Thorn Cycles Forum
Community => Member's Gallery => Topic started by: mickeg on July 21, 2016, 07:36:09 pm
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I got home from Iceland a bit over a week ago. I attached some photos. I was there for three weeks of bike touring plus a few more days before and after that at Hostels in Reykjavik or Keflavik for some additional sight seeing. I also got to spend one night in the Minneapolis Airport (thanks Delta Airline, uuuuuuugh, an experience that I hope does not happen again).
They are reasonably friendly to cyclists. But, some of the busier roads clearly lack space for cyclists. Most of the other bike tourists that I met were from UK, Netherlands, Canada, Germany, Belgium, Italy, Spain, Poland, and Australia. I was surprised how few americans I met on bikes or in campgrounds, I think I only met two couples from USA (one from San Francisco, other from Salt Lake City) that were bike touring. I did meet one Thorn Raven owner.
According to my GPS tracks, I went 636 miles (~1024 km). This would be distances traveled between campsites and hostels, not including sightseeing side trips and grocery store runs so the total is likely a bit more. Camped out 22 nights. Total of five nights at hostels, two at the start, two at the end, and one hostel stay mid-trip on a very rainy day when I did not want to camp. I took two trips into the interior, first right after I arrived and the second just before I left. I read somewhere that the interior of Iceland is the largest wilderness in Europe, I can easily believe that after seeing it.
I used my Thorn Nomad Mk II, size 590M, with S&S bike on this trip. I built up this bike a bit over three years ago. But I had not yet used it on a bike tour, so the bike really was overdue for a good test drive. It passed the test just fine. I have had some negative comments on the weight of the bike in the past, but the bike worked so well that I probably will stop making comments about the weight of the bike. A few times I had a slight shimmy in the 29 to 31 km/hour range, but it was very slight. If I loosened up my grip a bit on the handlebar, it got weaker and never was problematic. I think any bike with a load will find an unhappy resonance at times, and that is what I think it was.
Around home I use a 44/16 chainring sprocket combination but for touring I use a 36/16. On this trip the 36/16 was perfect. If I needed a lower gear than my first gear, that would have been so low a gear that I would not have been able to go fast enough to maintain vertical and directional stability. Thus, I think I had the perfect first gear for the hills. There were a few times I would have liked a higher gear, but not at the cost of losing any of my low gears.
I did conclude that I need to move my shifter. I have ordered a Hubbub adapter. My shifter is to the right side of the headtube and very close to it. I want my shifter to be located where I can shift and steer simultaneously with the same hand, and my current shifter location does not allow that.
I used Schwalbe Marathon Extreme 57 mm wide tires (2.25 width) and they were a great compromise tire for traveling on tarmac and gravel back roads. I think the tire did not have the grip that a genuine MTB tire would have on the gravel up hills, but otherwise the tires worked great. I had to run my tire pressure a bit higher than I wanted to on the gravel roads because the Andra 30 rims are too narrow for this tire, but it still worked pretty well. The CSS part of the rims were great.
Thorn does not recommend drop bars for the Nomad, but I was really glad I had them on the days with strong headwinds. I can't imagine having to sit upright with the strong headwinds that I had on a few days.
I tried to avoid Highway 1 which is also known as the Ring Road. But I had to ride on it for two full days and a bit on a few other days. It is the busy road that goes around the island. Many if not most cyclists had the goal of circumnavigating the island on the Ring Road, but I think they are missing the best parts of Iceland, the best parts I think are reached by the secondary and back roads.
Virtually every community has a campground in it or very close by. I do not think I have ever seen anyplace where camping while traveling is so easy. Often the campgrounds were walking distance to grocery stores or the ubiquitous community swimming pools. Camp fees per person without a power hookup were usually in the range of 1,000 to 1,800 ISK which is roughly $8 to $15 USD which usually included shower facilities. Some campgrounds were quite crowded, which makes me suspect that they never turn anyone away, which can be an advantage to a cyclist that is looking for a tent site at the end of the day.
It never gets dark there in summer. The sun sets, but it is so close to the horizon that you can fully function without artificial light. This of course made getting to sleep in a tent a bit difficult. I brought a tiny little flashlight but never used it, I also had a headlight on my bike because they have tunnels, but I never went into a tunnel with the bike. It is a bit weird to be somewhere where the sun sets and rises in the north.
I used my waterproof point and shoot camera, a Pentax WG-3 for all photos. It worked great for the whole trip. While I have much better camera gear, this camera is really the best I have for a bike trip where I am limited to what I can take in weight and volume. It lacks a good zoom for wildlife, but it is waterproof.
I attached a map of my route and an elevation profile. Those are the first two attachments before the photos. The route was plotted from my GPS data onto Google Earth. The dates on the map are where I stayed each night, mostly camping but two spots on the map are hostels. Google Earth calculated the Elevation Profile from the GPS location data but I think Google Earth and not the GPS is the source for elevation data.
If anyone reading this has any plans to go to Iceland, get a copy of the cycle map when you get there. I picked up my copy at the City Hostel in Reykjavik, it was also available at the adjacent campground. It is an outstanding map with great data on road types, traffic, and it shows the steepest hills. It is on plain paper, so you might want a couple copies for when the first copy gets wet.
First photo, the S&S backpack case. I have the Nomad size 590M and got most of the bike in the case. When I bought the frame I was advised that the fork would not fit in the case with the rest of the bike, but I managed to fit it in the case both times. I have cut some off the steerer tube, but it is still pretty long. But, with a 50 pound limit for the airlines, when I put my spare tire, tools and other spares in the case it was too heavy. So, some parts of the bike (saddle, pedals, Tubus Logo rear rack, maybe a few other bits) traveled in other cases. It was tough getting it all in the case, especially with drop bars, I might put my fork in a different bag in the future.
I plan to have four postings, four attachments each.
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More photos.
First photo. Not sure how this happened, you will note a not straight spoke. That happened one day, I think the front wheel threw a rock up into the rear wheel and frame, but the bend is not quite oriented right for jaming a rock between a spoke and frame while rolling, so it is a bit of a quandry. This spoke was quite loose and a brake started to rub, but fortunately the nipple threads were not stripped and I could tighten it. I had spares, but I did not want to have to peal the rim tape off to replace a nipple and put on a new spoke. So I considered myself lucky that a few minutes with a spoke wrench solved the problem.
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More photos.
I can't imagine how people can manage without a handlebar bag for touring.
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More photos. Last one gives a whole new meaning to the phrase bike chain.
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Brilliant post, thanks for sharing. Appears the s&s couplings were a great help transporting your Nomad. Very convenient bag to move around.
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Comprehensive post, excellent.
May I ask about costs?
Costs for your time there rather than flight costs since they vary from destination.
Many thanks
Matt
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Superb photos and trip account, mickeg!
Many thanks for sharing.
All the best,
Dan.
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Great post. And I'm especially interested in the S&S backpack. But I notice on the sjs site's S&S backpack case product page - https://www.sjscycles.co.uk/transporting-bicycles/s-and-s-machine-backpack-case-black (https://www.sjscycles.co.uk/transporting-bicycles/s-and-s-machine-backpack-case-black) they state emphatically that:
Unfortunately we don't sell any bags specifically for fitting the S&S Nomad into. They won't fit into any of S&S' own bags and the only other bags we have are standard bike bags that don't require a bike to have S&S couplings to fit in them.
And this was specifically in regard to a customer asking if their Nomad (no size specified) would fit. But your Nomad clearly does. I'm confused. Do you suppose this is in reference to the fork/steerer length issue only?
Did you leave your forks in place or have to remove them?
Do you have any pics of the bag compressed to it's smallest size, and did you carry it with you on your tour or leave it at your start/end point? Again the product description on the site is confusing with two differing descriptions of it's compressed size:
When the bike is removed the case transforms into a regular size backpack
and
When the bicycle is removed the case can be made smaller, by any amount, by pulling the 6 side straps tighter until it gets as small as 26" tall x 10" wide x 3" thick.
Is 26" the minimum length (it sounds a bit long for a 'regular size backpack') or can it be flexed into a shorter package?
Sorry for all the pesky questions but I've been messing around with designing and making a portable/reusable box for my own Nomad for an upcoming tour and had forgotten about the S&S bags.
Thanks, Syd
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Simply awesome - what a great report Mickeg.
It looks like your Nomad lived up to its name.
All the best, Pete.
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Great photos, I cycled in Iceland in 1991, my second ever foreign cycle tour (first was Norway). Fantastic place for touring and have always meant to go back but never made it yet!
Looks like you went on the Kjolur interior crossing road?
When I was there I crossed the interior on the Spregisandur route, very cold river crossings!
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It seems to be cold in Iceland ! ???
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Superb photos Mickeg, thanks for sharing.
Your Nomad looks right at home in that beautiful landscape. I can imagine the headwinds can be pretty strong.
Regards,
Neil
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Brilliant post, thanks for sharing. Appears the s&s couplings were a great help transporting your Nomad. Very convenient bag to move around.
Great post. And I'm especially interested in the S&S backpack. But I notice on the sjs site's S&S backpack case product page - https://www.sjscycles.co.uk/transporting-bicycles/s-and-s-machine-backpack-case-black (https://www.sjscycles.co.uk/transporting-bicycles/s-and-s-machine-backpack-case-black) they state emphatically that:
Unfortunately we don't sell any bags specifically for fitting the S&S Nomad into. They won't fit into any of S&S' own bags and the only other bags we have are standard bike bags that don't require a bike to have S&S couplings to fit in them.
And this was specifically in regard to a customer asking if their Nomad (no size specified) would fit. But your Nomad clearly does. I'm confused. Do you suppose this is in reference to the fork/steerer length issue only?
Did you leave your forks in place or have to remove them?
Do you have any pics of the bag compressed to it's smallest size, and did you carry it with you on your tour or leave it at your start/end point? Again the product description on the site is confusing with two differing descriptions of it's compressed size:
When the bike is removed the case transforms into a regular size backpack
and
When the bicycle is removed the case can be made smaller, by any amount, by pulling the 6 side straps tighter until it gets as small as 26" tall x 10" wide x 3" thick.
Is 26" the minimum length (it sounds a bit long for a 'regular size backpack') or can it be flexed into a shorter package?
Sorry for all the pesky questions but I've been messing around with designing and making a portable/reusable box for my own Nomad for an upcoming tour and had forgotten about the S&S bags.
Thanks, Syd
I bought the S&S backpack from Niagara, I am in USA and they had the best price. I bought it in part because Co-Motion (a competitor to Thorn) commented on their website that soft cases appeared to do better than hard cases because airline personnel are more careful with soft cases.
I can't comment on why S&S says what they say on the case. If I recall correctly, Andy at Thorn has commented that he would leave his frame assembled if he had S&S just as a time savings. That is certainly an issue too, it takes a long time to get everything fit in the case. And almost as long to re-assemble it on the other end. And I found that I had to leave fenders at home due to size constraints. But in my case, Delta Airlines charges an extra $150 USD each way for oversize luggage. Delta is well known for being one of the most hostile airlines to cyclists, but unfortunately they are the airline that pretty much has all the routes covered from the airport near my home.
I just checked, my front fork (which I cut down) is 73 cm. I removed it from the frame.
It takes time to break down a bike for shipping, even the water bottle cages have to be removed. Tires have to be fully deflated. I also had to remove both crank arms. A side note: I had installed the self extracting mechanism on both crank arms (square taper), and one of those self extracting mechanisms came loose and self extracted somewhere in Iceland. So, to come home, I had to remove the other self extractor, and shift it over to my other crank arm to get both cranks off. And of course I did not have the proper tools for that stupid little self extractor. Bottom line, next trip, bring a genuine crank arm puller instead of trying to save a couple grams by using those self extractors. I have have three crank arm pullers, it is not like I am saving anything by leaving all three at home.
I put the fork inside the rear frame triangle for packing, and then I had to play around with the exact position of it because the middle of the fork was near the center of the case, and the two wheel hubs also are in the center of the case. And a Rohloff is a wide hub, the flanges are farther apart than they would be on a derailleur hub, so that makes the rear wheel pretty thick. Since I used Velcro straps to hold everything together in a bundle, that meant that shifting the fork a bit for fitting it in there is an iterative process of trial and error. Bottom line - getting the fork in exactly the right spot is time consuming because I have to half unpack the case just to move the fork a bit since I was padding and strapping everything together.
First time I put the bike in the case was this trip. It took several hours, but part of that time was stripping off fenders (that I did not take with me), etc. Second time I put it in the case, was in Iceland to come home and that time it actually took a bit longer to pack because I had not kept good enough notes on how to fit it all together.
The S&S Backpack case has four plastic side pieces that give it good structure. They are held together with Velcro and Velcro holds them in the case. If you get the backpack case, I found that the side pieces were a bit longer than the case really allows, but by leaving the corner Velcro a bit loose by maybe a cm or two, it fit rather well. Those side pieces mean that the case when compressed to its smallest will still be over 26 inches long because the side pieces are stiff and can't be made smaller.
I put the front frame piece in the case first. Then the front wheel. The couplers on the front frame piece have to be placed so that the wheel does not sit on top of the couplers, this is explained a bit later. I do not know if this is needed, but I cut a piece of stiff plastic tubing 135mm long and put that in the rear triangle with the skewer to protect it in case airline personnel tried to crush the case. Then I put the rear triangle (with fork in the middle of it) on the front wheel, the rear droppouts in a corner. Then the rear wheel on top. Then put the handlebars in. Since I have drop bars, this become rather complicated as drop bars and brake levers are a very odd shape and I just had to shift things around the best I could to fit them in, I found that I had to loosen brake lever mounts so I could turn them a bit.
Note a key factor here is that in one corner the rear dropouts of the rear triangle and the two wheels are stacked on top of each other, which has to be less than 10 inches (~25 cm) for everything to fit. That is why no part of the front frame member can be under the front wheel. I did not have this quite right when I tried to pack it to come home, that cost me quite a bit of time when I was trying to get it all in the case.
I neglected to mention above that I had padding between every part. I used some of that perforated rubber sheeting that is sold for lining shelves, I bought it at Dollar Tree in USA for $1 USD each, I think I used two rolls.
I also wrapped two sided Velcro straps around everything so that once the frame and wheels and handlebars were in, you could pick it up as one bundle that stayed strapped together. I suspect I used about 20 feet (~7 meters) of two sided Velcro.
I also used a home made center support to try to protect it if there was anything stacked on top of the case from crushing anything. I used some wood (I used Masonite, which I will not use again, it broke on the trip home) and two wooden dowels 9.5 inches long. I had a piece of Masonite in the bottom about 8 inches by 12 inches, the ends of two wood dowels screwed in with one wood screw each, I put the bike parts over that in the case, and when it was all in, I then screwed down another piece of Masonite on top. I plan to replace the Masonite with thin plywood next time. S&S sells center supports, I am also planning to look into those too, that may be more robust.
I put very little padding in the side pockets of the S&S case. If the bike was lighter I might have put some clothing in those pockets, but when I put the tools and spares in the case it was pretty heavy. I had to put the saddle and pedals in other luggage due to weight. I also could not fit the rear rack in the case. I use a Tubus Logo rack. The size and shape of that rack dictated the luggage that I used for my other stuff to pack.
Since I had a lot of void spaces in the S&S case, I put a lot of low density stuff in the case loose, like empty water bottles. I just threw that stuff in loose.
You can't underestimate the importance of a good luggage scale for packing a heavy bike, or any other luggage for that matter. To fly from home, I had two 49 pound bags according to the airline, the return trip the scale was in kg, I was just under that limit too.
I stored the case at the hostel in Reykjavik. I rolled the dice and won - I could have paid for secured storage where only hostel staff have access to the room but the cost for that type of storage was not cheap, so I stored it in the luggage room that any hostel guest had access to. (Hostel guests need to borrow a key, but they can access the luggage room unsupervised.) I was betting that nobody staying at the hostel would find any reason to steal a 26 X 26 inch nylon case. Fortunately it was still there when I came back three weeks later. I stored other luggage and stuff in the backpack case too. I left it unfolded so it was 26 X 26 inches, but I took out the side pieces and used the straps to strap it down to a thinner package, so it was about 2 or 3 inches thick when I stored it, that thickness was in part because of stuff I left in the case.
When I got it all assembled in Iceland, I found that I needed to spend a couple minutes truing up both wheels.
When I got home I wanted to try to make this process go better next time, so I tried to pack it all in the case, and figure out the best way to do it, while taking photos. And I found that getting the fork in exactly the right place was quite critical in an iterative process, and then I decided to just plan on putting the fork in a different bag on my next trip so I quit trying to write up (with photo documentation) the best way to pack it.
Different sizes and different handlebar types will of course pack differently, a smaller frame may be a lot easier to pack.
Comprehensive post, excellent.
May I ask about costs?
Costs for your time there rather than flight costs since they vary from destination.
Many thanks
Matt
Total cost was about $2,600 USD, but I have not added it all up yet, so call that plus or minus 10 percent. That includes $750 for air fare and $100 each way for extra baggage.
I did almost all my own cooking. Bonus grocery stores have very good prices, but they can be hard to find once you are far from Reykjavik. I put all Bonus locations in my GPS while still at home so I would know where to go grocery shopping. I bought a burger, fries and coffee once and the cost was almost $30 USD. And after I ordered it, that was when they told me that WiFi was an extra cost. The couple times I got Fish and Chips, it was about $15 or $20. I probably had no more than six or eight prepared meals during my month there, the rest were meals I made.
I had five nights in hostels, and camping 22 nights. Camp fees without a power hookup were usually in the range of 1,000 to 1,800 ISK which is roughly $8 to $15 per person which usually included shower facilities. Some campgrounds were quite crowded, which makes me suspect that they never turn anyone away, which can be an advantage to a cyclist that is looking for a tent site at the end of the day.
One of those nights in a hostel, I decided at the end of a rainy day that a hostel looked pretty good instead of camping, thus had no reservation. Fortunately they had room. The other four nights I made reservations months in advance.
Alcohol is very expensive. Beer sold in grocery stores has a very weak content, you have to go to the state run stores to get the good stuff. Iceland is unusual in that you can buy at their duty free store upon arrival from elsewhere. I bought a liter of Aquivit when I arrived at their duty free store, it was about a quarter of the cost that I would have had to pay later.
I you bring a stove, bring a butane/propane mix type stove, Bonus has the cartridges for about 800 ISK (at 123 to one USD, that becomes roughly $7 USD) for 450 grams of fuel. The Gaz cartriges I saw at Bonus were the threaded type ones that most MSR, Primus, Optimus stoves work on. I saw some of the non-threaded Gaz canisters on free shelves in campgrounds, but I do not know where they bought them. I brought a liquid fuel stove but the TSA (the airline security people in USA) often confiscates gas camp stoves so I also brought a butane/propane stove as a backup. I found several half full canisters for the butane stove on the free shelves at campgrounds, so I often used that instead of the liquid fuel stove. If I went back, I would leave the liquid fuel stove at home.
Great photos, I cycled in Iceland in 1991, my second ever foreign cycle tour (first was Norway). Fantastic place for touring and have always meant to go back but never made it yet!
Looks like you went on the Kjolur interior crossing road?
When I was there I crossed the interior on the Spregisandur route, very cold river crossings!
Yup, F35. There were a couple places where streams crossed, but they were so shallow you could keep your shoes dry. I was there about a week after it opened for the season, so the rivers i am sure where quite high and cold so a bridged route was clearly preferred in my opinion.
A few more photos:
1. Doing a two pot meal on one stove works, you just have to keep moving the pots back and forth to the stove to keep them hot.
2. This beer at the state run store was roughly $4 USD. But, it was really good.
3. Fork inside the rear triangle.
4. Packed but the center support was not yet in the case.
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It seems to be cold in Iceland ! ???
Cold is a relative term. I grew up in Minnesota, that state is on the northern border of USA, winters can be brutal up there.
I think half the days I wore bike shorts, the other half of the days wore long pants or wore leg wamers. There were two days when I wore rain pants over the top just because of the cold wind.
But I never used my polartec gloves. I wore a stocking cap a couple times in the campsite, and an ear band a couple times under my helmet. Every day I wore my rain cover over my helmet, mainly to cut the wind.
I brought a down vest, but I always bring that on every trip. Several times I wore that under the rain jacket in the campsite, but never needed the down vest while riding.
I brought one long sleeve jersey (no short sleeve ones), a light jacket that was sold as a full zip jersey but I use it as a jacket, and on almost every day a wind breaker jacket.
I also had a polartec vest, but I think I only wore that once or twice.
If you go there and if you bring an android phone, make sure you get the weather app, it is great. It figures out where you are for a forecast for your location and you can get forecasts for other locations with the search function. I did not have a sim card, but where I had WiFi I got excellent forecasts.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=is.stokkur.zidane.android&hl=en
Superb photos Mickeg, thanks for sharing.
Your Nomad looks right at home in that beautiful landscape. I can imagine the headwinds can be pretty strong.
Regards,
Neil
Two days I quit early due to headwinds, but two days when I got to my destination I concluded that I hated to waste a tailwind, so I kept going.
Very windy place to ride.
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Thanks for the great photos and detailed write-up! I really enjoyed reading about your trip.
- DaveS
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S&S sells center supports, I am also planning to look into those too, that may be more robust.
<nods> A cheap alternative may possibly be found in the local hardware or DIY store (Lowe's, Home Depot in the US) in the form of rebar protectors. These are lightweight plastic discs intended to cover the cut ends of concrete reinforcing bars. They are available in different diameters and some will for over sections of PVC pipe.
I have used these for shipping bikes successfully (they look a bit like snap-on axle protectors some new bikes are shipped with from the factory in their original crates) and at one time, local maker Bike Friday used these in their travel suitcases née trailers. They do a great job in preventing box sides from collapsing even if the bike box falls over and is loaded under other heavy items.
What a terrific writeup, mickeg, especially on the practical intricacies of packing with S&S couplers.
Best,
Dan.
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I forgot to mention above, I put a sheet of cardboard in the case before the bike, and another piece on top of the bike. That was to add some structure to the case besides the plastic side pieces. I plan to replace that with coroplast.
There were two wear holes in the bottom of the case, one for each trip. I think airline personnel drag the case on rough concrete instead of lifting and carrying it. I have some black cordura, so it will take no time at all to glue some patches on with Seam Grip.
I will have to look for the rebar protectors. But I must say that I thought rebar is one of those things that needs no protecting. <Insert chuckle here.> That might be the best possible option.
I made no attempt to use the backpack shoulder straps and very possibly never will. I can't comment on the straps. Since I have the case, another large checked bag, a carry on, a personal item (my handlebar bag). When possible I tried to find a cart that was available to load it all on. And I also wore my bike helmet instead of packing it. See photo.
A side note: Photos of your luggage help a lot when trying to explain to airline personnel what your lost bag looks like, that is why I always take a photo of the luggage before I hand it over to them. The first time I had to describe a case that my employer owned that I had not used before that day and had only seen once convinced me that a photo would help a lot. Thus I always take photos of my luggage.
I had planned to use a bag other than that green bag for my second checked bag, but the Tubus Logo did not fit in the bag that I planned to use so I ended up using that green bag. That was stored inside the backpack case when I stored it at the hostel.
There is another option to the backpack case. S&S makes a nylon bag (they call it a box cover) that is intended to go over a 26 X 26 X 10 cardboard box. At one time I considered getting that nylon cover, I also considered sewing up one myself since I have a torn tarp that could be a donor for the nylon. But, eventually I decided to get the backpack case instead and skip the cardboard box idea, as I was a bit concerned that the cardboard boxes might not be as strong as I really would like.
http://www.sandsmachine.com/ac_box.htm
I assume this source for cardboard boxes is limited to customers in USA, possibly Canada.
http://www.staples.com/26-L-x-26-W-x-10-H-Staples-Corrugated-Shipping-Boxes/product_404572
Co-Motion has a good discussion of cases here.
http://co-motion.com/faq/faq_entry/which-travel-case-should-i-buy
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Thanks for that great description of packing the Nomad into the S&S backpack! I have used that backpack to carry my Brompton a bit, including carrying on my back with the backpack straps which worked just fine. But I have never tried to cram my Nomad into that bag. My steerer seems to be more like 71 cm... so now I am optimistic that I could do it!
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Thank you for the very detailed responses. All useful information.
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Apart from the gearfest that the tour has initiated I was struck by the sense of wilderness, of far horizons that some of the photos create. There is a great sense of security, of familiarity we experience when riding in a semi rural or urban environment. The vast openeness of a landscape with few if any familiar points of reference such as trees, bridges or undulating fields is so evocative and perhaps liberating. Reminds me of those boys own books I used to read about The Yukon et. al. Thankfully no White Fangs were featured in the photos!
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Thanks for that great description of packing the Nomad into the S&S backpack! I have used that backpack to carry my Brompton a bit, including carrying on my back with the backpack straps which worked just fine. But I have never tried to cram my Nomad into that bag. My steerer seems to be more like 71 cm... so now I am optimistic that I could do it!
I had a very similar thought, but in reverse. About a decade ago, I bought an Airnimal Joey frame and fork which is a folding bike with 24 inch wheel size. It was advertised as a bike that would fit in a case that would not incur additional airline fees. After I built up the bike, I tried to buy the case and found that I could not buy the case anywhere in the USA. That is when I learned that the case met the British Airways size criteria but did not meet the size criteria for any USA airlines. Since Airnimal was a UK company and was primarily sold in the UK, they of course used British Airways sizing instead of the USA airline sizing, which I did not realize when I bought it. Thus, I had a very expensive folding bike that I had built up for air travel - but was unable to travel with it.
After I got home from Iceland and before I put the case away in storage, I decided to see if I could fit the Airnimal in the S&S case, and it appears that I can fit it in the case. So, after a decade I finally might be able to use that bike as a travel bike after all.
Apart from the gearfest that the tour has initiated I was struck by the sense of wilderness, of far horizons that some of the photos create. There is a great sense of security, of familiarity we experience when riding in a semi rural or urban environment. The vast openeness of a landscape with few if any familiar points of reference such as trees, bridges or undulating fields is so evocative and perhaps liberating. Reminds me of those boys own books I used to read about The Yukon et. al. Thankfully no White Fangs were featured in the photos!
When I was in college, I went backpacking in the USA Rockies each year with some friends. We usually went to Wyoming, Montana or Colorado, and we always wanted part of the trip to be above timberline where you could see forever. Much of the interior reminded me of those trips.
Most of my time in Iceland was spent in lower elevations where there is a lot of green vegetation with either pasture lands or other agriculture being the prevalent land use, but I found that most of my photos were in the higher altitudes where it looked much more desolate. I think that once I was in the interior, the lower elevations just did not look as photogenic to me. But I attached a few photos from lower elevations here, but there still is the lack of trees so you can see vast distances.
The photo with some bike tourists, I saw them and snapped the photo but I did not know them. The low clouds below the peaks in that photo are really interesting.
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Awesome writeups mickeg, lots of detailed info there. Thanks for sharing!
Robbie
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What a great write-up and a great trip. We all learn do's and don't from well written posts such as these - so thanks!
One thought I had when looking at your photos was that parts of Iceland must be the closest thing to cycling on the moon- with free oxygen and gravity. Yes, desolate, in an awe inspiring way, that is for certain.
You photos also showed, that should I ever be fortunate to get to travel to this exotic country, that I can save a bit of pack space and leave my Hammock behind. :D
Do Scandinavian countries have similar scenery and climates?
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One thought I had when looking at your photos was that parts of Iceland must be the closest thing to cycling on the moon- with free oxygen and gravity. Yes, desolate, in an awe inspiring way, that is for certain.
You photos also showed, that should I ever be fortunate to get to travel to this exotic country, that I can save a bit of pack space and leave my Hammock behind. :D
Do Scandinavian countries have similar scenery and climates?
It is my understanding that astronauts went to Iceland to do some training before they went to the moon. Lower areas, especially areas with a lot of agriculture are much more green, but it was striking how minimal the "biology" was up in the interior. But I am a geological engineer, so I kind of liked seeing the rocks and soils without all that biological stuff covering up the stuff that I understood better.
Yeah, not many trees to hang a hammock from. I even had trouble finding where to hang my laundry, which you saw in a photo.
That is the only Scandinavian country I have been in, so I have no clue how it compares. Good info here on climate,
https://weatherspark.com/averages/27562/Reykjavik-Capital-Region-Iceland
Note that the temperature range is pretty small, but Reykjavik is near the ocean, the temperature range probably varies much more in the interior further from the ocean. And there are glaciers, so parts of the island will get a bit chilly.