Studio711.com – Ben Martens

Motorcycle Dolly

As I’ve mentioned many times before, I don’t have a huge garage. I need to spin my bike sideways to get it to fit in there with my car. So this weekend I built a motorcycle dolly.

It’s not too complicated. It’s a platform on wheels. Unfortunately they cost $400+ if you buy them online or in a store. I had a bunch of leftover wood from the entertainment center that I built for the theater project. The basic design is two large pieces of 3/4″ MDF laid end to end with about four smaller pieces screwed in underneath for some reinforcement and to join the two top pieces together. I also had some 2×4’s that were ripped in half lengthwise and I placed those along the bottom for extra support. The whole platform sits on six strategically mounted 2.5″ caster wheels. Three of the wheels are placed under the three contact points of the bike (two wheels and a kickstand.) Each wheel is held on by four 5/16″ hex bolts. To get up on the platform, I’m just using another piece of 3/4″ MDF as a ramp. It’s not pretty, but guess what, it works and it’s surprisingly solid. Once the rainy season starts back up, I’ll be able to shove the bike in the back of the garage and keep my car out of the rain.

That’s another project checked off the list.

(The picture is a bit deceptive with those strips of unpainted wood, but you get the basic idea. Motorcyle on wood on wheels.)

[UPDATE] I gave this dolly away and upgraded to the Park-N-Move. Check out my post showing a video of the new bike with the new dolly.

benmartens August 14, 2006 Motorcycle, Projects

1000 Words

TylerG (my roommate from Jersey) happens to be in Seattle this week so last night he stopped by my condo. On the way to the grocery store to pick up burger supplies, we stopped at Snoqualmie Falls.

Side note: how high does that rate on the scale of awesomeness? I stopped at a 270 foot waterfall on the way to the grocery store. Washington rocks.

I've been there before, but each time I was there I only saw the falls from the top observation deck which is a few feet off the road. This time a helpful fellow onlooker pointed us to a trail that goes down to the base of the falls. It's a quick 15 minute hike and it was well worth the trip. We were there in the evening so the sun filtered down through the narrow canyon to create a rainbow in the mist at the base of the falls. Luckily Tyler had brought his camera along and we snapped some awesome pictures. This is the point where I would say "go check them out." Unfortunately they're on Tyler's camera and my card reader doesn't accept xD cards. Once he gets back to Jersey next week we'll get them posted. Until then you'll have to take my word for it that it was a great hike.

benmartens August 7, 2006 Outdoors, Travel

Project #2: Finished

I started a finished the second project on my list. There are now shelves in the garage. Thanks to a Home Depot housewarming gift certificate that arrived in the mail, it was pretty simple. Hopefully they'll stay up for a night or two before everything comes crashing down.

I'm now able to fit both the motorcycle and the car in the tiny garage at the same time. I think I'm going to pick up a dolly for the back tire of the motorcycle (anybody have recommendations for those) so that I can maneuver the bike into position a bit easier. But I'm just happy that it all fits. In the winter/rainy season I'll just leave the motorcycle in the back of the garge and be able to keep the car out of the rain.

benmartens July 29, 2006 Motorcycle, Projects

Studio711 On Tour

It's great to have my weekends start to fill up. I'll be travelling all over in the next two months. I'll be in Jersey Aug 18-20. The next weekend I'm going camping with Chelsea, Tim, Laura, and Matt. And finally I'll be in Syracuse/Geneva for the big wedding the third weekend of September. I also just volunteered to be on the Drexel recruiting team so I might get some free trips back to Philly. It's going to be a lot of travelling, but I'm looking forward it.

benmartens July 21, 2006 Commentary, Outdoors

On a Steel Horse I Ride

On Sunday, I joined up with a big group of mostly Microsoft employees for a ride around Mt. Rainier. We had 29 bikes and I covered about 340 miles in 10 hours. It was my first ride over 150 miles and my first time riding with more than 3 people. Needless to say it was quite the adventure.

Although my derriere would vehemently disagree, I had a fantastic time. It was fun to be a part of a ride that big, and the views were stellar. Photos have been posted to the Washington album and I expect more to be posted on the Jeff Henshaw's site. He was the ride coordinator, and yes, I thought his named sounded familiar too. This is the same group of guys I posted about back in March.

So why do I have a photo of a burger on a post about a motorcycle ride? That's no ordinary burger. That's a Logger Burger from a restaurant in Packwood, WA. It had 1/2 pound of beef, ham, onions, eggs, lettuce, tomato, and thousand island dressing. I caught some flack for photographing my burger. If they'd known me a little better they would have known that I've photographed more than a few burgers in my day. I was a bit unsure how the egg would fit into the mix but it was outstanding. I maybe have to attempt it here at the house. I'm still in search of a burger that matches up to our Big Boy Burgers, but this one gave it a run for it's money.

A big thanks for Jeff for putting this together. It might take me a day or two to recover, but it's definitely something I'd like to do again.

[UPDATE] Jeff has put up a post about the ride and a link to some more pictures.

benmartens July 10, 2006 Commentary, Motorcycle

Hog Heaven

Everything I own fits in 96 boxes. The movers dropped them all off yesterday at the condo. (Side note: I find myself wondering whether I should say "house" or "condo.") As soon as the movers were done I ran down to the garage and fired up the motorcycle. It has been over a month since I've been able to ride and I can't wait to get out this weekend. There are so many fantastic places to ride. It should also cut down the commute time since I can use all the carpool lanes when I'm riding.

So I have a stack of boxes in the house. Which ones get opened first?
1. TV, stereo, speakers, Xbox360, etc
2. Computer
3. Sheets

Those are the necessities. The rest can wait.

benmartens June 22, 2006 Commentary, Motorcycle

Monday Morning Musings

It's Monday morning and I don't have anything particularly interesting to write about. (It's a good thing I'm not in marketing.) Let's start with a bulleted list and see where it takes us…

  • Jay has long been a SimGolf addict. I think I am too. I don't really remember much of the weekend. The game employs some sort of futuristic time-shifting technology whereby 20 minutes of gameplay results in 2 hours passing in the outside world.
  • That's the first time I've ever typed "whereby."
  • We had our first 80 degree weather on Saturday. I celebrated with a 60 miles motorcycle ride and sleeping with the windows open.
  • I started my own Easter tradition: bratwurst, mac & cheese, and Xbox. I suppose you think that an Easter tradition should be different from every other day of my life, but who are you to judge, Mr. or Mrs. Fancypants?
  • This week may involve the first Phillies tailgate of the year (Thursday.) Let me know if you're interested.
  • "I feel like a fugitive from the law of averages." – William H. Mauldin

And finally let's close out with a few chuckles:

benmartens April 17, 2006 Commentary, Motorcycle

Out Of Quarters

I officially sold the arcade machine today. I've had the word out on the street for the past couple months and finally had an interested party. He got a great deal out of it, but I'm just happy to have it off my hands. It was a fun project. I'd actually be interested in doing it again, but this time I'd do things a little differently. It would be nice to have a trackball in there to play Golden Tee, a bigger monitor would look nicer, and a four player machine would be pretty sweet for some Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles gaming. For now I'll pocket the money and be happy I have one less thing to move when I make my eventual escape from Jersey.
benmartens March 20, 2006 Gaming, Projects