So is it worth the trudge up the mule track, not for the views i might add, who has ridden doon the venomous one and lived to tell the tale, would you care to comment on how pleasurable the experience was, lived in those parts for a while, but never got the urge so to speak, bike technology has moved on a tad since, the thought of tackling those hienous rocks and big steps on a ridged with the proportions of a gate never really took off, not even for the bragging rights. But times have changed, is it all fun and games now?

I’ve ridden it twice now, in total our club’s tried it three times.

It’s good. Really good. We’ve done both the north and south sides and I personally preferred the south side tourist route.

Some facts-

1) It’s hard. Really hard. The motorway sections are fine but to bottom is the hardest thing I’ve ridden in the UK. It gave me a headache from concentration- the worst things are the water bars. It’s also incredibly good fun and there’s a real sense of achievement at the bottom. Some bits are also really fun technical trails which are fast- comparable to Ben Lomond, Carn Bhan Mor etc.

2) The climb is difficult but not so bad. I did it in carbon soled race shoes and it wasn’t the nicest but it’s built to walk.

3) It’s not all rideable. It’s not built to ride, so don’t expect to do it all. There’s only some small sections that aren’t doable.

4) It’s the one trail I’ve done that I’d say a full bouncer is a must. I did it on a 6″ bike and it was perfect, which is unusual- I always go into stuff on my 6″ bike assuming I’m overbiked unless it’s a DH track.

Having said that, my mate has done it on a 5.5″ forked hardtail and enjoyed it, but nowhere near as much as we did.

5) You’ll need to be a good technical rider.

We were actually up there on Saturday. It’s a good time of year to do it- you can’t really ride from the summit because of the snow but it’s a good ride all the same and there’s less walkers. I last did it at the end of April last year and it was much busier- we did it at the end of the day to try and avoid tourists on the way down.

Wow that is a pretty comprehensive thumbs up, nice pics too, looks very good indeed, so no mantraps as such then, just pumping my tyres up as we speak.

The hardest things are the waterbars, which are MASSIVE.

My mate up there on the 5 felt underbiked. He’s come top 150 in the Mega Avalanche, top 20 at the Student DH champs, beaten Chris Akrigg and Danny Mac on that bike. And the waterbars on the Ben scared him a bit on it.

Just don’t be silly, walk them if you have to, 95% of it is rideable. You’ll not get far above the Lochan just now. At the weekend we barely made it up to 1000m, but it’s still a good ride.

No worries looking for a window when the weather settles down, looks really excellent though, if i remember rightly there are some pretty big rocky stepped bits below half way, did you manage all these, but of course on the hike up you get to check what you think is doable or not. I have just the bike for this!.

I’ve only done it once, and that was on a rigid cannondale with cantis.
The rims had a film of ice on em, so the canti’s didn’t really work very well.
I remember that section above as not being very pleasant 🙂

I’m not planning on being the pinball wizard, i wish to ride it, not get the T shirt.

If you’re on about the steps below the Lochan, most are rideable but some are too big without hucking, and there’s no landing so that’s not really an option. So essentially, some of them you can’t ride.

Most of it you can though. The first bit warms you up for the rest of it quite nicely I found.

Bump…… there must be others, that have suffered for their art.

I have walked up it and can see no point in carrying a bike up to ride down a load of stone steps. Much better ways to spend you time and effort in my opinion.

Tandem that was my view back in the nineties but times change, untill recently i thought riding down Ben Lomond would be an exercise in pain, how wrong could i be, you sound like an old school wheels on the ground kind of guy, it’s all well and good checking out the scenery and that, but where is the challenge, remember back in the day we thought fire roads were core…gnaaarly!!??

Fergal – its nothing to do with changing times its to do with pleasure to pain. Hours climbing with a bike to ride a rocky stepped path? neither appeals to me. For the same effort there is much better riding IMO. If I want to ride steps there are plenty around that I don’t have to spend hours carrying my bike to get to

Other opinions are available

The way the weather here in the Fort is today you’d be better with a canoe than a bike.

Is it stepped like that pretty much all the way? I can’t really see the point either if so. Ben Lomond on the other hand…..

From what i remember above the halfway lochan the zig zags have a more natural feel to them, i’m not a great fan of humongous steps either,i was hoping it was more armoured than stepped, at a guess you might get a few thousand feet without them.

We’ve done both the north and south sides and I personally preferred the south side tourist route.

Which way do did you go for the north side?

From what i can gather the trail from the cic hut below the north face has a few fans, i’m guessing munrobiker means this.