I’m hoping the dreghorn side stays like that for a little longer, i’ve still not cleaned it in 4-ish attempts (the really rough loose bit 2/3rds way up, i always b*gger it up).

Sorry Kit, i saw your post and abandoned work early in order to get out, but my girlfriend caught me before i got the mountainbike out of the cupboard :(

BUMP.

is anyone else planning on camping? Alternatively, has anyone booked into the bunkhosue, or is it all individual rooms at the hotel?

Is a normal bead more likely to burp on a UST rim? I’ve only just bought some UST rims and was planning to run non-ust ADvantages myself…

A pentlands thrash with the Edinburgh Uni mob, who showed me a brilliant trail i’d never seen before, despite suspecting its existence and actually going out to look for it.

In return i showed them some nice rooty city singeltrack near Mortonhall, although had a minor off getting cheeky over some off camber roots.

13th floor Elevators you say? 8)

If you like the elevators check out the Black Angels (current) who are a lot heavier but still show their influence on some tracks.

The Monks are fantastic, i saw a clip of them playing some really dirty distorted guitar, WAAAAY ahead of their time.

There’s a dude playing guitar at the bottom of middle meadow walk when i come home from work, he quite often pulls out some classic VU, always ellicits a generous offering!

Simple Moses, i work for Edinburgh Bicycle Co-op, and that was my annual dividend.

Not giving discounts to STWers really pays off in the long run! :D

DISCLAIMER! A) I no longer work for EBC and B) That was a joke.

Better join this party!

Me on the old bike

Me looking ‘money’

Me on the new bike looking puggered

I had a minor disaster with mine, while topping up my tyre pressure on a gentle ride with the girlfriend, i unscrewed it and it took the valve core with it, not too handy when you’re running tubeless!

Was resigned to a long walk home until i bumped into a mate who was out riding and lent me his.

Not knocking a good pump, just make sure your valve cores are actually tight!

Bruntsfield in Edinburgh to Leith Walk

Red and Black Cube racer with black Crumpler fakenger bag and hypnotic, lairy Kona jacket.

I meet lots of commuters in the morning but they’re all in such a hurry to jump lights or ride along the pavement i don’t really recognise any of them.

Where is all this happening? I don’t get to race anyone on my way to Bruntsfield from Leith in Edinburgh :( I saw someone on a Willier and thought i’d get a bit cocky and zip past him, but he turned off at the next lights, boo.

Although i do suspect i’m a bit of a ‘target’ for others, fully lycra’d up with a racer… I would try to overtake me.

Scuttler, exactly why i chose May, plus it seems the most predictably fair weather of the year too…

Tandemjeremy, I’ll email the file(s) across tonight, i’ve yet to experiment with emailing routes so it might take a bit of fiddling.

On reflection though, I think i’d rather not know which bits are horribly unrideable, unless there’s a good off-road alternative that i’ve missed!

Cheers Swello, lots of evenings on the web or poring over old hiking books have put my mind at ease about what to expect, and i think my route takes in all the best trails/sights on offer up there. I have the whole route on memory map though if you want to have a look at it, would certainly appreciate any comments!

Oh, and i’ll be taking hiking shoes for the hills, although Fionaven wasn’t on my list.

I meant to add that i’m quite prepared to go later in the summer if it meant meeting other folk along the way, May is just my favoured month.

All dates plus or minus a day or two! Although not enough to make the STW Glen Clova ride unfortunately…

2nd May – Glen Finnan to Glen More
3rd – Glen More to Bearnas bothy (near Achnashellach)
4th – Through Torridon to Craigs
5th – Craigs to the Foot of An Tealach
6th – Clikb An Tealach, ride to Corrieshalloch gorge
7th – Corrieshalloch to Stac Pollaidh
8th – Stac Pollaidh along the “Wee Mad Road of Sutherland”
9th – Walking Suilven and Canisp
10th – Suilven to Eas a Chual Aluinn – Kylesku – ardmore
11th – Ardmore – Cape Wrath – Kearvaig bothy
12th – Kearvaig Bothy – Glen Golly
13th – Glen Golly – Bein Laoghal
14th – bein Laoghal – Carbisdale
15th – Trails at Carbisdale (or just the train home)

TJ, I’ve seen/read enough about the Falls, am expecting a bit of scrambling here and there!

I did a similar loop on Saturday

Dunkeld – Blairgowrie – Kirkmichael – Pitlochry – Tummel Bridge – Aberfeldy – Scotstoun – Dunkeld

and it was one of the best road rides i’ve been on, great combination of scenery, climbs and descents. The descent into pitlochry on the Moulin road was a classic, i want to ride more corners like those!

I would quite like to come up on the train for this, did you mean sunday 15th, or saturday 14th?

Will/oggles, cat empire contribute the final track on ‘seasons’ and its brilliant!

I’m currently listening to the Black Angels, the Black Lips and Black Mountain. Its part co-incidence that they all share similar names, but also that they all play vaguely similar music! (Black Angels: Passover is one of the best albums i’ve bought in a long time, heavy droney rock music with big fat drums and a great psycadelic ambience, some good singing too if you ignore the run-of-the-mill vietnam/iraq lyrics)

Yep, then did it again having pushed the pistons back etc etc.

The inside pad has a little bit of piston showing, so there is room for adjustment, i just can’t persuade it to retract enough to stop rubbing, and the calliper is still a bit off centre…

Hmm, sounds like a nice day of bits’n’pieces Sanny!

In the name of bedding in my new (happy happy) Rebas maybe i’ll try this instead.

Kit, if you want an extra hanger on I’ll be in Dunkeld from 8:30, always enjoy meeting new riders!

thanks guys, i hate to dent my MTB credentials (if i had any :D ) but i’ve spotted an awfully tasty looking 80 mile road loop in the area, although riding from dunkeld to pitlochry and doing stuartie_c’s loop might be an option…

Haha, local history! Would be an interesting road to drive, some nice dips and rises…

If you’re up for a wee detour, you can climb up from the Loch Etive road via Achnaba farm. its a good trail, although muddy in bits and there are a couple of good water splashes, and you might want to speak to the people in the farmhouse in case their bull is up there!

http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/366099
http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/504238
http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/499205

Once you get to the top you’ll meet a big fireroad, turn left and climb, then right and continue climbing. Eventually you’ll see a wee rough track going left, which brings you on to the walkers track up Beinn Lora. From here turn right and you have a variety of options, all of which take you down (sharply!) to the village of Benderloch, from whence its a short cycle back to Connel Bridge.

if you keep your eyes open when descending you’ll see loads of wee tracks shooting off into the trees, the local guys are pretty handy on their bikes and have built some interesting lines, if you like steep and off camber anyway!

Hmm.. maybe we need to organise an STW crash meet, just for those of us who want to get the crash karma re-balanced…

The other route is a bit simpler to find and follow:

Cross the bridge, follow the road down to the loch, turn left and follow the road for 300m towards Oban, keeping your eyes open for a left turn just a the brow of the hill leaving Connel.

On the wee map its the little white road that runs almost parallel to the train track, on the northen side.

http://www.geograph.org.uk/browse.php?p=659305

Follow it all the way, keeping the train tracks to your left, then descend on the tarmac into Oban.

This is the ‘wilder’ of the two routes, and probably the boggier in patches. It was always fun when we rode it (a while ago…)

Cross the bridge, then turn left off the road into the old railway siding, and look for the sneaky little path between the hedges and behind the houses. This takes you onto the road that then descends to the shoreline again

Follow the shoreline and take the right turn to Achaleven, pass through the farm yard, turn right and follow the landie track to the lochs.

Follow close to the shore of the lochs, where the path turns to singletrack in places.

http://www.geograph.org.uk/browse.php?p=659302

It will turn back to landie track and take you to the ‘back road’ to Oban. turn left when you hit the tarmac, and follow signs to ‘rare breeds park’ and then descend to Oban

http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/398003
http://www.geograph.org.uk/browse.php?p=658404

its nothing spectacular, just a nice wee off road addition on the way to Oban. The ‘back road’ from Connel is infinitely preferrable to the main road.

I’m due one :?

I’m descending better than i ever have before, jumping roots, taking high lines into corners, getting ridiculously low over the bars on tight rooty corners, and generally having a bloody good time. But it can’t go on indefinitely…

Sounds great! count me in for drinking/riding/camping whatever. I’ll try my luck in a faster group, but will probably slow down for the descents (i treat my hardtail ‘hardcore’ but it sometimes objects…)

Would have preferred the april dates, as i’m hopefully off touring as of the 1st may.

Check these links, couple of good pictures and descriptions.

I’ve always wanted to ride those two, never worked it into a trip.

The descent out of lairig eilde looks a bit more ‘abrupt’ although still rideable.

The road down glen etive is pretty scenic, lots of impressive pools in the river.

The trail from the end of the road to Bonawe is pretty good, don’t be put off by the initially boggy and rocky bit, it turns into quite a rolling quad track, but you have to be quick on the gears as there’s lots of steep loose descents into stream crossings immediately followed by steep gravelly climbs.

From Bonawe to Connel there’s no real off-road route i know of, but there’s two quite entertaining routes from connel to oban, one a disused road which is now quite lumpy and loose, and the other a mixture of farm tracks and sheep track.

Cheers andy,

I’ll be climbing the same way you did, then descending into Glen Elchaig beside the falls.

Thats the potentially stupid bit as i’ve read (in my 1980-something Wainwright book) that the path is exposed, steep and eroded.

Nothing I shouldn’t be able to cope with in my hiking shoes at the very worst!

Cheers Druidh, Gleann Gaorsaic doesn’t show any trails, so i avoided it by taking the potentially more stupid trail up and over the Falls of Glomach :?

Even if its unrideable, i want to take in as many sights as possible on my way up, so if i have to walk bits i will!

For the OP, if you’re thinking trains and you’re in the Ft William area, a short and beautiful train journey would take you to Corrour station, from whence to head NW to loch treig, then SW to Blackwater reservoir, then take one of the many trails mentioned above down to kinlochleven, and back up to loch eilde mor, then on to Abhain Rath. From there you could go up and over to Lairig Leacach, before descending to Spean Bridge Train station to get you back into town. 50-60k of amazing mountain trails, with a cake stop in the middle at kinlochleven. I’m just waiting for spring to do this!

(you could also use trains from edinburgh or glasgow, if you’re prepared to get up early enough!)

Wahay, my Cape Wrath route for May passes through Glen Elchaig, might be worth downing rucsac and having a wee explore!

Please count me in for any big rides being planned, we could form a singletrack ‘dirty weekenders’ type thing :D

Carron bothy’s great, but there’s some bloody fikey people using it!

I swept, cleaned and chopped new firewood, but next time i passed through found comments directed at me complaining about how i “hadn’t troubled” myself to look after this wonderful resource blah blah blah.

bloody holiday homes :roll:

Sanny, what direction would you approach Beinn a Bhuird from? If i remember the area correctly, could you approach from Glen Slugain, go through Glen Quoich, up and over Beinn a Bhuird, and back down Glen Slugain?

That would be a cracking route!

Haha, I’d forgotten that offer!

I seem spoilt for choice up there, almost feel like just taking a bivvy bag in case i can’t get into a bothy, but i’d feel bad for not using the wonderful tent my folks bought me!

Sorry, didn’t see the other replies, screen grabbing seemed a bit laborious when my only graphics program is ‘paint’.

Thanks for the tip paulo, was going to go with PDF995 because i use it at work, but i guess they’re all good.

cheers!

Should just have emailed you direct druidh! 8)

I appreciated your past advice about digital mapping, plumped for memory map in the end because I had a gift voucher for Tisos, and was already familiar with it.

Have you spoken to the manager Calum on Rose St. Tisos? He’s the second biggest contibutor to Geograph, and was able to point out about three bothies on on leg of my route alone… useful guy to chat to!

I’ve got a set of Yeti ODI lock ons and they’re fantastic. The writing on them is made of really soft rubber, and if you ride bare handed it gives you really good purchase.

When i worked in a shop sellinbg specialized the single bolt lock-ons were the bane of my life, they would shift really easily, so you’d tighten them little by little until hey presto! the bolt stripped. Pain in the yikes…

The top of macdui is OK, large expanses of big, loose boulders that weren’t really rideable. Between the summit of Macdui and the ski centre is rideable for a section, but then turns into bouldery trials again.

I spoke to one of the guys at Bothy Bikes, he had a kona cowan full susser set up with a dual ring chainset and pikes, but had used it to do similar routes to the ones you’re talking about.

Also, if you’re prepared to go slightly further south, Cairn of Claise, just south of Braemar, is quite accessible, and the descent towards braemar is brilliant fun, in a sort of swooping, loose, rocky landrover track type way.

Also check out Fearnoch forest, on the way to Taynuilt. It used to be pretty dull, but a ‘scenic walk’ has been built that would be worth riding at least once, although its pretty short.

The good stuff around Oban is a bit scattered.

7 miles north is the village of Benderloch, and the hill there (Beinn Lora) is a very good climb (if you like that sort of thing) with some pretty good, handcrafted DH trails. Its more of a push up/session back down sort of place.

The forest in Barcaldine (Sutherland’s Grove) is basically a big fireroad loop, but some of the local guys (check out North Argyll Cycle Club) have built some really nice singletrack sections, very rooty and technical in places.

There are some great trails in the hills above the town, but I never actually lived in Oban so was only shown them a couple of times, Mark in Evo cycles, or Kevin (who owns a shop behind Hertz car rental) should both know the good ones.

I think singletrack magazine did a loop around the island of Kerrera, where there is also some good riding. Maybe you can download it?

Ahem, should just have phoned the Forestry Commission visitor centre in Arrochar in the first place…

3-4 inches but ‘very hazardous’ on the forest tracks for anyone who’s interested.