North coast 500

[Mike]

Is it worth a jolly around on the road bike as a trip looking at it for a few weeks time maybe as a change to off road stuff bike packing it

[Bearbonesnorm]

You'll be shaving your legs next

[Moder-dye]

Not cycled it yet, but the North and west coast are beautiful. I'm not keen on doing the east coast though, so I'm planning a variation for that.

[Mike]

No chance of that stu!

[touch]

Not cycled it yet, but the North and west coast are beautiful. I'm not keen on doing the east coast though, so I'm planning a variation for that.

I agree. The A9 down the east coast is horrible to cycle. You could ride the route round to wick then get the train back to inverness without missing much.

[ScotRoutes]

The A9 is OK as far as about Golspie, maybe even Tain. After that there's NCN1.

There are alternative routes available, including heading inland to Bonar Bridge and over the Struie to Alness.

I got your PM Mike. I'll put something together by the end of the week. The "postie" thread will explain the delay.....

[Dave Barter]

Or take a CX bike and ride my planned route south from BettyHill

http://my.viewranger.com/route/details/NzU3Nzc=

[Zippy]

It's quite good fun in a car (even a slow one - perhaps more fun coz you can drive it foot flat!)

https://www.strava.com/activities/730559005

West side is way better than East.

[Ray Young]

You'll be shaving your legs next

Less chance of them catching fire too .

[Chew]

Theres this that I did a few years ago

https://www.strava.com/activities/158749939

I'd think about finding somewhere to park the car in Glasgow and catching the train straight out to Oban.
Spend a bit more time on Mull (my original plan but was struggling with supplies)
Skip Skye as you're not missing much
Train back from Inverness

[In Reverse]

BettyHill

Great place name to see on the signs up there.

[Dovebiker]

Just come back from a 3 week trip to around the Isles and North of Scotland, including driving around the route from Kyle to Inverness in our 1970s VW camper, so only a bit quicker than a bike! I would suggest that the section from Kyle of Lochalsh to Kyle of Tongue would be a great road ride, but the easterly section wouldn't be my choice. The best bits are Lochcarron to Gairloch, the "great wee road to Inverpolly" and Lochinver to Drumbeg - maybe because we were blessed with good weather. The route certainly seems to be attracting a fair number of drivers in performance cars, some who don't appear to have a working reverse gear!

[fatbikephil]

Hmm - The Drumbeg road has been totally fecked by this - on Monday it was constant traffic and many idiots who don't seem to appreciate that a bicycle cant ride into a ditch to let them past, particularly when the rider has been going for 10 hours at that point. This used to be a fine cycling road, now it isn't. The A835 east of ullapool seemed to be a constant stream of oversized camper vans and twats in range rovers trying to take your right arm off.

My advice would be not to bother or at least do a variation of it missing the A9 and out of holiday season.

[ScotRoutes]

Strangely enough, the road out West was better during holiday season last year. The accommodation providers also reckon that May/early June is the peak traffic period.

I suspect that 2017 will be peak NC500 year anyway. It's had so much media coverage in the past 12 months so it should settle down to sustainable numbers again.

[ScotRoutes]

Some general cycling info here; with a couple of optional route choices too

http://www.northcoast500.com/blog/blog/ ... art-t.aspx

[mcmoonter]

Here are a couple of my journals which cover parts of the NC500. There are other routes that are much quieter than the section along the north and down the east coasts. The west coast section is spectacular though and shouldn't be missed. Both trips we made were in May and midge and largely tourist free.

http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/Tourdeminch

http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/mcal ... rnscotland