[Closed] What's biking in Iceland like?

loads of people! One of these threads is only a week or so old, jump on that.

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=singletrackworld.com+iceland&safe=strict&gws_rd=ssl

Yes biking is great there, been twice. Weather is generally rank rotten, the maps terrible and written guides non existent. So either you need to be staunch and resourceful or pay $$$ for a guiding company to look after you.

There is a section in December's STW about the staff's favourite biking destinations. One person chose Iceland, said the good stuff is in really remote areas and not well known about so unless you know what you are doing its best to get a guide. Also said it was expensive.

Yep some stuff is a bit out of the way. We did a full week bike packing exploring the area around Thórsmörk and the trails were incredible but not really accessible without effort. The previous year we did day rides accessible from Route 1 tarmac road and there was also loads to do.

Camping is very cheap in Iceland, the supermarkets are OK and the buses are affordable. It only gets expensive if you hire a car (mega bucks) or get a guide.

Having hiked there, I can see it's fantastic for biking.
Logistics off the normal hiking routes would be an issue though. Rekjavik excursions run hiking buses that would take you to the mountains but they tend to follow the usual hiking routes - which was fine for us hiking the Laugavegur route.

Some amazing footage in this ride report on a Swedish MTB forum.

http://happymtb.org/forum/read.php/1/1443209/page=1

Not sure if the actual biking is as good as the scenery though 🙂

/Johan

It's ok. Floors a bit slippy and the freezer cabinets can be hard to avoid, but it's nice to treat yourself to a lasagne pizza at the end

My mate Huw went and found it pretty darn good.

http://enduro-mtb.com/en/the-big-picture-a-wander-through-the-land-of-fire-and-ice/

This month's Dirt magazine has a good article on Iceland too

If you are minted we kept bumping into the Icebike Tours guys on our travels. They were a top bunch and we were in the same area as them while they were running one of there gold plated bike tours. With helicopters. I was a bit jealous but I just don't have $10k spare for a weeks riding.

Biking in Iceland requires one of these.
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Been to Iceland loads, twice with a MTB. Puncture-tastic- really sharp lava in places can shred tyres but give amazing grip. The Laugurvegur is on my list of things to ride, as is another crossing of the interior either to or from Myvatn. The washboarded surface is no fun whatsoever though.

As Arnie has been known to say, I'll be back.

Sounds good (and pricey).
Will save it for another year I think.
Morzine beckons instead 🙂

as is another crossing of the interior either to or from Myvatn

I've always been curious about how bikeable that route is. I've done it in a 4x4, camping in the middle (an amazing experience being camped with not as much as a blade of grass within 50 miles) and have often wondered about doing it by bike.

The big problem would be the unbridge rivers, not only fast flowing but the glacial mel****er will strip your bearings in winter. Only think I can think of, apart from pack-rafts, is to hang around and wait for a 4x4 to come along and speak nicely to them.

The bearings will be fine if they are even half decently sealed, but I soon learnt on my first trip that the dust and rain (really!) soon stripped the lubrication from the chain. I waded the Nyidalur ford on the Sprengisandur on foot in big water prior to driving it in the hired 4x4, it was no worse than other river crossings I have done here in the UK tbh. The worst fords were the Svarta just of the Kjolur (my first deepish one, approx 60cm of slow water) and the Hnottottaalda on the F26 (Sprengisandur) closeish to Versalir. Versalir was closed the last time I visited there two years ago but was a really welcome place previously. The Hnottottaalda ford has a rock step in it that caught me out and almost caused some damage.

There are no fords to consider on the actual Kjolur route but if staying at the Hvitarnes hut the Svarta will need to be crossed.

The Kortabok road atlas is excellent for touring, it shows all the fords. None are shown between Myvatn and where it joins the Sprengisandur at Bjarnastadir. Happy days 🙂

Ambrose, that's a great post. Loads of good stuff there ta. I've copied it into my "Plans for Iceland" document. That atlas sounds very handy too. Cheers.

What sort of bike did you do it on?

I used an aluminium HT with 2.1 tyres. I used a pannier rack and bar bag, plus a medium sized camelback. The rack was prone to shaking loose, even using threadlock and zip ties. Regular inspections were essential. I was traveling solo so had to really minimise kit so regularly used the mountain huts but I did carry a tiny tent for emergencies just in case. next time I might consider using a light f/s with a Bob trailer. The washboarding really is no fun at all. At times onlookers would have thought that I was drunk as I weaved my way along the track looking for the smoothest path.

Must admit that for any sort of distance, particularly multi-day, I'd always prefer a light full-sus. HTs just too painful on the private parts.

Hadn't thought about washboarding though. Not something you notice when driving the tracks. This has whetted my appetite for trying it though.

I cheated and hired bikes at Myvatn. Fantastic place. Love their attitude to safety. We were looking for the volcano, so asked. "You are standing on it!" came the reply. They seem to accept that if you want to do something stupid, like stand on a live, steaming volcano, or next to boiling sulphur pools, then hey! go for it bad boy. You also have to accept that water from a tap smells of sulphur, and that you will never, ever, ever eat fish as fresh again. Or spend as much money on alcohol.

Oh and the women are stunning. Really stunning.