A long but otherwise uneventful flight brought me to Portland, Oregon. Here I brought my bike in for service and prepared for transition to my self-supported bicycle ride.

I brought the two broken rims to Sugar Wheel Works and spoke with Jude. She took the information down and followed up with Velocity since the way these failed appears to be a defect. Apparently, it may have been a defect they fixed. However, the good test will be how well the newest rim does since it was a 2013 edition and the two previous failures were with rims bought in 2012.

I picked up a bicycle trailer I had ordered and shipped to Portland (thanks Laura!). Haven’t ridden with it yet, but plan is to ride with this trailer since I don’t have a rack for front panniers. I also picked up a few other things around Portland. In return, I also mailed off to Colorado things I wouldn’t need for next weeks on the road. This included having less clothes, foreign travel adapters and other things. I also anticipate that many upcoming nights will be in motel rather than tent, so replaced the tent with a bivy sack and mailed off the tent.

My bike came back from the shop. A full tune including cable replacement was done. Also a new derailleur hanger, new chain and new brake pads. Spoke tension adjusted for the wheels.

Otherwise it was also a good time to walk through familiar haunts and neighborhoods as well as visit with folks I had worked with. In that regard, I also rented a car one day and drove down to visit folks at a company we’ve worked with.
Last steps will be to pick up the car from service and then take trailer on the road. Plan is for a short day on May 22nd since rain is predicted and also that I’m visiting one more person for a late lunch. Likely only find new motel on west side of town. Real departure from Portland to the Oregon coast will be on the 23rd.