Have a weird hobby that's hard to explain.

[cbrstar]

You know other then collecting knives? Lol

Mine is collecting and riding vintage BMX's from the 80's. I don't know if its a early midlife crisis but I suddenly woke up one day and found myself obsessed with them. When I find them at thrift shops etc I can't pass them up.

But its hard to explain why a grown man is riding around on what people consider a kids bike lol. But I don't care I love it!

What are some of your guys weird hobby's/collections?

[cbrstar]

Wait...I guess Im the only weirdo on here lol

OK then lets see your "Weird" knife collection instead

[JD Spydo]

I haven't even seen a BMX bike since the 80s. I was into racing bikes back then as well as being into long distance running. But I was mostly into 12 speed racing bikes and never had anything to do with a BMX bike. The Bicycle shop where I got all my parts for my 12 speed was big into that BMX craze and it got really huge in this part of western Missouri USA. But like you alluded to it was mainly for kids 15 years and younger.

We had BMX courses and the Bike Shop that I did business with sponsored several of the kids that were good at the sport. It is so strange how obscure fads like that come and go so fast and that so few people even remember them. I just found it curious as to what drove you into it? Also it seems possible that it could even make a comeback at some point. Because I'm starting to see a lot of young people here where I live going back to physical sports rather than be addicted to high tech stuff. We now have 3 gym type clubs here in the town I live in and they are all doing a booming business from what I'm told.

[Extra330SC]

Wait...I guess Im the only weirdo on here lol

OK then lets see your "Weird" knife collection instead

You know other then collecting knives? Lol

Mine is collecting and riding vintage BMX's from the 80's. I don't know if its a early midlife crisis but I suddenly woke up one day and found myself obsessed with them. When I find them at thrift shops etc I can't pass them up.

But its hard to explain why a grown man is riding around on what people consider a kids bike lol. But I don't care I love it!

What are some of your guys weird hobby's/collections?

I get what your saying! I've been trying to "explain " my activities /interest to family, friends, coworkers for decades!

Until I got cancer 12 years ago ...it was mastering one difficult adrenaline sport after another! From jumping over my 66 Mustang using a natural 65 foot gap on my YZ250 to backwards one foot wake crosses barefoot water skiing. ..and everything in between. NOBODY understood my passion, drive, and enjoyment of these activities. ..let alone what I was even describing to them!

After coming off 4 years of cisplatin , GMCSF, and high dose Interferon (24 months) i was thankful to be alive , financial sound, and STILL happily married ...with the kids doing well considering the circumstances! After a few months I came to the hard realization that my life would be permanently changed. I couldn't do the same sports /activities that fueled my endorphin addiction.

I ended up down by the beach one day and saw a RC glider flying casually around. ...hmmmm! Make a long story short...I now fly 40% scale extreme aerobatic gas (up to 200cc 4 cylinder ) RC planes that do AMAZING maneuvers. ..mostly POST STALL! I travel the country (when healthy enough ) with my wife/ friends to fly demos , teach, major events, and just have fun in different locales . Try "explaining " this hobby to the average person. ....yeah right!

Good for you that your having fun with vintage BMX bikes....keeping active be it mind or body (or both) is the elixir of life IMHO.

Thanks for sharing

James

[James Y]

Some of my unusual interests (some of which might not be so unusual):

Collecting old-school (and many rare) kung fu movies from the 1960s, 70s and 80s).

Collecting books on paranormal and cryptid encounters of all types.

Training martial arts (entering my 43rd year of training as of this month, though I've had to cut back on some things). Yes, some people think that's weird, or more often a waste of time.

I don't know if I'm a knife collector, but I have accumulated a fair number of knives over the decades.

Energetic healing.

TBH, I don't really care if anybody thinks my interests are weird or not. They're MY interests, and they're just fine by me. Hey, if something interests you and makes you happy and it's not harming anyone, it's all good.

Jim

[TomAiello]

My entire lifestyle (and job) for the last decade has been wrapped around a very fringe hobby. There's really no way to explain or account for it--it's just a case of every person needing to do whatever it is that they need to do.

[Bloke]

TBH, I don't really care if anybody thinks my interests are weird or not. They're MY interests, and they're just fine by me. Hey, if something interests you and makes you happy and it's not harming anyone, it's all good.

Jim

Not at all! :)

I find it weird that some people have no hobbies or off beat interests at all even though often times they may have both the means and time.

[abbazaba]

That Dyno is missing it's Skyway's! :D

I still have a BMX bike or two, it's not that weird. I still have 8-9 bicycles. Dirt jumping might be my favorite thing that I don't do anymore.

[Evil D]

Oh brother, not hard at all to explain. BMX was my love way before any other hobby. I don't really collect but I've got a few I'll post pics of later.

[JD Spydo]

It is so strange how a lot of these fads do come back eventually. Back in the early 60s when I was just a little kid we had the craze of the movie "Ride The Wild Surf" with the two prominent Top 40 music stars of their day and that being "Jan & Dean" along with the early onslaught of the Beach Boys. What I'm saying is that they kind of spear-headed the craze of skateboards which more or less replicated surf boards. The skateboards were popular for about 3 years and then that fad just died and I mean quickly too.

But some time back in around the late 80s the skateboard fad was re-born and the second time around the skateboard craze totally dwarfed the first time Skateboards were popular. Truly it wouldn't surprise me to see BMX bikes make a huge comeback. Because I've noticed in the past 3 years that bicycling in general has made quite a comeback here where I live. And the Mountain Bikes are selling like Rolling Stone's Tickets at this one Bike Shop close to my home. Also like I said earlier I'm starting to see kids get active with physical sports again. That wasn't the case 3 years ago because you could go by a park, ball field or tennis court and there would be no one there at all. But that has changed a lot just in the past few months especially.

[Evil D]

Ok so like I was saying, riding was my passion well into my 20s before I had kids. We still ride today but my BMX days are over and I mostly ride a beach cruiser now. I was a GT/Dyno fanboy back then but my dream bike was always a S&M Dirtbike/Holmes. I eventually bought a Dirtbike NG and built it up and it was the last 20 inch I ever bought and rode seriously.

I've had more bikes than I can probably remember but here's a few that I have now.

I guess we'll start with my pride and joy, a '95 GT Vertigo. This is one year older than the first bike I ever bought new. I had many GT Performers before that bike and several other models and traded the original Vertigo off for a GT Fueler which was a sweet dirt jumping bike but not much good for anything else.

This one is all original and all there except the two front pegs and the front brake cable.




This was a '99 Haro Dave Mirra Pro. Built like a bank vault and heavy as a truck but rode pretty decent. I dunno where the pegs where in this pic and this was after years of riding and storage so it had taken a beating. It later got stripped to build up my S&M.


And this was the resulting S&M Dirtbike Next Generation. Great riding bike but I wish I had bought the Holmes with the longer top tube, I was way too tall for this frame but I did some of my most hardcore riding on this bike. It has since been rebuilt with some random "new school" parts, smaller drive sprockets and such and has proper Slam Bars on it (those were some old Primo Mustache Bars).


I wanna say this is an '86 or '87 but I'm a little foggy about the year at the moment, but it's a General Bikes Hustler Pro. If you're not familiar with General, this was the company that R.L. Osborn rode for before Redline (or after?). It has a few similarities with his Redline models. I got it off CL, it was pretty much all there but the rims where totally destroyed so I put on some old DK rims I had in the garage. It rides surprisingly well, like really really well, the geometry is fantastic.




I've also had a slew of old road bikes but I've sold them all off at this point....

Unknown year Centurion..

Unknown year Lotus Excelle (I knew these years once upon a time)

'81 Schwinn Voyageur 11.8, I got this one from the original owner, it was mint. I just sold it earlier this year. It was pretty and fun to ride but I never rode it and a collector was really interested so off it went.

'86 Lotus Leger, this bike was one of my favorites, it rode like a dream. Unfortunately I got ran over in 2015 in a cross walk by a douchebag in a van and it was destroyed.


And just for fun I also have a '52 Schwinn lowrider, because why not?

One time I took it and my old '88 Festiva to a car show. It was hilarious good fun. I loved that POS car too, it was a hoot.



These days I mostly ride this cruiser. It's a ThreeSixZero "In The Barrel" (silly names) and I got it on a whim off CL for cheap, and man it rides like a Lazyboy. 3 speed rear hub, extended frame, I love it.
Started out like this..


Felt too boring so I got some iron oxide paint and painted on a rust patina and added a Brooks saddle. I dunno what was up with the bar position in this pic, it's much higher and more level now and the seat is usually slammed. Eventually I think it's getting either a springer fork or some chopper forks, definitely some fatter white wall tires and maybe some different bars.






Aaaaanyway, you could say I have a bit of a thing with bikes :p

[Tdog]

Seeing the BMX pics reminds me of nearly being arrested over a couple of bikes. In the mid to latter 70's my Schwinn Continental was stolen so I went and bought new 3 speed Raleigh's for my wife and I. Back then, money was really tight and I took them straight to the Police station to have them registered. They had the jail trustee's doing this job. This guy proceeded to gawk at a young lady police officer's rear end until he fell on both our brand new bikes. Knocked the tail light off one and really scratched up both new bikes. I was young, stupid and pissed. Went into the station started cussing about the dumb sob who had just trashed our new bikes. Got pulled into the enclosed area (not cell) and asked if I wanted to see the inside. :D They didn't arrest me, guess they understood my anger and felt sorry for me.

Hard to explain but I used to collect good Tequila. Went to Mexico and visited many of the different distilleries, both large and small. Still have a nice collection of older bottles. Funny a friend of mine today commented on how much tequila he thought I drank. Told him he could have any bottle I've owned less than 5 years. He went home empty handed.

[cbrstar]

Ok so like I was saying, riding was my passion well into my 20s before I had kids. We still ride today but my BMX days are over and I mostly ride a beach cruiser now. I was a GT/Dyno fanboy back then but my dream bike was always a S&M Dirtbike/Holmes. I eventually bought a Dirtbike NG and built it up and it was the last 20 inch I ever bought and rode seriously.

I've had more bikes than I can probably remember but here's a few that I have now.

I guess we'll start with my pride and joy, a '95 GT Vertigo. This is one year older than the first bike I ever bought new. I had many GT Performers before that bike and several other models and traded the original Vertigo off for a GT Fueler which was a sweet dirt jumping bike but not much good for anything else.

This one is all original and all there except the two front pegs and the front brake cable.




This was a '99 Haro Dave Mirra Pro. Built like a bank vault and heavy as a truck but rode pretty decent. I dunno where the pegs where in this pic and this was after years of riding and storage so it had taken a beating. It later got stripped to build up my S&M.


And this was the resulting S&M Dirtbike Next Generation. Great riding bike but I wish I had bought the Holmes with the longer top tube, I was way too tall for this frame but I did some of my most hardcore riding on this bike. It has since been rebuilt with some random "new school" parts, smaller drive sprockets and such and has proper Slam Bars on it (those were some old Primo Mustache Bars).


I wanna say this is an '86 or '87 but I'm a little foggy about the year at the moment, but it's a General Bikes Hustler Pro. If you're not familiar with General, this was the company that R.L. Osborn rode for before Redline (or after?). It has a few similarities with his Redline models. I got it off CL, it was pretty much all there but the rims where totally destroyed so I put on some old DK rims I had in the garage. It rides surprisingly well, like really really well, the geometry is fantastic.




I've also had a slew of old road bikes but I've sold them all off at this point....

Unknown year Centurion..

Unknown year Lotus Excelle (I knew these years once upon a time)

'81 Schwinn Voyageur 11.8, I got this one from the original owner, it was mint. I just sold it earlier this year. It was pretty and fun to ride but I never rode it and a collector was really interested so off it went.

'86 Lotus Leger, this bike was one of my favorites, it rode like a dream. Unfortunately I got ran over in 2015 in a cross walk by a douchebag in a van and it was destroyed.


And just for fun I also have a '52 Schwinn lowrider, because why not?

One time I took it and my old '88 Festiva to a car show. It was hilarious good fun. I loved that POS car too, it was a hoot.



These days I mostly ride this cruiser. It's a ThreeSixZero "In The Barrel" (silly names) and I got it on a whim off CL for cheap, and man it rides like a Lazyboy. 3 speed rear hub, extended frame, I love it.
Started out like this..


Felt too boring so I got some iron oxide paint and painted on a rust patina and added a Brooks saddle. I dunno what was up with the bar position in this pic, it's much higher and more level now and the seat is usually slammed. Eventually I think it's getting either a springer fork or some chopper forks, definitely some fatter white wall tires and maybe some different bars.






Aaaaanyway, you could say I have a bit of a thing with bikes :p

Wow you have a great collection. That vertigo looks brand new! I remember seeing that exact bike I think in a BMX plus and wanting one really bad when I was a teenager. I actually also have a General Hustler Pro but it's just the frame and forks I'm planning on getting it powder coated.

Your road bike collection is amazing too! Do you still do any long distance riding?

[Doc Dan]

I do not have any odd hobbies other than collecting knives (pretty odd when you consider it). I do have one that is unusual for my area of the world: The Mandolin. I find myself addicted to playing this thing. I pick it up everyday and obsess on watching mandolin videos.



I am learning folk and country music (not bluegrass) and really want to branch out into classical (Bach, Paganini, etc.) as soon as I am good enough. What is weird about it is that I am not a person to sit around and listen to music during the day.

[Evil D]

Your road bike collection is amazing too! Do you still do any long distance riding?

Well somewhat long distance, we usually ride about 20 miles round trip. The furthest we've gone in a day was 84 miles round trip and I did it on that 24 inch FIT. I had another Brooks saddle on it and a much taller seat post for that ride.

[TkoK83Spy]

As a kid I used to collect pogs/slammers. There was a rock quarry deep in the woods near my neighborhood that us kids would ride our bikes too, had quite a collection of rocks. Our family used to take a summer trip every summer in my grandparents Winnebago for 2 weeks, all up and down the East Coast beaches. I also collected sharks teeth and sand dollars. I still have all of these things stowed away somewhere, besides the rocks...boxes of rocks aren't much fun to move from house to house haha.

[Extra330SC]

As a kid I used to collect pogs/slammers. There was a rock quarry deep in the woods near my neighborhood that us kids would ride our bikes too, had quite a collection of rocks. Our family used to take a summer trip every summer in my grandparents Winnebago for 2 weeks, all up and down the East Coast beaches. I also collected sharks teeth and sand dollars. I still have all of these things stowed away somewhere, besides the rocks...boxes of rocks aren't much fun to move from house to house haha.

Boxes of rocks ...ooooh BOXES of rocks! My wifes family has been involved in off road racing /recreation for longer then I have. Her father was dragging them to races from Barstow to La Paz...but mostly in the area from the Salton Sea to the Mexican border.

When she was younger and couldn't participate, Her mother took her for walks /rides to look at the amazing geology ! She started rock collecting from all over California and Mexico.

Fast forward to one of our first dates, late 1990 , At a F.U.D race in Plaster City California. We ended up in a place called the painted gorge and proceeded to spend a couple hours picking unique rocks from millions available.

In present day we have rocks(large and small) by the Jacuzzi tub, in potted plants, every room in the house, landscape features .....I'll never be able to move them if we sell. :eek: :)


James

What's odd to an adrenaline junkie like me , Is how relaxing it is to walk around outdoors to scope out beautiful and unique rocks with close family!

[James Y]

TBH, I don't really care if anybody thinks my interests are weird or not. They're MY interests, and they're just fine by me. Hey, if something interests you and makes you happy and it's not harming anyone, it's all good.

Jim

Not at all! :)

I find it weird that some people have no hobbies or off beat interests at all even though often times they may have both the means and time.

I agree 100%. I'd rather be a little 'weird' than boring (or bored). Sadly, I've known some people without a single hobby, and who considered hobbies a waste of time (and/or money). This in spite of the fact that most of them had plenty of time AND money, if they chose to do so). They seemed to age much faster.

I forgot to mention that as a kid, I used to collect ALL the Marvel comics. This was back in the '70s. I was literally obsessed with Marvel superheroes and Marvel horror/sci-fi comics, and any Marvel superhero T-shirts I could find. Keep in mind, this was WAY before Marvel and Marvel superhero movies made them popular with the general populace. The only time I ever met many others who shared that interest was when I went to the San Diego Comic-Con (back when it was small and mostly about comics, not Hollywood). Otherwise, you were considered kind of a dork if you were into comic books, especially by junior high (middle) school.

Jim

[TkoK83Spy]

[quote=Extra330SC post_id=1295546 time=1546621996 user_id=34970


James

What's odd to an adrenaline junkie like me , Is how relaxing it is to walk around outdoors to scope out beautiful and unique rocks with close family!
[/quote]


Absolutely! Long morning walks on the beach with parents and grandparents, looking for sharks teeth, shells, sand dollars, and washed up jelly fish to poke with a stick...some life long memories I'll never forget. Probably why we bought a new travel trailer to go camping with a couple summers ago, so I can vicariously live through my wife's daughters eyes :) She'll be 7 at the end of this month. Around the same age I was when our camping trips began.

[SpyderEdgeForever]

I collect electrons in various patterns.

I am also a bookworm. I like knives and books.