Cycling Iceland – 16 Days Solo Bikepacking The Ring Road Of Iceland!

Watch The Full Unboxing And Assembly.

Full Documentary
2025 #greatcyclechallenge for SickKids Hospital in Toronto Canada

Join me on a wild 16-day bikepacking adventure around Iceland’s legendary Ring Road – 1,322 km of raw nature, brutal winds, epic climbs, and life-changing moments.

Riding my 2025 Specialized Chisel HD Competition, I faced over 11,000 meters of elevation gain, relentless weather, broken gear, wild camping every night, and the true extremes of endurance cycling.

From volcanic landscapes and towering mountains to food shortages and spiritual breakthroughs, this is not just a cycling trip – it’s a survival story, a pilgrimage for bikepackers, backpackers, and outdoor lovers seeking real adventure.

Whether you’re planning your own Iceland bikepacking route or dreaming of escaping into the wild, this film is for you. #Bikepacking #IcelandCycling #AdventureCycling #Backpacking #RingRoadIceland #WildCamping #ChiselHD #sickkids

[Music] First guy wanted €120. Okay. We are in Iceland. We landed a couple hours ago at KF International Airport, which is not to be mistaken with the capital city airport, which is uh for domestic flights only. So if you’re uh cycling in Iceland, you got to get from KF to Rekovic with Reikovc and butchering that, which So, somehow I’ve only gone like 17 kilometers today. Feels like I’ve gone a lot further, but I’m finally not on that road anymore, which you’re not even supposed to be on. And I’m on this like OG road of just pure volcanic ash, and it’s very slippery. This is literally Jurassic Park. This is why I wish I bought a kickstand. But either way, check out this Well, I have to say I have not had better sleeps ever. The past two nights I have slept fantastic and it’s it’s amazing. So I’m very happy about it’s a beautiful morning. It’s a Monday 7:00 a.m. and we are back out on the road. Finally, the uh skies are clearing up a little bit. So, I can actually see all these mountain peaks instead of just seeing the very ominous silhouettes into the distance. Well, we’re going down a free mile hill right now. Good chance to record. It is a spectacular day. A little chilly. It’s like 7°, but nonetheless, it’s not raining and it’s not windy. Knock on wood. But look at these mountains. I’ve seen some beautiful places in my life, but nothing quite like this. Well, considering I don’t know how many nice days I’m going to have on this trip and that the sun is shining, I’m going to go climb this mountain. So, one thing I’ve noticed and researching this trip, a lot of people talked about that you can like wild camp anywhere in Iceland as long as you’re a cyclist or like a backpacker. So, that is from everything I’ve spoken to with locals here, not true. You can camp on like crown property, but the vast majority of like the property that you’re cycling around the ring road on this. So you’ll see it’s fenced off. That’s fenced off because that’s somebody’s property and that’s like that on kind of pretty much every side. Like there’s vegetation there and I’m in the middle of nowhere, but a lot of the road connects to people’s houses that are right off of the property or right off of the road. So, uh you you really have to go to campsites. And there’s numerous places I’ I’ve seen where it says uh no camping um designated areas only. So, just so you know, this is the sheer beauty of Iceland. Oh, it’s nice to see civilization. You go such far stretches without seeing anything. I need food and I need coffee. Hopefully, they have it. Of course, when you’re in Iceland bike packing and you get to your destination 7 hours before you want to go to bed, of course you’re going to go for a hike because why wouldn’t you? This little guy, little guy, this big spotter is not making me feel safe. Either I’m losing my mind or that looks like it’s downhill, but I’ve been pedaling for miles. I don’t know. This is what we call hike a bike up a mountain cuz you cannot ride it. Well, it’s day four, I think. Very tired, but it is a beautiful view. It’s incredible just how crystal clear this water is and how it just finds a way, just working its way over this path. But if this water wasn’t so cold, like that would be nice swimming water. I don’t know if you can see how crystal clear it is, though. It’s absolutely incredible. That’s all glacier water. You can’t even really see this as well from the road. There’s a car park and a lot of people parked at. I’m like, you know what? Let’s take a stop. Well, this sure is interesting. Very jagged rock formation. And there’s snow up at the peaks there. It’s quite cold. Quite cold. Well, I think this is the northernmost city in Iceland because pretty much anything around the road from here is south. It’s quite a nice city. It’s got all the stuff you you’d think. It’s got restaurants. It’s got a mall, shopping centers. Only stop for a quick burger. Well, as much as I hate detouring cuz of that time, there is this beautiful waterfall. Got couples loving it. I cannot believe how difficult this ride is. And I know I’ve said this a bunch of times, but it’s been hard, man. Much harder than I expected. Much colder than I expected. Much windier, but it’s it’s a beautiful, beautiful country. Um I just don’t think I’ll be biking it again. I’m out of the mountains. an in a there’s the piece. Well, being that I’m in the middle of nowhere and there’s no camp spots, I was getting a little low on water, was getting a little bit nervous. And then I see this bad boy. And I’m hoping I can filter some water from here without killing myself. I don’t think that’s sulcuric water. Find out. We have a new spot that we’re going to go to. It’s a little more secluded cuz people are looking at me like, “What the hell is this guy doing?” But unbeknownst to these people in their cars, I can’t get 60 70 more kilometers to the next camp spot. So, we’re going behind here. Tune in for the camp. So, when you can’t find a campground, because there isn’t one for 100 km any direction, you make one. This is the worst material to be on right now because all my stuff is wet. So, it’s turning it into like mud. And then that’s the main road there. You’ll just see a car going by. So, I’m pretty incognito back here. Um, like I’d like it to be. And then my poor bike. Sometimes I ask myself in life, could be better sleeping in a tent on an angle. Really see, but that’s an angle. With all my crap, all my stuff I’m attempting to dry out on my clothes line. I have to keep all my stuff in the tent with me because it’s too dirty outside. Normally, I would just leave it in this this little uh covered area. But look at this, man. Air pillow, air mattress, 10 cm sick, 5.4 RFI rating. I’m hoping to go it doesn’t puncture. And I’m not sleeping on an angle, so I’m going to definitely roll. But I bought the U MSR. I don’t know if they call it the pocket rocket or whatever, but it’s a uh butane um it’s a it’s an oven that connects to whatever kind of uh canister you have and cooking water. This thing boils water super fast. It’s incredible. And I’m making these two cup of soup in the middle of nowhere while I’m eating my pretzel sticks. Life is good. It is a brisk uh Saturday morning. Uh 3° feels like minus 2. One thing that keeps I keep saying this, but one of the things that keeps catching me off guard is just the sheer scale of things that is like a hill that is just unimaginably large. It just humbles you like nothing else. So, we have an absolute full house tonight. A lot of bike packers, a lot of other people. Landscape here is truly incredible. Every corner I go around is like a different continent. So, it’s like I’m almost in like the Africa. It’s just incredible. video just doesn’t do justice how incredibly large and beautiful this is and I get to ride my bike down it. There’s points in time where I wish I wasn’t riding because I am hurting. But nonetheless, I’d rather be hurting in a nice place than hurting. There should be a sport called hike a bike because I’d probably do pretty good at it. It’s so incredible to see how clear these layers are. Um, obviously I would think water at some point in time is what caused that because it’d be perfectly linear on both sides. And just to think that what I’m on right now will be one of those lines in the future. So, it did actually get quite a bit darker in here once the uh exterior light disappeared. Uh but it’s okay. Like there’s there’s very light traffic fortunately. And I can pull off to the shoulder when cars come. I don’t know if you can see it, but I got a little blinker behind me. That should help. See that? It’s my front light that I’m using as a rear. Well, the only time I like to see a 12% grade is if I’m going down it, not up it. Oh, just what I needed. A chocolate chip muffin. I’m taking a nice break on a beach on south south coast of Iceland. What a incredible landscape. Feel like a broken record. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] Well, we’ve officially made it to the world’s well Iceland’s largest glacier and it’s I believe Europe’s largest glacier. I don’t have the exact specs, but it’s big. I bet you this changes every single day. Made it to the Diamond Beach portion. You get these incredibly clear chunks of ice that have broken off from the glacier and it goes a long way. This is a really cool camp spot. Now, this is a Breakfast of Champions. Bag of uh not really chips, but chips on the handlebars. Beautiful mountain sunrise behind us. That’s going to be a nice video when it’s uh when it’s fully up. The sunrise just keeps getting prettier. That’s just incredible. [Music] So, it’s been quite the uh desolate day. Um, there was a gas station I was going to stop by that was supposedly open and had a bunch of little snacks that you could buy and stuff. And I get there and it’s a ghost town, which was very disappointing because I was banking on that. So, I’m out of food pretty much. I have a just like emergency food left and doesn’t look like there’s anything for another 100k. Anyways, so I’m stopped on the side of the road, kind of off the the path a bit, and I’m making myself a double shot. I’m going I’m going to be bad here. I’m going to Nest Cafes plus a little bit of uh instant coffee. And check out the views. Doesn’t get much better than this when you’re making a coffee. So, I just found out yesterday, I remember somebody telling me this, this whole area, and it goes on for miles in every direction, was a massive um volcanic lava field. So, I guess one of these volcanoes was spewing lava, and this is all solidified lava. You can kind of see how it’s kind of like in a molten type of shape. It’s really cool. And there’s this green moss that grows on it. It’s a very sensitive moss. You’re not supposed to walk on it. They said it took like 200 years for it to take to this stuff and can take years to regrow. So, it’s a protected uh bit of uh life. Signs sometimes make me chuckle. This one’s only 20 km, but I’ve seen them. It’s like washroom in 45 km. I’m like, “Oh, great. I can go to washroom in 4 hours.” If I wasn’t partially dead inside, this would be really beautiful right now. But my legs screwed, my bike’s screwed, and my sleeping pad’s leaking. So, I’m on my way to Hela and back. Ah, no, just kidding. From Vic to Hela. Look at this. It’s really nice. Well, this blows. I’m right screwed up right here. I’ve uh snapped a spoke because the strain from the other side of the spokes being problematic and it’s now put such a wobbling into my wheel that it’s rubbing and I’m just going to lose more and more spokes at the rate I’m going. Oh dear. Certainly an appropriate name for a town after I’ve been through hella and back today. Well, we’re on the second last day. Just set up camp at some place in Hela. Just kind of like a open field where you can kind of just pitch anywhere. And I’m eating a peanut butter and bread sandwich and making Mr. noodles cuz my water has just boiled. I am praying my bike makes just 80 more kilometers. I am so close to the finish line and I’m having all these problems with my spokes, a cracked rim. I’m just praying, please, please let me get back to regular today. It’s a very lonesome tree. Well, that is the city of Rekavik, Iceland, and we are rolling up on it real fast. What an adventure. My goodness. I’m going to try to keep myself safe because I’ve only got a few kilometers to go with the bum wheel. But holy crap, boys. We boys and girls, we made it. Oh, John. And there we have it, folks. This is the roundabout where I started my journey around the ring road. 1,322 km over 17 days. 16 of that was riding and 11,000 uh m of elevation gain throughout the whole thing. Cracked rims, broken spokes, broken spirits, but we did it. Just like that, we are back at the original campground that we started at 17 days ago. And my bike somehow by the grace of God lasted and malfunctioned completely within the last 3 kilometers. Like watch here. Watch. It just stops. It is just binds up completely. So, you can see I’m missing one spoke there and then the two really bad ones that pulled right through. And then about another half a dozen are cracked. I found that by the grace of God, they let me ride 200 km on it. So, thank you So, as you would have seen in the previous portion of the video, I cracked my rim and broke three different spokes. So, I ended up using paracord, which I’ve got to tension like a spoke in three different spots, and I was able to almost true my wheel. So, I’m pretty pretty happy about that. This is why I don’t like using Google Maps in Iceland. Uh, this is a return road that runs parallel to the drag strip at a racetrack. And it actually told me to cross track. And I’m praying that they’re not drag racing right now. And there’s cars not going to be coming back up this road cuz just to the other side of that BM, you can hear him, is a racetrack. I’m on the last leg of the journey. After almost 1,400 kilometers, I’m ending it off with this very rough, very rough um volcanic dirt road. You can see there’s some massive, massive rocks. And I’m just hoping that the rim that I’ve uh repaired with the um paracord holds up. I’m I’m taking it easy. I’m walking through some of the the really really rough sections, but kind of a cool way to end it off. I’m in a very very rural area. Um, which is kind of fun. So, so this stuff is uh kind of unridable. Um, it’s very very loose. Um, and there’s some like baseball size rocks here that are just in the middle of the the track. But, uh, it’s only 8 km fortunately. So, I’m just going to hike a bike through the parts that I can’t get through. Well, it’s been 23 days in Iceland. There’s the bike fully unloaded. Getting all my gear at this last campground in Vulgar where I stored my box and luggage originally. Getting it all packed up and ready to ship back home to Toronto. There we are. Packed up, ready to go home.