In addition to my lifelong hobby of model making - mostly ships and boats, in wood, plastic etc, I’m a motorcyclist (and I’ve never had a car drivers license) but do about 20,000 kilometres a year riding for pleasure.
Alongside this, I’m a book addict, often to support research and immersion into whatever model I’m building. I like to really get into their history, their story etc before I start building.
My worst though, is having formerly been a racing cyclist, with a reasonable talent for building them, I collect and restore classic racing bikes from the ‘80’s and ‘90’s. The current count is twelve, with another frame ready to go off for repairs and new paint back in the UK by the end of summer.
I’m said by friends to be the least retired retired person they know.
Oh, and I photograph, mainly extreme sports, but hardly ever now.
It’s a hard life, if you don’t weaken.
Awesome interests Sticky fingers! What kind of motorcycle do you ride? I’m also a bicycle enthusiast(NUT) too.
Hi Tom, I’ve been riding a BMW GSA for the last 12 years, after 4 Harleys and a couple of Ducati’s. Buying another one in the next few weeks I hope, as mine is getting a bit tired.
And yes, the bikes are the big addiction. Just finished a Merckx Professional and the next will be a Mercier.
As for models, I just finished the HP Victor by Airfix, so I’m doing a simple, almost out of the box Academy B-17 before diving into a 1/200 HMS Rodney which has a stack of extra detailing parts I’ve amassed. I’ll be building it in very rough condition, as it was just before the Bismark action, when it was in its way to a refit in the US.
Stickyfingers, that’s a great ride that you’ve got. My “Dream Bike” has always been to own a restored BMW R100RS Airhead. Have you attended any BMW Owners rallies? My current ride is a Kawaski Voyager touring bike. Your bicycle collection sounds awesome. Once they’re restored do you ride them or are they for display?
I’m definitely a solo rider, and mostly always have been. I occasionally ride with a guy from village - maybe once a year, and occasionally with my oldest friend here in France. I used to do rally’s years ago, but I’m not a fan of hard rock and drunks!
As for the bikes, I try to ride all of them at least once year, though I do have favourites. Cycling where I live is tricky, as it’s a farming area, and cycles and big tractors don’t mix on the tiny country roads I like. Not so bad in autumn and winter though. Current favourite is a Marnati and my ‘go to’ Bianchi Reparto Corsa.
I find myself hopelessly devoid of hobbies and I have always been, I think.
The only one that’s been sticking have been computers, video games obviously, but it’s something that’s suddenly been taking a dive these past couple of years. I just… Don’t like them as much as I used to. Hence why I picked up model building, by the way, something I liked a lot when I was younger but had to give up when I went to boarding school, and then away for college.
I also chose a path at the crossroads of computers and art : I’m a vfx artist and work on various medium : movies, shows, music video, videogames trailers, ads, etc. And I have period of times where I go home from doing CG to doing CG again! There’s always something new to do, to experiment, to get curious at. But mostly I prefer to go home and watch shows with a good meal. Movies at the theater are another thing I let slowly go : despite viewing conditions getting better and better ( amazing seats, screen, etc ) the price that keeps rising and people getting more and more uncivilized seriously dampened my enthusiasm.
I used to play piano but I never quite liked it, which, when I reflected upon it years later, is something I now regret. I hope I’ll be able to get a piano when I finally get my own house. Music, however, is something I’ve never felt attracted to. I’m one of those rare people, I guess, who never listen to anything! Regardless, there is a physicality and joy in playing that I’d like to feel again.
Lastly, I have my own Paint mare, but she’s far away and I can only ride when I actually go on holidays. She’s peacefully living her life with her friend and rival, my father’s Arabian mare.
I also love my cats, with an unnatural obsession despite the male, a Bengal cat, being loud obnoxious and clingy. I still love him very much and he could be considered a hobby on his own merit lol
So yeah I’d say I never had a very specific ‘lifetime’ hobby and I keep jumping from one to another. I tried many things over the years but find hard to stay at it.
I load my own ammunition and shoot OFTEN during the summer months and then retire to modeling in the cold Indiana winter months - usually with a bit of overlap.
Photography has been a prime interst of mine as well as stamp collecting and reading.
Prior to modeling it was old British cars. Although I sold my Land Rover (shouldn’t have) I still have an MG T series awaiting restoration. I used to love hiking and camping but as age crept up on me so did all the things I didn’t pay attention to in younger times…my feet aren’t what they used to be. I have played guitar over the years…
creading, is it true what they say about owning classic British sport cars, you work on them and get them running well all week so that you can drive them on the weekend. Then the process starts all over again. BTW, one night I was leaving a night class that I was taking for my master’s degree and I saw a guy “cranking” his vintage Land Rover to start it and after that I was hooked on them.
Yep! all week for a Saturday drive!
Do you know why the Brits drink warm beer?
It’s because they all have Lucas refrigerators.
My buddy wanted to get a 4 wheel drive and I talked him into a Land Rover. That was in 1973 and he bought a brand new Series III 88
($3500) off the showroom floor! Those were the days.
Ahhhh… the famous Lucas Electrical System!!! There’s two guarantees in life, 1. All classic British motorcycles will leak oil 2.If you own a classic British Sports Car, the Lucas wiring will leave you stranded. Man,I wish that one of my “buddies” would’ve steered me towards a Series III 88 Land Rover instead of a 1972 Jeep Commando!!!
@WhatIfRebel EXCELLENT POST! This topic is one I struggle with…as I am constantly jumping from one hobby to another. Scale modeling building, Tennis and shooting have been with me since a teenager. Photography, printing and custom framing only since 2010. I have become very good at all…considered advanced…won tennis trophy tournaments on a state level…Sold one model…Compete in local sporting clays shoots…Sold custom framed photos.
However, often, I REALLY wish I had only ONE hobby that I did all the time! In that way, I could completely master it and teach it.
For now, I have juggled all of these hobbies for decades. But there will be times where I stop a hobby for 3-6 months but always come back to it.
The question I keep asking myself is “What is my one true passion?” The wife also keeps asking me…she sometimes gets tried of all my hobbies. LOL
I have found having many interests makes life more interesting, especially since I’ve retired.
Woodworking, walking on trails, model railroads
I do tend to flit from hobby to hobby. Some stick, others are just a flash in the pan.
I have an amateur extra license and have keyed a mic maybe 4 times this year. I think it is more about the tech than actually being on the air. I live to fix things and cannot imagine not knowing how something works. I went through a phase of restoring tube radios and test gear, I’m currently listening to a 1964 Grundig console that’s streaming Pandora as I type and am surrounded by test gear I may never use again.
I’ve been into 3D printing for many years and just printed a bunch of accessories for my IKEA Skadis wall that surrounds the “craft table”. It’s actually a sewing table I inherited from my dad a few years back. Along with 8 sewing machines. I’m down to just a few and just finished a second pickle ball bag for the wife to give as a birthday present. Which I guess means I’m into sewing also.
Speaking of 3D printing, I have a handful of printed RC cars and crawlers. They aren’t all that capable but I do enjoy the build. I also have 3 Tamiya RC buggies.
I used to turn wooden pens but lost interest at some point. I still do some woodworking but it’s mostly sets and props for a local children’s theater. I’m supposed to be making a teeter-totter as I type. I guess that’s tomorrow’s project.
I have N and S gauge trains and an N gauge layout that while trains can run on it, has no scenery and the turnouts have not been wired. It’s been hanging from the rafters for 18 years now. Not too far from the bicycle I’ve not ridden in 30+ years.
Woodworking. I am really a novice at this even after really getting interested in it 20 years ago. But my wife’s uncle is an expert. He has a stand-alone wood shop on his property, not attached to his home, that is literally big enough that one could play a basketball game in there on a regulation size court. When we visit, we typically gravitate to the lathes (not a tool that I own) to turn some wood. I’ve made lots of neat little trinket kind of things over the years - toothpick holder, small bowls, stuff like that - but probably the best things I did was (1) a functional ink pen with a turned wood handle, and (2) a display plate that I later added heavy-duty stickers to with a Texas A&M logo and a bunch of numbers in the form of '89 (etc) to represent the class years of all of the Aggies in my family. I did that for my dad, our original Aggie, but he passed before I could get it hung on one of his walls.
Photography. This one goes hand-in-hand with my scale modeling hobby, but is certainly not limited to it. I really enjoy taking pictures of scenery. Most recently was a trip to Colorado and the Rocky Mountain National Park. Quite literally the most beautiful scenery I have ever photographed. Other favorites are any time we find ourselves near a warbird museum (hundreds of photos have been known to come out of such places), Disney World, or Christmas lighting.
Writing. I’ve been doing this since 1978 when I was 11. Back then I was writing paragraphs, and not very well, but I was only in 7th grade. In high school, I wrote a bunch of 200-300 page books (handwritten, didn’t own a typewriter) based on existing movie characters like Star Wars, Superman, or Indiana Jones. I did write a couple of original books of similar length, but none of that was ever intended for publication. I did finally write a book for publication, it was a political thriller (think No Way Out or Three Days of the Condor). My attempts to publish were limited and struck out, and then I had a major life change (broken heart followed a couple of years later by marriage), so I never tried again. That also impacted another writing project for which I have written roughly 300 pages and discarded 280 of them. It is an alternative history depicting what could have happened had Hitler defeated England and the Soviet Union. I regularly write down additional thoughts on this thing, but it’s probably a project that I will actively return to once I retire in a few years.
Travel. We have done this extensively throughout Texas and have made 5 trips into the Southeast of the US for various destinations - three to Disney World, one to Starkville, Mississippi for a game between A&M and Miss State, and what I termed “The Great Vacation of 2008” which took us through the 90% of what constituted the SEC at the time - Arkansas, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana. Part of that was a college visit trip for our oldest (who ended up going to A&M, go figure), but mostly it was just to go to some States that we had never visited, liked Tennessee.
With our oldest having had a baby boy a couple of years ago and a girl on the way, I’m certain that grandchildren will be a part of my future journey, although I wouldn’t call them a hobby. But I have added a bunch of old Monogram kits to my stash so that I can introduce my grandson to scale modeling.
I’ve had my novice license since I was 13. I keep renewing it… just because but haven’t had a QSO in 45 or so years 
WB6PJZ
Oh, man, what hobbies haven’t I tried. I’ve done plastic models, camping, R/C aircraft, woodworking (both with power tools and 100% hand tools), electronics, cooking, cycling, 3D printing, homebrewing, photography, gardening, baking, computers (building and programming), 3D modeling, sausage making, handmade paper making, knitting, marksmanship, smoking meats, flying (pilot), SAR, drafting, sewing…and I’m certain there are others that will come to me later. (Oh yeah, briefly I was making chain mail!)
I once read a bio blurb about an author that basically said, “he’s done a little bit of everything in his life, and held every job” and that’s what I feel like (at least the former bit). I think it’s an innate drive to prove to myself that I can do something, whether the goal is “figure it out” or “be good at it.” I’ve discovered that in general, if it requires artistic ability, I kinda suck at it…but if it’s even remotely related to engineering or science or mechanical aptitude, I’m pretty good at it. I joke that after the apocalypse, I’ll be traded like currency to the local warlords because I can both brew and distill. I haven’t yet gotten into small engine repair, but I used to work on my car back in the 80s (when you could work on your car) and have no fear about starting with my lawn mower that needs some work before next summer.
What I’ve noticed, though, is that most hobbies I try are individual - I don’t usually have a support group to engage with, and as a result, I often flake and move on to something else. Sometimes it’s because I’m getting old (SAR and I didn’t get along after I tore my meniscus), but I suspect it’s more my “everything is just so interesting” personality. Sometimes it’s partly “I’m not so good at this, time to move on.” But life is too short to sit around bored, so…¯_(ツ)_/¯
Oh yeah - amateur radio (KG4JKG)