UBCO Ambassador, Chris Burkard shares his adventure through rugged southern Iceland on the 2x2 Special Edition.
As someone with a strong passion for cycling, I’ve always been a huge believer in different forms of transportation for day to day life, especially in a city so easy to navigate on two wheels like Reykjavik. This year, September rolled around and I found myself looking at two giant boxes in my gallery with the brand new 2023 Special Edition Bikes ready to go. I knew they’d be fun and probably an easy way to get around, but in reality, they’re actually way easier than driving a car through the city and quite frankly faster if you take traffic stops & congestion into account... not to mention you’re breathing fresh air and enjoying your surroundings in a much more immersive way.
Fast forward to December in Iceland and I’m still using it most days - either for quick trips to the gallery, strapping my fly rod on to go fish in a nearby river, jumping in a hot spring, going to the gym, the hardware store, you name it... it handles in the snow better than expected and I’ve even taken it on some smaller river crossings in pretty rugged parts of southern Iceland.
As many of you know, Iceland weather is nothing to take lightly and I’ve confidently ridden the bike in just about every condition imaginable - snow, ice, downpouring rain, wind, sand, the list goes on. I’ve even left it outside during rainstorms and I’ve never had a single issue, it’s virtually indestructible and rides surprisingly far on a single charge... perfect for a more inclement destination.
The center carry-all compartment takes the cake as my favorite functional design piece of the bike - it’s the part I use the most to store tons of various items like a beanie, keys, a camera, sometimes even a coffee tucked in there while riding... It's an aerodynamic storage space on the bike where I’m confident that nothing will fall out and best of all it’s easy to access. The 30L Carry-All case strapped to the back also provides a nice amount of waterproof storage for carrying extra layers or camera equipment that you want to protect from the weather which is crucial for this country being situated closer to the arctic.
Overall, I’m truly impressed at the capability of the bike and its versatility between urban and backcountry challenges during photoshoots, fishing days, or just ripping around because it’s fun.. Excited to see new iterations and where they take me next.
