Pain Cave Upgrade For Trainer Road
Here is something that I thought I might post for fun. I just started using Trainer Road as the craze has swept through the house. Living in SoCal, I am lucky in that I can pretty much ride outside year round. With a great light for my bike, I even ride outside on the quite hills around my house in the dark winter evenings. But, Trainer Road has turned my thinking around when it come to really technical workouts like 30/30s.
Combined my new love affair of Trainer Road with the latest "show me your pain cave" thread and I realized I needed a better solution for my laptop. Typically when I used the trainer, it was all about the TV, but now I had need for technology! Finally, add to that my little passion for burning metal with fire and the TR Man Stand is born!
I taught myself to weld a few years ago by following a few forums and watching a lot of YouTube and have done a little fabrication for fun. I am admittedly terrible at it, but can do ok when I over design, work with thinker steel and keep it crude....
After a quick trip to the steel yard, I got a few odds and ends bascally already cut to size:
Basic frame was 2x2 square tube with 11 gauge side wall. For the the shelf I used two peices of 11 gauge plate cut to fit my 15" Mac with a little edge tacked on to keep things in place. I wanted it to be heavy with a wide base. The key was something really stable. God forbid I knockover my laptop. 
So you get something that weights about 45 pounds and will withstand a "Super Storm"
Presto! TR Man Stand!
Then just a coat of automotive primer and two coats of my favorite blue to match my service stand.
The whole thing came together for about $50 in steel and some paint I had in the garage. All in, it took me about 90 minutes not counting time spent waiting for the paint to dry. 
Comments
Dino ... Impressively over engineered, and it sure beats my little wooden chair where I put my netbook for TR. And , it can double for your other career as symphony conductor.
Awesome stuff. You should send those pics to the TrainerRoad guys too.
I would recommend welding some sort of holder for gels and maybe a water bottle...then you should start up a small EN manufacturing line.
I'll give you the metal-head award but Jess likes to call me a wood-butcher... I had a similar issue with the PC that I was using for my TR. I needed to elevate it about 6 inches off the ground so my cable from the computer to my TV would reach. I also wanted it to be covered (just in case the pool use splashed onto it; even though there is very little splashes going that way since it's the back of the pool). I wanted the monitor to be further out ahead for the times I was using the TV for just TV and wanted the workout on the Computer screen right in front of me. Bonus points if it would allow me to still keep my fan right in front of me... Here's the final product that I made a few months back. It took me a couple of hours, an old piece of plywood I had laying around and part of an old can of black paint that was also laying around. Total new cost: $0.
@Nemo - It is maybe 40 pounds. You could move it easy. My wife is 5'5", 110ish and she moves it around. It could be made lighter by using 1" or 1.5" steel stock rather than 2" like I used. The key, in my mind, to protecting your laptop is something heavy. Heavy is harder to knock over.....
I think John may have started a new EN trend with that pic: Mo' Monitors, Mo' Better!