Everyday for 7 Weeks–Day 32–Long Beach to Portland

We awoke eager to leave Long Beach. There wasn’t anything wrong with it. We enjoyed the quiet and the ocean. We’ve been wanting to visit Portland for several years now, and were finally less than 100 miles away! However, we wouldn’t be getting there until much later in the day. A small crisis with the bike was discovered in the morning while loading up.

I found a small, but alarmingly large crack in the tubing of my luggage rack on the left side. This was not what broke earlier, but something else. Half the tube was still clinging on, so I splinted it up with a pile of zip ties and a tire iron. I put some feelers out for a welder further down the road, and then set off. We followed 101 again further south.

At 11:28 it happened. We crossed into Oregon over the Columbia River.

 

The 48th state in the US I’ve been to, and one I’ve been wanting to visit for some time. We had heard Oregon was awesome; now it was time to see for ourselves!  We got glimpses of the ocean through trees and houses, but not a clear view until we reached Seaside, OR.

While riding through town, I saw a sign for “Welding, Repair, and Fabrication”. I quickly made a u-turn and went back. It was a large operation that did all sorts of work. I chatted with the staff. They thought they could fix it after looking at it, but there was a catch. All of the guys just went to lunch. What to do but wait. I asked if where the beach was, and was directed a few blocks down the road. We headed straight there and enjoyed a quick picnic on the beach. It was very peaceful. There was one person off to the left about a 1/2 mile away and one person to the right about the same distance.

After lunch we headed back. I stripped the bike of luggage, and I removed the zipties holding things together. Dellwin was the welder assigned to work on my bike, and he helped me wheel it back to “his lair”. He had a couple ideas how to fix it, and sent me off to “put my feet up and wait”. There were worse places to wait. It was nice to get caught up on some emails and phone calls during the hour he was fixing the rack. He said it took more time to remove the powder coating than it did to weld up the tubing and add a support.

An hour later it was all fixed. He had repainted it black. He figured it broke because when it was fully tight the support was pulling on the inside of the tubing. He put in a 1/8 spacer which relieved the strain. We both guessed that when it was repaired last in Dawson Creek, the frame tab was bent in slightly requiring the luggage bracket to strain ever so slightly. The thousands of miles of bumpy roads took their toll. The luggage it much lighter now too as all of my camping gear was sent home in Seattle. The repair cost $80; half the price of the rack and top case. We were back on the road.

 

This shot shows the spacers (washers) he added to relieve the stress on the joint between the vertical and horizon piece.

I guess this is the three years of trouble free trips making up for lost time. It was a good day to have and deal with the problem. We had time, and help was easily found.

Dellwin also taught us how to pronounce Oregon. According to him, it is Ore-gun not Ore-gone.

We took 26 towards Portland it was sort of scenic and it carved up and down some hills and through some forests. By 3pm, we made it to the outskirts of Portland and rush hour. The afternoon traffic became thicker the closer we rode to the city center. We crawled through town in first gear waiting for our exit to appear.

We had found a convenient B&B and were eager to check in. We wanted to start exploring the town. The motorcycle was parked and luggage removed. We briefly thought about riding around the town, but both of us agreed walking would be nicer. We found  a nice place to eat a few blocks away, and then wandered around. It was nice.

Portland is very bicycle friendly. We saw lots of places to park them like this

Several cool looking houses too.

 

Tomorrow, more Portland.

 

Day 32 Full Flickr Album

 

Video: Broken Rack in Seaside

 

 

Today’s Route:

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