Getting ready is a bit different this time.  Back when we packed to spend a  month or 3 in BC, we had no idea we'd be doing a bike trip in Europe.  We were planning on doing some cycling, of course, which is why we chose to pass the time in the south Okanagan and Victoria, but it didn't seem possible back in August that we'd leave the province.  The border to the south was closed, Alberta was having a nasty fourth wave of Covid, and somehow driving up to Yukon was never on the radar.  Luckily, though, we had thought we might do a short local tour so we had panniers with us, and we'd put our bike cases near the front of one of the storage lockers so we could collect them on our way through Vancouver.  We also collected the bike rack to free up some space in the car.

Somehow, though, in the business of packing and moving our of our townhouse, my Abus Bordo lock was mislaid.  So far we'd gotten by without but I needed to get a new one for the trip.  We like these locks because they are reasonably secure, not ridiculously heavy, compact to carry, and can be connected together to make one extra-long lock to secure two bikes together to something solid.  Even in a hotel, we never leave our bikes unlocked.  (We've never had our bikes in our room, with the exception of the AirBnB in Penticton.  Maybe because we usually camp on local tours.)

Following inspection of our bikes (and our preference to avoid having to find bike shops in foreign countries), we determined that both needed new chains and brake pads.  We already had replacement brake pads and luckily a nearby shop had 11-speed chains as both those items can be very hard to find these days.  My bike could use new brake rotors too, but since centrelock rotors are expensive (assuming you can find them) and can be damaged in transit, I decided to postpone that until after the trip.  And while we were at it, we decided to mount new tires too.  Whew!  Finally finished all that today.

I want to add that I'm impressed with the bike shops in Victoria.  There are 3 within an easy walk of where we are staying (including the parts-and-service-only place and not including the ebike shop), at least 5 more not much further away, without even including MEC.  I visited all of them in my search for various bits and pieces and would happily do business with any.  Compared to where we used to live in Burnaby, really there's no comparison at all.