Thanks for posting, nice area for a ride – have had a few great nights in Culra bothy too. Feel free to post more pics, I love seeing them!

Thanks, yes I’ve used the tracks beofre in various things like a C2C2C loop before, but was nice to link them up for a long two-dayer at faster speed!

Here’s the gpx for the people of the electronic age:

Far North CX Loop

Here we go:

Make big

The good thing about this route is it passes plenty of train stations at least! I’ll stick an image of the route up to help with visualisation and links to Endomondo or something for the GPX files?

Off for a on/off road bivi adventure this weekend, hopefully something like these:

Van Nicholas Amazon, love mine:

Nice to see the Amazons making an appearance here:

Tyres wise, I go for:

Smart Sam 35c for mixed rides with a fair amount of road.
Smart Sam 47c for proper offroad.
Marathon Winter 35c for the snowy wastelands.

The way down from Bynack More is fine, but the climb over the shoulder to the Fords is a pain – same as the climb from the Fords to the shoulder before Glen Derry. Nothing unmanageable though!

A few pictures on this thread:

Scroll down for Lairig an Laoigh bit

Another TomTom Multisport user here, mine is the cardio version. Works well and the automatic upload to multiple logging sites via bluetooth/phone is really good too.

I do all my commuting in these (Bought at sale price!):

Touring Shorts

Good fit, no flapping and have worn well over the last couple of years. Going back to typical MTB shorts is painful in comparison!

2-3 hours one way is a reasonable estimate. You could also make a loop of it by climbing over the hill from Camasunary to Kilmarie, then North through sometimes boggy Srath Mor, nice quiet road round the headland to Sconser and then back along to Sligachan.

I subscribed a few weeks back as I thought it was a decent deal and the app is exactly what I was hoping would be added. The app is pretty slick, works well and the offline download makes it a winner for me. Couple of questions/suggestions:

Does the app display in landscape on the iPhone? It would be useful when specifying map areas for download.

Would it be possible in future to download offline map areas according to a saved route you can select? If you could select the width of map download along either side of that route, it would be great!

Thanks for sharing – I’ll have to enjoy this at home later. I think you’re being a bit modest saying you haven’t really bikepacked though! For anyone who hasn’t read Alastair’s books, they are a couple of the best I’ve read:

Moods of Future Joys

Thunder and Sunshine

The coast road is nice and quiet, but you also have an offroad option out the back of Acharacle to the West. You can follow a track out to the Singing Sands (Which are worth the detour) and then over the hills, dropping down to Kilmory and then along the road to Kilchoan. Depends how offroadable the tandems are really!

Nice bike mister Are you completely happy with the DC19s? Mine seem to work fine but they always look worryingly weedy. VN are now doing their own carbon disk touring forks and I’m awfy tempted….

I know exactly what you mean, they’ve not missed a beat but I’ve never liked the look of them, especially compared to what has come out in the years since building it. I was considering the Lynskey touring ones but I’ll take a look the the VN’s if they’re as light as the DC19s. Just need to get a chip in them or something so I have an excuse…

Van Nicholas Amazon does all this well – I can get 47c tyres in it, which is very handy offroad and it’s great as a roadie too. Think of it as a Tripster with slightly more clearance…

Here’s a snowy one from a few weeks back:

We’ve got one for my wife to use, as she is a rural GP (Aberdeenshire) and has some interesting locations to do house visits in winter! We’ve got winter steel wheels which have seen some truly dodgy conditions and the car has always felt great to drive. The room inside is good for passengers, but you’ll only get one bike in the boot (Wheels off). with the seats down/removed, you’ll easy get a couple in. Fuel economy is pretty good, ours does over 50mpg on country roads. If it was our only car, I’d want something with more boot space, as we have a kid and bike trailer to carry too (Use the Mondeo estate for that)!

Great pictures, thanks for sharing! I was there that weekend too to run the duathlon – I think the lack of midges was probably due to most of them being attached to my legs…

Went on holiday in Canada a couple of years back and had booked a cheap hire car to drive across the country for a couple of weeks. They were out of stock in Vancouver and we ended up in this instead:

Might not be as authentic as the old ones but was great to drive and got a lot of attention – coming home to the Mondeo was a bit of a comedown!

Here’s a reasonable loop round the Cairngorms for two days:

A Cairngorm Loop

There’s links to the GPS trace route on endomondo further down the thread. You could easily make it three days by going down Glen Tilt instead of Glen Geldie on the first day, then going up to Aviemore over the Minigaig or Gaick Pass on the second. I can give you any details you need for the routes, as I’ve been round a few times!

Aye, we normally stay in Applecross every February and do the Bealach whilst we’re there – air clarity is great this time of year. Hopefully get some nice shots next week!

I’d normally have my wee Inov8 running pack with me so that my camera is handy in the waist pouch. I never really write kit lists as that would be far too organised, but for that trip in October it would have been:

Bar Bag
– Western Mountaineering sleeping bag
– Thermarest Neo Air pad
– Rab down vest

Saddle Bag
– DD Hammock
– Terra Nova lightweight tarp
– Small Ti mug
– mKettle and matches
– Mountain house dried meal sachets
– Random snacks from whatever shop I last visited
– Montane featherlite pants
– Spare tube, puncture kit and multi-tool

Backpack
– Softshell/waterproof jacket
– Woolly hat
– Lightweight fleece
– Sandwiches/lunch snacks
– Bottle of Irn Bru!

Top Tube pouch
– Phone
– Snacks
– Energy drink powder sachets
– Headtorch

I could do without the backpack at that time of year, but it’s handier for getting layers on and off on changeable days.

This gets me round two-dayers most of the year:

Great, thanks for sharing!

Thanks for that, it’s a trail I’ve been meaning to link into for a while – now’s where’s all the pictures? 😀

I’ve been riding this the last couple of years and it sounds like exactly what you’re after:

Van Nicholas Amazon

I specced a Kinesis Tripster ATR for a friend recently and that is a lovely bike too. There’s a lot more options for parts for disc-braked road bikes nowadays too.

I think panniers make more sense if you’re not taking anything huge. Decent ones with quick release are much easier to take into shops and fill, plus you’ll only have one thing to lock to the bike rack!

Pretty wet on my drive to the office:

Somewhere in between I’d say – they look like a smart pair of denims but the cut and stretch in the material makes them really comfortable, plus they do a long length which suits me.

Haven’t tried the Levis, but have a pair of Muxu denims from alwaysriding which are the comfiest jeans I’ve ever owned and would definitely recommend.

That’s a great trip and lovely pictures – thanks for sharing!

Either option is a good one – both have great scenery in their own way. I think I’d lean towards Glen Geldie as you get a lovely ride through Glen Feshie and the bits were you need to push are not that taxing in the direction you’re going – I’ve been through that way in winter snow with panniers in the dark! There’s a few pictures of Glen Tilt in the opposite direction here: A Cairngorm Loop

It feels more in the spirit of a mountain bike C2C to avoid too much road when you can!

Lairig an Laoigh:

Not really storming, more trudging past Stob Ban:

Ben Nevis Loop

Think this counts as a CX bike:

Aye, easily doable in a day – just fancied a night out in the wilds! Seat bag, bar bag and fuel tank jobby are from Bikepack:

bikepack.eu[/url]

Really good kit that has rendered my panniers redundant for these overnight trips.

Van Nics are ace.

Thanks for the write up, nothing beats a “Let’s go and do something daft” adventure in the middle of the night!