@ta11pau1 (sorry to direct this straight at you, but saw you were up there recently – any others please comment too)

Thinking of riding this with a pal or 2 this weekend (weather looks better on Sunday) – would you mind sharing your route?

Looks like a lot of folks go straight out the red ‘DH’ and back down the same trail (from trail forks), is this what you did? I guess you could call it up and back the west flanks of the hill.

Interested in that approach, Vs full clockwise or anti-clockwise ride.

Guidance appreciated, many thanks folks

Looks like a lot of folks go straight out the red ‘DH’ and back down the same trail (from trail forks), is this what you did? I guess you could call it up and back the west flanks of the hill.

Yep, that’s exactly what I did – it’s still a decent push/ride up once you get onto the singletrack:

Total time was 4hr 13m, the full round anti clockwise loop is a ‘proper’ full day out and imo not worth it.

You’ve got a good few km of fire road before you get to the good bit, do not whatever you do take the turn off to singletrack part way through this, next to the newly built fireroad section – it’s a temporary detour which will have you clambering over rocks/through bogs etc, just stick to the main fire roads until you cross the river and the fire road turns into singletrack in the trees.

Mctrail rider did the full loop, took him 7hrs 38m total time. Nah, sod that! He even says just do the out and back on his video.

https://www.trailforks.com/ridelog/view/16335277/

You’ll get the benefit of seeing what you’ll be riding coming back down too, it’s all 100% ridable, there’s nothing steep tbh apart from one tiny switchback. When you get to the top and the crag and loch view, the actual summit is a decent way further on, and being a Cairngorm summit it’s pretty flat and boring at the top.

Take some warm stuff, gloves/coat etc, the temperature went from 22 degrees to 6 degrees and with the wind it was blummin cold at the top!

Cracking descent though, but over too quickly even for me – 2hrs to push up and 26 mins to ride down 🤣

Hey. Looks like I made some comprehensive notes on strava when I did it last summer… (clockwise)

https://strava.app.link/n8ekpzjwXrb

as follows:
Beinn a Bhuird evening ride as it has finally stopped raining for 4 hours…

Rode about half of An Diolland ascent. Could probably ride 98% if you had the need. Looks phenomenal as a descent. Shallow gradient kitty litter with amenable water bars.
Chleirich to Sneck was unrideable steep.
Sneck south was a bit pants. Very eroded ditches with mech eating rocks and rim eating waterbars. Very frustrating wide w shaped ones.
Some pleasant sections of flat kitty litter around Gairn/Quioch confluence.
High route above Geann Slugain was rocky and wide. Quite good. Path through the gorge looked better but can’t be sure. Possible ditch hell.
Next time just do the Diollaid as a there and back

46km
4 hours moving and just under 5 hours total.

and just in case you have any lingering doubts about your decision, I’ve dredged out a picture of the eroded ditches that I refer to above…

Yuk

Superb stuff, thanks both!

Have done it both ways, the out and back saves a lot of time, a quick blast by Cairngorm standards. The longer loop is worthwhile if you add on Ben Avon imho.

Cheers Fergal, will see how the weather looks and make a call about length of day.

Just noticed the autocorrect on teh thread title – reads like a Frank Macavenie quote now!

So we did it on Saturday. We chatted with maps long and hard on Thursday evening about doing the anti-clockwise and taking in Ben Avon as well, but my 2 riding buddies have walked it before and we’re not keen, so we stuck to an out and back on Beinn a’Bhuird only.

Holy shitballs, what a ride. Truly epic. is that the longest Singletrack descent in the UK? It’s massive!

Thoroughly enjoyed it, weather was great, warm, only enough wind to keep the clegs at bay at the top. Fords were shallow and rideable with a good ‘hit it with speed’ mentality.

Slight issue was that my freehub shat itself (a consistent theme for my bikes! But unusually with absolutely no pre warning over the last few weeks) just as the Singletrack climb flattens out. Initially the pedals just span freely in either direction, then various broken bits conspired to turn it into a fixie. That 2km each way of almost plateau on the way up to the top and back was **** brutal as a fixie. Brutal!

Decided to take the chain off on the way back instead, and ‘runner bike’ or jog the flat bits on the fire road back to Linn of Quoioch. Just let the free hub/hub eat themselves. Quite impressive! No pawls or ratchet teeth left, just a grey paste 😆

I also fell, quite high up, going far too fast on a loose corner, of course no knee or elbow pads. And, of course again, I pinch flatted my rear on one water bar that I just judged a wee bit wrong. Fud! Minion SS at not that high pressure we suspected was not a great choice at the start of the ride. Correct!

Last pic is me washing the blood and granite chips from my left knee and elbow at the Devil’s punch bowl, before patching myself up for the rather lovely drive back through Glenshee.

What a ride, thanks for the tips you wonderful people. 👍

Is that the solid axle that shat itself or the std one?….

Looks an epic ride!

LOLs @mick_r – I did think about tagging you :-). No, not the solid axle on the 29+ hardtail, i took the Pole which has hunt wheels. The body of the freehub itself has a habit of failing. This was the second one that Hunt have replaced, previously i caught the creaking on a couple of rides. Took the freehub off to find the area around one of the pawls had disintegrated.

This time there was no point in looking, but i guess the same thing happened – and then the 25minute descent did the grinding thing. oops!

Jolly good. Have you ever considered fixed wheel?

Do Shimano do a hub to go with their more durable ebike stuff?

I remember doing that run 33 years ago on my Chas Roberts White Spider with XT thumbshifers, canti brakes , no suspension whatsoever and 1.95 knobbly tyre on front and a Specialized ground control on the rear
My forearms were shot at the end of the run and not another sole to be seen that day other than at the Linn of Dee carpark

I can only imagine the grip strength needed to control speed with cantis on a descent that long. Yikes! 😳😬😎