I really love to work on bikes, that is, my own bikes and my family's bikes. As long as it's not my job, and I don't have to tune up Next Powerclimbers and the like. With that said, I'm busy with work and family, so any chance to work on a bike is precious 'me time.'

Last year, I got very deep into beginning electronics, in particular building guitar effects pedals — boost, overdrive and fuzz pedals. It was interesting, and I built a bunch of pedals, but the learning curve was very steep, and I found that the online communities were not nearly as friendly and encouraging, as this one, for example. I realized I'm much better at working on bikes, so I'm back.

Now that my little ones are on their own bikes, I have started riding much more than I have in the past for fitness and stress relief. But any time I get the opportunity to modify one of my bikes, I'm all over it.