Friend had a plan, fly to Inverness, hire camper, ride laggan, ft William chair, torridon for 2 days. Plan slightly foiled by the fact that ft William is closed in oct…

Should we consider Glencoe chair instead of ft William? How do they compare?

Also considering Skye, Glen Tilt.

Should we go up to Golspie? Or circumnavigate Ben Nevis?

Thanks for any advice, we have 4 riding days and a camper van

Depends on how long you want to be driving vs riding for each day. Inverness – Laggan – Ft William/Glencoe – Torridon – Inverness could take you best part of 8hrs to drive around.

Do you have 4 days in total or extra for travel?

4 days total arrive weds eve fly out min am

Prefer not to spend too long on the road so torridon / Skye might be good combo?

Hmmm i would say 2 days at torridon and then 2 days at glencoe/kinlochleven. That would be ace.

Skye isn’t that great for riding and it’s quite far to get to Sligachan once you are over the bridge.

Hi Sambuka, that used to be my neck of the woods. Still ride up there whenever im visiting family etc.

Its not that far to drive from Inverness to Golspie. As trail centres go I think its a belter, and never busy.
The Golspie chip shop is very good 😉
If you go up there do 2 laps and take a drive down the road to Balblair trails and have a spin there too.

You can drive back via Dingwall over to Torridon for the best natural riding in the UK (probably)

There is a free but very basic camp site at torridon (no hookup) next to the YHA. A very good bar/food at Torridon hotel.

Great drive from there to Fort William or Laggan lots of natural riding in the area Ciaran path devils stair case etc.

Thats at the top of GlenCoe so close to the chair lift.
Now iv ridden the Fort will trails and DH track but from what iv heard Glencoe is very steep not sure if its open and iv never ridden it

Cut across to the A9 and back to Inverness.

Great stuff thanks

Any more opinions on Glencoe chair? We have trail bikes not DH…

No dramas for the local middle aged men on shonky bikes

[video]https://youtu.be/YJo-pKh4IiI[/video]

golspie’s good, but it’s not very big. up then straight down affair, if I remember right. It’s very good on the way down, but it’s over in a flash!

Torridon

Balblair

torridon

devils stair

case

I’d probably do a day at Golspie and Balblair. Next day at torridon. Down the road to aviemore/High Burneside. Could always stop at contin or the mast at Inverness en route. Finish off at Laggan.

Golspie-Balblair Day 1
Torridon Day 2
Glencoe Day 3
Laggan and Aviemore on day 4

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1EW6XAIxyw[/video]

Thanks all

Has Glencoe been improved over the past few years, how does it compare to ft William? I was most looking fwd to the red descent …

Any more Scots bikers have an opinion?

Glencoe ski centre has a downhill run and a red run, and not much else. There is a lot of riding elsewhere in Glencoe/Ballachulish/Kinlochleven but they are not at the same place as the chairlift. Nevis Range has the two gondola runs and then a good number of non-gondola trails all from the same place.

A good day out might be Glencoe chair, as many times as you fancy, then ride from there along the WHW, which would provide a lovely descent from the top of the Devils Staircase down to the pipeline, then straight down into Kinlochleven, or alternatively go along the conduit (easy), across the dam (naughty but nobody cares) and down the Ciaran Path. Then a taxi back to Glencoe Ski Centre.

Just my ham-fisted, butcher-not-surgeon rising style’s tuppence worth; Glencoe Red
Last year was ace, but mental rough. I was VERY glad I had the 180mm Freeride bike with me and not my trail bike, put it that way.

Haven’t done Kinlochleven yet, but heard only awesome things about it.

The Fort Bill Red (we did this th next day after Glencoe) was less rough, with a few big features to keep you awake but generally I felt a bit *overbooked on the same steed I’d had the day before at the Coe.

*Overbiked not booked.

Done Glen Tilt last weekend. I am more into XC as I love mountains. The Glen Tilt circuit was just plain boring. Views aren’t that great, riding is mainly on land rover tracks and quite strenuous for a beginner rider like me.

Finished Great Glen Way yesterday (took me two days, 8h 20min of riding). It’s a footpath and the initial part is just as boring, but I still managed to get more air time on an XC bike and a heavier rucksack…

Hard rain?