Bikepacking Iceland
From glaciers to volcanos, Iceland has so much to offer.
It certainly is not the easiest ride. However, this journey rewarded me in many ways — Whether it was the natural hot springs or the extraterrestrial landscape, there is always something to contemplate in Iceland.
Let me tell you about this cycling adventure I did with my girlfriend, about a 200km gravel race called The Rift I participated in and about all the wonders we saw along the way. Here it goes!
Alexandrine and myself in front of the Jokulsarlon lagoon in our cycling clothing with matching buffs of Iceland.
Preparations
Packing the Katahdin from Panorama Cycles in the Serfas hard case
This was my first time using a Serfas hard case and I did not know if my Katahdin from Panorama Cycles gravel bike would fit in. Stressed out as I didn’t want anything to be damaged, I packed everything carefully including my carbon wheels and the carbon frame.
It was also Alexandrine’s first time packing her bike in a box. She packed her Canyon in the original cardboard box it came in: it had less protection than my hard case and did not have wheels under the box to carry it which made it difficult to walk with.
At the time, the worldwide situation post-COVID included a global shortage of airport staff — we heard about multiple stories of lost baggage from friends and decided to take extra precautions. We bought Apple AirTags and install them in our bikes beforehand, just in case they’d get lost (which did happen on our way back home, as we had a layover in Toronto and the bikes took about 3 days to arrive home). As we rushed to finish packing, I forgot to pack in my mini pump.
The Bikepacking trip
Part of our preparation was to plan ahead which landmarks and areas of Iceland we wanted to see.
Creating a Google MyMaps, we pinned both our points of interest and connected the dots to calculate the number of kilometers we would be traveling.
Our initial route is shown in blue. It was a bit ambitious for the time we had, but feasible. We thought it would be all good especially with the Icelandic bus service. Keep reading, things turned out a bit differently.
REykjavik (Day 1) - 55 km
The first thing that struck us was how kind people were. As soon as we arrived, a complete stranger helped us carry our luggage, walking all the way with us to our Airbnb. We noticed over the entire trip people were very welcoming and also quite curious about our adventure. The Airbnb we rented in Reykjavik was cozy and well-located, close to the city center. Nicolas, our Airbnb host, was very accommodating with our bike boxes as he accepted to keep them while we were cycling the island before coming back at his place.
We took a moment to get accommodated, walking around Reykjavik, taking the opportunity to buy a few missing items for the adventure: CO2 cartridges, a new mini-pump, a Wifi hotspot and filling our fuel bottle for the camping stove.
After 2 days in the city, we departed from Reykjavik by bus and started our biking adventure from Selfoss, a town located about 50km outside of Reykjavik. The goal was to reach Hvolsvöllur, where we would be staying for 2 days, as I was participating in The Rift: a gravel race of 200 km in the wonderful volcanic hills of Landmannalaugar.
As we were on our way to Selfoss in the bus, we checked the Airbnb we booked in Hvolsvöllur — or at least what we thought we had, only to find out that the Airbnb was actually a 45min car ride away from the race start. Not quite the 5min by bike we thought we had. This was due to a mismatch between GPS coordinates advertised in the Airbnb listing which did not correspond to the Airbnb exact location once booked. As we decided to switch Airbnbs, we already knew most hotels were booked or insanely overpriced as we were 1) very last minute 2) due to the high volume of people participating in The Rift. Unfortunately, taxis are not common in Iceland. We decided we would be camping.
As we got to Selfoss, we exited the bus and geared up the bikes. After a good meal at Kaffi Krús, which we highly recommend, we headed off - a few kilometers in, I noticed that the Garmin maps are quite limited in terms of detail in Iceland, and unfortunately, I was not able to load any other OpenStreetMap on the GPS before departure (in case we were wondering).
hvolsvöllur (day 2) - 205 km (Race DAY)
Campground at Hvolsvöllur. As any of you know, the night prior to a race is always messy: stress, anticipation, projecting what could go bad, or go great... but we make the most of it. I wake up early in the tent, I kitted up, put some chammy cream on, and headed to the start of the race. I did some short laps to warm up a bit on the grass. I found my Gravel Mafia friends, and off we go!
Photo Credit : The Rift
Photo Credit : The Rift
The Iceland bikepacking trip was originally planned around The Rift race, an event I was doing with some friends; Maxim Garant Rousseau, Jasmin Ten Have, Andreas Ihm, Valerie Lamantia and Charles Ouimet from Gravel Mafia. Right from the start the pace was high and we climbed up the peloton together. We were pretty much together until we hit the first river crossing, then things started to get a bit messy.
I was riding with Maxim and Valerie for a while and then lost Max after he got a chain drop on a climb. I waited a bit for him at the feed station, but after a while it was getting cold in the mountains - I figured I would catch a group so I would not ride the rest of the race on my own.
On the Katahdin, I had a crank-based power meter. I was a bit worried that it would leak water in as we would ride through the river crossings in Iceland, so I wrapped the Stages crank arm in a garbage bag with some electrical tape. It held through, and the power meter still works today. I did make sure to open the battery compartment to let it dry some time after the race, just in case.
Pushing hard on my own to catch back a group in the race - Photo Credit : The Rift
Basically rock climbing with a bike, yes it was really that steep (35%?)
Gravel Mafia squad during The Rift
I was sad I couldn’t find Max back, but I needed to keep going and found another group as company. Six river crossings later, two descents in the snow, I see people going over bars, others flatting in the rocky sections. I finally found the boys and gals from Gravel Mafia back around 100km in the race at one of the most satisfying feeding stations. The guys took the time to change socks with their drop bags - I myself, completely forgot we had drop bags... However, I felt fine, my wool socks ended up drying a bit in my shoes while riding and we did not have many river crossings until the end of the race.
Riding together for a few kilometers, I was in front of the group and ended up losing them again (I was informed after the race that Valerie had crashed hard). I waited at the next feed station, but could not see any of them. I decided to end my race with another group and caught up with a few men, riding in a fast train on the asphalt. As we entered another very bumpy rocky section, my tool kit bottle opened up and I lost the top and a valve for CO2 cartridges. I stoped to look around, but could not find it and I lost my fast group.
Gravel Mafia squad with our The Rift Iceland medals
That’s when the trouble started to show up. My rear derailleur would not hold tension on the chain. The clutch lever kept disengaging and I was getting many chain drops. I had to stop 2-3 times for the last 50kms, trying to keep as much tension on the chain by pedalling continuously even on descents (lesson learned, I changed the derailleur completely eventually in the season).
This was probably the most beautiful, satisfying and eventful race I participated in. I finished strong, passing by a few groups as I was approaching the finish line. I ended up with 104th/405 participants.
Skogar (day 3) - 56km
Our Katahdin from Panorama Cycles and Canyon Grizl in front of the Seljalandsfoss
Seljalandsfoss
From Hvolsvöllur we packed our tent and cycled east to Skogar. On our way we saw the Seljalandsfoss. We learned that “foss” means waterfall in Icelandic, and this was one of the most iconic with three waterfalls next to each other. After the trip, I have realized there is the Seljavellir Geothermal Pool not too far from the main road 1 that we could have reached mid-ride for a little swim with a nice view (in case anyone is wondering).
Vincent in front of Skogafoss
Alexandrine in front of Skogafoss
In Skogar, there is a really nice camping very close to Skogafoss. Alexe had a cold and following my race, we figured we could treat ourselves to a nice hotel room. After trying most of the hotels around, there was no room anywhere due to the high season.
Starting to think we would camp again, the last hotel we tried accommodated us with the room normally reserved for the staff. We felt super lucky and grateful for the family owning this hotel - they even welcomed us in their natural pool that “was not yet ready for customers”.
Jokulsarlon (day 4) - 37km
From Skogar, the ride was really nice with some climbs on the way and mostly just amazing views as we were crossing the ridge to get in the valley to Vik.
Luckily, most cyclists were heading west and we were heading east, so we were able to take the bus from Vik to Jokulsarlon. It was a long bus ride and the landscape looked kind of flat, a rock desert, not much to see. As we got out the bus to Jokulsarlon, we could immediately feel the temperature had dropped, due to the proximity of the glacier.
Jokulsarlon icebergs
It was late in the afternoon, we started to look for something to eat as we noticed a few food trucks were parked, but they were all closed. This would be our first night on dehydrated soup and crackers we were carrying as backup.
As it was the first time trying the Omni-fuel stove, it took a few attempts (over about 2h really - no joke) to figure out how to open the valves properly in order for a blue flame to appear and cook our food.
In the meantime, the sunset was a delightful view, there were a few tourists finishing their walk heading back to their cars, a few seals were fishing by the icebergs and the colours of the sky were mind-blowing.
Diamond Beach, Jokulsarlon
After dinner, we started to look for a place to install our tent. As you might know, days in the summer in Iceland are really long, so even at 9:00PM it is still light out. This is a huge advantage when you are cycling and camping, no need for a headlamp.
There were almost no one at this time, but we did see one tourist also cycling the area, who informed us it was not allowed to do wild camping around the lagoon, so we decided to install ourselves next to the park ranger’s cabin instead of in the national park, crossing our fingers the ranger would understand…which she did! (she came the next morning to greet us).
Skaftafell (day 5-6-7) - 60km + 93km
Svartifoss
We did an easy ride from Jokulsarlon to Skaftafell as we wanted to enjoy the nice weather outside (which can be very rare in Iceland).
If only we would have known what was awaiting...
Honestly, the hardest thing when cycling in Iceland is the weather as it is so unstable and hard to read.
This was the day that changed the mood of the trip. Leaving Jokulsarlon, the glacier lagoon, we cycled east from Diamond beach to Skaftafell.
Getting to Skaftafell, we had quite an amazing view on glaciers. Over a quick stop, we heard from people in a convenience store that there was a yellow warning for rain starting in the night and continuing the next day. We did not know what this actually meant…
Rain started to pour. Hard, as we were getting close to the Skaftafell campground.
Arriving at the campground, we set up the tent in the rain as best as we could. We decided that if this was going to be the weather the next day, we would take the bus to save for time.
The next morning, we packed our gears and headed to the entrance of the park where the bus stop was. We discovered with a lot of disappointment talking with the park ranger, there was no bus service the next day… what were the odds. No bus at all. All day.
Packing the tent in heavy rain meant most of our stuff was wet and we were stuck here in Skaftafell with a really rainy day, with not much to do other than wait for the rain to stop. The good part was that a laundry room was available in the campground, so we could at least dry a few things.
I took the day to re-plan the rest of the trip to make it on time in Reykjavik for our flight as this was changing a lot of our plans. We had about 7 days (to confirm) to get back on time and pack the bikes. So we thought we would take the bus the following day, get back to Selfoss in order to skip a few segments of the trip, and head straight north to the mountain hut we had booked close to Hvitarnes.
However, things still did not go according to plan.
The next day, we waited for the bus… and surprise - it was full. An important thing to know about the bus service in Iceland: there is almost always a single bus per day to do a trip. You don’t have a lot of options, and on that single bus, there is only 4 places for bikes. We tried to get our bikes in the bus, but the driver would not let us under any circumptances.
So, again, we had to re-organize things. We cycled the whole way back.
From then on, I personally wanted to avoid the bus service as much as possible.
The Skaftafell campground with the view on mountains
Alexe riding with the wonderful Hvannadalshnjúkur glacier view in front
Landmannalaugar (day 8) - 77km, 1400m of elevation
We cycled all day in the no-man’s land that is the valley between Skaftafell and Giljaland.
At Giljaland, we found a spot for our tent, a whole in the ground, perfect to hid ourselves from the wind. There really was not much life around, and we couldn’t find any accommodations that had a campground of an available room. I estimated it was impossible to manage to get through a section of the Landmannalaugar to get to the campsite without riding in the dark.
Alexe snacking on her gummies
Vincent preparing dinner enjoying the view of the no-man’s land
Remembering what the Landmannalaugar looked like in the part of The Rift race, ideally you do not want to ride at night. There was no way we would get there without being completely exhausted, in the cold, in the dark, and I was suspecting there would be some gnarly gravel and probably some river crossings.
Vincent riding in the Landmannalaugar valley with a local dog who followed us for about 5km
Washboards on the F208 road in the Landmannalaugar National Park
On the next day, we entered the Landmannalaugar.
The 70km day was looking glorious. Sunny weather, nice trails. We even had a new dog pal who followed us for a few kilometers, without speaking about the usual gorgeous landscape.
Although, my intuition did pay off as we met the park ranger at the gate. She looked at us confused, and asked us where we were headed. We mentioned the campground of Landmannalaugar.
Know that no ‘normal’ car is allowed on the trails to Landmannalaugar. You need to have access to either have a 4x4 truck equipped with a chimney for water evacuation or a mountain taxi, which is basically a bus made to drive in the mountains.
In front of the gate, there was a river crossing the pathway. The ranger mentioned that this was one of the longest crossing and that we could bypass it going on the hike trail next to the river.
One of the many river crossings on the F208 road in the Landmannalaugar
So far so good.
But then, she told us there were another 25ish river crossings coming up. 25 river crossings or 25km of riding with a few river crossings? I must say we were kind of shocked but excited at the same time (especially Alexe, who wanted to cross rivers so bad since I kept telling her about The Rift). We then understood it was indeed 25 river crossings (or even more) total before getting to the Landmannalaugar campsite. The ride seemed endless after all the river crossings and the climbing we did, but we were at the end very satisfied. How can you not with this view?
Alexe “enjoying” the river crossings and the moonlike landscape
Vincent crossing up-stream due to the crossing being too long
At first, Alexe was taking the time to get her shoes off, take her sandals out of the bag, put her sandals on, and cross the deep rivers by walking… but after a few river crossings, she decided to just go, what the hell no time to waste. Full send with her gravel shoes.
I was able to manage to get through most of the river crossings without getting off. At some point, I had to put my foot down. That’s when I switched to my waterproof socks. I have to say the waterproof socks do keep the feet a little warmer in the cold rivers.
Alexe crossing a river
Alexe pushing her bike to the top with the view at the end of our last climb.
Arriving at the campsite, we had a bit of hike-a-bike the bridges to get to the camping.
The campground of Landmannalaugar was probably the best of our trip. The landscape is unreal. When we arrived, there were live musicians playing, people were drinking beer around a fire. We were offered fresh lamb meatballs, still warm, by locals.
We met a couple from Montreal around our dinner time and find out later they were friends with Alexe’s friend from her running community. After dinner, we walked around the mountain and headed to the natural hot spring just nearby the campsite where people were talking and enjoying each other’s company. The hot spring had the best view of the mountains. An evening to remember.
The following night was frigid with very strong winds getting through the tent, under the top of the tent. The temperature was freezing cold and around -4°C. I remember not being able to sleep with the noise the wind was making. It was so cold, I could not move and thought “I should have put on my compression socks”. My feet were freezing and it prevented me from warming up. As I felt on the edge of hypothermia, Alexe went out in the middle of the night under the rain to get my compression socks in my bags just outside the tent. After putting the socks on, I was finally able to warm up and get some sleep. Alexe was not so lucky with her sleep.
The next morning, we headed to brush our teeth in the community space in the middle of the campground, when the couple from Montreal we met the night before ran to us looking alarmed, telling us our tent was flying off. The winds were so strong, the tent had flipped over, damaging the fabric as it rubbed upside down in the sand. With the help of three people, we were able to flip it back and settling it back on the ground with rocks.
Landmannalaugar views
Fludir (day 9) - 124km
The next day was not any easier. What a ride.
Vincent cycling through black sands for 25km
Pushing with a huge headwind with steep rocky climbs. Only the big 4x4 with automatic inflatable tires and snorkel were able to pass by in the sand. And us…
There was a long section of riding in the dark sand, some patches were too deep and the tires were slipping. Otherwise, it was rideable, but not ideal for our long day in the saddle (especially considering the headwind).
It really challenged us to get out of the National Park, I was telling Alexe we only had 10km left of difficult sand sections, then we would be back on the asphalt 😉
Soon after we were back on the tarmac, but the headwind were going strong. We had to get to Fludir where the campsite was, otherwise there was not much around to see, places to stop or anything to eat. After our long day, we finally made it to Fludir, we wanted to rest, but the campers were not in the same mood as we were. When we arrived at the campsite of Fludir, we were told it was an Icelandic holiday as we noticed a lot of people driving around with loud music, festival stages getting ready to welcome musicians - it was definitely the party mode! We felt as if the whole population of Iceland was at this very location. Our night was not going to be the most restful, but we made the most of it.
Mushroom feast (mushroom butter, mushroom cream, marinated mushrooms, homemade bread and tapenade) at Farmers Bistro
After an evening of laundry and night of sleep in our tent, we decided to head towards Iceland’s first natural pool, the Secret Lagoon. It was nice and refreshing to have a moment of rest, but definitely a more touristic attraction after being on our own in the Landmannalaugar natural thermal pond. As lunch, we stopped at a farm-to-table restaurant, specializing in mushroom. What a treat!
We finally packed our bikes and headed out to Thingvellir National Park, our final destination before getting back to Reykjavik.
On our way to Thingvellir around 11:00PM
Thingvellir (day 10) - 80km
We made a small detour to the small touristic village of Geysir to see the Geysir (which is not much active anymore) and the Strokkur geyser before riding our last stretch towards Thingvellir. We had some hours on the bike to do and it was getting somehow late in the day. So with the wind and the stops to eat, we finished the ride at dusk. It was getting quite cold on our way down in the valley as the humidity was getting through our gloves and shoes.
On our last morning on the day camping, we visited the small historical site which used to be the Icelandic parliament, and also where traitors were executed in the water. Thingvellir is known for it’s landscape, as it is composed of magnificent volcanic cracks and impressive waterfalls.
Back to Reykjavik (day 11) - 51km
The short ride back to Reykjavik was not as easy as we would have liked to (did we have one easy day? not really you would have noticed by now).
The strong headwinds were holding us back and sometimes pushing us against the traffic. We had to hold the handlebars tight and push heavily on the pedals. Once we got closer to town we were sheltered from the wind and could take it easy going down into town.
As we got to our last Airbnb in Reykjavik, we were pretty tired of our trip and were looking forward to a warm shower and something satisfying to eat. As we were hanging out in the living room, we felt some kind of earthquake. We thought it could be construction work around the building, but it was way past regular working hours. I looked online and confirmed there were quite a few earthquakes logged in the past hours around Reykjavik.
I looked to book a volcano tour, but with the time we had left in Iceland, it was hard to book something last minute. There was no announcement of an active Volcano when I checked for the earthquake warnings.
The routes we cycled in Iceland in orange, the red route is The Rift parcours
Bus service
Landmannalaugar Camping (these buses are used as campground convenience store, not the actual Iceland bus service)
It is very difficult to access all the information on the Bus service when you are a foreigner. The Klappið app seems to be only available once you are in the country (to confirm).
The bus schedule is hard to find. We found out as we were traveling that the main line that covers the most area around the island only passes once a day! Plus, there is no bus service on certain days (for us it was Wednesdays and Saturdays). The bus services in the capital Reykjavik passes by more often.
Online it says that the bus around Iceland can carry bikes. However, it says it depends on the mood of the driver. What we found out is that when the bike rack was full (4 bikes) at the back, the bus driver would not allow any more bikes. So 4 bikepackers and the bus is considered full, you have to ride, rain or shine. You have to fight for your spot, to secure your bike on the rack and pray that it does not get scratched or dirty from the wet roads. Don’t forget it is raining often in Iceland.
The bus service is not cheap! You have to pay about 80$CAD/person for a one-way trip depending on your destination. That is because they charge for the person in addition to a charge for the bike transportation. This is still much more affordable than a rental car though, but if you can pedal it out, save yourself the hassle of waiting for the bus.
Food
In Iceland, everything is quite expensive. Any restaurant will cost you approximately 40-50$CAD per person. Might as well go in fancy restaurants as they are not much more expensive than the cheaper options.
However, they may be hard to find. You will easily find lamb in almost every restaurant in Iceland, as it is the main animal on the island. We had kjötsupa, a traditional lamp soup (quite tasty!) very often.You will also find some fish and many restaurants make pizzas. Some restaurants also serve shark dishes if you want to try something new. I am not a big fan of seafood, so I did not try it.
The fast food by excellence is the Icelandic hot dog! It is made from lamb sausage and is usually served with remoulade, sweet mustard, and crispy onion flakes. We also enjoyed the high-density bread found in restaurants in Iceland. It tastes like some kind of pumpernickel bread. So so good.
The “Forget me not” blue cheese burger from the Vitabar in Reykjavik was outstanding, one of our favorite meal across Iceland. I don’t know if this burger is with lamb meat, like some burgers around Iceland, but it was unbelievable!
I must say, normally I do not buy meat at the groceries as I am vegetarian/flexitarian, but my girlfriend does as she’s from Lebanon and her family are big meat eaters. I will say it is hard to find restaurants with interesting vegetarian options, not that they don’t exist, but as we are traveling some places there’s basically only one restaurant over the next 70km, so I made a few exceptions and enjoyed meat.
For breakfast, we especially enjoyed the Icelandic Skyr (yogourt). Our favorite flavours were apple (for me) and banana (for Alexe). For dessert, ice cream is very common in Iceland. There is a franchise of ice cream called Valdis that you may encounter in some cities around Iceland, they also serve Belgian-style waffles if you are lucky.
And finally, you can find liquorice in almost everything in Iceland: chocolate, ice cream, candy…!
Accomodation
In terms of accommodations, as we were bikepackers, we mostly slept in camping spots. Except in Skogar, we found a spot last minute at the Kverna hotel. The room was normally reserved for the hotel staff, but the owner made us a favour and this family-owned hotel was so accommodating to us, everyone was friendly. Fun fact, this hotel used to be a boarding school for locals.
There are a lot of campsites around Iceland, so if you don’t want to pay 600$ CAD a night at the hotel, I highly suggest bringing your tent. Camping around Iceland with our bikes meant no car and no hotel charges, which are huge savings if you don’t want to break the bank traveling in Iceland as it is already an expensive location.
Some places allow wild camping, but watch for the signs as some spots don’t allow it. Like in Jokulsarlon, there’s actually no “legal” spot to camp as it is a protected national park.
Gear
Clothing
When you pack your clothes for Iceland, make sure you bring breathable, windproof and warm clothes. We highly suggest layering techniques to combine the properties listed and achieve the ultimate combo for all Iceland conditions as the weather is the ultimate challenge when traveling to that country.
Our Big Agnes Copper Spur HL 2 Bikepack tent and some camping gear
Katahdin from Panorama Cycles and Canyon Grizl
Camping
Stove : Primus Omnifuel
Tent : Big Agnes Copper Spur HV UL2 Bikepack (2 person bikepacking specific tent)
Sleeping bag : Big agnes Lobster Roll (2 person)
Mattress : Sea to Summit Ultralight and Ultralight Insulated
Bikes
Vincent
Gearing: 40T x 11-50T
Tires: Pirelli Cinturato H Classic 45mm
Alexandrine
Canyon Grizl
Gearing: 46-30T x 11-42T
Tires: Schwalbe G-One 650b 45mm
Bags
Apidura 14L & 17L saddle bags
Apidura 4.5L frame bags
Apidura Handlebar bag 9L + Accessory pocket
Conclusion
The Iceland trip has been challenging in many ways, but also fulfilling in others.
The difficult humid weather conditions with our clothes never really drying completely and the challenging conversations between partners (between Volcanos aka Alexe and Glaciers aka Vincent) have built resilience in our relationship.
The tent flying over in the Landmannalaugar after freezing our a$$ off did not stop us from enjoying this once-in-a-lifetime experience. Iceland has so much to offer and we were only able to see a small fraction of it. Honeslty, we’d probably go back if we can one day!
Although we went into quite some rough terrain, especially the race and through the Landmannalaugar, we got zero flats altogether. Despite the scarcity of restaurants and hotels, combined with the prices and unavailability that comes with the high (tourist) season. We were able to find a place to sleep every night and we were always able to eat a little something by stuffing our bags with enough food to survive 2 meals ahead. Considering the very steep prices for food, we managed to spend approximately 4000$ CAD each for the entire trip by using our bikes and camping in a tent instead of renting a camper van.
One thing that was very unfortunate is that on the day we had our flight back to Montreal, a new volcano eruption has been declared 15km away from Reykjavik, 4 hours after our airplane took off. The volcano was easily accessible by bike from the city, and people could get close enough to observe the lava!
I think this is the moment in my life where I’ve had to most Fear of Missing Out (FOMO). I wanted to take a picture with my bike in front of a volcano so bad…bummer.
Reflections
Through the pedal strokes over hundreds of kilometers, I had a lot of time to reflect on how can we respect our planet, our ecosystem, and its inhabitants. I believe that road users, cars, bicycles and pedestrians must cohabit on the same paths to leave as much space as possible for nature so that nature can grow and give back to the human race. Many accidents still happen because we don’t respect each other’s space, or just don’t respect people in general.
This definitely translates into how we cohabit with animals, plants, and our environment. It still blows my mind that there is so much space dedicated to cars all over the world, which often ends up being used by only one single person driving a vehicle that pollutes and could support 4 other humans!
As humans, we are always seeking a way to make things better, to improve, to get satisfaction, pride, and comfort. For example, we buy the next-generation groupset and upgrade to carbon wheels. However, improvements in our lives sometimes happen to the detriment of others. For instance, often developed countries take advantage of countries under-developed by using their human workforce to manufacture high-end technology products. On the other hand, developed countries also send containers filled with materials, resulting from the consumption of poor quality or single-use products, to be recycled or end up in landfills in these countries. Hence, polluting underdeveloped countries.
In the bike industry, there are many non-durable products that I wish manufacturers and buyers would put more thought into. To me, this is nonsense since the bicycle is supposed to be one of the least polluting means of transportation. Therefore, I really believe we should always try to repair, maintain and up-cycle what we currently own, instead of manufacturing something “new”. Pollution ultimately results in a shift of equilibrium and disrupts our planet’s ecosystem. In the end, our landscape surrounding us today will never be the same tomorrow, let’s enjoy it now and nurture it as much as we can. See you on the bike!
