In just over a week, Canadian Emily Batty along with a small group of friends will ride through Iceland from one end to the other in bikepacking. A full-blown adventure because even though it’s summer, Iceland can be a tough are to ride and toss in the fact they will do it all self-sufficiently. Emily herself shows us all the equipment she will carry and what is most surprising about the chosen bike.
Starting with the most important part, Emily Batty has chosen a Trek Supercaliber to ride on the 10-day route through Iceland. This is a very specific mountain bike for XC that does not seem to fit into the geometry of bikepacking, where more relaxed geometry bikes are preferred. This is surprising since she has an arsenal of Trek bikes she could choose from. In addition, it will do it using the SRAM AXS drivetrain, a risky bet since the low temperatures could quickly end up with dead batteries. As a solution she will take up to 3 extra batteries and a charger.
Packs, Food and Other Gear
As for the rest of the material, it will be distributed among a handlebar bag, a saddle bag, two bags in the fork and a frame bag. In this case, the geometry of the Supercaliber allows it to take advantage of almost the entire surface of the central hole. In addition to all the equipment and items typical of an adventure like this, Emily highlights two important points of its material: a foam roller and food. As she herself explains, after any training session – she is used to a session of at least 45 minutes dedicated to muscle recovery – and this along with her food is something she cannot neglect during this trip since 20 days after it ends she must be at 100% to compete in the World Cup.
The entire tour will be recorded for what looks like a future documentary, so we’ll keep an eye out and keep up to date with this adventure.