dude7422

dirtybird good for you and i wish you many good times in new home
for rcm never like that mag it just one big ad of over priced goods thank AL GORE for the internet roflmao

dreadnaut

My Feedback: (5)

This weekend my daughter in law told me she was going to take our granddaughters bike to the bike shop to have a flat tire fixed. I am kind if funny about that. Fixing a flat on a bike is one of those things that "everyone should be able to do". I went to the bike shop because I was out of patches and there was a guy in there with a wheel to get the flat tire fixed. At least he was able to get the wheel off.

I went to pick up the bike and daughter in law gave me a new tube she bought. I told her that I probably didn't need it. She insured me that the tube was split. It turned out that all it needed was a new valve

ctdahle

Now that's the kind of thing I am talking about. Fixing a bike tire is the kind of job that every 10 year old ought to be able to do. Yet the other day I was in a line at the customer service department of a retailer in the big city. In front of me was a guy with a bike, demanding a refund. The bike had clearly been ridden through some rough terrain and it had a flat tire. The guy was mad. He told everyone in earshot that it was the third fu...er...crummy bike with shi....cruddy tires he'd gotten and he darn well didn't want to exchange it this time.

I feel like I ought to add bicyle tire repair to my science curriculum this year, but first they have to learn Crescent Wrench and Screwdriver....

dude7422

ctd well some bikes at these dept stores can run up to a grand and have kevlar tires puncture
proof tubes so he maybe rite lol

JNorton

My Feedback: (2)

Very funny.

At 12 and 13 years of age my brother and I could not only repair inner tubes but adjust derailers, and re-lace wheels. We could take whole bikes apart and put them back together. However our Father was a mechanic and showed us how to use tools and be systematic in tearing stuff down so we could figure out how it goes back together.

I place a good bit of the blame on video games and the parents. On the other hand as has been mentioned before there are very little in the way of good DYI books left to whet the appetite of curious young minds.

Their curiosity seems to be more involved in figuring out the next level of what ever the current game is.
John

dirtybird

My Feedback: (5)

I could do all those things when I was 10 and my dad did not teach me anything. He was a locomotive engineer and I rarely saw him. When I go to contests now I feel cheated. All those beautiful airplanes built in China. They are better than I can build. They are built in jigs and covered by experts. Is this progress? I think it is. How many of us build our own automobiles? "Home built" airplanes are usually just assembled from factory built parts. We need to go on to bigger and better things.

Stickbuilder

Tell me, how many drive their cars as a hobby? This is an argument that is often used, but what about the hobby aspect of what we do? It's a Stinking Hobby. Enjoy it.

Bill, AMA 4720

dreadnaut

My Feedback: (5)

Wal-mart, Target, and department stores in general do not sell such bikes. They sell cheap crud to an audience who will deride a six hundred dollar bike because they can get one ''just as good'' at Wal Mart. This is some clever marketing on the part of Wal-mart, Target and others because eighty percent of the bikes they sell are dual supension bikes. This works as marketing because to the uninitiated, complexety is equated to quality. Take a close look, and you will see that those are really cheap shocks.

I am 53, and overweight, and everyday on my ride to work I pass several young guys like they are standing still. They say that you never forget how to ride a bike, but sadly, most people never learn past being able to balance on the thing. (One secret is that I actualy know what the gears are for, and how to use them.) I payed six hundred bucks for the higer quality, Chinese/Trek made hard fork/hard tail bike I ride to work almost everyday. I know that for street riding, shocks only slow you down. (a bit of Physics 101 that those young guys riding the dual suspension bikes from Wal-Mart, with fat-draggy off-road tires , wearing Levi's, and never shifting out of top gear, missed)

Progress? Yes, in a way. But you seem to be talking about the stuff that comes from OAXI, CARF and outfits like that. Have you priced it? Most of the stuff coming from China is lower cost than that, and made in sweatshops by fourteen year-olds (Some of whom may become those experts you speak of when they get a little older). I am building a 2m pattern plane from wood, because I can make the spare time more easily that I can make the spare cash, and I enjoy doing it.

BTW, the standard of living is on the rise in China (I've been there and seen it first hand) Back in the seventies when it looked like the Japanese were going to rule the world, we bounced back. Why? One reason is that the Japanese got richer, and started to demand higher pay. This is understandable. China is going the same way. If they unionize, it could only be good for us. The Chinese are right now investing heavily in Africa, their new fronteir of cheap labor.

jessiej

We all have our own preferences. Personally I have not the slightest interest in owning or flying a model built by someone else. I have yet to see an ARF built better than a model I can build. If a jig is needed I can construct such a jig. I can do an "expert" covering job in a wide variety of materials, many of which are unavailable in an ARF.

That being said I usually find myself bored with a model after it is trimmed out and performing well. This gives me reason to start the enjoyable task of building another. Bigger and better.

jess

dirtybird

My Feedback: (5)

Good for you. There will always be people that can do a better job by hand than the machine. I am not one of them.
I live in a state that has a lot of the best RC Pilots. I seldom see a home built at the IMAC meets.

jessiej

I am not at all surprised. Few care to build these days. In a some what similar vein I also enjoy old cars and motorcycles but prefer to do my own restorations and have little interest in having the work done for me. Others prefer to buy complete restorations. To each his own.

jess

DreamingTree1027

My Feedback: (5)

Lots of people drive cars as a hobby, ever seen a car show, or watched horsepower tv every weekend morning. There are different aspects of this hobby and everyone prefers one part of it. I think that sometimes some people will never understand that. I like to fly, I don't hate building but it is something I do so I can fly. There is a lot of pride in building something yourself and I love seeing something I built work. It can be difficult for someone to find the time build build a very good airplane and be an expert pilot.

I can't wait until the day I can restore a classic car. My neighbor has a 69 Camaro sitting in the garage in good shape. He wants to buy one of the new camaros, and I told him I will take the other one off of his hands.

Maybe kids spend all of their time learning the video games instead of what you think they should learn. Not wrong or right just different. Video games didn't just recently become popular they have been around since Atari was born in 1972. It is not video games fault. They are there and you can choose not to use them or you can not allow kids to use them. I personally do not play. I didn't have a video game until 8th grade and then I used it occasionally for a few years and stopped. I just don't get it to be honest. I am right on the border I guess for age of video games. Most of my friends play but some don't.

dreadnaut

My Feedback: (5)

If I had the budget, I would either (a) get a new Camaro take a grinder and some Bondo and re-dress it as what I think the new Firebird would have looked like , or (b) get a '67 Firebird.

Mode One

This hobby is more about the building part then the flying part to me. Having lived in Minnesota most my life, we have wonderful seasons just meant for building and this is how I've gotten through many winters. If you were to take the building aspect of the hobby away from me, I would drop this activity like a hot potato! Having flown R/C airplanes since 1976, simply put, I am bored with flying! Even after a 10 year hiatus from the hobby, it didn't take me long after coming back to it before I was bored again. If it wasn't for the fact that my buddies are out there at the field flying, I wouldn't go out there as much as I do.

No, I'm not the worlds best flyer; but, it's likely I'm better then many of the fine folks posting here.

For those of you, where flying R/C airplanes is the big draw to the hobby, imagine if the trend in the hobby was going to less people who are interested in flying and more who are interested in just building the airplanes!?!

Now, I don't need lectures from anyone thinking I need to hear how life is about change and I need to addapt! I'm 59 years old "Sonny" I've seen all the change I will ever need and understand that what I need don't mean jack!

I liked the hobby much better when it was less about how much money you could throw at it and more about building skills and learning how to do things.

dude7422

jess you sound like a person that likes to mod,tinker iam never happy with any thing that is stock
i always mod or do something to add my own style to what ever it is

roaddog2

Amen! And VERY well said!
You have my total concurrence!
RD

Strawhat Mike

Great thread. It's nice to hear a thoughtful, literate discussion from folks who are generally my peers (I'm 65), and I tend to be in agreement with the thrust of the thoughts expressed here.

But you know....... as one grows older one unknowingly tends to see the world through a particular filter that may or may not be accurate. In the midst of all this discussion I am reminded how I have become my father. When I think back on all his "why-when-I-was-your-age" stuff and consider how I now have the same attitude, I wonder if maybe it's just a matter of the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Mike

dreadnaut

My Feedback: (5)

"When I was seventeen, My father was the most ignorant man on Earth. I went to see him when I turned twenty one and was amazed at how much he had learned in four short years."

Mark Twain.

Stickbuilder

And just exactly how many of them are their daily transportation?

Bill, AMA 4720

N1EDM

My Feedback: (2)

Very true words, Strawhat.... and my father always used that Mark Twain quotation on me, Dreadnaut... it sorta leveled the playing field [&:]