South Coast is Chichester Cathedral, that has had successful peregrine families for several years... never seen any wild eagles here, but Red Kites (a very successful re-introduction) and Buzzards are getting closer to London all the time - signs of a better ecology...

[Denis]

It's a '71 247.


It's a lot of fun and I can ride it in my yard in the city and no one complains! I've never had so much fun going so slow! Henderson is pretty fun although I wish they'd maintain the woods trails a little better. I was out there on the Cota and all these guys on new KTMs were like, "You got that thing way out here through all that mud with those old trials tires? Damn!"

I've heard Brushy Mountain is awesome! Sanford apparently has a nice riding facility too but heck, if your friends have all those acres you're set! Is your KTM a 250? I think some guy on Craigslist Raleigh posted a wrecked one which you might be able to use for parts if it's the same model as yours.

[ack1961]

It's a '71 247.


It's a lot of fun and I can ride it in my yard in the city and no one complains! I've never had so much fun going so slow! Henderson is pretty fun although I wish they'd maintain the woods trails a little better. I was out there on the Cota and all these guys on new KTMs were like, "You got that thing way out here through all that mud with those old trials tires? Damn!"

I've heard Brushy Mountain is awesome! Sanford apparently has a nice riding facility too but heck, if your friends have all those acres you're set! Is your KTM a 250? I think some guy on Craigslist Raleigh posted a wrecked one which you might be able to use for parts if it's the same model as yours.

Nice bike!  I love it.  I'm never surprised when I see anyone anywhere on dirtbikes...It amazes me what some folks can get through. It's funny, because of lot of woods/trails guys are swapping their rear tires for Trials tires, especially at the hilly places like Brushy.
I'm supposed to be riding this weekend in Sanford at Devil's Ridge MX Park, but that's just not gonna happen. I usually don't ride MX, but it's an opportunity to ride a good track.  There's a local group (out of Apex or Holly Springs) called "Quarter Throttle", and they try to get folks together to ride at various places.  You should check it out.  There's a couple of pics of my hurtin' little unit, which is a 2000 KTM 200MXC 2-stroke.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ack1961/4273897461/in/photostream/

[Denis]

The Hornet is an ongoing hobby.  My late Father-in-law remarked that AMC stood for "A Mechanics Crisis."

That is awesome! What's under the hood? In high school I saw the one and only SC/Hornet I've ever laid my eyes on. Freakin' cool!

[eb2]

Fun stuff, and interesting how a lot of the same things intersect with the bass community.

As a kid I went through a period of model building.  I got into it via a Christmas gift of an Aurora P-47, and my dad had to explain to me what it was.  I got pretty good at it, and gravitated to the Tamiya tanks towards the end.  I did build a few planes with my kid, but I have lost the passion for it.

I was into vintage guitars and basses in the teen years, and kept up with it until the early 90s when it really kept getting out of hand.  It didn't bother me to gradually walk away from it as I quit playing on stage and the days of snagging stuff for less than $300 was long gone.  Lots of memories and a few things sitting in the case are good enough.

I did have a few old cars, and that is another "hobby" that priced itself into the stratosphere.  I don't miss those though.  They became work, expensive, and impractical.

So now I stick to vinyl and stereo stuff.  I was an early bailer on the tube stereo stuff. I saw the same guitar pattern happening, and I sold out for big profit before I got sucked in.  I have a couple of really nice SS units, some great speakers, and too many good turntables lying around. Now is a good time to sell those off too, which I have been doing a lot of.  Turntables - good ones - are hot movers.   

I think I just need to get rid of the hobby mindset for a few years.  Talking about basses here is fun, reading about other peoples stuff is fun.  Having stuff that I can't find time for sitting in the basement is getting to be untenable.

[TBird1958]

 I love this thread!
Flags, birds, aircraft, cars, boats, vinyl, motorcylces and firebreathing 

Most awesome!

"Mark, EMD used to be owned by GM, right? Aren't EMD marked locomotives generally demos or new models out for testing?"

Yup that's right. SD-45's first demo'd in 1966 featuring a V 20 3600hp engine with 645ci displacement for each cylinder, they traveled the U.S. extensively and generated orders for 1,260 units. There were other smaller locomotives in the series as well, some of which had teething problems for example the GP-40 that suffered from cracks in the underframe with the unit rotating back to EMD for repair work - The demonstrators were still owned by EMD at that point so the were sent out as replacements for horsepower hours lost, such was the case on the Rio Grande, thus my reason for having one plus I really like the metallic blue and white paint scheme     

[SKATE RAT]

Fun stuff, and interesting how a lot of the same things intersect with the bass community.

As a kid I went through a period of model building.  I got into it via a Christmas gift of an Aurora P-47, and my dad had to explain to me what it was.  I got pretty good at it, and gravitated to the Tamiya tanks towards the end.  I did build a few planes with my kid, but I have lost the passion for it.

I was into vintage guitars and basses in the teen years, and kept up with it until the early 90s when it really kept getting out of hand.  It didn't bother me to gradually walk away from it as I quit playing on stage and the days of snagging stuff for less than $300 was long gone.  Lots of memories and a few things sitting in the case are good enough.

I did have a few old cars, and that is another "hobby" that priced itself into the stratosphere.  I don't miss those though.  They became work, expensive, and impractical.

So now I stick to vinyl and stereo stuff.  I was an early bailer on the tube stereo stuff. I saw the same guitar pattern happening, and I sold out for big profit before I got sucked in.  I have a couple of really nice SS units, some great speakers, and too many good turntables lying around. Now is a good time to sell those off too, which I have been doing a lot of.  Turntables - good ones - are hot movers.   

I think I just need to get rid of the hobby mindset for a few years.  Talking about basses here is fun, reading about other peoples stuff is fun.  Having stuff that I can't find time for sitting in the basement is getting to be untenable.

i might be into one of those turntables.

[eb2]

What are you looking for?  A club deck or a home machine?

There are a lot out there, but getting one that is all there and working is sometimes a trick, including having a good cart which is set correctly.  I have few favorites that bounce back and forth with my mood.  I had a great Thorens TD-166 for years, but I lucked into the classic sleeper BIC 980 and never looked back. 

I would be curious as to what turntables do it for guys and gals who still spin the vinyl. 

[Psycho Bass Guy]

Some serious modeling going on... A nearly four foot XB70 - !!!!! - gotta pic...?

Not yet, but I'll see about digging that storage tub out and doing a photo-inventory. I also need to take pics of my amps. I owe a thread of them elsewhere.

why the fasconation with the 12/71...?  (the one that flew fastest is over here - posted that pic some time back but will post again...)

... the one that flew the fastest unclassified. In the Sled Driver series of books, the retired SR-71 pilot who wrote them matter-of-factly stated that the Blackbird regularly attained speeds well in excess of Mach 3.5 and actually had to be throttled back at high speeds as the engines became more efficient as they took on more ramjet rather than turbojet properties. Its top speed is still classified, but it's not out of the realm of probability to imagine that it could do Mach 4+, especially since it regularly outran Chinese and Soviet missiles that should have been able to catch it at altitude if all it could do was 3.31, its published "cruising speed."

As for my love for the Blackbird, it's just a mean looking delta that flies like is has a reason to, and when my Dad was in the Air Force during the early 60's, he was stationed at Kadena, Okinawa, where the CIA kept their A-12 before the Air Force had ownership and it became the SR-71. He mainly gassed KC-135's, F-4's, and the odd B-52, but his stories about the flight line shutting down whenever they brought out the Blackbird are too cool.

the only "live" one I ever saw was the one that set the speed record (now held by Concorde) for the fastest Atlantic crossing in 1974 and displayed at Farnborough that year - I missed the F22 that displayed in '08 but did see the last European appearance of the F117 in '07... got to work on Concorde back in the day... (British Airways from 76-81)

I love the Concorde, too. Have you seen the documentary on its last flight? I'm indifferent to the F-22, and am probably a bit skeptical about some of its capability claims, same with the "Wobblin' Goblin" F-117. It seems with those planes, rather than push the envelope for performance, they rely too much on technology to take the pilot out of the equation and are basically precursors to a totally unmanned fighter fleet. With the F-117 retired, (shortwave radar's a bitch ain't it?) and the F-22's production (rightfully) stopped, the US is trying to make an F-16 out of the VERY underwhelming F-35 JSF, which is basically a "Stealth Harrier." IMO too much money has been pumped into too many programs that don't deliver, all in the name of politics.  It is with no small satisfaction to note that the Eurofighter was able to get target locks on the F-22 at much longer ranges than thought possible when the US borrowed some for evaluation.  The dogfighting results remain unpublished, but I'm guessing the Raptor fared no better there either. An SU-37 would be even less forgiving.

BTW, saw another Redtailed Hawk today on the way to my ballroom dance class (don't ask.)

[Psycho Bass Guy]

I would be curious as to what turntables do it for guys and gals who still spin the vinyl.  

I have a Sony PSX-40 direct drive automatic with an Audio Technica cartridge. It's nothing fancy, but it sounds pretty good, even through a stock Dynaco PAT-4, but the magic happens in my power amps, a pair of Bogen MO-100's and my speakers, a pair of KRK ST-6 studio monitors.

[SKATE RAT]

oh just something nice for home.i don't know much about turntables,kinda funny considering how many records i have?but i have a Tecnics belt drive and old  KLH tweed speakers.

[jmcgliss]

I have a 1984 AR belt-drive.  Sold my NAD gear and bought some retro Pioneer receivers with the cool blue fluoro-luminescent displays at good prices.

This thread is driving me nuts...all my relevant hobby photos are on film I haven't digitized yet (vinyl, vintage 1/24th scale slot cars, high speed open track driving, etc).  Guess slide conversion is going to be my hobby this year.

[uwe]

Reptiles and CDs. I can unashamedly buy an Air Supply and a Tom Waits CD on the same day, listen to them in sequence in the car and enjoy both. Something is wrong with me, very wrong.

I have a large terrarium with two green iguanas, one black one, a pair of blue-tongued skinks, a spiketail monitor, several tokeh gekkos and two African skink type lizards I don't know the English name of. Reptiles fascinate me, always have.

[Denis]

I would be curious as to what turntables do it for guys and gals who still spin the vinyl. 

I have old Technics with a Bang & Olufsen cartridge. It runs through an older Kenwood stereo system and sound exits two omnidirectional speakers I bought in 1984 from one of my college suitemates. They are old but the still rock. Here's one of 'em: