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Anyone ridden this route recently? I was looking at this as a shorter route to get to Loch Tay, rather than going via Laggan and Dalwhinnie on the A9. I'll be on 28mm slickish tyres on a touring bike though, am I going to struggle on the surface, especially from the hostel down to Rannoch station? I've seen pics which make it look very gravelly, and not the small kind.
It'll actually only take about 8 miles and 120m of climbing away from the A9 route - I'm sure the views are great but is the surface going to be too much on that bike?
especially from the hostel down to Rannoch station
The rest of it would be OK but this is the rougher bit. I'll see if I can find some photos.
A couple of hundred trials bikes came from Rannoch to Loch Ossian yesterday, shouldn’t be hard to follow for the time being.
However, a 300 GasGas goes like stink in 4th over that terrain.
I WAS going to head over from Fersit to Corrour on the gravel bike but the weather said ‘no’.
OK, can't find any useful photos. To the YH is very well surfaced but it gets a bit rougher after that. I did it on my Genesis Longitude with 42mm gravel tyres and it was absolutely fine but your set up might be pushing it. You'd get there but it might not be a barrel of laughs.
It’ll actually only take about 8 miles and 120m of climbing away from the A9 route
If that's all that's in it I'd say you'll almost certainly be quicker by the road. It's a great bit of the country though, big hills and big, open valleys.
Yeah I came to that conclusion, I only worked out the saving while I was writing this post, surprised it wasn't more but I guess on the map they each go a bit out of the way, there's no direct route.
Nah. Not really ideal for what you want. There are some very sandy sections which might be OK
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The descent down to Rannoch starts off with some pretty chunky sections (which I have no photos of) before becoming a bit smoother again
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Beautiful part of the country though and the views out West are stunning.
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I did it on the badger divide route on my MTB in September. Agree with scotroutes. Not the best on 28mm. It was a blast with 2.35 semislicks, 40s would be ok but perhaps a wee bit more care needed unless pumped up hard, 28s would be very hard work with risk of puncture or rim damage. Even worse with any significant luggage.
These are smooth bits, and there’s a lot like this bit the descent to Rannoch is quite lumpy for quite a bit - I was going to fast to take photos!
Agree in general with the comments above; you will ride some of the crossing and walk some. Scotroutes is right, there are sandy surfaced parts that are firm enough for the narrow tyres. If time isn't too critical, I would say do it and expect to walk some of the descent, past the wee hydro facility on the Rannoch side. We were northbound there on Tuesday.
I did the Badger Divide last week, starting in Inverness.
Going from the YHA to Loch Rannoch is totally doable on a gravel bike, but I'd rather be on an MTB (I was on a loaded HT with 2.2 semi slicks, worked well) for the +4 mile descent, as you'll be on the brakes far too much, even with big tyres etc.
As above, I think you'd be walking a few sections as well as picking your way slowly riding on 28mm tyres.
I rode it yesterday.
As Essel says, the trials bikes have cleared a line pushing the loose stuff aside so it is currently in better condition than you'd usually expect.
The descent was a blast with big fast rolling tyres 🙂