You are mostly going around the decent trails 😉

On a more practical note it really depends what you are looking for, how much time you have and whether you are carrying tons of gear on your back / bike.

Nice though Golspie is, it certainly is not worth diverting 100 miles to. Similarly I wouldn’t be bothering with Laggan (unless of course you have bags of time to stop and soak up various trails along the way.)

Also starting at FW would be another no for me. Consider moving your start point NW to Shiel Bridge. If you are good technical riders /fit / travelling light / up for big days then there is the option of straight lining it through and or over the Gorms. Lairig an Laoigh might be a good compromise. Same applies to the section after Braemar – there are easy Munros to be bagged thereabouts. Deeside out to the coast becomes increasingly uninteresting / bit of anti climax. I’d personally focus on the middle chunk / get the last section out the way as quickly as possible.

Crockets?

Steve – sorry I’ve done a sh1tload of riding in the ‘Gorms and your post is really misleading.

For sure if you want to pedal around in circles in Abernethy,Rothiemurchus, Feshie/Inshriach and over in Invercauld / Ballochbuie then you will encounter locked gates / no styles etc but the vast majority of these are on unmarked logging tracks. The fact is if you are following the trails marked on the OS map then I really cannot think of anywhere you will encounter a problem.

Last problem I encountered was over in Rannoch about 2 years ago. Bloody great big locked gate, a deer fence style that was all but designed to make it impossible to lift bikes over and a very large ‘no bikes’ sign. This was on a forest road. I reported the landowner to the access officer @ P&KC and got the matter dealt with.

Bottom line the OP is not going to have any problems with gates and fences.

>everytime I’ve camped here previously others have been camping nearby.<

Would that be the ones a few 100 yds behind you subsidising your toilet trips?

>TJ – is it better going from Feshie to Tromie or other way?<

Far better stuff in the area. The estate road is like a motorway – warp speed down into Feshie but that’s about the only ‘attraction’ to it.

>Some great rides around the Caingorms, be prepared to climb deer fences if you do<

Nonsense – can’t immediately think of any of the main routes where that is necessary and I’ve done a few.

Pays to have plans A,B and C as weather is often a major factor.

>unusual to have a shower running straight off the hot water tank without a pump? Is there a pump that’s not switched on/broken?<

Nothing unusual about that at all.

If the shower is gravity fed off the hot water cylinder (and delivered via a thermostatic mixer valve)the pressure is dictated by the vertical head (differential in metres) from the cold water tank to the shower head. Try cleaning the hose and shower head obviously as that can make a huge difference. It may be the mixer valve is buggered and or leaking.

If the shower is electric then it will be mains fed so the only problem would be a blocked shower head and or a very low powered shower unit.

Nothing worse than a weak shower…

The Packraft is flat bottomed right? Surely it must be hell to paddle into any kind of head / crosswind?

I think you need plans A, B, C and D to get any kind of sensible use out of them in Scotland. What’s the additional weight amount to?

>so I’m sceptical. Would love to discover otherwise though.<

I can enlighten you – DO NOT EVEN THINK ABOUT IT!

The black dotted line itself (approaching from the East)peters out rather sharpish & becomes unrideable long before it ends on the map. A tussock bash from hell…

That track up from the causeway has had a lot of work done on it since I last tramped that way.

Yeah I’m sure they are – it’s more the consequences of a capsize with no wetsuit on etc. Guess you just need to chose your conditions carefully.

Shouldn’t knock it til I’ve tried it I guess but I don’t really fancy that thing at all in open water loaded with a bike in anything other than fairly benign conditions.

Evoc by far the best?

Best at doing garish 😉

Per my earlier remarks – over designed /heavier than they need to be.

4-5 hrs isn’t much of a day out 😉

Anyway to answer your question: Osprey, DaKine et al are all pretty bombproof but like someone above said totally over designed. Been there done that. For me its all about weight, where the weight (load) goes and how easy it is to get sh1t in and out of.

Been using this for a few years now – everything from 1hr bimbles to 10hr winter epics in the Highlands. I’ve even managed to cram in enough gear for multi days jobs:

http://www.inov-8.com/New/Global/Product-View-RacePro-18.html?L=26

Ultra light for its size (<600g)and surprisingly bombproof. The only downside I’ve found is the extra faff required to refill the bladder en route but that’s more than compensated by having the bladders weight in the right place. They do smaller and bigger sacs too…

>Cut the lid off an old bottle, insert a SIGG flask and tape around the joint – hey presto and you can now carry nearly a whole bottle of single malt in a bike bottle rack.<

I’m liking that more than the double hip flask option above. Strictly for bothy trips mind you 😉

Some weirdo above doesn’t like coffee? I’m outta this thread…

>i don’t see how drinking whisky on a ride is enjoyable<

It’s not a concept I struggle with. Get to the top of a hill on a cold winters night, pass a short nip around among friends, put the world to rights then back on the bike and continue you on your merry way. Much as folk have done for donkeys years.

why would you want to drink spirits on a bike ride?

Enjoyment? I know – it’s crazy…

>Is there a big 70s retro scene on the West Coast?<

Funny you should say that…

You’ve clearly never been in any of the Ullapool pubs when the Klondyke boats are in 😉

Rarely. I don’t keep mine on a 29er SS so I’m guessing that’s your problem right there.

Wouldn’t be concerning myself too much with all that – have you packed some Flares? 😉

Syntace

I buy the 3 chains up front & swap them regularly. With alu Chainrings I’ve found you can wear them down to almost stupid levels using this method. However if the middle and granny are steel the chains will start snapping and giving up the ghost long before the Chainrings are done.

S-M sums it up – particularly with the way currency exchange is at present.

The SS ISIS product is sh1t. Ran a higher end RF unit for years and found it pretty good.

I’ve not found HT2 to last a hell of a lot longer tbh.

Loco+1

….and they are Lyriks so yes, I’d change them.

Cannae beat a bit of DG:

Tooled to the max with kit and you eat tinned pasta? Bleurgh!

You kids need to learn to source some proper bushtucker for cooking round the old campfire.

Otherwise nice pics

>There’s more to life than mountain biking.<

Indeed there is.

However, I often think the same about visitor centres. Is it just the same demographic of itinerant cake hunter that wanders from one of these places to the next thus justifying the huge sums of money the FC and other Govt bodies somehow see it as their public duty to provide?

In my own area the Cooncil are (or were) embarked on a grand scheme to build a rather large VC in a rather modest Country Park. Right next door to a town almost overflowing with facilities… They also have extensive facilities on site already but the paths and bike trails are crumbling to bits and that’s where most of the locals would, in my view, prefer to see the money spent. I get all the stuff about >visitors / wider cross section of users I just think they are losing focus on what Parks and Forests should be all about.

£4.5M?

Wonder how much they’ll blow through the budget this time 😉

I wouldn’t worry about your cars btw just park up somewhere unobtrusive.

Loch Insh is a good call – phone them and see what they have to say re local camp spots. Kingussie karaoke can be interesting mind you, I’d be torn myself 😉

>Anyone have any up to date info?<

Rain / snow melt would need to be biblical to trouble you on that crossing. Seem to remember answering this question last year – do a search.

>specific fitting tool or can it be done with care and a vice etc?<

Yup, if you’ve got a good set of deep thin walled sockets there will be on ein there that will push it out (you need a bigger socket on the back of the eyelet to push it out through) Easily done with a bit of care and you can use the vice to pop the new one back in.

These wee tools are good though – I ended up buying one myself. The heavy duty mount kits usually extend the life of the bush.

>See I have gone to this with the road bike, after my hack fell apart I started using my carbon road bike over winter. It got mudguards and was cleaned carefully and throughly after each ride, doesn’t seem to have done it any harm. Maybe I should just adopt the same principle with my mtb?<

What is this “cleaning” you speak of?

Get out and ride man and stop fretting about your kit.

>Just a point, but the OP does know that the Mazda 6 is a Ford Mondeo underneath? Although I do believe after looking around that the engines may be unique?<

Correct – Mazda declined Fords offering and made their own.

Chassis is Mondeo iirc but nowt wrong with that.

Too ‘Brits abroad’ for me but hey lots of folk like going there for that very reason.

Chatel is quieter / more unspoiled / right next door to Switzerland.

Depends what you are looking for in a holiday – I doubt you’d be disappointed with either in terms of facilities / things to do.

Sorry I see you are comparing them against an A6 which is even bigger than the other two. They are a notch up though I would have thought but no experience of them so can’t really comment.

I’ve owned all three (estates): Audi A4 Quattro 140bhp. Passat 140bhp sport and Mazda 6 185bhp sport. The Audi and Passat have higher quality interior trim / better seats but the Mazda was far more fun to drive, more reliable, more practical (to flip the rear seats)and far more kit for the money. The A4 is also quite a bit smaller (in real terms) than the other two.

Agree with Naish and Hamilton.

Skiing? How about Hermann Maier aka “The Herminator” Legend before he almost lost both legs in a car crash but he came back from horrendous injuries to be crowned World Champ.

>Any of you lot use electricity?<

Not as black and white as that.

As someone alluded to up there, these landowners are subjected to virtually zero planning control. There are dozens of new tracks being bulldozed every year for all manner of “reasons.”

More here:

http://hilltrackscampaign.org.uk/index20.htm

>Am I going to be pushing through miles of bogs?<

Err no but there’s some cold weather on it’s way:

http://www.mwis.org.uk/synoptic.php

A week’s a long time out – just keep checking the mwis website by area.

If you are aiming high the climbing and hillwalking sites are a good source for recent trip reports – better than asking on here tbh.