Bike maintenance day

July 30^th, 2026

Edmonton, Alberta

Woke at 8:00am and showered and got dressed.

As the ride it far enough I will wear the full riding suit today, but will just stay with my walking shoes, give the boots more time to dry out since they were wet when I arrived.

Once ready, I went down and got the bike uncovered.

Found my way out of the underground garage and then followed the GPS route down the hill to the river and crossed on one of the newer bridges.  Then on other side hit the main road south.

Lots of stop lights, but nice ride through the city.

Eventually found my way over to the industrial area the shop is in.  Ironically, I passed right by the other shop that was unable to get me in.

On the last street I needed, the road was closed for construction work (seems about 50-60% of the roads up here are being worked on, just crazy trying to get anywhere).

Went a bit farther to another turn and the GPS re-routed me to where I needed to go.

Got bike checked in with the shop and then they asked me where I would be, as they did not have any facility for me to hang out there.  I could have just sat on the sidewalk outside or against the fence, but would have been quite miserable in the heat and even here the mosquitos are still quite active, just not as large of swarms.

He said there was a Tim Hortons down the road, so walked over there, again having to route around that same road construction.

I went in and decided to just eat breakfast as they serve food, though it was just a coffee shop, but bit more than that.

Had an egg muffin sandwich and a Coke.

Then I just sat around playing on the phone as there was no place else to be and I expected at least 1.5 hours to get the bike done, maybe more depending on when they started on it.

After about an hour, I decided to just order lunch as well, and had a hot beef sandwich and fries and another Coke.

Right around the 2-hour mark they phone rang, it was the shop, but for some reason I could not hear them.  Phone has been acting odd all week.

I tried to call back, but it would not connect.

So just left and walked back over to the shop and they were ready with the bike.

Cost me about $250 US to have the oil and filter changed, chain adjusted and lubed, and the headlight bulb replaced (that took the longest).  They also checked over the bike and verified my fork seals were okay, I just need to keep them clean (and will get them serviced when I return as I have still lost a good amount of fork oil).  They even cleaned and lubed the side stand as it was getting difficult to put up and down due to the road grime build up.

Settled the bill and then rode out of the lot and stopped to find a Walmart to go to so I could buy more snacks.

Found one not too far off my route back to the hotel and headed in that direction.

About ½ mile from there, I saw a Safeway and though that might be a better choice and stopped there instead.

Bought some chips and several things of tea, and loaded up the pannier on the bike.

Then rode back to the hotel, which had even more road works to get around.

Parked, secured, and covered the bike, then went up to the room.

Spent the afternoon working on videos and sorting gear a bit.

I then went down to the lounge for an early dinner and had a thing of nachos again.

I worked a bit during dinner on video conversions and then returned to the room.

I decided with the plans I had for the next day that I would not really have time to go find and sit around a laundromat, and the cost to have hotel do the laundry was ridiculous, so decided to just sink wash the socks/underwear/shirts and let them dry in the room over the next 1.5 days.

Once done with that and everything was laid out to hopefully dry, I continued working on videos and figured out my hotel for the next destination.  That was a bit of a pain, most of the places near the location were just crazy costs, or everything was booked up.

I ended up having to stay at a hotel 50 minutes away in a smaller town, but should work out anyway, will just take a few extra miles and an extra tank of fuel to pull it off, but still far cheaper than the hotels in town (by several hundred dollars).

Now I think I am going to go to bed.

Catch ya later.

Todays Route: