Folks, Ive been thinking about doing Ben Lomond can anyone tell me how long it takes to push up and is it worth it for the ride down?

Cheers

ben lomond blog

If your still up for it after reading the blog, im hosting a ride up it next month with glasgow meetup, join us

That’s a pretty fair writeup I’d say. Make sure you go at a time that will avoid most of the walkers though, it gets really busy.

will take a couple of hours to get up to the top as you do have to push a lot of the way but it is awesome on the way down. if you have a full sus then id be taking it with you.

i’m thinking about taking the dh bike… !?

i came down it on my 140mm travel Ti hardtail and my mate did it on his stumpjumper hardtail with 90mm travel so a DH bike might be overkill as you do have to push/carry it up there remember

have done it with my heckler and iron horse sunday and the sunday was more fun … but my arms were so tired from pushing / carrying up that it spoiled the fun a bit!

I reckon it would be great fun to ride a DH bike down it but it would be pretty knackering to get it up there. I was on my Pitch with Fox 36s on it and it seemed about right to me.

I reckon it would be great fun to ride a DH bike down it but it would be pretty knakering to get it up there. I was on my Pitch with Fox 36s on it and it seemed about right to me.

mmm.. this is what i was thinking….. Ive got an Intense tracer 6″ setup, which would probably be the more sensible option… but Ive got this hankering for taking the DH bike up there….

Dunno how fit you are, but I’d not been doing much biking/exercise for a while before doing it – don’t underestimate how knackering the descent can be too.

It is about 900m of vertical descent and the majority of it is pretty techy. Not many descents like that in the UK as far as I know. Doing that after dragging a bike up there first was pretty exhausting for me – it was well worth it though.

Craig’s blog is a very good guide to the Ben.

Very technical route indeed. Certainly way beyond any of the Stanes for sustained difficulty.

Did it last August on a perfect day. We were 3 1/2 hours to the top with only about a third of it at best being ridable.

The descent was the hardest ride i have ever done in terms of technicality, effort and length. It was brilliant !!

You can ride about 95% of the descent, providing you can manage blacks at trail centres. The only troublsome bits are some of the corners high up where they are very tight and some choke points between rocks.

But don’t let any of that put you off, it’s a blinding day out.

Stay off the front brake!

craig1975 I would like to join you as well. When are you plannig to do it?

Just to whet your appetite 🙂

When are you plannig to do it?

😆

We’re setting off at midnight on Friday the 17th of June aiming to witness the sunrise from the peak then descend after that. Big fry up breakfast then off to the pub.

Leszeks – you’ll find us at the glasgow meetup forum… all info etc is there

crackin pics grum…

here’s some i took when i walked it a couple of years ago

Great route but up and down a bit too short. Starting at Balmaha takes in the Loch trails which are great fun in themselves. I did a route guide a few issues back if you need any more info?

As for tech, it’s a mountain so you should take it as you find it. I love it, some folk less so. You pays your money…..

Have a look at the first half of this vid:

http://dirt.mpora.com/news/team-mtbcut-webisode-ben-lomond-south-africa.html

Looks fantastic!