The Pedalshift Project: Bicycle Travel Adventures

A podcast about bicycle touring, bikepacking, bike camping... any way you describe adventure travel by bike, it's covered here! From tips and tricks to ideas on how to ride your ride. Let's shrink the world by bike.

Oregon Coast Trail - Part 1 08/13/2026

Oregon Coast Trail - Part 1 The Oregon Coast Trail backpacking adventure officially begins! Mysterious James and I head for the Oregon Coast expecting a roughly 10-mile first day over Neahkahnie Mountain. Naturally, the adventure starts with us watching our connecting bus leave without us. Is the entire trip scuttled before we even begin? "My Tent is not Viable" awarded to Brock and I to memorialize our night 1 mishap... . The Pedalshift Project 448: Oregon Coast Trail - Part 1 Portland to Tillamook goes exactly according to plan. This will not last. A confusing route-number change leads to Tim and James missing their northbound connection while essentially standing next to it. With Uber, Lyft and other escape routes unavailable, it’s time for Plan B. A few bonus hours in Tillamook include an unexpectedly excellent visit to the Tillamook County Public Library. The revised plan: take the later bus to Manzanita, establish a base there and turn the day’s planned hike into an out-and-back toward Neahkahnie Mountain. First impressions of experiencing familiar Oregon Coast territory on foot instead of from a bicycle. The backpacking finally begins with a walk along the beach at Manzanita. Important navigational discovery: if the Pacific Ocean is on your left, you’re probably walking north. Firm beach sand: surprisingly excellent walking. Soft beach sand: considerably less excellent. Heading inland and uphill on the Headwaters Trail toward Neahkahnie Mountain. About 3.5 miles of continuous climbing provides the first real test of the new packs and gear. Early verdict: the pack weights feel completely manageable for the planned 7–10 mile days. Tim and James discover that humid-weather backpacking may not be part of their future long-distance hiking careers. The shortened route still delivers nearly everything they wanted from the original day: climbing, forest trails, beach walking and plenty of mileage. Back in Manzanita for the most important part of any successful hiking itinerary: pizza and beer. A surprising amount of actual bike content, with multiple loaded touring cyclists spotted along the coast. The final walk to Nehalem Bay State Park is longer than expected, pushing the day’s total close to nine miles. First impressions of the Nehalem Bay hiker-biker campsite, including lockers, charging and bike repair facilities. The new tent gets its first setup and the backpacking gear earns high marks. Day one verdict: despite immediately borking the original plan, the Oregon Coast Trail experiment is a success. Next up: more beach walking, changing weather and Day 2 on the Oregon Coast Trail. Statistics Miles hiked 9 Missed buses: 1 Loaded bicycle tourists spotted: 7 Plans successfully improvised: 1 Days of rain on the Oregon coast we did not expect 1 Flats N/A /episode/index/show/pedalshift/id/42414910

Best of Pedalshift 345: E-Bike Adventures with Biking Brian 08/06/2026

Oregon Coast Trail Preview 07/30/2026

Oregon Coast Trail Preview Welcome to a different kind of Pedalshift adventure. For the first time, we’re leaving the bikes behind and heading out on foot for a three-day section hike of the Oregon Coast Trail. Along with returning friend of the show and legendary 5-timer Mysterious James, I’m testing new ultralight gear, revisiting familiar terrain at walking speed, and exploring whether slowing down even more changes the way we experience a place we’ve ridden through so many times. It’s a little experimental, a little ambitious, and very much in the spirit of adventure. The Pedalshift Project 447: Oregon Coast Trail Preview A first for Pedalshift: backpacking instead of bikepacking. Joined by returning guest James for a three-day Oregon Coast Trail adventure. Transit-powered trip: Portland → Tillamook → north coast by bus before hiking south. Revisiting familiar Pacific Coast territory from an entirely different perspective. Can walking reveal things even bike travel misses? Route highlights include: Neahkahnie Mountain Manzanita Nehalem Bay State Park Beach hiking along the Oregon Coast Trail Planning roughly 10-mile hiking days with hiker-biker and county campground overnights. Weather forecast calls for classic Oregon Coast uncertainty, with rain possible after a dry first day. New ultralight gear gets its first real test: Hyperlite 40L backpack Big Agnes Copper Spur Bikepacking tent Carbon fiber trekking poles Thoughts on balancing premium gear with the long-held Pedalshift philosophy that the best gear is the gear that gets you outside. Pack weight comes in around 18 pounds, with room for future refinement. Trail food strategy includes hot coffee, plenty of snack bars… and James carrying enough bananas for what appears to be a small primate sanctuary. Why this trip fits the evolving vision of Pedalshift: adventures adjacent to bicycling that still embrace human-powered exploration. /episode/index/show/pedalshift/id/42259485

Sprocketshift Oregon Coast Takeaways 07/23/2026

Sprocketshift Oregon Coast Takeaways Every once in a while I finish a trip and, after I get home and everything dries out, I realize there were a handful of lessons that weren’t obvious while I was riding. So this week, rather than another recap of the Oregon Coast, here are a few takeaways from the trip.” Takeaway #1: Constraints can make for a better tour Weather forced changes. My tent forced bigger changes. Transit schedules forced even more changes. We stopped trying to preserve the original plan and started asking what the best trip looked like now. The revised trip ended up being more memorable than the one we planned. Bottom line: Sometimes constraints don’t ruin a tour—they become the reason it’s interesting. Takeaway #2: I think my touring philosophy is changing I’ve spent years optimizing for mileage. That usually means riding through interesting places instead of experiencing them. Tillamook was the perfect example. I’ve passed through multiple times and barely stopped. This time I spent the day exploring instead of chasing miles. Bottom line: I’m increasingly interested in using the bike to get me to experiences, not simply accumulate distance. Takeaway #3: “Ride your own ride” can happen on the same trip Brock and I started from exactly the same place. We made completely different decisions. He chose the big riding day. I chose the slower exploration day. Both approaches ended with great stories. Bottom line: There isn’t one correct version of a successful bike tour. Takeaway #4: Transit isn’t cheating We used buses multiple times. They made the route possible. They allowed us to adapt instead of abandoning the trip. They cost almost nothing. Bottom line: Bikes and transit complement each other remarkably well. Takeaway #5: Gear failures change everything “My tent is not viable.” That one sentence completely changed the weekend. Once your shelter becomes unreliable, every decision becomes different. Confidence is part of your gear list. Bottom line: Reliability beats optimization. Takeaway #6: Where did all the bike tourists go? Peak season. Iconic route. Excellent infrastructure. Very few loaded touring bikes. Possible explanations: More gravel riders? More bikepacking? Different travel habits? Something else? Bottom line: I’m seeing enough of a pattern that I don’t think it’s a coincidence anymore. Takeaway #7: I’m excited about touring again Fitness is coming back. Losing weight has made a noticeable difference. I’m thinking differently about how I want trips to look. I was planning the next ride before this one ended. Bottom line: That’s usually a sign you’re headed in the right direction. /episode/index/show/pedalshift/id/42185540

Sprocketshift Oregon Coast - Part 2 07/16/2026

Sprocketshift Oregon Coast - Part 2 What happens when two people on the same bike tour decide to have two completely different adventures? On this edition of The Pedalshift Project, day two of the Sprocketshift Oregon Coast adventure with Brock Dittus starts with a split decision in Tillamook. Brock points his bike north for a long, wet ride toward Cannon Beach. I slow things way down for cheese, side quests, a little local riding, and maybe a bit of a rethink about what I actually want out of bicycle travel these days. Two riders. Two very different days. One extremely cheap bus ride. Will the bike and bus gods allow us to reunite for fish, chips, oysters, and beer in Astoria? A reminder about our cool spinner giveaway! If you signed up for the Pedalshift email list like I told you last week, or you already were… check your inbox! Reply back to me with that email at by Sunday July 19 at 11:59pm PT and voila! You’re entered! What do you win? Only the second of its kind functioning spinner designed by Simone, the creative mind behind the 5 timers award and future Pedalshift merch. Check out the GIF of my favorite fidgety thing in the shownotes. And good luck everyone who enters! Oregon Coast Bike Tour with Brock Dittus – Part 2 Day two of our northbound Oregon Coast bike tour begins in Tillamook with a major change of plans. With uncertain weather, challenging terrain, and Oregon Coast bus schedules that aren’t lining up particularly well, Brock Dittus and I decide to split up for the day. Brock heads north by bicycle toward Cannon Beach. I stay behind for a much lower-mileage day exploring Tillamook by bike before using public transit to fast-forward north. The result is something a little different for The Pedalshift Project: two simultaneous tour journals from two riders having completely different bicycle touring adventures. Two Riders, Two Very Different Oregon Coast Adventures Brock leaves Tillamook with an ambitious goal: ride north toward Astoria and see how far he can get. His day includes: Intermittent rain that becomes considerably less intermittent A thoroughly soaked ride through Rockaway Beach The climbs and terrain of the northern Oregon Coast Neahkahnie Mountain Roughly 40 miles of challenging bicycle touring The strategy of simply not stopping because stopping means getting cold A reminder that wet jeans and long-distance cycling are not necessarily natural allies Meanwhile, I embrace something closer to a bicycle-assisted vacation day in Tillamook: A visit to the Tillamook Creamery The realization that I actually had been there before… roughly three decades ago A stop at Blue Heron A visit to the Tillamook farmers market Some local exploration by bike A side quest involving the elusive Oregon delicacy known as meadowfoam honey An extremely inexpensive bus connection north Same bike tour. Very different days. Rethinking How I Bicycle Tour My slower day in Tillamook raises a bigger question about how I want to approach bicycle travel going forward. For years, my touring style has often focused on moving from Point A to Point B. The places along the route are part of the experience, but mileage and reaching the destination can easily become the priority. That means I’ve ridden through places like Tillamook many times without actually spending much time experiencing them. This day was different. Instead of riding through Tillamook yet again, I stayed. I visited places I’d skipped on previous Oregon Coast bike tours. I explored. I followed a side quest. I rode when I wanted to ride and stopped when I wanted to stop. And it may represent a bit of a shift in how I think about bicycle touring. The length of a bicycle trip doesn’t always have to be measured by the number of miles ridden. Sometimes the bike is the thing that gets us to the experience. Brock’s 40 Miles of Type Two Fun While I’m contemplating a new philosophy of slower bicycle travel over cheese samples, Brock is having a very different day. Rain. Hills. Wet clothes. More rain. Despite the conditions, he makes excellent time north from Tillamook, riding through Rockaway Beach and over the challenging terrain toward Cannon Beach. He ultimately reaches Cannon Beach after roughly 40 miles of riding and decides that he doesn’t need to ride all the way to Astoria to prove anything. The original goal may have been a much longer day, but sometimes knowing when you’ve already had the adventure is part of the adventure. Also: prolonged rain, soaked clothing, and friction are apparently a combination worth avoiding. This is useful bicycle touring information. Reunited in Cannon Beach Thanks to a combination of bicycles, buses, location sharing, and an Oregon Coast transit schedule that somehow works out, our two routes converge in Cannon Beach. From there, we take the final bus together to Astoria. The total cost of taking public transportation from Tillamook to Astoria? Two dollars. For bicycle tourists interested in combining cycling with transit on the Oregon Coast, the regional bus network can create some remarkably inexpensive options for shortening or modifying a route. Astoria: Fish, Chips, Oysters, and Bicycle Touring We end the day in Astoria with beer, seafood, oyster shooters, and a comparison of our radically different adventures. That leads us back to a question that has come up repeatedly on The Pedalshift Project: Where are all the bicycle tourists? Even during prime touring season on the Oregon Coast—one of the best-known bicycle touring routes in the United States—we encounter remarkably few loaded touring cyclists. Is traditional road-based bicycle touring declining? Are more cyclists choosing gravel and off-road bikepacking routes? Are hikers increasingly becoming the primary users of Oregon’s hiker-biker campsites? And if bicycle touring numbers continue to decline, what could that mean for the future of the infrastructure that makes routes like the Oregon Coast possible? Our data set is hardly scientific, but after several years of seeing the same pattern, it’s becoming harder to dismiss. Sometimes the Constraints Make the Bike Tour This weekend also offers another reminder about bicycle travel: sometimes the trip you wouldn’t have chosen is the trip that produces the best stories. If we’d had several weekends available, we probably would have avoided this one because of the weather. Instead, this was the weekend we had. Rain. Bus schedules. Route changes. A split adventure. Unexpected stops. Brock compares it to Brian Eno’s Oblique Strategies: introducing limitations and constraints that force you to approach something differently. In our case, the constraints became the bike tour. Also in This Episode The Tillamook Creamery: the Disneyland of cheese Why ice cream at 10:30 in the morning is a defensible life choice The search for Oregon meadowfoam honey Bicycle touring through Tillamook, Rockaway Beach, Cannon Beach, and Astoria Combining bikes and public transit on the Oregon Coast Cannon Beach’s continuing role as a mildly cursed bicycle-touring destination Businesses without Wi-Fi The mysterious economics of an artisanal s’mores establishment Oyster shooters and the deeply questionable possibility of oyster Jell-O Brock’s return to podcasting Why talking to your bus driver can save your connection A final full-circle return to Salem Statistics Riders beginning the day together: 2 Riders immediately splitting up: 2 Cheese establishments visited: 2 Approximate miles ridden by Brock: 40 Approximate miles ridden by Tim: 6–8 Bus fare from Tillamook to Astoria: $2 Prawns consumed: 8 Pieces of cod consumed by Brock: 3 Pints consumed: 1 each Smokes broken: 1 Questionable oyster Jell-O concepts developed: 1 Flats: zero /episode/index/show/pedalshift/id/42098735

Sprocketshift Oregon Coast - Part 1 07/09/2026

Sprocketshift Oregon Coast - Part 1 It’s magical episode 444 of The Pedalshift Project, and we’re marking the occasion with a proper Oregon Coast adventure! In part one of two, longtime friend of the show Brock Dittus joins on a hobgoblin of a ride. On this episode: northbound coastal riding, alternate routes off 101, questionable mileage math, damp gear, coffee stops, headwinds, the Five-Timers Club, and the operating phrase of the whole trip: “My tent is not viable.” Hey there is a GIVEAWAY that is part of this episode… stay tuned to hear how to win a special, nearly one of a kind piece designed by the talent behind the five timers club award Brock gets in this very episode! Highlights Episode 444, with a very satisfying accidental 44-mile moment. Tim and Brock reunite for a Sprocket Shift-style Oregon Coast ride. The trip shifts from the original plan into a northbound Lincoln City-to-Astoria adventure. The 60X bus from Salem to Lincoln City proves to be a useful transit link for coastal bike touring. Devil’s Lake hiker-biker gets revisited and loosely rated. Summer on the Oregon Coast delivers rain, chill, clouds, and deeply confused expectations. Tim’s tent fails overnight and is declared “not viable.” The planned camping trip becomes a hotel-supported ride after wet gear and a damp down bag change the calculus. Old Highway 101 / Forest Road 11 north of Lincoln City gets a major reassessment as the better touring route. Neskowin and Pacific City provide key food, coffee, and morale stops. The final stretch into Tillamook brings classic coastal headwinds. Brock officially receives his Five-Timers Club award. Route Notes Start: Salem, Oregon Transit: 60X bus to Lincoln City / Chinook Winds Casino Camp: Devil’s Lake State Recreation Area hiker-biker site Ride direction: Northbound / NOBO Day ride: Lincoln City to Tillamook Key stops: Neskowin, Pacific City, Tillamook End of episode: Tillamook, Oregon Next destination: Astoria, Oregon Hey it’s a giveaway! The Pedalshift spinner giveaway! How to enter… make sure you’re subscribed to the Pedalshift email list over at . I’ll send an email out to the list on Thursday July 16th for the release of part 2. Reply or forward it back at me at by 11:59pm PT Sunday July 19th and BAM! You’re in the running. The email will have the directions too. Overly complex? Maybe. But you get the coolest designed piece ever by our clever and talented designer friend. Statistics Episode number: 444 Hiker-biker cost at Devil’s Lake: $8 Miles biked: 57 Known other touring cyclists spotted: 2 Known hikers at camp: 1 Bundles of firewood: 2 Tent viability: zero Campground USB-C ports: zero Campground USB-A ports: yes Five-Timers Club ornaments awarded: 1 Flats: zero /episode/index/show/pedalshift/id/42018385