So for a fiver it turns out you can get a map the size of a small dining table from the ordnance survey website. Brilliant.

I passed my das on wednesday 30th may, I'm collecting my bike sometime between now (saturday) and Monday... Me and a friend have been on about taking off for a week in july and nailing the highlands and John o'groats and a couple of the cities in Scotland. I'm taking my cbf600s, he's taking his renault clio 172 (which is a nippy little fecker & it can carry all the camping gear too) Alot of people have frowned at the idea doing a biking trip with a car in tow but I personally haven't got a problem. Also I think when my friend see's me riding steadily through the twisties, it might inspire him to get his finger out and do his test...

Anyway that's the preface. We know for sure that we want to stop in edinburgh for one night and we definitely want to go to john o'groats just so we can say we've been. Another place on suggested to us, was Ullapool?

Has anyone been on a similar trip and can suggest places to see/stuff to do on our way round? If you have any stories, ideas or "Must Ride Roads" then please let me know.

thanks in advance pW^

A bike trip with a car in tow?
don´t think I would want to do that.... can you imagine when you overtake a tractor or a lorry and your friend gets stuck behind for a few miles?
or you hit the town centres and you start to filter and he stays behind?

It can be done if it's well planned. Like pre arranged meeting places if they get seperated. I did it coming back from pewsey remember.

Makes life easier for the bike havning nothing to carry except his wallet...

If you do head to Ullapool you might want to pop a little SW of there to a place called Aultbea and the Drumchork Lodge which is a bike friendly hotel/pub. Also has about 400 malt whiskeys which I sampled a fair few of and spent the entire next day fighting with my breakfast!
If you're riding on the A96 from Aberdeen to Inverness (and why wouldn't you? It's a great biking road) you should keep an eye for chunky gravel on the road north of Inverurie. The local authority seem to think it's a great idea to fill in road side ditches with it and it just gets dragged out by tractors right on the preferred line through corners. It'll wake you up for sure!

And if you're heading up to Aberdeen, you could do a damn sight worse than the route Billy, Martin, Tommy and myself took. Met at Kincardine (which gets you over the river Forth away from the traffic and the bridge tolls). Then we headed up to Crieff, then Dunkeld, Blairgowrie, and then up the Braemar road. We stopped at Braemar, but you can continue along that road straight into Aberdeen.

You know what? If you post an itinerary, I'll bet a few folks from here will see you along the way.

Other than that stage, I've been told the stretch from Strathcarron to Kyle of Lochalsh is brilliant, and that puts you on the bridge to Skye (which doesn't cost any more!) Get to Portree, and you'll find great fish & chips, and down by the harbour, you'll find some nice pubs.

And you can't do a tour of the Highlands without coming back down south. And that's best tackled from Fort William down through Glencoe. At Crianlarich you head to Glasgow - it'll take you down Loch Lomond. And at the end you arrive in Glasgow - sorry

I'd have sent you a map for nothing

Carry your own water proofs...do a whiskey tour, try and get down the west coat maybe even a quick island stop (Mull or Skye) there are threads on here for AppleCross too def worth a night there...but you will have a difficult time to have a bad trip...

Enjoy

A82 from Inverness to FortWilliam is a must. and if your passing Skye, stop at the last village on the main land and get fish and chips from a chippy arround the back of tha car park. there probably the best i have ever had, and you can get a great veiw of the bridge...

Click to view attachment

Plockton for the Palm Trees!!!

cant fault the info everyone else has given you, there are loads of great biking roads in Scotland with lots of variations of fast straights and twisties....and i do mean twisties!.. 6, 10 or even 20 miles for fast flowing twisties...if your doing Jan de groot...oops john o groats..then you will love the A9 from Inverness then the A99 to John o groats..breath taking scenery hardly describs it.. there are loads of roads to reccomend mate, but as you only have a week to play with, maybe best if you give us and idea of where you want to go and what you want to see.....dont know anything about Edinburgh, cos no-one in their right mind would go anywhere near that sh!thole...



im not sure you would like the bike ride to plockton...the roads are nothing but sheep track up there...

Whilst I'm remembering - if you do choose to visit the fair city of Edinburgh, don't bother trying to head North out of Edinburgh or South into Edinburgh at a weekend. There's major roadworks on the Forth Road Bridge. Today they were talking about 90+ minute delays! And that traffic spills into Kincardine as well, they were looking at 50 minute delays. You'll be fine on your bike, but your mate will be fuming in his Clio... It's all weekend, every weekend through the Summer (except if the weather determines they can't work).

If, for example, you head to Kincardine reasonably early on a Saturday / Sunday (say 9-10am), you ought to be fine, but forewarned is forearmed, as they say...

Outstanding! Thanks for all the replies, I've forwarded these onto my friend for his consideration. I can appreciate JP's point about my friend & the car maybe holding me back at times, but I think the luxury of not having to carry any major gear is better for me. Also, We'll have comms so I can speak to him i.e. "I'm just gonna roll ahead and see what the problem is here" or "watch out for this tosser coming up fast behind you" etc.

GlenCoe is a definite since Ewan & Charley went there as a kind of dress rehearsal before their trip.

Does anyone know what that castle is from the Movie Entrapment with Sean Connary & Catherine Zeta Jones? It also featured in one of the BBC idents when they used to use the Hot Air balloons with the world printed on it, pictured in various landscapes. If anyone know's what/where it is, I would definitely love to stop off there.

I'm starting to think that if we get off the bike/out of the car at any point and see these places properly, we're gonna need more than a week

Thank you for all the info such as traffic & hazzards to watch out for and please keep the recommendations of places to see and stay coming... also I'm loving the pics from your own trips so stick some more up.

When we start to develop a solid Itinerary, I'll post it on here so if anyone is doing a similar trip at any point, we could meet up/tag along etc...

pW^

That would be Duart Castle on Mull, you'll need to get a ferry across the water from Oban

If you're going up the A9 then you'll defo have to go up to the Aviemore Ski Centre, then take the tram thing up the moiuntain, fantastic views if the clouds are high enough

Hi will add my two cents worth!

I'd deffo recommend Edinburgh cool city and if you drop a few hints as to what type of pubs/food/music you like you;ll get plenty of recommendations on where to go. Glasgow's pretty cool too for the record but Edinburgh gets the edge in my book.

For your trip North you can either take the A9 which will be the quickest option. In fact if can be very very quick given that its almost entirely straight and there used to be only two speed cameras north of Perth at any one time :-) Ah those halcycon days. Sadly this is no longer the case in line with government policy of purging all pleasure from life.

Your other option is the west coast route very picturesque and should be a nice cruise although roads are twisty an undulating not recommeneded if you get travel sick/are on a tight schedule. If you do do the westcoast make sure you are either a heavy smoker or have plenty of midgee repellant!

If you do go the westcoast route I'd also recommend going to Skye for a day.

Also there is a pub called the aultnamain that is part of a massive bike festival every summer in the highlands. So if you are looking to hook up with like minded individuls from across Europe this could be for you. If not best avoided!!

The East coast route north of Inverness I know very well. It is gorgeous and there are loads of nice little towns to stop off in but all it it just depends what you want which ever route you do I don;t think you'll go far wrong. Indeed I guess you could drive up one coast and down the other getting the best of both!

Anyways congratulations on your test and enjpy your trip!

Baz

Paul, do you have a link to the map you bought, i cant find it on the OS site :-(

sure, its in the leisure map shop, then just right of the uk map there's a pink link "Browse Our Products"... On the following page, Left hand side entitled "Ordnance Survey" there's a drop down box. You want to select "OS Travel Map - Tour" ... on the following page, you can select the part of the UK you require and it takes you to the exact map I've bought if you click scotland...


Bargain at 4.99 with free postage. Ordered on Thursday, arrived on Saturday

Thanks to everyone who's posted so far! Keep em coming

And in response to bazman's suggestion

Food: Anything really (I personally don't eat anything which lives in water - my friend does but he's understanding... lol). Love a good curry, steak, roasts, Tatties and neeps would be good. General Pub Food I guess? We'll probably have a bbq or two on the way round so are there any decent butchers' people have stopped at on the way round etc? Am I being too anal now? lol

Music/Pubs: It would be good to sample some traditional Scottish Pubs & Music? My friend doesn't do 'trendy winebars' and you can walk into a deathspoons franchise anywhere...

thanks Paul.

you sure its duart castle...i thought it was eilan dorran castle on the way to skye....it certainly looks like eilan dorran to me

How many months you coming for? You will need about lots to experience all the good roads.

Depends what type of riding you like to do. I rode over Sheriffmuir a couple pf weeks ago, great pup up there in the middle of nowhere (beware of the sheep and deer though).

Doune is a good stop off point, they have the castle where they filmed Monty Python there (and a good mate there will always offer you a coffee )

The A823 through Geln Devon is a great road with good views click here

If you are on the west coast look out for the midges at that time of year, will strip yer skin in 20 seconds. We have some herbal midge repelant stuff that works well, will try and find what it is called.

Don't forget kelso bikefest in mid-july as well (w/e of 14th this year)

And if you are in the Dollar area then pop in for a coffee, also can check what rideouts the Scottish Motorcycle club has when you are up (we will be at Kelso getting wrecked for the Bikefest).

PM me if you want my phone number - willing to help if I can

A small thought - if you're looking for a hotel in/around Edinburgh, you'll not want to do it in the last week in July, or the first couple of weeks in August. Edinburgh Festival, you see... Despite what Billy might say, lots of people want to go to Edinburgh. Even Glaswegians

Hotels & B&Bs always put their rates up for the festival, because the place is always mobbed. And you'll still be lucky to find a bed...

And once you're in Edinburgh, you'll want to do Rose Street, due to the obscene number of pubs there. Or if you don't want a pub crawl, head for the Malt Shovel on Cockburn Street - great pub, good beer, wide range of whiskies.

your missing out if you dont like seafood...cos we have the best in the world...as for butchers, you'll find fresh produce in everytown you pass through..are you being too anul?....yes!

dont know about music in pubs....but you will find lots of good music at the local barn dances.... ...pubs are pubs in scotland, not the same as the bars you have down south mate....you'll understand what i mean when you have visited one or two of them

top banana... Gonna print all these suggestions out and sit down with the map & my support driver (aka the car man) on thursday to get some proper planning done. I'm gonna suggest that we'll need more than 5 days if we want to really enjoy it and see what he says.

As for accomodation in edinburgh, I'm gonna ring my cousin and see if he might be able to put us up for a night.

Alot of people have mentioned the midges, I need to look into that...

And dont get me started on seafood. I've got a number of valid reasons why it should be banished from the earth but I'll save them for the www.IhateSeaFood.com/forum lol

Thanks again everyone. And for those who've offered cups of coffee/a pint on the way round etc I'll send you a pm once we've got a rough Itinerary going on :thumbsup:

Suggestions...

Go to Glenfinnan and admire the view.
Go to Inverness and meet friendly people.
Go to Loch Ness and hunt monsters.
Go to Fort William and get beasted by midgies.

Try going to Edinburgh castle during a major festival and get utterly misdirected by the local signs/roadworks/people until you're convinced the castle is just a myth, even though you've seen it from the hillside.

Go anywhere North of Carlisle and see big feckoff hills.

It's an absolute blast!!
Enjoy,
W.

i've posted a supplier in the usefull links section for midge repellant...do buy it, or another of your choice... you will regret it if you dont

Simple tip: whenever a B road will get you there instead of an A road - just take it. Then if you see a "wonder where that goes?" road off the one you're on - take that too. You'll almost never regret it so long as you don't mind the odd dodgy road surface. You want to totally avoid any dual carriageway as you can get all over Scotland in a week without needing the damn things.

Not to be missed IMHO: A939 across the Grampians, A87 Skye Road, Lochgilphead to Fort William and points North, and Galloway tourist route (A713). Have fun mate, and watch out for both sheep and loose gravel all over the Grampians - we had to help at the scene of an accident last year near the Lecht ski centre where a biker had hit a sheep on a narrow road they'd "re-surfaced" by chucking stones all over it in the usual biker-friendly way.

Oh, and I nearly forgot. Ignore the main road on the north side of Loch Ness and take the B road on the southern shore. It's a great road that's nowhere near as busy and on the west end of the loch it takes you off in a sort of loop around and over a hill through some really breathtaking scenery that you'd never otherwise see.

Forget the B roads, get onto the C and the 'I never know roads this small existed' roads.

Paul. Have you ever been along the loch Hourne past loch quoich rd just nw of fort william? Mally