[Closed] How obsessive are you with your hobbies and interests?

Guilty as charged sah!

* is shamefaced by quantity of Twin Peaks memorabilia, random bike bits and ancient jazz guitars cluttering the 16 household *

But... mrscamo16 gets her own back in the bags/wardrobe dept.

Guilty!! Think yourself lucky your good lady understands the male psyche so well 😆

guilty to a degree. the wishlist with any new hobby is a fun thing to build, but i've learnt from previous purchases that entry level is there for a reason.

the idea of a hobby is sometimes better than having the hobby, plus once i'm happy with my proficiency at something i tend to get bored and want to learn/start something new.

very bad case here.. 😳

Holds hands up (having just bought Olympic weight disc set and bar last night)....

erm....functionally autistic. that'll be me. Who is Zoe Williams?

Guilty - stares misty eyed at the piles of "stuff" in the garage form hobbies-gone-by.

A couple of my friends have been trying for a few years to get me to go and have a round of golf with them. I daren't!

mt - she's a journalist. She wrote a very funny article on this subject. I'll try and find a link

yup. I spend more time "researching" hobbies than actually doing them.

Not so much obsessive as impulsive... like wanting to buy a trials bike after seeing the latest Danny MacAskill video, or randomly deciding I want a pair of inline skates for no good reason then spending ages researching them.

not very tbh yah saddos
Some main hobboes - MTB,campling, music and guitar cost some money but i dont have upgrad fever

well i did just buy a new frame but a shhh on that one

Another guilty plea from me 😳

Me me me.
I obsessed about horses and horse riding as a child, so much so I saved up and bought my own horse.

Obsessed about mtbing, so much so that I nagged, bribed and pushed hubby into the sport when he was a new boyfriend.
Never had the money to buy all the gear or the best equipment, however would have if the funds were available.

yup, this is me.

I really dislike Zoe Williams ,but I am functionally autistic. 🙄

Limited by funds and time, but otherwise true.

I do have 40+ Scalextric cars though.

I must be a girl. Perhaps me and Bunnyhop have been transposed.

I like nice bikes and that but I'm far from obsessive about it, I don't enjoy maintenance and cleaning them so I just do it when I have to, I'm equally happy going out on the 50 quid dog as I am on the £1500 mountain bike. And I can take it or leave it. I spend a lot of time on a bike but I'm also prone to waking up having oplanned for a bike ride and deciding to just forget about it. I have absolutely no real desire to have the most expensive kit, it'll only wear out. Reliable kit that lasts is far more valuable to me.

Even outside of cycling, I'll only ever buy mid-range kit. I'm still drawing with the first mechanical pencil I bought for a few quid rather than the very expensive pencil I got as a present.

guilty as charged M'Lud.

Radio control gliders. Windsurfing till injury made it painful.

Funnily enough I am far less bothered with the latest must haves and technical nuances of bikes. Although a quick look at my CRC account tells me I average about 200 per month in "bits and bobs".

Sadly I often stay away from trying new things as I know if I enjoy it there is a slippery slope not far away.

very much that way sadly, however I have now been able to spot when the idea of buying/owning the kit takes over the desire to actually 'do' the sport/hobby. If that is the case then I tend to just abandon it altogether.

I learnt my lesson from my Motocross days. During my peak (early 20's) I'd spent £33,000 in a year on bikes, kit etc. It was out of control, never again.

If i want something i usually have it by hook or crook within a week or so. Enjoy the panic trying to flog to finance

Yeah guilty as charged.

It used to be Hi-Fi's, spent years reading hi-fi mags and obsessing over upgrades

It was PC's for a while - spent years reading PC mags and obsessing over upgrades

Then mountain bikes, spent years reading bike mags and obsessing over upgrades

Just bought an Android tab and found out it can run emulators, currently obsessing over the best SNES emulator and the best games to download.

Its a never ending cycle!

😳

I'm definitely obsessive about certain things and that includes having some very nice bikes.

Added to this I find myself researching loads on the history of villages and monuments that I come across when riding. Naturally this leads to books and have discovered a wonderful website with second-hand books on ley-lines, prehistoric trackways etc.

Oh yes, it all involves more map buying leading to more route planning.

Jeez, I'm getting weirder as I get older. 😳

Guilty.

But at least I'm a 'serial' hobbyist rather than a 'multiple' one. And the hobbies seem to be getting cheaper as I get older, to the great relief of Mrs. Perth

I'm proud to say i can multitask. No matter what I'm doing, in the back of my mind I'm thinking about bikes: speccing up future builds, planning routes, designing bits to fix problems, making a "to-do" list of maintenance tasks or plain old day-dreaming of rides gone by.

I can now control my urge to hold an imaginary set of handlebars whenever I go for a walk though 🙂

I'm in a similar boat to the OP

Currently wasting man hours on the internet looking for skateboards to get back out there and break some bones after 20 years of not skateboarding.

Tomorrow it'll be something else I'm sure. I sometimes wish I could be more like my wife who seems fairly happy without any real hobbies to speak off. I, on the other hand, require something to do with my time (or at least the idea of it)

A guy's idea of heaven is to pursue hobbies. That's a fact - pretty much.

I'd like to triplicate myself, so dull camo stays in work, super camo goes out riding all day and contemplative camo finally finishes the painting of my son which I started a year ago...

A lady's idea of heaven is to pursue hobbies. That's a fact - pretty much.

FTFY. 😉

😀

Binners
+
Skating

No offence binners, have you erm 'come [i][b]out[/b][/i]'?

Or are you French?

Guilty here too....Did skateboards a few years ago......much to the amusement of the kids.....latest one is field archery....there are some lovely looking field bows 😀

the idea of a hobby is sometimes better than having the hobby, plus once i'm happy with my proficiency at something i tend to get bored and want to learn/start something new.

This is very true. I tend to throw myself into something, and lose interest a bit when the challenge goes off. This has been true with most things except MTB'ing and Motorsport.

Hora - skating as in street hockey and half-pipes, rather than hot-pants with matching colour co-ordinated knee pads, as you mince down the boulevard.

Though, actually.... now I think about it.....

The thing that moderates me is that I can't abide the idea of some lovley piece of equippment lying idle, not being used to its full capability.

So I only buy gear that's going to get proper use, and then if I do buy it I make sure I do use it. Therefore there are obvious limitations on what I can 'get into' because of time.

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Err no not really, i have stuff and have things im interested in but im not obsesive about anything, I've long gone past the finding the best bits and having loads of essentially the same thing (i only have one bike!). I'm not suprised by some of the posters on here admitting to being an bit obsesive though judging from the way they act on here 😉

A couple of my friends have been trying for a few years to get me to go and have a round of golf with them. I daren't!

Don't. Golf is an absolute nightmare.

I have an addictive personality.

First it was computer games. Not just playing them though, statistical analysis of pretty much every aspect, fine tuning everything the the nth degree.

Thankfully I got in to drugs and that got me outdoors 😉

Absolutely obsessive about bikes now though. On holiday with the family and still managed to buy a second hand set of forks off here.

3 weeks off the bike due to injury so far and I now have all the bits required for a new hard tail.

Crickey, you lot are a marketing man's wet dream!!!

Here definitely no.

I used to be OCD with my hobbies, now I'm CDO , oh well at least my albums are in the right order !!!

Yep, I'm just as bad - it used to be bikes 20+ years ago.. then cars/car hifi, then Landrovers and Off-Roading, now i'm back on bikes again!

I have a tendency to be like this - what I've discovered though is its a good idea to just allow a "cooling off" period before pressing the button on the new "must have" item

It's amazing how many of them prove to be less then essential after a couple of days

Yep! I'll spend 6 months researching my next big purchase. Total nightmare and Mrs str thinks I'm quite sad.

Looking at caravans even though I won't be replacing the current one for 12 months. Researching big tvs costing a couple of grand that we don't currently have. Selling Spesh S-works Enduro to free up some cash and already eyeing up its much pricier replacement - even though I have hardly ridden in over a year!

I research, read, plan, buy, kill it, do more research, read, get some objective view, buy, kill it and so on.

I do have a rule though, one in, one out, excluding windsurfing equipment and bikes 😆

I'm very anal, apparently.

Way I see it, if I'm going to do something, I want to do it right. First step is hours of intensive research on the 'net. I don't do anything these days without hours of net reasearch. Come actual purchase time it might mean spending slightly more, but it always means buying good things that do what they are supposed to and last. And of course all manufacturers build for the common man, so virtually everything will require some fettling/tuning/tinkering to meet my own personal needs.

I'll spend 6 months researching my next big purchase.

Yep, but with me it might even be small purchases! The research is like a hobby all of it's own.

I have a tendency to be like this - what I've discovered though is its a good idea to just allow a "cooling off" period before pressing the button on the new "must have" item

It's amazing how many of them prove to be less then essential after a couple of days

Yup! done this! I tend to have a number of avenues for impulsive purchases open at any one time. Make a list, get it all on there with prices and a total, realise how ridiculous it would be to spend all that money on all that stuff. Things start to drop in the "maybe later" category quite quickly.

Also means you don't forget about the slightly boring things that you might blow your discretionary budget without getting. Like shoes.

I've never wasted any money on hobbies, as everything that's purchased has had lots of use, in fact some stuff is used for more than one hobby. Most mtbing gear can be used for skiing.
Walking (another hobby) gear can be used on the bike.

Also one of my hobbies /interests is also my job, so buying stuff for that has to be the best I can afford.

samuri - you're weird 😉

Don't you just miss the days of going to shop, seeing something and then buying it? The Internet has just created unending anxiety over every purchase. Reading reviews, owner reviews, videos, photographs, forums, long term reviews, comparing similar products, price comparisons, store reviews, store users customer feedback, available discount codes, further forums and on and on it goes.

By this point I have often changed my mind and found a new fad.

This is all horribly familiar - just one random example, I thought it would be fun to carve a hollowed out tree in the garden for the offspring. So I researched and bought a small adze - a S Djärv Handwerk one. Then thought a large adze would be handy too, so after more research got a Gansfors Bruks. Then thought a axe would be good for some bits too. Then sharpening stones and diamond files to keep the things honed.

[b]fervouredimage[/b]

...on it goes.

By this point I have often changed my mind and found a new fad.

Like darkness?

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@bunnyhop - flog the hourse got to be worth at least a carbon covert & more

I have more Shergold guitars & basses than Joy division/new order ever had & with the money I've spent on them & photography crap could have travelled the world for a long time or bought my first house

Reading reviews, owner reviews, videos, photographs, forums, long term reviews, comparing similar products, price comparisons, store reviews, store users customer feedback, available discount codes, further forums and on and on it goes.

And then you have to work out if the reviewer is one of the many morons who walk the earth, or someone who can actually dress themselves in the morning. Only once the product has been bought, disassembled, reassembled, and tested for a few months, does the anxiety fade, to be replaced by that warm glow of knowing you own something 'good'.

Naturally this leads to books and have discovered a wonderful website with second-hand books on ley-lines, prehistoric trackways etc.

My lego [s]obsession[/s] hobby was rekindled by a thread on here a few years ago, iirc it was Fred who had got some of his old lego from mis mum's and we all had a reminisce. *waves at Fred* 😀

We have got sooooo much now that maybe half of it lives in the attic as dismantled sets to rebuild on rainy days. 😳 Lego's not sooo bad though as 1) kids love it too, and 2) it has a pretty good resale value if you look after it: if the kids and I get fed up of it in a few years we will get a lot more back for it than if I had bought even more bikes.

I do like a project, something I can research and work on in my spare time on the train or at work. I am also a complete kit geek. I like "nice" stuff so I tend to spend quite a bit of (very enjoyable I hasten to add) time researching, making sure I get the right thing. I will follow this path for everything from work shoes (Baker's for me) to bike wheels (Fulcrum Quattro's) to watches (Seiko 5).

Sometimes this works well like when I decided I "needed" a CX bike only for some research to reveal I didn't at all. Sometimes however it works less well like doubling your budget on things as you can get something at a great price for a little (OK a lot) more money.

I still enjoy i though.

I've been accused (by non-MTB friends) of being obsessive about mountain biking, but it's just that I'm keen to get out and ride!

I have 2 road bikes and a hardtail mountain bike, but they get used a lot. Interestingly, it's my other half who is constantly upgrading parts on my bikes, tinkering with them, and telling me I 'need' various things I'd not even thought of!

I used to make airfix models . My wife bought me a spitfire for Xmas . My 20 month old son can now corectly identify and name the Spitfire Messerschmitt Eindekker and Hanover that hang in his room and I have a Spad and Sopworth triplane to build .

Not obsessive at all but a real risk I'll fill his room before he's old enough to say please stop.

guilty as charged

I have 3 electric guitars, one acoustic guitar and a bass. I'm a drummer FFS!

I also used to make Airfix models.
Now I [i]know[/i] that, in the main, they are cr@p compared to other brands e.g. Tamiya, Hasegawa, Academy, Trumpeter, even Revell. Their new models are pretty good but they really need to stop producing their 20thC garbage

Guilty. Obsessive about music production, photography and bikes. Bikes is the main one where I don't constantly lust after new gear though (not any more anyway).

Got to have decent kit though eh? If I could just convince myself that getting fitter was a 'hobby' - I'd be onto a winner I reckon! Having some impending house expenditures has had a calming effect on my ongoing bike 'maintenance' (ahem). Still waiting to see if Thomson produce a viable 27.2mm dropper, failing that it might mean a new frame & reverb!