What Are Your Non-Gaming Hobbies/Interests?

[Ryujin]

There are 2 types of motorcyclists: those that have gone down, and those that will.

The first is why my wife won't let me ride any longer lol. That, and this graphic. But man, sometimes I miss by bike. I'm very much a cruiser guy and not a sport biker though.

View attachment 406167

Yeah, I haven't ridden in a few years now and sold my last bike to a friend, for cheap, last summer. I both do and don't miss it, as it has become pretty dangerous to ride anywhere near Toronto, over the last decade or so. I'm not a cruiser guy though. My path through bikes was a bit weird:

Honda 250 Elite (scooter) => 535 Virago => BMW K75RT => Kawasaki GPz1100 ('95) => Suzuki Bandit 1200 ('96) => Suzuki Bandit 1200 ('98) => Honda VFR800 (2K) => Kawasaki ER6n ('08)

I owned a track only '87 FZR400 at the same time as the VFR. And yes, I've had a few crashes, two of which involved being taken out by cars. Oddly enough I never crashed on the track though.

 

[dragoner]

If you value your life you don't ride. I got rid of my GS1100 when I had my first kid. Too much responsibility.

 

[Ryujin]

If you value your life you don't ride. I got rid of my GS1100 when I had my first kid. Too much responsibility.

Or if you value living, you do ride. A lot of life is balancing risk vs responsibility.

Funny thing; the track is the safest place that I rode. No cars or trucks. Everyone going in the same direction. No intersections, unless you count the possibility of someone not following the rules about how to join traffic from pit lane. Typically riding with people of a known skill level, that matches your own. (I was usually ruled to be skilled and predictable enough, that I was placed with the "fast" group. Not because I was fast, but because I was safe and provided passing practice ) Oh, and an ambulance, with paramedics, was only 30 seconds away.

 

[dragoner]

Or if you value living, you do ride. A lot of life is balancing risk vs responsibility.

Funny thing; the track is the safest place that I rode. No cars or trucks. Everyone going in the same direction. No intersections, unless you count the possibility of someone not following the rules about how to join traffic from pit lane. Typically riding with people of a known skill level, that matches your own. (I was usually ruled to be skilled and predictable enough, that I was placed with the "fast" group. Not because I was fast, but because I was safe and provided passing practice ) Oh, and an ambulance, with paramedics, was only 30 seconds away.

I have had friends that did the privateer route, fun times being there at 5 am. Though like you say, it usually is other cars that gets bikes. That is always the way it is though, as a Firefighter, most of what I did was first aid to injured motorists, and most of those accidents were driver error. The startling thing about the bike fatality statistics, is figuring how few bikes there are on the road. The actual last bike I did have was a Harley, did some work for the son of an Angel that went to prison, and he sold me his Dad's bike in a box, and I put it back together, old style chopper, hard tail and suicide shift; talk about a dangerous bike, at 50 mph that rear wheel was dancing across the pavement.

 

[Ryujin]

I have had friends that did the privateer route, fun times being there at 5 am. Though like you say, it usually is other cars that gets bikes. That is always the way it is though, as a Firefighter, most of what I did was first aid to injured motorists, and most of those accidents were driver error. The startling thing about the bike fatality statistics, is figuring how few bikes there are on the road. The actual last bike I did have was a Harley, did some work for the son of an Angel that went to prison, and he sold me his Dad's bike in a box, and I put it back together, old style chopper, hard tail and suicide shift; talk about a dangerous bike, at 50 mph that rear wheel was dancing across the pavement.

That's a big problem with the majority of customs that I see out there. They've been modified in a way that makes them just plain unstable, or not turn/brake/maneuver as well as stock. Hard tail means your tire can't follow anything but a perfect road surface. Ape Hangers means you can't perform efficient steering inputs. Front brake delete to "make it look cleaner" robs you of 60%+ of your braking ability (80%+ on a standard or sportbike).

Most of the mods that I did to me ER6n, the last bike that I owned, were to improve its utility. I took that $9K motorcycle and put $4K worth of suspension onto it. Flat dirt bike bars for better hand position and more leverage when turning. An original Kawasaki windscreen, from the UK (not available in North America), for comfort and weather protection. Also more luggage space than a Smart Car, for touring, but that also let me cobble together a secondary and higher mounted brake light, plus wider and more visible turn signals (Video Here).

 

[dragoner]

That's a big problem with the majority of customs that I see out there. They've been modified in a way that makes them just plain unstable, or not turn/brake/maneuver as well as stock. Hard tail means your tire can't follow anything but a perfect road surface. Ape Hangers means you can't perform efficient steering inputs. Front brake delete to "make it look cleaner" robs you of 60%+ of your braking ability (80%+ on a standard or sportbike).

Most of the mods that I did to me ER6n, the last bike that I owned, were to improve its utility. I took that $9K motorcycle and put $4K worth of suspension onto it. Flat dirt bike bars for better hand position and more leverage when turning. An original Kawasaki windscreen, from the UK (not available in North America), for comfort and weather protection. Also more luggage space than a Smart Car, for touring, but that also let me cobble together a secondary and higher mounted brake light, plus wider and more visible turn signals (Video Here).

View attachment 406175

That is a nice bike. You totally described that chopper, it was an original from the 70's. At best a beer runner. Living in a city with a lot of cars, it gets tough to deal with, out in the country, I think it would be easier to ride. Edit: Bikes in general, I was a sportbike guy, not that I have anything against harleys.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

There are 2 types of motorcyclists: those that have gone down, and those that will.

The first is why my wife won't let me ride any longer lol. That, and this graphic. But man, sometimes I miss by bike. I'm very much a cruiser guy and not a sport biker though.

View attachment 406167

Mind continuing to be blown by the FERRY numbers

Also, where are the bicycles?

 

[Waterbizkit]

In no particular order:

Reading. Mostly science fiction and fantasy, but I have a tendency to stray into philosophy from time to time when I want to pretend I have more than two brain cells to rub together.

Culinary. And I use that rather large umbrella because while I've always enjoyed cooking, I really try to stretch my boundaries and try new things. I make a lot of things completely from scratch, and though while the process can be enriching, the juice isn't always worth the squeeze.

I make an effort to find dishes from all over the world and try to make them myself to broaden my horizons a bit. I'm particularly fond of Mediterranean and Asian dishes, though I'm partial to Mexican food as well.

I'm also fond of BBQ. Love to smoke damn near anything on my smoker or throw something on the flattop.

Drinks. I refuse to say mixology, especially since I'm not just talking about cocktails... although, for the record, I can make a lot of lovely cocktails. I put a lot of effort into my bar.

But I'm also talking coffee and tea. My coffee bar nearly rivals my cocktail bar. Pour over, espresso, cold brew. Usually a few varieties of whole bean coffee on hand from a handful of roasters I enjoy. And, as my wife prefers tea, I have a wide variety of loose leaf teas as well as some matcha.

I've been venturing into sodas now as well. More to it than you'd think.

Hiking. This one is simple. I like being outside. There's a lot of nice local places to hike, but we travel to a national park or two once a year and see some amazing places.

Fishing. Mostly freshwater. Occasionally saltwater. Mostly from my kayak, which I find a lot nicer than shore fishing. You can get to a lot more spots and vary up what you want to fish for. This one leads nicely into...

Kayaking. Even when not fishing, getting out on the kayak is a lot of fun. You can find a lot of nice, beautiful spots. And as long as long as its not a place that allows for speed boats, its usually nice and quiet too.

Shooting. I don't own many guns. But I have enough. For now. I don't shoot competitively, I just train with what I've got to make sure I can effectively use them, even under duress. It's a lot fun, and satisfying to see the skills progress.

Hunting. I only hunt what I intend to eat. Deer and turkey mostly. No trophies or shooting something for sport. If I'm going to kill it, I'm going to eat it... assuming its safe to do so of course.

Gardening. Specifically herbs and vegetables. It's nice to go outside and grab an ingredient straight from the yard when I'm cooking, if the season is right anyway.

That's all I've got. Outside of that there's my gaming hobbies and my professional interests.

 

[Hex08]

Reading. Mostly Sci-fi & fantasy but a fair amount of science & skepticism.

Comics. I used to have about 20 long boxes but I sold some and gave a majority away to the local children's hospital. I read them digitally almost exclusively now.

TV & Movies. Mostly Sci-fi but other stuff as well

Podcasts. Mostly news/politics and science & skepticism. Most recently I have discovered Behind the Bastards and listen to it a lot. My favorite is The Skeptics Guide to the Universe

Home brewing. I don't do it as often as I would like but making my own beer is a lot of fun.

Starting next month I am going to, hopefully, get back into martial arts. I took a lot of karate as a kid and really enjoyed it so I am going to start checking out places locally that I can enroll in. I would really like to try Muay Thai. It remains to be seen how my out of shape 57 year old body can handle martial arts after decades away from them.