I rode fixed 47/20 (63″) on 40mm tyres with one v brake (front) + bar-bag + rucksack.
Prepped hard but still had reservations whether the bikes would make it & whether we would make it. We don’t ride that much, Jenny’s bike is >10 years old, the luggage might shake loose/eject and we might get a catastrophic mechanical in wild Scotland.
Don’t jettison anything vital, don’t carry anything that isn’t Massive lock jettisoned (used Rachel’s skinny one once). Didn’t need disc pads but another set of v brakes woulda been good. Chain lubed daily also restrained Rachael’s broken spoke with zip-ties. Ditched chain tool but will look out for a travel one. Took 3 spare tubes each but none of us punctured – i erred on higher pressures to avoid snake-bites1st class, darling – blagged extra G&T because of their GF provision fail. Then easy 10 min ride in the rain to YHA Inverness.
Day 1 Inverness – Fort Augustus
Our start pic as we couldn’t be bothered to look for the castle (excited to start after good breaky in XOKO)Bonnie views leaving Inbhir NisSo far so good1st views of Loch Ness after some very pleasant woodland riding Massive sweet chestnut tree in Drumnadrochit (bike for scale)The weather arrived eventuallyI had googled food/shop options in Fort Augustus but arriving at Morag’s wet and a bit cold we had zero hunter/gatherer intentions, so imbibed sports recovery drinks and dined in Morag’s bar – recommend.According to my watch anyways but my planned route was this GPX (i made these gpx files from copying across someone’s route off komoot – it was virtually the same as Rachael’s but I’m not claiming it is the official route)
Day 2 Fort Augustus – Loch Ossian
Pushing up the Corrieyairack Pass…which was moist in placesQuaint/atmospheric snack stop out of the elements – there is one of these at either end of the passThe ride down the other side was loose rubbley funLunch stop after a long tarmac blastLochan Hearba (Adverikie Wall Classic Rock route on the other side)Windblown sand over our trackApproaching Loch Ossian Youth Hostel Arrived to find our booking wasn’t recorded… but they had beds so after showers we tucked into dehydrated chicken tikka and rice puddingGPX
Day 3 Loch Ossian – Killin
Obligatory breakfast stop at Corrour Station House – perfect start to the dayLoved this oil of The Hermit of Loch Treig on their wall – just ordered his bookBack towards the loch before the climb to Peter’s RockLong shot of the hostel with the disco tent foregroundGPX of my planned route
Day 4 Killin – Milngavie
We stayed out of Killin and used this dismantled railway to rejoin the route (my planned GPX here)… looks like i didn’t really take any pics todayStayed at The Attic at Edenmill bunkhouse outside Milngavie leaving us about 20km to do in the morning
Day 4 and a bit: Milngavie – Kelvingrove Art Gallery & Museum
Rachael, Jenny, Louis at Badger’s End
What we learned:
Nav: having the gpx (me on outdoor active, Rachael on Wahoo) made relocation quick but i had used 1:50,000 paper maps for the Pennine Way bikepack which made decision-making much easier – moving around a small screen, zooming in & out was very time consuming and faffy, so paper maps worth considering.
Accomm: book early (months ahead), particularly Morag’s & Loch Ossian as we had to shift from May to Sep to get availability.
Bike & kit: go with what you have as i don’t think it matters – we had a new hard-tail, an old entry level mtb and a fixed wheel track bike (with 40mm Schwalbe G One Allround perfect). Between us we had a bar-bag & rucksack combo; Wildcat bikepacking & Aiguille framepack; and rear rack/panniers and they all worked fine.
Clothing: we found light Paramo jackets comfortable for gash weather or as a belay jacket/disaster layer; neoprene overshoes, various gloves and i also used a lightweight running shell jacket and a Pertex Windproof.
louis hume 