Hello,
I'm doing a short bike trip - 6 days only - to Iceland this summer. I'll bring a 'semi-fat' bike and full camping gear, aiming to stay as much away from tarmac as possible. It seems the so called F-roads will suit my desired riding best. I'll consider single-track if not too techical or steep - I hate pushing my bike.
Where should I go?
The southern highlands provide an exciting range of tracks to ride, and among the most scenic routes in all Iceland, and there's more than enough to fill 6 days. You can speed up your arrival/departure by using buses to/from places like Hella, Vik and Kirkubaejarklaustur. There are also buses along some of the main highland routes to rescue you if you get into difficulty. You can find some descriptions of principal routes of interest in my notes, in particular part 2 of them.
http://www.masterlyinactivity.com/ivan/iceland.html
http://www.masterlyinactivity.com/ivan/iceland-zones.html
You may in practice have to push your bike a little even on vehicle tracks due to some soft sand, loose gravel, and the occasional steep slope, but mostly it will only be a few minutes - though there are remoter tracks elsewhere in Iceland where you can drag your bike for several hours across long stretches of deep sand. You also will need to dismount to cross major fords, and for the larger ones would be advised to demount your luggage and carry bike and luggage across separately.
Note that apart from a small and very expensive temporary shop at Landmannalaugar, there is no food available in the highlands, so you do need to bring all the food you need. Routes are not in general day return routes to inhabited places, but trajectories of several days, so you need to be prepared to carry food for several days.
You can also consider some of the other routes I describe in the rest of the notes. But keep an eye on track opening. http://www.vegagerdin.is/english Even in a normal year the remoter tracks in the southern highlands do not open until some time into July. But this is far from being a normal year, and tracks are likely to be very late to open this year, and there is a risk that some remote tracks may not open at all. This also brings the risk that, with the delayed thaw of last winter's particularly deep snow, that fords will be rather higher than usual. Though the cyclist can, in principle, use tracks when they are closed, but may encounter snow bands and deep/fast fords.
Thanks Iviehoff,
Tons of useful info here - much appreciated. The trip is in first week of August, so hopefully roads and rivers will be ridable.
Cheers,
Chris
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