Sep 15 2019

A First Timer’s Guide to Bikepacking for Beginners.

I am both an avid biker and backpacker but I never thought to combine the two into one experience until recently. This summer I came into possession of a fuji touring bike and decided to give bike packing a shot, and I thought I would write this post with some suggestions about bikepacking for beginners.

For my first trip I wanted to do a simple one night out and back trip, and after consulting an incredibly helpful Willamette Week article about bikeable campsites in the Portland area, I settled on taking a trip to the gorge and staying at Ainsworth state park. This was ideal as the park provided specific bike camping spaces with bike racks right next to the sites. while hilly, this route is both route scenic and do-able for the semi-experienced rider. I rarely felt unsafe even when on unprotected roads.

My Campsite at Ainsworth State Park’s bike packing area.

Preparing:

Food:

As someone who has been avidly backpacking for the last 10 years, the most crucial information I can pass along is that the bulk foods section at WinCo is your friend. For this trip I grabbed some of the bulk falafel mix. The falafel can be a bit dry, so I would recommend grabbing some hummus ( which you can get away with not refrigerating for a couple days if you keep it sealed), and pita bread.

For breakfast I went with the old standby of instant oatmeal with peanut butter; easy and quick but also great for a full day of biking. for lunch I would personally recommend something simple like apples and cliffbars.

Gear:

If you bike regularly in the city you probably have much of the needed gear already, such as panniers and bungie cords. However, I did have to go grab some gear from REI, Like a 2 L water bag (I used it to refill my small bike water bottle that I out in my down tube cage), and para-cord for hanging up my food bag.

For just a one or two night trip you can get away with a small gas canister for your stove, but if your traveling with more than one person it never hurts to go with something a bit larger. I also found that the REI half dome is great for camping as it comfortably fits 2 and is light weight enough for solo trips as well. For further gear info I would recommend checking out an article one of our staff wrote about packing for touring on our website.

Getting There:

There are several ways to make your way to the town of Troutdale, the start of the historic gorge highway. Personally I recommend making your way down Marine drive as it is the flattest, most scenic, and most protected pathway there. However, East Burnside is also a very viable option.

My Route from Cycle Portland to Troutdale

The Ride:

To be perfectly honest the ride is not easy. There is about a 900 foot elevation gain to vista house, the halfway point, and no bike lane. With that said if you are in decent shape and bike regularly it is certainly doable, the drivers are pretty good about giving you space, and the shoulder of the road for the most part is close to bike lane sized. Also, the view from vista house and the subsequent downhill makes the climb well worth it.

Suggestions:

Personally I would recommend turning this into a multi day trip instead of a one night out and back. Starting in Warrendale the historic gorge highway turns into a walk and bike only path, that runs through most of the gorge. Next time I am planning on spending a night at Ainsworth, popping into hood river for a beer and an afternoon on the beach, then continuing on and camping in the Dalles.

Conclusion:

While just a short trip, I’d my trial bike packing run a success. I am looking forward to getting back out and I hope to see you on the road!

Feb 03 2018

Touring Checklist: What to Bring on a Bike Tour Pt. 1

When planning what to bring on a bike tour, gear is not the least of your concerns. Luggage may not be as exciting as your choice of route or companions. However, preparing thoughtfully for your trip can make the difference between comfort and a grueling slog, or between a minor hiccup or a total breakdown. With our combined touring experience here at the shop, we’ve learned what works for us. It can be incredibly valuable to make a checklist in order to help prepare for your tour. Ultimately what you decide to bring will depend on the style and length of your trip, as well as your personal traveling preferences.

What to Bring on a Bike Tour

Riding Gear

The first decision to make is how much you are willing to “rough it”. If you will be biking from hotel to hotel and eating in restaurants, a credit card will be your most important piece of equipment. If you’re riding farther afield and camping, you’ll need carry everything you’ll need. Keep things you’ll need during your ride in smaller bags or in jersey pockets. Otherwise you’ll be digging through your panniers looking for your squished banana.

Water bottles: 2-3 can be mounted on your bike. Crushable bottles like Platypus are good for extra water storage if you’ll be riding long stretches between water sources.
Sunscreen
Money and Identification (I like to keep it in a small plastic bag in my jersey pocket)
Phone, charger, and any foreign sim cards or solar panels you may need to make it work
Basic first aid kit
Toiletries (still important to brush teeth on a bike tour!)
Any other comfort items (like chamois butter)

And last but certainly not least…

Food! Even if you’ll mostly be eating out, you’ll want riding snacks to keep your energy up. Maybe even something to put in your water. See this post for suggestions on eating well during a tour.

Tools

Unless you are doing a supported ride with a follow car to pick you up, you’ll need to be self-reliant. At the minimum, you will need to be able to fix flat tires and tighten/loosen all bolts on your bike. If riding with others, you will probably only need one set of tools between you, with the exception of tubes.

Spare tubes: 2 or more(make sure they are the correct size for your tires, especially if you have different tire sizes)
Tire Levers: 2 or 3
Patch kit
Mini pump (we reccomend Topeak Morph pumps)
Set of hex keys, in a multi-tool or separate (check every bolt on your bike to make sure you have a tool that fits it)
Lock (U locks are the most secure, but heavy. If you’ll mostly be stopping in rural areas or are riding in a group, a cable lock will probably suffice.)

For longer or more remote riding, consider bringing extra tools. Hopefully you won’t need them often, or at all, but the little extra weight can pay off when stranded in the middle of nowhere.

Extra spokes: at least one per wheel (each wheel side requires a different spoke length, so make sure you have the correct lengths!
Spoke wrench (also wheel-specific)
Chain breaker (included in some multi-tools)
Spare tire (foldable tires are much easier to carry)
Duct tape (I like to wrap it around my water bottle so I don’t need to bring the whole roll, but you could use your seatpost or anything else)
Small bottle of bike lubricant
Lights, especially if you’re not riding during summer
More general tools like pliers, knife, screwdrivers, etc. – a lightweight multi-tool is a great way to get most of these functions in one small package.
Cable Ties – For some of our staff, cable ties are the new Duct tape, and very useful in a pinch!

What else?

Is this all I should bring on my bike tour? No… But, these are just the most bike-specific things you’ll need to pack. You’ll find our checklist for other supplies including camping gear, clothing, and more in our soon to come post Touring Checklist: What to Bring on a Bike Tour Pt. 2.

Jan 27 2018

Bike Food Part 2: Food to Take on a Bike Tour

On long bike rides, your body needs lots of food. Buying all your food from restaurants can leave you broke. Trying to subsist on granola bars alone can leave you unsatisfied and wondering why you decided to go on this trip in the first place! With a little creativity, however, choosing food to take on a bike tour can become part of the adventure! If you haven’t read Bike Food Part 1, make sure to give that a read as well.

When I toured down Highway 101 from Washington State to California, I tried to live on $10 a day or less. I came across enough grocery stores that I was able to restock almost every day. You may need to save room in your bags for a few days worth of food, depending on where you are going. Adventure Cycling has excellent maps that can help with planning routes, indicating spots to pick up food, get bike maintenance and camp.

Food to Take on a Bike Tour

To help you better understand what food to take on a bike tour, here is an example menu for one day. I’ve left recipes pretty loose because you never know exactly what you’ll be able to find. You can always add a little flair with sides like a bag of hot potatoes or a roadside peach.

Muesli

For breakfast, you want something simple you can prepare ahead of time. In the morning, muesli is delicious served in a cup or bowl with some milk and a banana. In a pinch, you can also have it raw or with water. One travel trick I like to use is to put quick oats in a cup and find a place with drip coffee, like a bank or drive-thru cafe. Pour a little coffee into the oats and you’ve got delicious caffeinated oatmeal!

I buy these ingredients when I find a good bulk section at a grocery store.

3 parts quick oats (regular is fine if you like chewy)
1 part nuts (almonds, walnuts, slivered or chopped is best)
1 part dry fruit (raisins, dates, apricots)
Throw something interesting in like coconut flakes or graham cracker bits!
1 part seeds (pumpkin, chia, sunflower)

Roadside Wrap

Your lunch spot usually chooses you. Your legs may yell at you for a break or you may come across a hilltop park to have your bike food with a view of the sea. Either way, you’ll want something you can put together without too much effort. Wraps are pretty easy and are a good way to use fresh vegetables you may come across.

Torilla
Avocado or hummus
Red onion, chopped
Tomato, sliced
Lettuce and/or any other veggies you find
Add protein with yogurt, seeds, or nuts (optional)
If you like spicy, add peppers or garlic

Or, if I have the good fortune to come across a berry bush, I like to make a fresh tortilla “smoothie”:

Tortilla
Wild berries (make sure you know what they are, or have your friend try one first)
Nut butter (Almond, sunflower, peanut) or yogurt
Chopped apples or whatever other fruits you have (optional)

Campfire Food

After a long ride, it feels real good to sit and not move your legs. Your dinner possibilities will depend on where you’re stopping for the night. If you’re able to make a fire, cooking can be a nice way to wind the day down. If you’ve got a stove and a pot, go ahead and whip up your instant pad Thai. However, people have been cooking with nothing but fire for thousands of years. Here are a few examples of things you can cook over coals:

Yam (helps to wrap it in tin foil). Delicious if garnished with butter, salt, paprika or other spices
Bread! Mix water, flour and anything else (cheese, wild greens, etc.). Roll into balls and place on top of hot coals. Rotate to cook evenly. Remove when firm and set aside to cool. Dust off ashes and top with something delicious.
Can of beans. Drain and rinse first. Be sure to rotate and stir.

For more bike food tips for your trips check out Bike Food Part 1 : How to Make Your Ride Delicious and stay tuned for Bike Food Part 3. Stop in the shop sometime, we’re happy to chat with you and give tips on how to plan food to take on a bike tour!

Jan 26 2018

Bike Food Part 1 : How to Make Your Ride Delicious

If you’ve ridden a bike much, you may have noticed there are few kitchens on the side of the road. You also may have noticed you are hungry. You are not alone. But with a some preparation, a positive spirit and burritos, you’ll find there is bike food out there suitable for all cyclists.

Bike Food

I always carry at least a granola bar in my saddle bag. “Bonking,” or running out of energy on a bike ride, is at best an avoidable bummer. At worst, it can be a health hazard, especially if you are far from civilization or riding in cold weather. Fueling your ride can be either a chore or a delicious picnic. It’s easy to find a place to get food in a city like Portland where food trucks are around every corner! But when traveling longer distances, a little planning and attitude makes all the difference.

Your body does require more calories and electrolytes while exercising, but don’t be intimidated by sports food marketing. “Electrolytes” is basically just another way to say “salt”. Calories and electrolytes exist in literally all food. This is what makes it food. Over my experience on longer rides and tours, I’ve found a few favorite foods that fit well in a jersey pocket or saddle bag and add to the pleasure of riding a bike. Then again, everything tastes better after a long bike ride.

Burrito!

A perfect pocket-sized sandwich. I used to have a shirt that said “53 miles per burrito,” which is pretty accurate. The real advantage of this food is the near ubiquity of taco trucks in some parts. Many times have I been saved from hunger by some middle-of-nowhere taqueria. Remember to bring some cash when you ride, if you dream of burritos.

Trail Mix!

I guess on a bike it would technically be a “road mix,” but the principle remains the same. You can make it as fancy or cheap as you’d like, but I like to buy a bunch of ingredients in bulk and mix them into bags to take with me. Here is a rough recipe I like:

2 parts peanuts
1 part mini pretzels
2 parts dried fruit (like cranberries or raisins)
1 part banana chips
1 part something exciting like chocolate chips

Harmonious Pairs

Snacks don’t have to be complex. Some of the most satisfying road foods I kept going back to were pairs of things that go together. This is partly because its easier to find just two things at a random convenience store in the middle of nowhere. But also you don’t want to spend all your time planning food when you could be riding. Here are a few of the pairs I kept going back to on longer rides:

Apple and Nut Butter
Carrots/Chips and Hummus
Avocado and Tortillas
Banana and Granola
Burritos and Burritos

Beverage

Water is the best beverage, but sometimes you want something else. You can get fancy powders that magic your water into a smoothie or a sports drink. I prefer to use a little lemon juice or hibiscus mixed with honey, or even coconut water. On long trips with friends, I like to hide a bottle of beer in my pannier. When you arrive at your destination everyone is tired, but a little surprise at the end can turn “ugh, what a ride…” into “wow, what a ride!”

Bike food is important for the mind, body and spirit. As important as it is to take care of your bike, it’s probably more important to take care of yourself! Put the right things in your body and you’ll get the best out of your bike and yourself! Stay tuned for more bike food tips in part 2 and part 3.

Nov 15 2017

Keep Hope Alive in Winter: Plan Your Next Tour

If you moved to Portland a few months ago, you may have thought you were moving to a land of eternal summer. Just look at all the yards growing banana plants and the abundance of patio seating! Now that the weight of your misunderstanding is sinking in, you may be looking for ways to keep hope alive through the long drizzle season. A cyclist does not run on burritos alone, after all. Here we will encourage you through the winter time by planning for your next tour.

Step 1: Believe Summer Will Return

Don’t get your head in the clouds, summer doesn’t have clouds. Instead, spend your indoor-time dreaming of all the bike tours you will embark on next year. Weekend tours can be planned fairly spur of the moment. Maybe a jaunt to L.L.Stub Steward State Park (The Banks-Veronia Trail goes straight through it)? Or perhaps a loop around the Columbia Gorge (Ainsworth State Park has a spacious bike-camping field)? Longer tours might require a winter of planning.

I did not plan much for my tour into California. While it mostly worked out in the end, you might benefit from spending your pent-up energy planning more obsessively than I did. I left Olympia, WA with no destination except “South.” I took the carbon road bike I raced in college, since that was the only bike I had. As I pulled into the campground I intended to stay on the first evening of my tour, I went over a speed bump and my rack fell off. Don’t try to tour with a carbon seatpost and a clamp-on rack! I was then told the campground was closed. So I carried all my gear on my head while I looked for a bridge to sleep under until it was light enough to hitchhike to the nearest town. The next day I bought an aluminum seatpost.

So Plan Your Tour

You can spend a whole winter deciding on a destination, but the journey itself is really the important part. Highway 101 is an ideal touring route. It has abundant views, quaint seaside towns and world-class parks. Some 800 miles later, I ended up in Yolo County in a town of about 150 people. I spent the winter on a family farm/goat dairy and eating the most delicious oranges and pomegranates I ever had.

If you’d like some help dreaming up your next bike tour, why not stop by the shop for some tea? From our combined wealth of experience, we can suggest routes through the San Juan Islands, Glacier National Park, across India, and beyond. You might just keep the drizzle from seeping into your spleen (well known organ of hope).

Coming next: “Step 2: Actually Prepare for Winter.”

Oct 18 2016

Awesome New Bike Route Mapping Tool!

Whether you’re wondering how much water to take out on a long adventure or just curious about the mileage of your daily commute, bikeroll.net is our favorite new tool for mapping out our routes. It gives elevation, mileage, along with a weather forecast for your trip!

Best of all, it is a global service, with routing capabilities in both Metric and Imperial measurements. We plan to use it in mapping out our next trips! Here’s a screen shot of their interface. It’s pretty intuitive!

Thanks to Botond Bocsi for telling us about this great site.

Jun 17 2016

Pedalpalooza 2016

The 14th annual Pedalpalooza is in full-swing, with 250+ group rides already scheduled. This year, the fun will be going on until July 4th. You can find the 2016 schedule here on Shift2Bikes, and below are some highlighted rides. We all wish we could make it to every single one, but our legs (and schedules) can only take so much. Many of the popular rides below have pre-rides that meet up with them, so check the schedule and see how many you can fit into your month of June!

June 17th: Dropout Prom Ride, 9:30PM, Col. Summers Park

June 18th: Rooftop Ride, 10:30PM, Lillis-Albina Park

June 19th: Zoobomb, 8:30PM, SW 13th & Burnside

June 23rd: Thursday Night Ride, 7:30PM, Salmon Street Fountain

June 24th: Little Lebowski Urban Achiever Ride, 7PM, Col. Summers Park

June 24th: The Guthrie Ride, 10PM, NE 11th & Alberta

June 25th: The World Naked Bike Ride, 8PM, Location TBA

June 26th: Sunday Parkways, 11AM, Kenton Park

July 2nd: Loud & Lit, 9:30PM, Irving Park

July 4th: Independence Ride, 8PM, Woodlawn Park Amphitheater

Come out and join the fun, we hope to see you there!

Feb 04 2015

Cycle Portland Brewery Tour Featured by Momentum Magazine!

“Bikes and Brews go together perfectly on this fun city bike tour.”

Why thank you, Momentum Magazine! We’re glad you enjoyed the experience!

We’re constantly seeking out the best in excellence for the breweries we visit, formulating stops based on locality, brewing practices, and most importantly, great tasting beer. We work hard so you don’t have to, and love showing folks around some of the best breweries in Portland, OR.

Whether getting to know the tastes and taps of Portland for the first time or just looking to expand your Portland craft brew palate, Cycle Portland’s Brews Cruise brewery tour is a must experience, and Momentum Magazine agrees! Check out the link to read our most recent press love from the top bicycling lifestyle magazine in the country!

And next time you’re in Portland, stop in with us here at Portland’s original bike tour & rental company, we’d love to take you out on a brewery bike tour through Portland, OR!

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