Cycling Iceland May 2012.......!

The Land of Ice and Fire beckons again!

Glasgow to Keflavik return £191+£20 for the bike......Mountain bike that is......!

We were all booked up to go last year but another volcano Grimsvotn cancelled our flights the night before departure. The year before I cycled around 800 miles in Iceland and thoroughly enjoyed it apart from the ashstorms around Eyjafjallajokull which meant I had to turn around in the 'dead zone' and head for cleaner air!

This time my plan would be to cycle the entire ringroad which is 900miles aswell as a few side trips and i'd have two weeks in which to do it.

The exchange rate is quite good at ISK 191-£1 and cycling is a very cheap way to travel and I can budget for around £30 per day including campsite.

The bike i'm using is a Thorn Sherpa EXP which is basically a custom built steel framed 27 speed mountain bike with heavy duty 36/48 spoke XT tandem wheels with 2.1 inch kevlar tyres, heavy duty steel front and rear racks for the Ortleib panniers and barbag aswell as three bottlescages and GPS etc. It's a simple bike using Shimano Deore deraillier gears and V brakes and no suspension.

As bikes go It's as heavy as a freight train it's also as strong as an Ox.

The equipment i'm taking is a lightweight Mountain Hardware sprite one man tent, mountain Hardware three season bag, Thermarest and a Trangia stove some good clothes and and that's about it.

Here's hoping for good weather a strong tailwind and.........No volcanoes!

FP.

Hope it all goes well this time!

We'll be back there before too long, it could be an addictive place

Jealous!!! Have a good time and I expect pics on your return

Iceland update......!

Iceland update......!

Echange rate is now 202 ISK to £1 which is very good.

The flight eventually cost £185 return with Icelandair from Glasgow to Keflavik without the tedious Manchester dogleg.

Getting a few evening rides on the MTB now and my legs are starting to improve in strength bit......Longer fifty sixty mile evening rides will follow shortly.

Nothing much different on the bike this trip but I may take my Zumo 220 as it'll fit on the handlebar with a nifty wee Touratech bracket. It means a bit more weight and another charger and it'll not be much use if it just says 'ride 900 miles then turn right'......!

Could be handy for arrival times etc aswell as street navigation in Reykjavik and some of the larger 'small' towns although i'm kidding myself on that one.

Camping gear will remain the same with a Mountain Hardware Sprite one man tent, sleeping bag, Thermarest and a Trangia cooking stove aswell as one litre of meths(Raudspirit in Iceland and it's red with a dye in it to make you sick if you drink it)

I'll be taking less clothes this time, more outdoors rather than cycling specific which should keep the weight of the loaded bike down a wee bit.

The pedals on the bike will be different this time though and instead of using double sided SPD's i'll be using a single sided Shimano SPD touring pedal which means you can ride 'unlipped' on the really gnarly rough stuff and get your foot down before you fall over and clipped on the road sections.......!

FP.

A decent bike your taking then! Not get much better.

You will be hoping its not too windy-Is it known for wind there?

I thought the triangia stoves were quite bulky ?

You obviously have it well planned so have a good trip

A great trip, not at all envious.
Pics and ride report afterwards pls.

doyle said:

A decent bike your taking then! Not get much better.

You will be hoping its not too windy-Is it known for wind there?

I thought the triangia stoves were quite bulky ?

You obviously have it well planned so have a good trip

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I looked at the Koga-Miyata Signature with the Rohloff hub gear but thought the Sherpa was a 'tougher' option for my type of riding and I still like the deraillier gearing.....If it ever goes wrong you can get one of any MTB. All my other bikes have been Dave Yates....Fixed wheel, Audax and race although my first ever MTB was a black Saracen Conquest circa. 1986(quite sought after nowadays) My runabout is a Trek 6000 hardtail which i can easily tour on aswell as tackleing the fast rougher stuff.

Iceland has some seriously strong winds and they're usually worse in the exposed 'Sandur' areas so it's not only windy but there's a lot of grit, sand and volcanic ash blowing around.....Lovely when your steaming along at 23mph but not so good when 8mph is difficult to hold in a headwind......Crosswinds are worse though as you get blown right off the road sometimes......Snow is a risk aswell in late may early june so the weather can be a major factor in completing any planned route but at least you can chuck the bike on a bus and get through the worst bits.

The Triangia isn't a big one and the beauty of that system is that your two pots and frying pan are part of the kit and I don't need to carry plates aswell.

The fuel bottle for the stove can be a problem as last time I wasn't keen on taking it on the plane as the customs guys don't like the smell of methylated spirits........Even when I washed it out with washing up liquid i wasn't sure if i'd be allowed to take it so didn't and just bought a 1 litre bottle in Iceland and kept it in the pannier.

I'm still planing on riding the ringroad(Route 1) but i've already ridden a couple of hundred miles of it and the area north of Reykjavik to Akranes isn't nice so I may miss that out.

Hvalfjordur is nice however and you get to visit the whaling station which i've seen in operation before. I can always go over to Pingvellir, Gullfoss and Geysir but it's touristy there and a bit oppressive after the long, lonely empty areas of the country, nice when you're the only person there and camping at Geysir was great although the constant hissing and fart smells can be a bit offputting( but that's what you sometimes get if you camp next to a French girls tent)

FP.

Farmer Palmer said:

<snip> and the area north of Reykjavik to Akranes isn't nice so I may miss that out. <snip>

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What does that mean? Is it boring, poorly surfaced, something else? (asks someone who currently has Iceland maps and guide books out planning a trip that is way too short but all the time we have).

Kevin

KevinW said:

What does that mean? Is it boring, poorly surfaced, something else? (asks someone who currently has Iceland maps and guide books out planning a trip that is way too short but all the time we have).

Kevin

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It's a good road but busier than the southern ringroad, just lots of grassy farmland full of horses sheep and cattle.....Which is nice but I get to see that everyday!

FP.

Iceland update.......!

Weathers been playing havoc in Iceland, tourists have been trapped in the north in hire cars without snow tyres and it's been very cold up there of late!

I'm going to take take my Trek mountainbike next week instead of the Sherpa and drive to wherever the weathers acceptable and head north when the weather improves a bit!

You can see the weather conditions aswell as the webcams on the roads on www.Vegagerdin.is

FP.

Farmer Palmer said:

It's a good road but busier than the southern ringroad, just lots of grassy farmland full of horses sheep and cattle.....Which is nice but I get to see that everyday!

FP.

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OIC, thanks.

I hope the weather improves by the beginning of July.

Kevin

Farmer Palmer said:

Weathers been playing havoc in Iceland, tourists have been trapped in the north in hire cars without snow tyres and it's been very cold up there of late!

I'm going to take take my Trek mountainbike next week instead of the Sherpa and drive to wherever the weathers acceptable and head north when the weather improves a bit!

You can see the weather conditions aswell as the webcams on the roads on www.Vegagerdin.is

FP.

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Have a brilliant time and post some photos, I can't wait to go back

Iceland update!

Been and seen and errrrr.......Drove 2700km in a hire car, 35 miles on my mountain bike, around 50 miles on a Can-Am 800cc Quadbike and 15 miles in a Chevrolet 7.0 litre monster pick up thingy!

Ate lots of hamborgarar, Icelandic lamb, Rotten shark and Icelandic pancakes aswell as drinking loads of beer,Appelsin and Maltol and lots of cakes!

Visited my friends farm and his Eyjafjallajokull Erupts visitor centre, looked after another friends Icelandic horses for four days including mucking them out because he'd broken his arm aswell and attending his grand daughters 'Confirmation' and all the family celebrations afterwards.

Visted a superb bird sanctuary at Myrvatn and bought 'the' Icelandic bird book and met the author aswell as cycling around the top of a volcano caldera and cooling off in the blue lagoon of the north.

Visited the Westmann Islands on Sjomannsdagurinn(seamans day) and climbed to the top of a 'still hot' volcano as well as some scary steep cliffs.

Also toured around Snaefellsnes before revisiting my friends farm and then meeting another friend you runs a fishmeal factory and a small aluminium recycling smelter in Keflavik and visiting the guys at Biking viking and another friend at Hafnarfjordur swimming pool.

Perlan Reykjavik
Pingvellir
Selljalandsfoss
Thorvaldseyri farm and Eyjafjallajokull Erupts visitor centre
Skogafoss and the Folk museum
Skeidararsandur
Skaftafjall
Breidalon
Yokullsarlon
Reyarfjordur military museum
Egillstadir lake and forest
Dettifoss
Namafjall
Krafla power station
Lake Myrvatn and the bird museum
Husavik
Snaefellsnes
Westmannaeyjar(volcanic island fishing port of Heimey)
Aluminium smelter and the fishmeal factory at Keflavik

Basically drove the entire ring road including Snaefellsnes aswell as the Westmann islands and some more of the ringroad.

Camped some 3 nights with ice on the tent aswell as using the IH hostels for £15 per night and stayed with Icelandic friends the rest of the time.

Weather was cold and wet for two days then unbelievably hot and sunny with temperatures up to 21 degrees C so it was cold in the tent but I was sunburned then had a touch of sunstroke and ended up with a fantastic Icelandic tan!

Had a great time and i'm looking forward to going back.

Can't post photos on here but they're all on my FB page if anyone wants to see them send me a pm.

FP.

iceland

PM coming to FP, off out to Iceland for 2 weeks.
prb

Hardcore.............!

Ok.........A quadbike is better than a mountainbike! Especially when i'm wearing my John Deere overalls!

An Icelandic JCB will always beat a quadbike! A howard muckspreader will always beat a JCB!

You can never beat an Icelandic horse...........This one likes both sides of the fence!

The deal is i get to use Einars quadbike but i have to muck out his horses!

A farmer is never really on holiday..........Either mucking out horses or looking at crops that have been damaged by the Eyjafjallajolull volcanic eruption!

Iceland is always a great place to visit...........! Whether riding around volcanoes or testing the heat of the steamvents at Namafjall!