BMWBMW

Assessing interest in a small-group adventure ride in Iceland during summer 2018. I'll be at the club mtg at Battery's this Saturday to discuss specifics.
Iceland is far and away my favorite tour of the last 20 years. Bikes would be rented in Reykjavik. Overnights in hotels/guesthouses. Must be comfortable riding gravel, hardpan. No whiners it can get wet windy and darn cool.

I've heard only great things about riding in Iceland.

I'm interested. Are the roads/bikes suitable for 2-up riding?

Jerry - Four years ago on our tour we had one couple 2-up on a 12GS, so "yes". The rider (a Canadian!) was quite good. However his partner did opt to ride in the SUV for a couple of the hairier sections (maybe 2 hours total) - this was on the F-roads, which can be avoided as needed.

Here's the general scoop on roads:
- City/town roads are well-maintained asphalt.
- Most roads out of town consist of sections of asphalt interrupted by decent gravel sections (50-50%).
- "F-roads" are minimally improved tracks used almost exclusively by utility vehicles. Normal cars are prohibited, but 4-wheel SUV & bikes are allowed. Large rock base overlain with dirt, also sand or volcano ash in some sections, occasional water crossings. Not conducive to 2-up but can be entirely avoided unless one is hell-bent to reach a remote spot.
-There is no traffic once away from Reykjavik. Might see 2-3 cars per hour. However will see hundreds of sheep and dozens of horses per day.
-Grading of gravel roads occurs on occasion - just slow down in the work zone.
-Rental bikes are BMW GS of various displacement.

Here's a link to the Iceland Highway system - good depiction of their infrastructure. Also, I have a great road atlas which we can look at to get a sense of the terrain. http://vegasja.vegagerdin.is/eng/

Thanks, that helps a lot.

Jerry - Play with the "layers" on the base map. Webcams and traffic give a great sense of surfaces we will be riding. I wish this map was operational 4 years ago.