[Closed] Cairngorms Loop 300 in 40 hours

Very impresive hard ride. I drove through the Swow roads for the first time on Friday and was well impressed. I couldn't have done what who have.

Lovely write up. Inspirational. Quite a contrast with the Rules on that linked website which seem very joyless and strict....

If you can't police your own actions and abide by the rules 100%, please don’t ride and belittle the efforts of the honourable riders

I mean WTAF.?

Anyway, enough of the rules . Great trip, has given me something to aim for.

The rules are lifted from the likes of the Tour Divide and are common across most of the self-sufficient bikepacking ITTs. They recognise that external scrutiny is difficult or impossible and so rely on a system of trust. If you want to ride any of the routes, in whatever way you want, that's also cool.

I've been thinking of this one, on and off, for the past 4 or 5 years I guess. I'm the anxious prevaricating type though so not the sort to just jump in to it without a lot of preparation.

Nice little adventure right there Colin. Thanks for the link....enjoyed the photos :o)

Nice one Colin. The group starts in recent years seem to have made a habit of picking the worst weekends for weather.

I suppose the rules are simple to avoid people misunderstanding what's been written.

Great write up Colin... 3 weeks ago I was taking on the "Badger Divide" from Glasgow to Inverness...after 2 brutally wet and cold weather days we had to take the train from Corrour to Fort William. Your rides are fantastic!

3 weeks ago I was taking on the “Badger Divide” from Glasgow to Inverness…

Ohya!! A few places along there you don't want to be caught out either!

Nicely done Scotroutes, conditions were excellent at the weekend, always fancied that loop, good write up and some cool photos.
We cycled up Beinn a Bhuird via the Sneck on Saturday afternoon and were using our bikes as kites, hopefully you have recovered.

We cycled up Beinn a Bhuird via the Sneck on Saturday afternoon and were using our bikes as kites, hopefully you have recovered.

It was, indeed, windy. I assume you descended back to Quoich? At least gravity would have helped against the wind.

I was eating like a champ all day yesterday 😄

Good write up, and good effort.

Bonkers.

It took me three days to do half of that! Good effort.

Yeah, but I bet you spent more time in the pub than I did. 😄

nice one Colin!

Yeah, but I bet you spent more time in the pub than I did.

True. And two nights in a soft fluffy bed 🙂

@donald -- rematch some time soon? Put the Enduroooo boys to the test.

Nice write up, and cracking photos. We were riding in the Cairngorms too Saturday and Sunday. Blue skies but that southerly wind you mentioned was a killer when higher up.

Great effort, even one of those loops would be a two day trip for most folk.

Wow, just wow!

Nice little epic there from the man who knows all the good places. 🙂

I honestly think I would be found dead in a ditch attempting that.

Well done mate, superb stuff.

Good ride for an old bloke that. Well done.

LOL. At least I didn't use a bloody e-bike. 😂

what was the feet of climbing for this ?
sounds like a grand night out , maybe 2 -3 more hours sleep , and no Lager if i was even contemplating anything similar
trying to compare it to a south downs double
Great pics too.

There's 5300 metres of climbing (give or take) but a lot of the climbing on the inner loop is rough. The outer loop is generally more rideable apart from the "sting in the tail" when there's some pushing out of Glen Tilt.

As Bob suggests, it's not the total ascent that's the issue, it's the nature of the trails. The mountains here rise to over 4,000ft so the trails, sensibly, tend to go through rather than over. However the trails are very rough (remember we ride on "foot" paths up here) so progress is severely hampered. There are some sections of several km that it's not worth even trying to ride.

This is part of the inner loop.

[img] [/img]
[url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/druidh2000/48782793717/ ]P1060083[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/22384952@N02/ ]Colin Cadden[/url] - [url= https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.dariogf.flickr2BBcode ]Flickr2BBcode[/url]

It goes on like that as far as the horizon.

Having said that, the record for the route is around 19 hours. 😜

A different way to look at it is to follow the links on http://selfsupporteduk.net/ and you'll see that to have a time recorded following the ITT ruleset you have a time limit of 56hrs for the Cairngorm Loop but just 24hrs for the South Downs Double. That suggests (and is borne out by) that the conditions on the ground are less than ideal on the CL.

The picture of Colin's is just after the Fords of A'an and on the occasion I attempted it that section of trail was 6" deep in water. Yes, you probably could ride most of it if that was your day's objective but as just a couple of km in a 300km route you take the most energy efficient option.

7.5km an hour average , for 40hrs , with 16hrs 'stationary' .
I think even I could manage that , daylight, weather , midgets , flash floods permitting
SDD 23,000 ft give or take, so 7500mtrs, 320km , and no way could I get close to that.
Shame its 550miles away.

Midgets? I know you southerners have some odd habits but ... 😂

I've got a feeling it's a bit like comparing apples and pears. Most of the completions of the CL seem to be on the group starts which in recent years appear to have attracted some rather tasty conditions leading to "slow" times. But given that there's only been four riders* to get under 24hrs on the CL it does suggest it's a little harder than the simple distance/ascent figures would indicate.

Part of the problem in comparing is that the list of finishers for each ride is pretty small and with little crossover between the two. One of those sub24 four was Steve Heading in a time of 23hr38mins. He's also done the SDD in a time of 20hrs36mins. Alan Goldsmith is the only other person I can see that's done both. Not a big sample from which to make any definitive conclusions.

Only another three have got under 30 hours which I am surprised about. So Colin's 40hrs is a pretty good time IMO.

* That have put forward a time with corroborative evidence such as a Strava activity file and are listed on the website.

I think the phrase is... "if you think you're hard enough...."   😀

not disputing Colins time at all, or the effort / distance/ climbing / Hike a Bike aspect .
99% of the SDW is ridable and about 5% of it is tarmac. so, yes way easier than pushing 20kg of kit laden FS bike up a rock strewn path , which we simply do not have in sunny Hampshire/ Sussexestershire.
Plus there are taps every 8 -10 miles on the SDW so no need to carry more than a 750ml bottle . You simply half fill it, chug it down , refill to top, add your weapon of choice and off you go. No drinking peaty water through an iodine straw or any of that malarky.
Ridgeway Double would be my next choice , but on a gravel bike as its not technical and the gains outweigh the losses as lots of it would be 15+ mph

Water isn't really a problem on the CL. * There are so many rivers and small burns that you can just fill up as you go. I never use a filter or water treatment.

* except maybe when there is too much of it!