NEW SECTION ADDED TO FORUM.

[expr]

I'm not sure how well this is going to go down, in terms of popularity. I have asked Stuart to add a section within the forum to discuss or generally talk about matters that don't have anything to do with cycling but everything to do with day to day life.

This has come by my request due to the fact that I use a similar forum to do with other interests of mine ( airgun shooting ) whereby the general users of such are also able to discuss other matters of which ever topic they choose.

I have found over time that it brings people closer together in being able to share information not pertaining to what really should be the topic of conversation. There are many ways in which this can go and unfortunately can bring strong differences in opinion, depending on how people react to certain topics.

I am relatively new to the forum having joined in 2006 and have found the forum to move at a relatively slow pace in terms of topics and awaiting reactions. I thought perhaps that this possible line of topic discussion for what ever it may bring would help to spice up the forum a little and with us all still coming from a commom background of cycling enjoyment we would be able to broaden our scope of discussion for those who are willing to try out this new topic starter.

I would hope that we could all keep very strong differences of opinion to a safe level of discussion and be able to enjoy ourselves whilst learing about new things, I have found allot of information on the other forum from people who can be trusted and from whom you have been able to form a good relationship with.

The topics that can come up for discussion can be about absolutely anything (within reason) and again as this is something of which I have a personal interest in pursuing and will enjoy taking part in I would hope that we can keep it to a sensible and enjoyable level.


I think to start off the topic I would like to ask everyone if they think such a catergory would be of interest to them and do you think it would be worth making a go of it to try and make the forum a little more exciting and popular to use.

Thanks Stuart for your help,

Dave.

[Cake]

Personally, I think it is a good idea Dave - i often log on to see if there are any posts on topics of interest to me (obviously) and, if not, log off pretty quickly.

Adding a general category for browsing through and encouraging general discussion etc. can surely only be a good thing, as long as (as you point out) people can be grown up and restrain strong opinions - i'm sure they can because most current Thorn forum members seem like utterly decent types!

Gary.

[expr]

Ok cake, looks like its just you and me for now!!!  Not quite the responce I was hoping for.

I will start it off by asking what other hobbies and intersets people have.

I very much enjoy mechanical things of all types, working with cars, metalwork and woodwork and very much enjoy taking things apart to see how they work etc....!

Up until late last year my mode of transport was a 1990 h reg Honda prelude which I had kept to concourse condition, I have spent the last ten years building up a garage and workshop for personal use at home to help with my hobbies etc. I have been working in engineering for the last twenty one years. I also enjoy gardening and walking.

[Cake]

I could see from some of the pictures you have posted that your workshop is quite important to you!!

I would love a space like that, but for creating and repairing, it would be wasted on me - i am rather cac (spelling?!) handed, making these things rather frustrating and, therefore, less than enjoyable.

I did an apprenticeship at a Saab dealer (where i discovered i was a cabbage) and now i loathe everyday car ownership.  I still go wobbly at the knees when i hear a poorly silenced V8 though....

All things cosmic and astronomical interest me - the enormity of space and all that.  If i had my time again i would study maths and physics etc.  I'm doing an O.U. maths course to keep my brain ticking over.

Apart from that, Hi-Fi, reading and of course cycling keep me occupied and will do until i snuff it hopefully!

I have to say that politics bores me stupid - manipulative, self-interested, question-dodging, glorified salesmen put me off the subject.

[expr]

Cake, good to hear from you, my father in-law is very much into space and star gazing. Was the Saab apprenticeship doing the mechanical work etc.

I have allways enjoyed working on cars to a certain point, my H reg Honda was a dream to work on as most things worked on vacuum off the manifold so made it quite easy to fault find although truth be told it gave very little cause for concern over the time I had it. Working on newer cars is not so easy due to the abundance of electrical blurb that gets in the way of logic.

I found on the wife's vw bora when we had that the air bag light came on intermittently it was cheaper to buy a small ( ecu reader) which plugs in to the cars brain to start looking for, and correcting faults that way. we were paying £40 a time to have it done at the garage and the £90 scanner from ebay paid for itself very soon.

I just get so annoyed at the prices that the garages charge for such menial tasks, and when they try on the usual waffle about how they have struggled to do the job.

I can see why you might find space and all things cosmic interesting, I often find myself staring up into the sky and wondering what its all about. I find a lot of the DISCOVERY programmes on sky TV very interesting.

Politics I think you have hit the nail on the head, and can only echo your thoughts on the subject. Only time will tell on the road that we are about to go down with MR, C.

The garage / workshop as you say does mean a allot to me,  from a very early age I allways had a shed in the garden to put all my worldly goods in and as I got older the shed's got bigger. My interests for taking things apart and making things got bigger and just after getting married in 2000 the birth of my new workshop began. After digging all the footings out and clearing the ground roughly 11 cubic meters of soil all with one spade, the concrete went down and the workshop went up. The cupboards and display cabinets grew slowly with the tool collection, the flooring came from America which incidentally is the same flooring as used by Ferrari for their workshop, and things have just got better each year.

I have just built my son ( A small workshop next to mine, but the interest is not there yet, he tends to throw his toys in there and thats it.

Do you use binoculars at all, or a spotting scope. I had a pair of those sunagor 50-150x 70 megazoom binoculars but found that the collimation problems were horrific. The headaches that I use to get from eye strain were being caused by the very poor collimation which I could never get rid off,even after setting the alignment up as soon as the magnification was adjusted the error came back. So they went back and after much research the answer was to buy a very good fixed magnification or pay lots of money.