Not wishing to divulge too mich at the moment, but does anyone have any photos of the "worst" hikey-bikey bits of the WHW – e.g. when they are having to carry, or push bikes over demanding terrain???

Oh – and are there any bits which really are better bypassed via roads?

Ta!

Dont have photo's of it but the section from Inversnaid hotel to about 3 miles south of Inverarnan is alomost all unrideable, Probably about 3 miles in total which is a hard slog when having to carry a bike. You can take the ferry from Inversnaid hotel to the main road at the other side of the loch but I thought that this would be cheating and I could only say I'd done the WHW if I stuck to the walking route as strictly as possible. Just allow extra time for the walk. You also have to carry most of the way up the Devil's staircase but its not too far and for some of the climb out of Kinlochleven. Conic hill is almost all rideable apart from some steps.

Search "Caledonian Challenge" in you tube and youll get plenty of videos. The event is a walk but it includes all the best bits of the highland way.

Like this?

Going up the hill from Glencoe before decending the Devils Staircase into Lochleven

Got some photos of the inversnaid stuff and conic from a couple weeks ago . My opinion is that i wouldnt bother again .its one to tick but nothing remotely special – many better places to be . Even the ridable stuff has no flow

Smuzzy – that's just the ticket.

Trail_Rat – that would be great. Anyone else have photos of the Lomondside and Conic Hill sections?

How about some of the gates/stiles/ladders which need lifted over?

What's that bit down by the river after Adlui like for riding? It used to be a horrid wee rooty path squeezed between the fence and the river.

What is this 'bypass' you speak of? It is what it is, the bad bit is all part of the challenge, you can talk about how truly bad it was for years and it will put hairs on your chest…

Tackled far worse tbh – at least there's a bloody path 😉 It's only bad in the context of having to knock in 96 miles including the shitbit.

Try the A82 Trail Rat – loads of 'flow' 😉

>How about some of the gates/stiles/ladders which need lifted over?<

Ah now they ARE bad.

There is a stretch of the WHW around killearn that (used to?) has a lot of gates on it that are awkward to negotiate with a bike. When the WHW was set up the landowner gave permission for the path on their land on the understanding it was walkers only – not bikes ( for what reason I don't know) This was a newly created path. So the gates were installed to allow walkers easy access but not bikes. Of course now the cyclist has clear access rights – and the landowner is annoyed.

heatherbash you state

Try the A82 Trail Rat – loads of 'flow'

then

How about some of the gates/stiles/ladders which need lifted over?<

Ah now they ARE bad.

do you think the two might be linked ? perhaps i like to ride my bike not have every mile punctuated by a gate/stile … yes its mtb and yes i knew they were there before i went , but you cannot begin to imagine how many their are till you ride it !

steeper than photo does justice – was like a ladder of rocks ! going down it !

one of the nice climbs – followed by a sweet descent into tyndrum

give me no path anyday over 100000000 gates !

Gates and rocky paths a problem? Butch up.

All looks pretty ridable to me, maybe except the gates and trail_rats first photo if it's an up. If these photos are being used to justify upgrades to the path, there's no wonder "MTB" trails are getting flattened everywhere and turned into roads.

🙄

Back 15 years ago we'd have been seeing it as a challenge, not as a problem. How depressing.

ha – so of all the thousands of miles of natural trails we have in scotland you`d reccomend riding the WHW – i guess if we all do that it keeps our good trails traffic free 😉

Who you talking to, rat?

its a down , and you didnt pay heed to my camera doesnt do it justice comment … feel free to go ride it , film it for youve been framed

anyone … heatherbash and mcmoonter seem to have a chip on their shoulder i aint saying its not ridable – im saying why ride it over any of our thousands of miles of good trails instead of the walking equivalent of the m6

I like my mountain biking experience to be just that. I dont expect, nor desire paved trails.

heatherbash and mcmoonter seem to have a chip on their shoulder

Checks shoulder for chips……

WHW around 1988 😀
Your point Trailrat?

Since no one actually knows why I'm asking the reason for the OP, I'll not rise to any bait about sanitisation of trails etc.

I like my mountain biking experience to be just that. I dont expect, nor desire paved trails.

me either – which is essentially what the WHW is becoming atm – so i guess my final advice is ride it once while its still a rocky dirt track for the experiance before it becomes a tarmac foot path – admit it its heading that way – when you look at old photos it looks much better than it does now , less weather proof though – not a bad thing but the ammount of traffic it recieves it would be ruined.

but its hardly a typical good scottish mtb trail ! glenfeshie , corriyarick , mt keen , fungle road.

as i said no path over that many gates , i dont mind gates but the WHW takes the piss on gate per mile count ! thought id been transported to england for a bit !

thats far better mcmoonter – thats got a reason to ride it !

Wade's roads were built between 1726-30. My first experiences of them were back in the 1970s, they were in pretty good shape then. The 'weather proofing' of them over the last twenty years or so have destroyed what should be considered national civil engineering monuments.

aye but not all WHW is wades road is it ? im too young to have ridden the WHW when it was still the original surface , but ive ridden many other sections of wades roads and most of them are good surfaces to ride on.

the WHW may have been a good place to ride back in the 70s ill give you that but as it stands today its not one of our better rides

I'm gonna ride Glasgow to Elgin via WHW and GGW. Not decided on the last leg route yet. 4 days in either Xmas hols (unlikely) or next May. Just because of the legacy and because it's there, not because I want nice riding and flowy trails. Keep posting the pics and accounts chaps, I'm taking it all in.

Druidh, are you putting together a proposal for a West Highland Cycleway?

Since no one actually knows why I'm asking the reason for the OP, I'll not rise to any bait about sanitisation of trails etc.

Nope, but its a fairly obvious assumption to make given the request 🙂

i am doing some of the whw in a couple of weeks.
from bridge of orchy area to fort bill.
is it shyte??

Ton, Ive done the WHW from Tyndrum to Fw a few times now and every time I love it. In my opinion there is enough variety of types of trail and gradient both up and down to keep it interesting. I get the train to Tyndrum on the Saturday morning and ride from there to Kinlochleven, stay overnight and then ride to FW the next day. A couple of times Ive went straight down Glencoe on the most amazing bit of singletrack, instead of over the Devils Staircase, and stayed at the Clachaig Inn, as its a nice place to be with a really good pub. Next morning I got a bike taxi back to the bottom of the Devil's staircase and rode over and then up to FW.

Id be doing it again this year but the Mrs is due in about 2 weeks so cant get away 🙁

The Rob Roy's Cave bit just north of Inversnaid.

Going up the hill from Glencoe before decending the Devils Staircase into Lochleven

That'll be climbing the devils staircase out of Glencoe, and then down toward Kinlochleven.

Sorry to be pedantic!.

Going up the hill from Glencoe before decending the Devils Staircase into Lochleven At least there you have the fun of a great descent to look forward to, probably the best bit of the WHW. The Loch Lomond stuff though is just rubbish.

I've done the Inversnaid section 3 times by bike. Didn't really take many photos on any occasion – just tried to concentrate on getting through as soon as possible!

These are the only 2 which show any of the hard bits:

IMG_4101 by allyharp, on Flickr

IMG_4108 by allyharp, on Flickr

Haha, great pics ally, both sum up that section perfectly! I reckon the riding either side of the Inversnaid section is some of the best on the Way.

I always get drawn into this argument despite myself, but I'd worry that comments like Trail_rat's (although entirely justified and borne out of genuine experience in the hills I accept) would put people off.

I've done a lot of stuff in the highlands, and still rate the Way highly, if only because its actually largely all rideable, and you can cover a big distance, see the sights and the people, and actually feel a real sense of achievement when you get to the end. Do it once at least if you haven't already.

Druidh, no photos of the difficult bits, apart from one of me riding (or at least attempting to) the Devil's Staircase, 90% of which will go I reckon… 8)

I actually consider the West Highland Way to be one of the most enjoyable rides I've done, which just shows the extent to which different people like different things.

As said before, if you are looking maximum technical trail per mile you'd be better fed elsewhere. But unless you're only ever going to ride Scotland once why rule it out?

For me, I like a ride to be as much about the 'experience' than the riding itself – including amongst other things the scenery, the company, the drinks after the ride, the discussion after returning home. In terms of achievement a multi-day ride from A-B beats riding all day in a circle hands down every time.

The scenery on the way is definitely amongst the best I've experienced in Scotland. And some of the riding is pretty good too – Conic Hill is good for a quick bit of fun; there are a lot of small rooty sections between Balmaha and Rowardennan; The descent to Kinlochleven after the Devil's Staircase is often talked about but I also enjoyed the lead up to it after the Kingshouse Hotel, and the final bit out of Rannoch moor.

In terms of gates there are quite a few between Milngavie and Drymen, but they don't seem to bother me. Mostly they're on sections of a perfectly flat well surfaced old railway path so I don't find they're interrupting anything that'd otherwise be fun.

Some good photos there – thanks

coffeeking – Member
> Since no one actually knows why I'm asking the reason for the OP,
> I'll not rise to any bait about sanitisation of trails etc.
Nope, but its a fairly obvious assumption to make given the request

Only for the feeble minded

Even the ridable stuff has no flow
The trail centre generation have a lot to learn. Mountain biking is more than just the path beneath your tyres.

Ho-ho, while I agree in theory Proteus, I wouldn't be classing Trail_rat as "the trail centre generation" he was racing the scottish DH series on some banged up Coyote when it was still considered acceptable to push up downhill courses 😀

druidh if you want a loan of my epic design frame bag and tank bag for your epic trip let me know,will fit most medium hardtail frames 😮

coastkid – thanks for the offer, but I'm not currently planning a cycle of the WHW…..However, I reserve the right to remind you of this offer in future 🙂

cool no probs 😮 im doing a best scottish beaches to cycle tour next summer starting at Machrihanish and ending at Seacliff… Mark will be selling a few of the new Salsa Mukluk fatbikes hopefully next year 😮

Aye – we were asking about Mukluk availability, but the UK importer didn't know what we were talking about.

You going the looong way round then? I could give you some suggestions.