Bike Touring in Iceland: Day 2

Day 2: Thingvallavatn to Kaldidalur

Day two began with skyr (Icelandic-style yoghurt, well known to all Williams students due to a local dairy that produces it) and granola for breakfast, and then a stretching session for the sake of my calves and quads.

 Nothing like a stretch with a view

We then headed towards Thingvellir, a mega tourist site. On the way, I discovered that my bike's bottom bracket was quite loose, something I had never seen before. Thingvellir is geologically significant because the separation of the North America and European continental plates is rendered visible through deep rifts in the landscape. Historically, it was also the location of the Allthing, the Icelandic parliament, which ran continuously from 900-and-something to 1800-and-something, until Danish colonization. It has since been reinstated, making it both the oldest, and longest running parliament in the world. In any case, it is an easy bus ride from Reykjavik, and the place was literally crawling with tourists. A google search will provide you with both more info and photos. We did not linger.

From Thingvellir, we headed towards the interior of Iceland. The bulk of Iceland's interior is a barren, glaciated desert. All of a sudden, the landscape got BIG. In the image below, the haziness in the distance os not rain or cloud, but dust. When it's windy the air fills with dust from the interior which is blown towards the coast. And its almost always windy!

Postyn checks out a rift north of Thingvellir

 At lunch, near where the photo above was taken, we sat behind a berm to get out of the wind, which was steadily building. As we rode on, the road changed to dirt, and the landscape became gradually less green.

One of the few photos with both of us in it! Note volcano in background.

 Our aim was the Kaldidalur valley, one of the half-dozen routes across the completely uninhabited interior of Iceland. The Kaldidalur is the shortest route across, but to do it we would have needed to carry a week's supply of food. Instead we planned to do the first half, along side Langjokull ice cap, before turning west in order resupply food.

By late afternoon, the wind was really picking up. Furthermore, I noticed that my loose bottom bracket had worked itself a couple of millimeters looser over the course of the day. I knew I lacked the tools to remove my cranks and tighten it, but thought in an emergency I might be able to work something out. However, by 5:00 we were faced with a decision, the last intersection before the beginning of the Kaldidalur. This would be our last chance to turn back to find a bike shop. If we went on, we would have to improvise, and if that failed, hitch a ride out of the interior, before our food ran out.

After working out how much food we had, we decided to press on. Ahead we knew was an emergency shelter where we planned to cook dinner; given the problems we had had with the gas cylinder the previous night, we were worried we wouldn't be able to light the stove in the wind.

Within a kilometer, I found myself unable to pedal. my bottom bracket had worked loose enough to rub against the crank. We then walked the last of the way to the emergency hut.
  

The emergency hut was in the perfect spot

 Once in the hut, we decided that being stranded in Iceland's interior with an unrideable bike and no tools to fix it counted as an emergency. Thus we felt justified to stay the night! Once in the hut, we found a partially empty fuel canister that actually fit our stove, and traded that for ours. We weren't sure how much fuel was left, but knew it would get us to the next big town, in a few night's time. While Postyn began cooking dinner, I brought my bike inside the hut.

I have to say, it really came in handy to know my way around my own bike so well. I guess that's one benefit of building your own bike that you don't think about until it matters. After much frustration, and correspondingly increased temerity, I was able to remove my cranks. Normally this is done with a crank puller, which essentially pulls the crank away from the bottom bracket axle. I didn't have one, so I used a rock. I literally hit the crank arms with a rock until they came off. I started with a small rock, then a medium rock, then quite a big rock. Eventually, both crank arms were off -- all that remained was to retighten the bottom bracket. Normally this requires a splined tool to tighten the cups, which I also didn't have. After unscrewing the bottom bracket, I was able to notch one side with the file on Postyn's Leatherman, so that I could tighten it with a screwdriver and my ever-useful rock. However, the other side wouldn't file (being steel rather than aluminium). We dealt with this by wedging Postyn's  screwdriver between the splines and the axle, and turning the bottom bracket that way.

Unstuck between a rock and a Leatherman

As night came, we were treated to a splash of color as the sun set (see top photo) but building winds threatened to cause problems the next day.

The moral of the day was...carry a crank puller and a bottom bracket tool!