kellichou

Thanks for letting us know about your trip! I would like to go back to Iceland--although I have not cycled it. The weather is tough even to this Colorado girl, in Icelandic summer, and camping in a pickup truck with a topper, I still thought it was pretty dang cold. I love the pictures!

And this comment made me laugh and laugh, because it's true (in the nicest way!):

djb

glad it made you chuckle, and Jeff, I hope it wasnt taken in the wrong way. The whole beard look just made the imaginary casting director in me think of that.

re cold, I'm always impressed by folks who bike tour in cold places, like I said, I commute in rain or cold, but its a 45min experience tops, and even with my Central America trip this winter, I really do find that I'll take hot over cold for an actual bike trip. I'm certain that being skinny is part of a factor.

but again, hat off to you.

jefnvk

Nah, no offense whatsoever! I randomly stayed at a hostel with a bunch of Game of Thrones extras in Belfast, back in 2014, where some of them were encouraging me to join. Then I realized it was a six to ten week unpaid, unhoused, mostly unfed commitment, and had little interest. Maybe I'll actually give it a shot next time Transformers comes to Detroit

As to the hot v cold, it is all very personal. I loved the weather, to me mid-50F is perfect for cycling. I was fine in the long sleeve jersey and shorts for everything but the long descents, where I tossed on a raincoat. Climbing, even in those temps, my jersey was generally wide open and flapping in the wind. I can't imagine cycling somewhere it is tropical, to me that sounds absolutely miserable, when the temp hits 90F around here is generally when I quit.

Tourist in MSN

I think between about 45 and 75 degrees F is perfect for cycling. On the low end of that range I can wear pants instead of shorts, a polartec vest and light jacket under a windbreaker, long finger gloves and a rain cover on my helmet to cut the wind. This past February my two weeks of cycling in FL Everglades and FL Keys was absurdly hot, uncomfortable and far too many bugs.

But cycle touring when you have to worry about ice patches on the road, yeah that is a little too cold.

djb

then both of you would not have loved this....although to be fair, this is tough in its own way (not sure why photo was downsized so small, bike computer was saying that it was 42.7c (109f), but I suspect it was probably really 37, 38, 39c (about 100f)

jefnvk

Nope, I'd be far away! And such devices should only be used for general estimates of temperature, small devices are easily susceptible to sun beating on them and warming up, giving less than accurate readings. I've got the same one, it was pretty good for the trip, but I had diffused sunlight the majority of the time.

Had mine been in C, it'd have been under 4 a couple nights

Tourist in MSN

When I was riding the Pacific Coast, I thought the weather was perfect in every way.

djb

yup, I always took what it said in direct sunshine with a big grain of salt, especially given that the handlebars and bag mount are black. I have ridden in a heatwave of up to 100c in New England a few years back, and have been in southern France with a heatwave of a bit over 40c, and so I reckon it was really more like 37-38 tops, but thats enough to really make sure you hydrate up the ying-yang. (but folks who ride in deserts and stuff ride in hotter weather, must be darn tough).

DropBarFan

At least no major disasters, hard to find good touring partners, seems like most of the 'pros' go alone or with family. A bit surprised you didn't like the camping since you've backpacked. Maybe if partners had been more compatible the camping wouldn't have felt like a hassle.

& how many airports have a Bike Pit?!

jefnvk

TO be fair, I haven't really backpacked since my high school/college years, but even then it was hike in and stay in one place a couple days fishing before moving on, and the trips were two and a half weeks. Didn't mind camping when everything was in place, but when I've got ten days total, spending a couple hours of every day making and breaking camp just got tedious, that I'd prefer to not waste time on if I had other low cost accommodation methods.

And yeah, thumbs up to Keflavik Airport for the bike pit (the stands at least, the tools and pumps were in predictable missing/nonfunctional shape as with any of those repair areas), although I assume it more came about due to a very small outside security terminal area, and them not wanting cyclists taking up limited space there building bikes than any real love of cyclists.

Tourist in MSN

I did not see that when I was there, but I planned to assemble and later disassemble my bike at the hostel anyway. Still, that looked pretty nice. I have had to box or unbox bikes at several different Amtrak stations, they had nothing like that at all.

jefnvk

Yeah, we didn't have one at Brussels or Amsterdam last time either. Brussels the airport staff just told me to find a quiet corner to assemble, and Amsterdam the airport hotel actually gave us an unused conference room to box up and store our bikes overnight.

Only annoying thing is it was outside across the parking lot, on the outbound leg I didn't bother using it because I was plastic bagging my bike. I didn't have a great way to get it back to the terminal, it wouldn't sit nicely on a cart like that, so I just packed it up under the canopy outside.

Tourist in MSN

Ok, that is why I did not see it. I was carrying my stuff to the shuttle bus to the hostel, never wandered around much outside.

jefnvk

If you leave straight out of where the arrivals area dumps you to the unsecured terminal, past the bus desks, there is a covered walkway that leads right to it.

You seemed to do the more popular choice of cyclists, though, another five or six bikes came out the same time as ours, and no one else was in the bike pit with us. I guess they all headed right to their accommodations. Can't blame them, the ride along 41 into town wasn't really all that interesting, or even that good of riding.

Tourist in MSN

I am retired, have more time than you have. Counting days flying, I had a month long trip. So, where you had to make the most of your trip so you could get back for a job, I could spend a little time to get used to the time zone change, etc.

And my S&S bike means that my racks, water bottle cages, crank arms, etc., were off the bike. Thus it takes more time to assemble and later to disassemble. I would rather do that at my leisure at the hostel where I could take a break for another cup of coffee instead of being rushed at the airport. I also did not have to try to figure out how to carry the S&S case on the bike, as I stored it at the hostel.

The hostel I stayed at was next to the big Reykjavik campground, I suspect most bikers took the same shuttle I did and unboxed their bikes at the campground.

But if you go there for a week, I can see where the option you took makes a lot of sense to save time.

jefnvk

Yeah, we tried to stay there because they stored boxes, but they were full on our inbound weekend. Our hostel ended up storing my buddies bike bags anyhow.

Actually our rationale was far more pragmatic. We landed at 410am, had out bags and was out of customs by 5am, and couldn't check in until 2pm. We could have taken a bus, gotten to our hostel by 6am, and built bikes and then slept on couches, but we figured it was better to just put the bikes together and ride in, and then if we had issues know we had to find a bike shop in the morning. Plus, it is the first time I saved $50 by riding 35 miles, instead of the normal dishing it out for a group ride