Looking forward to seeing the full route and doing it or chunks of it in 2025. Thanks for all your hard work creating it. A lot of these places are very familiar but linking them all up 😊
Simon, congratulations on wrapping up what has obviously been a long project for you. It looks fantastic! Speaking for myself this route goes through exactly the areas that I would like to visit should I ever return to a Scotland for a bike trip and for all I know, that maybe very soon. You know you have done well when cyclists who have just been to Scotland for a bike tour want to go back and do your new route. Well done.
Happy New Year Simon. The route looks amazing. Congratulations as it looks like you’ve put a lot of hard work into its development. I look forward to riding it one day.
Fantastic. Happy to see you get it done. I’ve been watching all your videos leading up to this. My wife and I have been planning a Scotland gravel ride for 2025 and we have been waiting to see what you have come up with. Nice work.
Well done Simon! This a fantastic curated route that winds its way through many special and underrated areas of Scotland. Having cycled practically everywhere in Scotland, including to every inhabited island and all over the mainland, it’s great to see some gems appear in your overall route choice. Some of my own personal highlights would be (in no particular order) for anyone who hasn’t cycled the route: Glenfinnan - Strontian (superb Loch Shiel scenery followed by one of the best climbs in Scotland, the descent isn’t half bad too!) Islay & Jura - great to include both which are very different, amazing coastal scenery and the wee SW loop on Islay is a gem. Ardnamurchan - often overlooked (not by you) maybe I’m biased as my grandparents had a croft in Kilchoan when I was growing up but the peninsula is fantastic for cycling. Glen Lyon - Loch Rannoch - the whole section from Auch is very good but the big climb out of Glen Lyon followed by the mostly wooded descent is spectacular. I always end up going faster down that descent than I intend to 😊 Glen Orchy - when the sun is out, it’s a wonderful location to be riding a bike. The beauty about this curated route is that it offers a great starter route to add in variations that a little research and local knowledge can provide: Some added suggestions for anyone looking at this route: - Sanna Bay - leave enough time and energy to do the out and back to Sanna Bay before or after Ardnamurchan Point. A lovely ride with a superb beach at the end offering great views to Rum and Eigg. - Machir Bay and Ardnave Point, Islay - The SW of Islay is a lovely loop. At the N end of the W coast road out of Portnahaven you can leave it along a track that splits with one track heading up to a mobile mast and the other descending down beside a rocky cliff towards Machir Bay and then on to the dunes, most of which is rideable (briefly, the sand can have other ideas!) until you rejoin tarmac at Kilchoman. Ardnave Point is an out and back, initially along a singletrack road and finally this turns into a rough gravel track all the way past the farm to reach the amazing dunes and beach on the NW side of the peninsula, one of the best beaches in Scotland, outside of the Outer Hebrides. Isle of Mull - the curated route is great however if you have a little more time and energy the west coast road in Mull is incredible, similar in many ways to Assynt in the NW, the road is either going up or down, there’s very little in between but the scenery more than makes up for the effort. If you are very lucky try to time it to cycle the section south to north between Loch Scridain over to Loch Na Keal on a sunny evening. The descent down into Loch Na Keal as the sun is going down combined with the 5 km section under the cliffs where the road is pinned to the very edge of the landscape is the best road cycling section in Scotland in my view. Peerless. One tip I’d offer anyone wanting to try multi day bikepacking adventures is to make sure you are not left under geared. When the bike is laden and tiredness creeps in, it’s great to have a really easy gear to be able to keep spinning on the bike and not have to push. For off road routes this easiest gear should be much less than 1:1 for most people. I meet cyclists every year where they simply have not got the right gearing for their fitness and amount they are carrying. Worth considering before setting off. My mindset is to ensure I have gearing that allows me to ride a 20% gravel climb on a laden bike after 5 days of riding rather than my easiest gear being set up for a day ride without bags. There's quite a difference between the two.
I wholeheartedly agree with the wisdom of your final sentence. I've ridden with a number of people who have scoffed at my very low-geared Rohloff-equipped steel adventure horse at the start of a cycle tour. When we hit ascents like the windy Lecht, however, they were no longer laughing, as their over-geared carbon thoroughbreds ran out of "puff". ;-)
This is a great comment. Thanks for all the tips. I love this area, as it is so accessible from Glasgow by various forms of public transport which allows for lots of route flexibility
Happy New Year, Simon, and congratulations on this tremendous achievement, that will outlast all of us. I doubt I'd be able to ride the whole thing in a one-er, but I look forward to looking through the details and maybe riding sections of it separately.
A few months ago I started plotting a gravel route that would have been an approximately 300 miles version of this route, with Oban being the starting and most southerly point. Then you posted the pilot video for this series and I started pinching some of your route ideas due to you having actually ridden them recently, compared to my route using memories from full-suss MTB-ing in that area over twenty years ago! I'm so very much looking forward to doing your route next year, and thanks very much Simon for taking the OS late night browsing duties from me 😄😅 Cheers 🙂👍
Can’t wait to do this Simon 🙌 Fantastic! Looking forward to it thank you and kudos for putting it all together. Happy healthy 2025 to yourself and Liz 🙏😎
Hoping to do some, or all, of this in 2025, thanks for the all the work to get this together. BTW, there seems to be an issue with the route links on the website, the Ride with GPS (full route) wont load (says “maybe private or removed). Also both of the “in sections” links seem to take me to Komoot. Neither problem is going to stop me pouring over the route and planning 2025 😀
Brilliant Simon, thanks for the hard work. One of our favourite areas. Will look forward to doing this, probably in chunks.
Looking forward to seeing the full route and doing it or chunks of it in 2025. Thanks for all your hard work creating it. A lot of these places are very familiar but linking them all up 😊
Simon, congratulations on wrapping up what has obviously been a long project for you. It looks fantastic! Speaking for myself this route goes through exactly the areas that I would like to visit should I ever return to a Scotland for a bike trip and for all I know, that maybe very soon.
You know you have done well when cyclists who have just been to Scotland for a bike tour want to go back and do your new route. Well done.
Happy New Year Simon. The route looks amazing. Congratulations as it looks like you’ve put a lot of hard work into its development. I look forward to riding it one day.
Fantastic. Happy to see you get it done. I’ve been watching all your videos leading up to this. My wife and I have been planning a Scotland gravel ride for 2025 and we have been waiting to see what you have come up with. Nice work.
Great work, it's on my list now. Thanks for all your hard work.
Much awesomeness!
Well done Simon! This a fantastic curated route that winds its way through many special and underrated areas of Scotland. Having cycled practically everywhere in Scotland, including to every inhabited island and all over the mainland, it’s great to see some gems appear in your overall route choice.
Some of my own personal highlights would be (in no particular order) for anyone who hasn’t cycled the route:
Glenfinnan - Strontian (superb Loch Shiel scenery followed by one of the best climbs in Scotland, the descent isn’t half bad too!)
Islay & Jura - great to include both which are very different, amazing coastal scenery and the wee SW loop on Islay is a gem.
Ardnamurchan - often overlooked (not by you) maybe I’m biased as my grandparents had a croft in Kilchoan when I was growing up but the peninsula is fantastic for cycling.
Glen Lyon - Loch Rannoch - the whole section from Auch is very good but the big climb out of Glen Lyon followed by the mostly wooded descent is spectacular. I always end up going faster down that descent than I intend to 😊
Glen Orchy - when the sun is out, it’s a wonderful location to be riding a bike.
The beauty about this curated route is that it offers a great starter route to add in variations that a little research and local knowledge can provide:
Some added suggestions for anyone looking at this route:
- Sanna Bay - leave enough time and energy to do the out and back to Sanna Bay before or after Ardnamurchan Point. A lovely ride with a superb beach at the end offering great views to Rum and Eigg.
- Machir Bay and Ardnave Point, Islay - The SW of Islay is a lovely loop. At the N end of the W coast road out of Portnahaven you can leave it along a track that splits with one track heading up to a mobile mast and the other descending down beside a rocky cliff towards Machir Bay and then on to the dunes, most of which is rideable (briefly, the sand can have other ideas!) until you rejoin tarmac at Kilchoman.
Ardnave Point is an out and back, initially along a singletrack road and finally this turns into a rough gravel track all the way past the farm to reach the amazing dunes and beach on the NW side of the peninsula, one of the best beaches in Scotland, outside of the Outer Hebrides.
Isle of Mull - the curated route is great however if you have a little more time and energy the west coast road in Mull is incredible, similar in many ways to Assynt in the NW, the road is either going up or down, there’s very little in between but the scenery more than makes up for the effort. If you are very lucky try to time it to cycle the section south to north between Loch Scridain over to Loch Na Keal on a sunny evening. The descent down into Loch Na Keal as the sun is going down combined with the 5 km section under the cliffs where the road is pinned to the very edge of the landscape is the best road cycling section in Scotland in my view. Peerless.
One tip I’d offer anyone wanting to try multi day bikepacking adventures is to make sure you are not left under geared. When the bike is laden and tiredness creeps in, it’s great to have a really easy gear to be able to keep spinning on the bike and not have to push. For off road routes this easiest gear should be much less than 1:1 for most people. I meet cyclists every year where they simply have not got the right gearing for their fitness and amount they are carrying. Worth considering before setting off. My mindset is to ensure I have gearing that allows me to ride a 20% gravel climb on a laden bike after 5 days of riding rather than my easiest gear being set up for a day ride without bags. There's quite a difference between the two.
I wholeheartedly agree with the wisdom of your final sentence. I've ridden with a number of people who have scoffed at my very low-geared Rohloff-equipped steel adventure horse at the start of a cycle tour. When we hit ascents like the windy Lecht, however, they were no longer laughing, as their over-geared carbon thoroughbreds ran out of "puff". ;-)
This is a great comment. Thanks for all the tips. I love this area, as it is so accessible from Glasgow by various forms of public transport which allows for lots of route flexibility
Happy New Year, Simon, and congratulations on this tremendous achievement, that will outlast all of us. I doubt I'd be able to ride the whole thing in a one-er, but I look forward to looking through the details and maybe riding sections of it separately.
So excited by this - thanks!
A few months ago I started plotting a gravel route that would have been an approximately 300 miles version of this route, with Oban being the starting and most southerly point. Then you posted the pilot video for this series and I started pinching some of your route ideas due to you having actually ridden them recently, compared to my route using memories from full-suss MTB-ing in that area over twenty years ago!
I'm so very much looking forward to doing your route next year, and thanks very much Simon for taking the OS late night browsing duties from me 😄😅
Cheers 🙂👍
Hi Tony - I think of it as a starting point and variations are to be encouraged!
Chapeau! And a happy Hogmanay to you all!
Can’t wait to do this Simon 🙌
Fantastic! Looking forward to it thank you and kudos for putting it all together.
Happy healthy 2025 to yourself and Liz 🙏😎
Brilliant Simon!!! Would love to ride a section with you if the timings work…..HNY to you! A
Looks a good route.
Happy new year, young man
Same to you!
That’s exactly my home turf❤
me too 😁
Happy new year - does this mean the long-awaited route is now complete? Looks like I'll have to tweak my plans for the year to take this in
Ready to go - all on the website
Hoping to do some, or all, of this in 2025, thanks for the all the work to get this together. BTW, there seems to be an issue with the route links on the website, the Ride with GPS (full route) wont load (says “maybe private or removed). Also both of the “in sections” links seem to take me to Komoot. Neither problem is going to stop me pouring over the route and planning 2025 😀
I think it’s sorted now Dave - just refresh your browser
@@alwaysanotheradventure Thank you. The RWGPS “in sections” is now working fine, but the “all in one” still says “item may be private or removed”.
@@dave300m7 I'm pleased you're on the ball! Rather stupidly I had forgotten to make that route Public - hopefully it's finally sorted. Thanks again.
@@alwaysanotheradventure Thats sorted it 👍