has anyone ever done this ? tell me what you know. no google geeks real life experience only please.
west highland way
I'm not sure if many mountain bikers from Ireland have done the full route so I may as well give you a quick account of the section of it I cycled. A few years ago I did a nice chunk of the route (Bridge of Orchy - Fort William) on an awful £15 a day bike I rented in Fort William (awful v-brakes, nearly rigid fork and tyres so worn they were nearly slick!) This is the most mountainous section with about 1700m of climbing over 60 kilometres as far as I remember.
The section from Tyndrum to Bridge of Orchy is pretty much flat fireroad so I skipped this part and got the train to Bridge of Orchy instead. From Bridge of Orchy you've got a nice singletrack climb over the first hill followed by a brilliant double track descent. You've got some road then which links you up to the long fireroad climb away from any form of civilisation over Rannoch Moor. Once you're eventually over this there's a long doubletrack descent.
You meander along the hillside on some more single/doubletrack until you reach the base of the Devil's Staircase. The first third of this is rideable but be prepared to push the bike for the rest of it. The steepness of the climb, looseness of the surface and the constant waterbars mean that unless you're a decent trials rider you'll find it very hard to cycle up here. What waits though is one of the most awesome descents I've ever seen. Basically it's an endless, steep, giant rock garden disappearing into the distance. Loads of fun.
This descent drops you onto some fireroad and you end up in Kinlochleven. There's another challenging 16km XC loop from here you could add on if you're feeling fit enough. Due to my brake pads having worn away at this stage I skipped this loop (for some reason I assumed the bike shop's complimentary repair kit would include a multitool/allen keys... lesson learned!) so can't give any first hand details. There's a tough techy singletrack climb out of Kinlochleven. I ended up walking a good bit of it, but technically I wasn't a great climber back then. From there you've got a last climb through a valley up to the forest above Fort William. It's all pretty gradual and easy once you're over the first climb from Kinlochleven though. Finally there's a long fireroad descent into Fort William...and you're done.
The whole route would be a challenging ride. I don't know too much about the earlier parts of the way except that the terrain is a good bit easier than the section above. (Not including the 10km hike-a-bike section near the start...) Most people do the whole way in 2 days (mainly due to the hike-a-bike section taking so long) but I've heard it has been done in under 24 hours before. Best of luck with it anyway if you decide to ride it. There's some seriously nice climbs and descents on that route and it's real middle of nowhere stuff.
The section from Tyndrum to Bridge of Orchy is pretty much flat fireroad so I skipped this part and got the train to Bridge of Orchy instead. From Bridge of Orchy you've got a nice singletrack climb over the first hill followed by a brilliant double track descent. You've got some road then which links you up to the long fireroad climb away from any form of civilisation over Rannoch Moor. Once you're eventually over this there's a long doubletrack descent.
You meander along the hillside on some more single/doubletrack until you reach the base of the Devil's Staircase. The first third of this is rideable but be prepared to push the bike for the rest of it. The steepness of the climb, looseness of the surface and the constant waterbars mean that unless you're a decent trials rider you'll find it very hard to cycle up here. What waits though is one of the most awesome descents I've ever seen. Basically it's an endless, steep, giant rock garden disappearing into the distance. Loads of fun.
This descent drops you onto some fireroad and you end up in Kinlochleven. There's another challenging 16km XC loop from here you could add on if you're feeling fit enough. Due to my brake pads having worn away at this stage I skipped this loop (for some reason I assumed the bike shop's complimentary repair kit would include a multitool/allen keys... lesson learned!) so can't give any first hand details. There's a tough techy singletrack climb out of Kinlochleven. I ended up walking a good bit of it, but technically I wasn't a great climber back then. From there you've got a last climb through a valley up to the forest above Fort William. It's all pretty gradual and easy once you're over the first climb from Kinlochleven though. Finally there's a long fireroad descent into Fort William...and you're done.
The whole route would be a challenging ride. I don't know too much about the earlier parts of the way except that the terrain is a good bit easier than the section above. (Not including the 10km hike-a-bike section near the start...) Most people do the whole way in 2 days (mainly due to the hike-a-bike section taking so long) but I've heard it has been done in under 24 hours before. Best of luck with it anyway if you decide to ride it. There's some seriously nice climbs and descents on that route and it's real middle of nowhere stuff.