I thought I’d posted this earlier, but can’t seem to find the thread so it obviously didn’t work.

I’m picking up a demo bike from Deviate next weekend and will more than likely be riding Dunkeld (or somewhere that direction) on Sunday and Monday.

I’ll be riding alone and don’t know the area. If anyone is in the area and would let me tag along it would be greatly appreciated.

Mid pack masters rider. Less fit than I should be at the moment.

Might be a daft one, but if you’re picking it up from i guess Stirling, is it worth maybe going to somewhere like Comrie Croft with the bike, bit easier to follow the routes and closer?

I wish I could join you Mark. I love the riding in Dunkeld and a mate was given a Claymore to test and was raving about it.
I’d have had a rip on it but it was two sizes too small for me so pretty pointless.

If you’re unsure where to ride you could do worse than head to Pitlochry.
Brilliant range of trails and really easy to lap as it’s all off one fireroad.

@singlespeedstu the plan is to head to the Golfie on Saturday if you’re about?

@argee It’s main use would be enduro style trails, so I’d want to test it on that sort of terrain. And Dunkeld has been on my list for a while so seems like a good opportunity to ride there.

Comrie has a fair bit of enduro style stuff, have a check on youtube, take it you’re meaning Craigvinean forest trails, this time of year i’d prefer the forest to the open trails across the way 😁

I’ll be riding alone and don’t know the area.

TBH I spent a long weekend there, I just subscribed to TrailForks and followed my nose.

Hopefully you’ll get some response, but …

I did this route with @LD last March. It was great. I’m sure you can find some gnarlier stuff to add on.https://strava.app.link/3N17bqR8Owb
Andy himself may be around, though he seems to spend most of his life snowboarding at glencoe these days 🙂 and why not.. 🙂

Snippet summary of Dunkeld from LD below, which should be useful to get a feeling for the area along with trailforks.

spacey Dunkeld is an amazing location with 4 entirely different hills.
Birnam Hill has a great wee warm up area around Electric Beaver and Dougs and Dan’s. Fun mellow built trails. 15minute laps. Then head up to top for Rake and Ruin or Pink Floyd. R and R probably best red in the country IMHO and pretty weatherproof. Pink Floyd also good but trickier in the wet.
Craigvinnean is great but steep technical and hard in the wet, takes a long time to dry! Classic runs are Cairn to Cottage which is hard (and a mission to get to) but OK in wet. Or Commit cry into bambis facts and 9.8, defo more fun in the dry. DH area and life insurance etc are proper serious but great if you like steep rock features. Further up towards Dalguise there are some newer runs which are good fun and some proper long trail sequences.
Atholl Hill goes from the sublime (Yer maw area, twas dugs, cave pass) to the ridiculous (precious, rock hudson). Lots of loam, roots and just the right amount of rock. Probably my favourite Hill. Also worth heading up to Loch Ordie for a bimble/picnic and the wee trails up that way are remarkably good and less travelled.
The Mast is steep, pretty techy with rock and root drops a plenty. OK in the wet. The climb straight from the bottom is brutal, better to go up from Town.
Parking/starting lots of folk use the Station and there is a great food van there now. Can also park in town or at Hermitage. Lots of good cafe/deli type places in Dunkeld and Birnam including a bake off winner! There’s a lovely wee garden to sit and eat in by the bike shop off the main St.
Several days or weeks of fun to be had. Great to either stuck to one hill for the day or try a four corners challenge. When moving between areas use Riverside where possible, its lovely. Also a wee xc gem between bottom of R and R and back to the station.
Enjoy when you get there.

Only other thing I’d say is that if you fancy it, Ben Vrackie is excellent. First half is mellow and mostly rideable and the top part is insanely steep. Might be good to get a feel for the bike on gnadge.

<Edit to say that it’s probably covered in snow at present 🙄. And to note, in response to the point below, that although there were almost no ramblers when I did it, that was midweek>

@mark88
Yes mate we should be about.
We’ll be riding with mates but you’re welcome to join us if we head over Golfie.
Just WhatsApp me or something.
Edit
Oh and don’t waste your time doing Pink Floyd or any of the Electric Beaver stuff at Dunkeld it’s shit.

Only other thing I’d say is that if you fancy it, Ben Vrackie is excellent. First half is mellow and mostly rideable and the top part is insanely steep. Might be good to get a feel for the bike on gnadge.

An awful lot of walkers too, avoid IMO.

Pretty much all as above. On a Claymore I would be riding Rake and Ruin and the Mast, maybe something on Atholl Hill. I don’t go into Craigvinean in winter, the mud/rock/root combination is horrible. Much prefer the loamy stuff on the other side.
I test rode the Claymore in November and one of my issues with it was I kept losing the back end, up and down, so look out for the slippy stuff. It did excel on rock though! Vrackie would suit it well but top section likely to be snowy I think.
May be out riding on Sunday but unlikely tbh, I’ll get in touch if I am.

Thanks for the responses all. Annoyingly I’ve not been able to book the required time off work, so the demo is on hold for now.

No need to demo the bike – just buy it 🙂