Touring Scotland

Ha, I love how balach na ba makes everything look flattish on the elevation when that couldn't be further from the truth, good route.

Haha yeah there's plenty of climbing. I had over 10,000 ft on day 3.

I remember the coastal route from Applecross to Shieldeig being particularly brutal!

Yeah constant up and down and I was unlucky enough to have a headwind for that bit, fortunately had a mate join me from Applecross to Torridon so he took a few turns. For me though the hardest bit was from Ullapool to Unapool.

Me and a few mates did near enough the reverse to you, we kind of cheated as well by car camping, had 4 of us, so 2 people cycle one day the other 2 break camp and set up camp whilst having a bit of touristy action at the same time, cracking trip!

Starting in Inverness, cut off the east coast entirely.

Day 1 - Inverness - Loch Hope (Near Durness)
Day 2 - Loch Hope - Lochinver
Day 3 - Lochinver - Laide
Day 4 - Laide - Applecross (along coast road) - Cycling through Torridon with a tail wind here was some of my favourite cycling I've done (pic)
Day 5 - Applecross - Applecross (loop)

Have the GPX files somewhere if interested

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Will do!

When you get through to Strathtay just look for a garden next to the red phone box that’s been destroyed by a puppy

Actully Saw a full ‘on here’ type on route 77 outside Balnagaurd today - fully bike packed, awful orange bowman style thing, but with a smile and BC cap though.

I'm just off the sleeper train from Fort William after an incredible 4 days touring in Scotland. Can't believe how lucky I was with the weather, lack of midges, and beauty of the Highlands.

I've been cycling in the area a few times before, and have friends living in Aberdeen and Glenelg so planned a route to include both of them, return to some favorite roads, and ride some new ones.

This was the route:

One of the many highlights was the road to Glenelg (Bealach Ratagain), which was hideous going up and beautiful coming down in almost equal measure; genuinely the most enjoyable descent I've ever ridden. I was a bit delirious from the heat and hills by that point though...

One gratuitous bike shot, on the north west corner of the Applecross peninsula.

Looks beautiful.

Looks amazing!

I remember climbing the old military road at Glenelg from the small Skye ferry (i.e the easy side...) in the heat it was brutal, and the descent was quite hairy too with twisty bits and loose gravel on the road... I then passed two old boys coming the other way and steaming up one of the hardest sections on a fucking tandem and realised that some people have an entirely different approach to the sport...

Tandems are faster than similarly specced single bikes! Better power/weight ratio, more aerodynamic, more even power output, etc.

this may be true but one party still has to spend the ride eyeballing their driver's sweating, gelatinous posterior up hill and through glen. I think Paul Kimmage wrote a book about it-called 'Rough Ride'

Downhill and on the flat, possibly. Uphill, definitely not.

I'm just off the sleeper train from Fort William after an incredible 4 days touring in Scotland. Can't believe how lucky I was with the weather, lack of midges, and beauty of the Highlands.

YOu and me both! lack of midges is due to May too.

@edscoble I'm a bit of an Instagram lurker so did see you had what looked like a great trip as well, did you venture off tarmac much?

I'd been eagerly watching the midge forecast, as I think it's getting very close to full on midge season, at least on the west coast. Yesterday after stocking up in Mallaig, I thought i'd venture on out of town before having breakfast only to find the air in Morar was thick with midges so was forced to suppress the hunger and climb over the hill out of the village and round to the beach which was completely midge free.

I could then enjoy my scotch themed breakfast.

@frankenbike I agree with @andyp ;I've done a lot of tandem riding with my girlfriend and on hills it's definitely slower. I can't even imagine trying to get up that Glenelg climb- I could hardly keep the bike straight with only one set of legs to coordinate.

I've never quite been able to correlate that experience with the points you raise about power/weight though, and can only put it down to the coordination of smoothly getting the power down and managing effort. Maybe a discussion for the tandem thread .

I've never quite been able to correlate that experience with the points you raise about power/weight though, and can only put it down to the coordination of smoothly getting the power down and managing effort.

I think almost by definition a similarly specced tandem must be faster:

• a tandem frame made of the same materials will be less than double the weight of two single frames
  
• two wheels (even 48 spokers) will be lighter than 4 wheels
  
• one groupset + extra cranks, chain and two chainrings will probably weigh less than two groupsets (though maybe not; chains are pretty heavy)
  
• no matter how good skilled a rider you are, two bikes can never be as aero as a tandem
  
• four wheels is less aero than two
  
• there is less rotating mass on a tandem
  
  

and so on.

Having said that, despite my efforts to persuade my friends, I personally have never ridden one and they're certainly nowhere near as popular as single bikes so perhaps they are lagging in terms of technology. Cervelo aren't making aero carbon tandem frames for example. And it obviously depends a lot on the riders. I am assuming two riders who are perfectly in sync which is obviously not really the case. If you both prefer different cadences then neither of you are going to be riding optimally which will slow you down compared to a solo bike.

Maybe in real life with amateur riders (I don't mean that as an insult) they're slower.

God that Glenelg climb looks hideous, I've only driven it, but I remember thinking how much 'fun' it would be to ride.

Glenelg Inn would make it worth it though...

Great route matey, looks cracking

I just want to add Morar sunset is one of the most beautiful sunset in the world.

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May was an amazing month up north, wasn’t it? I’ve been Cycle camping and touring most years since my teenage years up there and in the last few have begun to explore more off road routes. Partly because I have ridden near enough every tarmaced road north of Inverness several times now. And partly because the NC500 has brought much more motor traffic up there. Kinda takes away part of what makes it such a great place to ride. Last trip was a mixture of road and off. Test riding Raleigh’s 2018 incarnation of their gravel bike, Mustang Comp. Applecross, Torridon and Attadale. In bothies and tent. Would recommend heading off the beaten track if you can.

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Looks stunning. Missing the mountains here in Germany-flat as a pancake where I am :(

Not missing the midges though! Hearing they've been savage this year...

damn, this looks good....

what are your favourite rides around this part of the world? got any GPS routes?

The last picture is Attadale. They’ve just made the path up there wider and easier to ride. I used an OS map and my Satmap. No preloaded routes. Although that ride would look like this. https://ridewithgps.com/routes/27827198

You could do it from Inverness in a day. But I’m getting old and like to,take my time now! So break up my journeys with nice wild camps and so on. I think my favourite trips north have been my own take on an end to end, aDungeness to Durness, which ended up being nearly 2000 miles as I included tours of several Scottish islands on the way up. Hopped off the mainland on to Ardrossan, then Arran, Kintyre (peninsula not an island I know) Islay, back on mainland then Oban to Mull, then Tobermory to Kilchoan,up to Mallaig and on to Skye, after that back on to mainland and up to the north via all those peninsula roads that now make up the NC500. The Drumbeg road is one of my favourites. Running down the dunes into the sea at Clashnessie fully clothed on a baking hot day after that rollercoaster of a ride is one of my all time best days on the road. That whole road from Gairloch and detouring round Coigach through Achiltibuie,Althandhu, Inverkirkaig, Lochinver, Achmelvich (bit of a detour, Achmelvich) and then back to the main road for Kylesku, Scourie and ultimately Cape Wrath, well, one of the best tours Ive done.

My partner and I are thinking of a five-day thing this summer, most probably the last week of August. The western part of the country looks fantastic from reading the thread – though my chief concern became midges. We're also not really experienced bikepackers, so I'm keen on keeping the ride rather enjoyable.

Do you locals and veterans think it will be a concern at this time of year?

Midges are not a problem until you get a puncture or set up your tent. Merely never stop riding and you'll be fine.

Apparently it's a big year for cleggs/horse-flies actually, which I've never had the misfortune of experiencing :)

But seriously midges are not that bad, just avoid hanging around in damp swampy areas at sunrise/sunset when there's no wind. Go to the pub or something if you can. Smidge is the best repellent. Head nets are very effective.

oh man. Horseflies love chasing you for some reason, normally when you're going up hill and sweating profusely.

Their bites are really painful too-feels like someone pinching you then they swell up like a bitch-I got one on my arse a few years ago that made sitting down incredibly uncomfortable, much to my partners dismay when she came home to find me lying on the sofa with a pack of frozen peas balanced on my posterior...

I'd take a midge bite any day of the year!