Building Eric Porter's MTB Garage Workshop

Eric Porter has been a professional mountain biker for the better part of 20 years. He always rides a new bike with new gear and travels to amazing destinations. He even has the backyard of his dreams, located in a picturesque Utah valley. But despite this dream that Eric lives, his

garage

is a mess. Sure the view from there is incredible, but the only thing incredible about the inside is how much trash Eric has packed in there. And he's not very organized. I suspect Drama takes more care organizing her toy box than Eric does putting his things away after a long trip.

He has a busy travel schedule, many hobbies, and a family that takes priority over this

garage

. But as a pro, Eric needs to work on his bike in this space. And that's why I'm here this weekend. We're taking everything out of Eric's garage, to the drawing board, and hopefully

building

a functional, attractive

workshop

, in less than three days. And he needs to contain what's left of these things once we're done sorting them out. Eric speaking. As we sort through all this debris, it becomes clear that Eric has some hoarding tendencies. My philosophy is that if you haven't looked for something lately, you probably don't need it.

But unlike a true hoarder, totally resistant to logic, Eric is very willing to retrain himself to prioritize this space over the things in it. Staying organized is about finding a home for everything, and if something doesn't have a home, you need to create one or get rid of it. Working late into the night on Friday, we were able to clear out most of the garage so we could get started bright and early on real projects. Project number one is the snack rack, where Eric takes inventory of all the fuel for his bike. I'm working on a way to make it easier to access and easier on the eyes.

Meanwhile, Eric is working in the corner by the wood stove. While this stove is great during the winter, it gets too hot to use the surrounding area for storage. So we're finishing the wall with galvanized sheet metal to turn the area into a sort of backdrop and display case. The wood stove will sit there looking fresh, while the shelf above will be used for souvenirs and trinkets that would otherwise have lived out their days in a pile. With a very light spray of black paint, the metal will look raw and "garage" without being too reflective for video and photography.

Meanwhile, I outfitted the snack station with angled shelves to make it easier to reach Eric's variety of bars. It is now possible to keep more boxes open and accessible, while the area behind the shelves can be used for additional storage. But this snack station and display area are basically side projects. The main task at hand is Eric's workbench. In any

workshop

, the workbench is where the magic happens. So in addition to cleaning it up and making it functional again, we need to turn this bench into something impressive. To clear the area under the bench, I built a shelf that will hold wooden boxes.

On the left side, I installed retractable reels for the air hose and power cord to keep them safely stored. But making this bench more spacious and functional is not that impressive. To be suitable for a professional, it has to look sick. This stand attached to Eric's chainsaw is called the Alaska Mill and we are using it to cut rough boards of wood. As you can imagine, these boards look amazing, which is why we used them for the tool wall. While Eric cuts the rough boards, I square them. First cutting a straight edge and then measuring that edge to make everything rectangular.

This would be much easier with a table saw, but we didn't find one while cleaning out the garage. But these tables don't have to be perfect. Inconsistent wood thickness and finish is the look we are going for. As this bench is being put together, I'm coming up with a lot of ideas about what my next garage could be like. But you can rest assured that we used this fun project as a procrastination tool, since all that junk we unloaded yesterday still needed to be organized into bins. As we've already discussed, an organized and functional workspace should have a home for everything, and sometimes that home is a container.

Late into the night we sorted the contents of the garage and filled these bins to create space for... space. And anything we couldn't do that night we would leave for the third and final day, the day when we would hopefully finish this project and be able to celebrate a little. We start the day planning for success. The first project of the day was to replace these fluorescent fixtures with LEDs. They are brighter, more efficient and do not flicker. While we're filming here, this will end up being a huge benefit. Then, place the tools on the wall.

Like any tool wall, this one can be modified and rearranged; however, I left you with a pretty good mix of commonly used tools and everything else in the box on the right. The hex wrenches are front and center, protruding from their live edge block for easy access. Everything else is hanging on nails, which is low-tech but safer than the pegboard that was once here. With everything together, you could work on the other workbench: the Grom bench. Includes everything a child needs to transform nuts into circles. We even installed a PCS-12 mounted at the children's height. Over time, we will need to increase the height of the stand and include a more complete set of tools, but for now this is a good starting point.

And Eric's two children will not only be able to enjoy this garage with him, but they will also remember the weekend working here. We spent the better part of 40 hours over the course of three days, all to achieve one goal. Eric has a lot of cool stuff, but kids don't always get to witness firsthand the blood and sweat it takes to earn cool stuff. This garage serves as a reminder. By late afternoon of the third day, we had our celebration in sight. After 20 years of cycling professionally, Eric finally has a workspace truly fit for a professional.

Now there is a home for everything, easy access to air, electricity and tools. Eric's entire family can now locate his equipment and easily put it away when they're done. And all in a place where it feels good to spend time. With a few hours of sunlight to work with, I decided to use this new workshop to assemble my bike. Although I would have to take it down before my flight the next morning, we were going to ride and celebrate at all costs. Eric's yard was covered in snow just a week ago, and everyone riding that night had basically brushed the cobwebs off their bikes before arriving.

They could have fooled me. Last year we built this little double for Milo, and now Owen is cleaning it up on his ridiculously small bike. Come to think of it, Owen sends him to anything he can get. Dustin attempted this 360 TRIPLE barspin I don't know how many times, and it was a sight to see him come out of it masterfully. But if you want to see him land, keep an eye on his Instagram. Somehow, I didn't leave in an ambulance that night either. Aside from making a few landings, I was feeling pretty good. So, it was time to settle the score with Eric's back porch.

Smiles, food and good times everywhere. We had the successful project and celebration we had originally envisioned. This weekend of hard work could have ended with rain or a red-eye flight out of town, but everything went perfectly in the last few hours. The entire Porter family is really excited about this new space, and it was right under their noses this entire time. All it took was a mark on the calendar and little planning to achieve it. And hundreds of dollars worth of containers. And maybe there were some impulse purchases like this. But my point is that we all have something we've been putting off, and finally committing to that task can be intimidating.

But the reward may be worth it. So what project are you diving into this spring? Thanks for traveling with me today and we'll see you next time.