Generic Touring Thread

This sounds like the blurb to a book,
Kudos to you for being so resilient

Anyone got a recommended route for riding roughly end to end of Scotland.

Might have a few days off at the start of September and fancy doing it over 4-5 days. Doesn't need to be exact end-end so I don't need to start in John O Groats, just somewhere up on the north coast, and I'm not too bothered about ending on the border English, would just like to take in the biggest mountains/ highest roads / most scenic suggestions.

Any thoughts..?

West Coast! - Do the islands
@haveo and I spent two weeks riding, we started in Fort William and rode to Ullapool
Would definitely suggest stopping and dropping your kit and taking a day to do the Applecross Pass - closest you can get to the Alps experience - but in the UK.
Then we took the ferry out to Stornoway and went and saw the standing stones at Callanish - which was into a horrid headwind all the way there - then we rode back at about 100mph.
Then we took the Tarbert Uig ferry then rode the length of Skye
Then you can rejoin the mainland by the bridge - but I'd seriously suggest the Kylerhea turntable ferry (much more scenic route) - hillier though.
Then if you've got the time I'd desperately suggest Mull round to Fionnphort and visiting Iona - the far side of the island has some of the most rugged/beautiful beaches I've ever seen although the one ring road on Mull can get busy

Edit - just read 4-5 days bit - well there's ^ three weeks worth of stuff for you to pick from

Great stuff, thanks.

I think I need to do a point to point, as I'm hoping to finish up down near peebles/ innerleithen. But planning to pack v v light.

Will def. try and hit applecross pass - looks great.

My main concern is the prevailing wind, currently thinking of cycling north -> south. Could this be an issue?

This Saturday 9 day credit card trip, 5 countries en total - 3 hours of building route in ridewithgps on the smallest back roads using the OSM cycle layer. 51x20 flip 51x18.
https://ridewithgps.com/routes/14760152

1 Attachment

3 hours of building route in ridewithgps on the smallest back roads using the OSM cycle layer

Can I ask a bit more about how you do this? I'm planning a big euro trip myself. How do you pick the roads you want to use? Or do you let RWGPS do it automatically? Does the OSM cycle layer give better results than the normal layer? Cheers!

How rough do u want it?

The possibility to route to match the kind of surface to your likings is one of RWGPS best assets.

If you want it real rough you select OSM Cycle layer and chooses "walking" as algorithm (yes, different layer will route you different). Then in a mix of choosing cycling/walking/driving you pull the red line to match the road/route you want to go, if it deviates from the suggested (it most likely will deviate, and it's all good).

I can't remember how my route got a little west-biased through Poland, but I think it might have something to do with the original proposal from RWGPS where it wanted me to cross the mountains into Czezch more westly - and then I found a lower crossing more east. I didnt re-route everything because I quite fancied the routing along the river systems in the first proposal.

Try putting in a start of your route and select end point 500km later (or longer) and see what it suggests - Mix and Match, grind and gnarl.

brilliant advice, I had wondered about this very thing for some time, thank you and have a good trip!

Some photos from Ams to Rome we did last month..
http://weneedoil.tumblr.com/

Really great photos - nice & atmospheric!

What did you take the photos with?

We had Fuji X100t and some Panasonic cant remember the type of it... Propably gh4. +Iphone.

Lovely photos. The one from Lucca is particularly nice as that is my Dad's home town and I've spent a few happy hours sitting on those steps eating ice cream.

Looking to cycle the NC500 sometime in the coming weeks. Has anyone on here completed it and have any tips or recommendations to offer?

Yes did it between Christmas and new year last year, Scotland is still quite cold and can be wet. Just been away in highlands for a week and had rain every day. What sort of recommendations do you want? They have a good interactive map online

Ha..! The plan is to wild camp every night, so I suppose I best start mentally preparing myself for the damp. Did you cycle clockwise/anticlockwise? I've just found the interactive map, looks very useful for working out sights of interest. Did you find the route was signposted? Any sections you would avoid or detour to avoid heavy traffic? Thanks!

Don't forget the midgie repellant.

Cycled CW, route wasn't signposted then and the bits I did last week still weren't signposted. Some parts are called wester ross costal trail, Scotland is quite empty so a map is easy to follow. East coast wasn't very exciting, and the A9 is quite a busy road. I didn't have any problems with midges recently but I know some people have had real trouble, if its raining or windy you're fine! Smidge is a repellant and they wont go near you and avon skin so soft forms a oily layer which they stick to and wont bite through, but does mean you're covered in them. Avon can "freeze" if it gets a bit cold which was surprising.

Did it at the end of May: was getting very busy with lots of convoys of vintage campers/cars motorbikes and limited availability in terms of finding accommodation, the midges were also coming into their prime and on the few nights I camped were absolutely awful unless in a very stiff breeze, and even then I woke up to the sound of thousands of them under the fly sheet in the morning softly tapping away.

Personally, I'd wait till September or October to do it and because of the terrain (and the prevailing headwind if doing it clockwise-nobody tells you this before you go bit it is a real bitch day after day) allow for 60 miles a day max if carting camping gear about as the smaller coastal roads are near constant up and downs of up to 25% in some places and very energy sapping. I won the weather lottery but still got stuck in some deluges too so worth packing for every condition even if the forecast looks good.

Other than that, amazing scenery and great food-Applecross, Sheildaig, Lochinver, Achmelvich, Tongue stick in the memory for good places to eat and stay. East coast is a bit of a burn down a busier road with less spectacular scenery so I'd be happy to skip it if doing it again, but no worse than most B roads near London tbh.

@laner did you ride south of of Skopje?

Anyone ridden south of Skopje? Wanted to get some infos.

Nah, i went west to mavrovo then into albania

Skopje

I was there last October. My memory is a bit hazy but happy to share what I can remember...

Just wondered how busy it is crossing through north south.
Also what the road heading south to the Greek border crossing at Doirani is like. Cab I ride on the A1/E75 or do I need to take the smaller road R1102.

Fair thabks anyway

Greek colleague says the E75 is a motorway