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.

fervouredimage

…on it goes.

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

Like darkness?

@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.

C_g, Alfred Watkins The Old Straight Track is the definitive book on this subject, but I can really recommend The Pattern Of The Past, by Guy Underwood.
I bought my copy in 1972, cost me 50p… 😀

My lego obsession 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 know 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!