mdilthey

A couple things I realized quickly:

1. The cycling map shared above is, likely, the best of it's kind in the entire world.

2. Iceland 2016 is very different from Iceland 2010, which is even more different from Iceland 2000, 1995, etc... Many of the cycling guides are out of date, still useful, but out of date. I may try to write something "comprehensive" when I get back.

New blog post out tomorrow. I'm having the trip of a lifetime, and so is Kelley!

mdilthey

Here's the next installment:

Bikepacking Iceland: Death to Tour Buses

wished

Max & Kelly, personally I am really enjoying your trip from the comfort of my couch in Florida. Inspired me enough to look at what it costs to fly from here to Iceland for me and my bike. My wife has no interest, so I told her when I get ready to go I am going to ask Kelly if she would go

StephD99

I love reading your blog updates! Thanks for writing it!

nun

The wind in Iceland is hard to describe, but once experienced it's never forgotten.....throw in some rain or dust and you have miserable riding conditions.....what fun.

Tourist in MSN

My Iceland trip started mid June, that was early enough that I did not see very many tourists in the first part of my trip. My biggest headache with the tour buses was that on the gravel roads, the tour bus drivers see a cyclist as an obstruction between them and the finish line. There were many times that I got to the side of the road (which was a ridge of loose pebbles) and stopped to wait for the bus to pass. And the buses were not much narrower than some of the gravel roads.

One tour bus on a rainy day started to pass me, and the driver must have thought it would be past me before it got to the intersection where it wanted to make a right turn. Oops, I was beside the bus at that time and the bus driver realized it, so the bus kept going straight and as soon as it got in front of me, it cut in front of me and rapidly came to a halt. I had not touched my brakes since it had started raining, so the bus suddenly stopping in front of me with my heavily loaded bike gave me a chance to see how my brake pads were holding up.

I tried to always start out by 7am to 8am each day. There were many times that I was rolling out of a campground on my bike before there was any movement from anyone else in the camp. The roads were usually quite quiet before about 9:30am. Thus, a couple hours of quiet riding every day. But I spent 90 percent of my time on secondary roads, not the ring road, so I can't say if there is a quiet time on the ring road or not.

Iceland this year expects 1.7 million tourists for its (approximately) 330,000 population. So, when in the touristy areas, you can assume many if not most of the drivers are tourists, not locals. Thus, there is no single "style" of driving, you are mixing the passives with the aggressives.

DropBarFan

Never would have expected so many tour buses. Midnight sun works out great though eh? Esp since you're camping/cooking which gives more flexibility. Also you avoid the scorching mid-day temps, heh. Think about us folks down south, 99° F/32° C forecast for local weekend, free sauna.

mdilthey

The drivers haven't been awful, but I can say unflinchingly that the tour bus drivers have been the worst. We have reflective vests, reflective triangles on our bikes and backpack, and bright clothing so there's no missing us. With our wide handlebars we get really nervous and try to avoid the ring road at all costs.

It is worth it for us to take an extra 30+ kilometers to reach a destination if it means avoiding traffic. It is worth it for us to choose bumpy washboard gravel over smooth tarmac if it means avoiding traffic. It's very scary.

Getting to the ferry for the Westman islands was sketchy, because the wind was so intense. Absolutely unbelievable - as Nun said, hard to describe. I'll never complain about a headwind again for the rest of my life. Most of the trucks here have flat fronts, and that means they push a small tornado in front of them while they push 80mph down the road. If we hear or see one coming, we get off the bike for a moment.

But! Many of the tourists are very, very friendly drivers. You just never know which you're going to get until after they've passed. Overall, I would say the traffic on this tour was sketchier for me than Maine and VT, where I spent stretches on highway and in the company of hundreds of semi trucks.

Tourist in MSN

I brought a tiny little flashlight, just in case I might need it to look for something in the tent. Never used it. The sun sets but it is so close to the horizon that it never gets dark.

I used an old REI tent that has a very light color fly and white ceiling for the tent body, REI used to make them that way to make the tent inside lighter. That really was not an advantage on this trip, it was way too light to try to sleep. I often used a towel or something else over my head to try to block out the light. You can see how light color my tent is in the photo. At times I wished I had one of those dark green Hillberg tents to make the inside darker.

There were two days I quit early due to wind, but a couple other days I got to my destination early and said to myself - I hate to waste a tail wind. So, some days I went further than I planned.

Every campground I stayed at had a sink station for washing dishes. You can see in the second photo how strong the wind was by looking at the water stream being blown sideways as the water comes out of the faucet.

nun

As you are still West of Vik the traffic will be relatively heavy. East of Vik the roads are very quiet and the odd bus and car gave me plenty of room. Beyond Vik and Hofn is when you can really feel alone in Iceland. I'm interested in you comment about "smooth tarmac" as I found the Ring Road chip seal to be pretty rough and that combined with the wind made for slow riding.

DropBarFan

On Jeopardy quiz show tonight one contestant drove (by car) the whole Ring Road in January, took them about 15 hours.

mdilthey

Another Update!

Bikepacking Iceland: Life in the Wastes

DropBarFan

Great pics & description, stuff I'm sure 99% of bus/car tourists never see.

bransom

Max, I've enjoyed following your trip on your website. I love seeing and reading about the country from a bicyclist point of view.

Tourist in MSN

When I came back to USA from Iceland a few weeks ago, what I really noticed was the temperature difference. When you and Kelly get back here, this is what you have to look forward to.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/weathe...cast/87528944/

BikeLite

You have to be careful on single lane bridges since the oncoming car may not see that you have entered the bridge and you will need to take care to not get runned over ; ).

nun

The bridges aren't too bad, it's the long dimly lit tunnels that scared me most. The one just East of Hofn is really nasty. Use Google maps to go into the tunnel and you'll see how dim it is and how little space there is for a bike.

https://www.google.com/maps/@64.2827...8i6656!6m1!1e1

mdilthey

We didn't run into any bridge issues, although we were warned about them by two Italian cyclists who must have had issues. Most of the tunnels were not bike-legal, so we skipped them. We never went through a tunnel, but we never felt like we had to go "around" - they seem to be a convenience for cars, but not a necessity.

My last blog post was featured on Wordpress Discover, which is pretty cool. After almost three years, I had about 100 followers, and now I have almost 350 and counting. Kind of fun! Time to talk a bunch of Wordpress readers into bike touring...

Tourist in MSN

I found the one lane bridges to be a non-issue, generally a good view in both directions and the bridges were short.

Tunnels, I never saw one. I knew that there were tunnels there, so I had a bike light along but never used it. And I had two tail lights.

I thought that there was only one tunnel that prohibited bikes, that one under a bay north of Reykjavik. Are there others that are posted for no bikes?

***

What I hated the most was the sections of Highway 1 that were busy, no shoulder to speak of, and rumble strips. Once when I accidentally got on a rumble strip, it vibrated my head so much that I could not see straight in my helmet mounted rear view mirror until I got off it.

In the first photo it is a bit hard to see, but that darker strip to the right of the fog line is a perpetual rumble strip. To the right of that, less than a foot of pavement before the big drop-off at the pavement edge. That narrow strip to the right was too narrow to ride due to cross winds and air blasts from buses. Thus, you pretty much were forced to ride in the traffic lane. At the area where I took the photo, there is a fence keeping the traffic pretty close to you, the traffic could not give you a lot of space. The shoulder here is narrower than it looks, I was holding the camera about two feet above the ground to try to make the rumble strips more obvious.

Second photo, the really long two lane bridge in the middle of the photo, I had to cross that with gusty gale force side winds. I waited until there was no traffic in sight both ways before I crossed it, and I rode down the middle of the bridge.

mdilthey

Last update!

Bikepacking Iceland: The Whispering Volcano

Tourist in MSN

A short article in New York Times on tourism in Iceland. It will be even more overrun by tourists next year.
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/17/wo...d-tourism.html

mdilthey

Kelley and I gave a talk about our trip at the local MassBike conference last night. The 40+ people there were very interested, and asked a bunch of questions. Iceland has really captured the attention of the world this year.

I don't know if I would want to go back next year- I can see there being a serious problem with crowds.

jefnvk

Meh, I can't ever recall meeting another car at a bridge in my trip around the ring road.

I'm curious why you think that.

DropBarFan

Interesting article, maybe they should build a EuroVelo route to bypass the heavy traffic areas. While Iceland is advanced in many ways their road system seems rather primitive.

nun

East of Hofn and Akureyri a crowd is 2 people.