The Motorcyclist's Guide to Scotland book - J.G. Fergusson

Great work.
And if it shows people that there is more to Scotland than the NC 500 it will be a job well done.
 
Wapping, thanks a lot for taking the time in plotting the routes and sharing them! :okay
 
I have this book and it is good but

One of my favourite rides when up there is the one that goes over the Spital of Glenshee, tomintoul etc
in his book it is a circular route with the last leg being all the way down the A9 from Grantown on Spey

Now the A9 has some delightful scenery to look at but is now a crap road because of the speed cameras and i cannot for the life of me work out why anyone would choose to do it rather than just turn round and ride the good roads back again
 
There is a much shorter ferry that takes you to Mull from Lochaline though means you have to take the Corran ferry further north but is worth it for the roads and scenery on route.
 
I have this book and it is good but

One of my favourite rides when up there is the one that goes over the Spital of Glenshee, tomintoul etc
in his book it is a circular route with the last leg being all the way down the A9 from Grantown on Spey

Now the A9 has some delightful scenery to look at but is now a crap road because of the speed cameras and i cannot for the life of me work out why anyone would choose to do it rather than just turn round and ride the good roads back again

Agreed, though only two of the cameras are rear facing but again I would never advice anyone to go up/down the A9 as it's just a shit boring road.
 
Route 14 is proving a bit of a bugger.

I had to make good use of Google Street and Satellite Views to work out where the author took us between Balnaguard and Logerierait, forcing the route along in a series of very short shaping points. I them had to switch from the BaseCamp map into Open Street's routable map in order to get from Pubil to Killin, made harder as the software refused to route me across a small bridge over the River Lyon. This maybe 20 yard section of road over the bridge I had to fill in by switching from 'motorbike' mode into 'direct' mode, creating a separate 20 yard route all on its own. I then stitched this into the main Rannoch and Glen Lyon route, to create the whole thing. Who says that BaseCamp is shite, when you can do things like this?

When you see the final version, you'll maybe notice that the route is called a 'hybrid'. This is simply because it is created from a mixture of 'motorbike' and 'direct' modes, just to cater for that 20 yard section. It should run alright on a Gamin gps device, needing nothing more doing to it. Though, as the road is not shown on the detailed map, it will look as if you are going cross-country. To avoid this maybe slightly off-putting view, load Open Street Map onto your device.
 
As regards the author's route which goes along the A9. As always, there are better (and worse) ways to ride any route suggestion from anyone. Nobody is obliged to use the A9 at all if they don't want to, it would just be a matter of them pulling the suggested route around to suit themselves and their time available. There again, they probably wouldn't be buying the book in the first place if they were going to do that quite often. I am doing nothing more than copy into BaseCamp the routes as they stand. I could easily cut that section and amend it but I've enough to do already. Anyway, I hope the routes (bar the A9) are helpful to someone. Don't forget to buy the book!

https://www.ukgser.com/forums/showthread.php/508112-How-to-avoid-the-fecking-A9-in-Scotland
 
Just ordered the book!
Authors are worth their pay.
 
Route 14 is proving a bit of a bugger.

I had to make good use of Google Street and Satellite Views to work out where the author took us between Balnaguard and Logerierait,

.

Obviously I'm not sure of what the route is or where it's coming from but there is a lovely little single track road that leads out of Pitlochry to Logierait than may be worth putting in, it's one of those roads that if you don't know it's there you'll never notice it.
 
Wapping, thanks a lot for taking the time in plotting the routes and sharing them! :okay

Thank you.

The BaseCamp route creation part is reasonably quick on a Mac with a large screen. The bit that takes the time is putting in the cafes and hotels, many of which are not on the BaseCamp or Open Street Map's database. I have to find them in Google, then work out where they are (sometimes by using Street View) and then try my best to plonk the waypoint marker at the right spot. I am also putting data (things like phone numbers, email addresses and websites) into the waypoints, which takes time, too. Anyway, it's all good practice for route creation, as I am reminding myself how do do Basecamp some tricks which I had forgotten.
 
The infamous bridge in route 14....

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The tiny cyan section is the part I had to stitch in ‘direct’.

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Don't recognise that, is that in Glen Lyon ? I think it is.

A point of warning about that route, after that bridge you head upwards to the worst conditioned piece of road you are ever likely to ride as it hasn't been maintained in years, you will also have to open/close tow or three huge gates once down the other side towards Killin. If the route heads West after Bridge of Balgie there is a sign that denotes dead end or T junction, just ignore it as it will eventually take you to that bridge, that's if that's the bridge I'm thinking it is :blast
 
Obviously I'm not sure of what the route is or where it's coming from but there is a lovely little single track road that leads out of Pitlochry to Logierait than may be worth putting in, it's one of those roads that if you don't know it's there you'll never notice it.

The C452 is the route that the book takes. It runs south to north to the west of the River Tummel, between Logierait and Pitlochry, sort of parallel to the A9.

1a6d254b7c79f97529853e0bd5507ff5.jpg
 
Don't recognise that, is that in Glen Lyon ? I think it is.

A point of warning about that route, after that bridge you head upwards to the worst conditioned piece of road you are ever likely to ride as it hasn't been maintained in years, you will also have to open/close tow or three huge gates once down the other side towards Killin. If the route heads West after Bridge of Balgie there is a sign that denotes dead end or T junction, just ignore it as it will eventually take you to that bridge, that's if that's the bridge I'm thinking it is :blast

Spot on, it's Glen Lyon. Open Street Map shows the gates. To be fair to the author he does say:

NOTE: The section after Pubil is not ideal (!) for sports bikes. If you prefer to avoid rough roads, miss out the loop through Glen Lyon and continue ahead on the A827 to Killin, rejoins the route there.

The bracketed exclamation mark is his.
 
The C452 is the route that the book takes. It runs south to north to the west of the River Tummel, between Logierait and Pitlochry, sort of parallel to the A9.

1a6d254b7c79f97529853e0bd5507ff5.jpg

Yep, that's the very one, often can be covered in shit until mid summer but a nice little road to take, can take a bit of finding from Pitlochry as I said if you don't know it's there.
 


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