Scotland’s Famous West Highland Way by Mountain Bike in over 24hrs

Taking on Scotland’s famous West Highland Way long distance route by mountain bike. With some of Scotland’s best scenery and connecting Glasgow to Fort William, it’s obvious why this trail is so popular.

We rode the route north to south, starting from Fort William in the Scottish Highlands itself. The plan was to do it all in one day but the weather was nice and it was best to get started the night before and camp along the way outside of the town, especially with the bikes. It’s a tough route to mountain bike with some long technical climbs and 3-4 hours of lifting the bike up over boulders and roots along Loch Lomond.

Link to the videos mentioned:
The Strathpuffer Winter 24 hour endurance race:

Slovenia Bikepacking:

Gavin’s WHW Double in 39 hours:

I chose a short travel mtb with 100mm suspension front and back – my Vitus Rapide FS. It was an ideal bike for it, kitted up with Michelin Wild XC tyres to cope with the sharp rocks and loose gravel corners. There’s a lot of varied terrain as often with cycling in Scotland!

Chapters:
00:00 Intro & route
02:23 Setting off
02:50 Fort William – Kinlochleven
04:41 Scenery
05:06 Kinlochleven Techy Descent
06:44 Devil’s Staircase
08:19 Sunrise & descent
11:13 Bridge of Orchy
12:07 Tyndrum
13:26 Loch Lomond
14:08 The Hardest bit!
16:10 Conic Hill & Thunderstorms
17:52 Strathblane & Mugdock

Enjoy the 4k POV Go Pro footage and shots from the route. You’ll experience the West Highland Way from a different perspective behind the bars. Some amazing weather too which made the scenery really stand out. Hit subscribe for more content, riding and racing around Scotland and Europe in general.

Bikes: Vitus Rapide FS with Mavic Cross Max SL S and Michelin Wild XC
Camera: Go Pro Hero 12 Black

#westhighlandway #mtb #mountainbiking #scotland

hey welcome back so it’s been a while since I did a bike packing or endurance Vlog I think it was probably the Strath puffer earlier this year which was the 24-hour endurance race in Scottish winter I’ll pop a link below to the video if you want to see that and then it was my bike packing trip last year to Slovenia which was my first ever time bike packing actually and it was amazing so this time I’m doing a bit of a mixture of the two and I’m taking on the West Highland Way which if you don’t know it it’s a long distance route in Scotland and it’s about 96 M long 150 km running from mugai near Glasgow up to Fort William in the Scottish Highlands really excited to do it uh it’s about 3,000 maybe 3 and a half thousand MERS of elevation throughout the route and it’s not an easy cruising route it’s got a lot of tough sections with single track that’s where you have to push or Carrier bike um but it’s really quite the adventure and I’ve wanted out for years so this is the weekend weather’s looking really good uh touchwood it’s uh sunny it’s warm maybe be bit of rain Sunday but generally As Good As It Gets in Scotland uh so we’re actually going to do it the route in Reverse just the way with the way the trains work booking on the bikes and we’re heading up tomorrow to Fort William by train arriving about 4:00 plan is to grab some food and just get started knock off a few hours camp overnight hopefully somewhere nice get a good Sunset and then get up at sunrise on Sunday morning and just do it basically that’s as easy as that uh so we’re going to try and complete it by Sunday night we were going to try and do the entire thing on Sunday as a bit of a challenge to see how quickly we could do it but it just makes sense to start it on Saturday with the the weather being good and everything so I’ll take you on the journey I’m doing it on my exy web which is fairly stock uh but I’ve got a melin what melin w uros for tires and a mavic crossmax SLS up front keeping the wheel light got a few bits of bike packing kit on the bike just trying to keep it as light as possible but have the essentials for the night uh and just not carry anything in excess given we have to do so much so I’ll take you on the routs uh setting off tomorrow hope you enjoy it that’s us on the route so I’m doing it with my brother gav forgot to mention that Gavin’s done it twice and got a video on it which I’ll put in the link descri in the description below uh he’s done it there and back in one go as well and uh we’re one 2 km in about 148 to go and pretty excited so we try not get some point along the way could happen so yeah let’s go staircase and it’s not C attack attack okay oh God on the left that’s very nervous there no this one yeah oh is that n May one of these has been nervous I’m guessing nous range is over the back yeah yeah put the [Applause] r Jesus you’re almost there you’re all D in Hell once you hit that s here oh oh my God [Applause] [Applause] stunning the weather is just incredible totally locked out a heading to Ken cev descend down there up the devil staircase hopefully camp at the top tonight and get a nice uh Sunset The Rock’s so loose it’s like it’s really bad yeah oh my God the the drainage ditch did you see [Applause] that flipping heck this is oh my god oh absolutely stunning there’s a lot of un waiting and if you know me you know I’m not good at that that’s so cool [Music] [Applause] kid look leaving it’s always been a technical Place pass into a kind Lo even there it was a really good descent I really enjoyed it pretty technical right so that’s I was climbing up to devil staircase just seen a wall ahead so Gavin said it’s about to get bad 500 M climb we’re on [Applause] there we go 300 M in couple hundred is to go to the top it’s been really Steep and really loose still climbing it’s quite relaxing actually just this time of night got about half an hour until sunset just see how much we can knock off tonight and still climbing jeez I know why this climate has a reputation so sun sets now it’s qu to 10 been up since 6 and a lot of traveling today so I I’m pretty tired now we’re going to Camp just up here on the top woo nice Glen Co ahead [Music] pretty dark now but yeah you can kind of see the tent that’s I pitched up at the top of the devil staircase heading down got descent straight away tomorrow which will be really nice quite glad we kept going actually just to get that one done oh 2 hours of sleep good morning just slip with a tent in her on cuz the weather was dry I won’t put have the going on the camera at halfast 5 and we’re off oh no not already 6:00 a.m. and straight into the dech I [Applause] think oh my God a li oh fu flipping NE oh my God go was going over the bars there right I’m just going to walk down here oh Christ fling loose [Applause] oh where am I actually supposed to go here I just cut through here up over this down here oh my God woo just keep walking there was me thinking I was going to be cold adrenaline is Flowing h i i was an Ural i’ be down there not going down there oh my God definitely not trying this one that is sizable Clan cool Mountain Resort windy windy that’s I just come up a couple hundred met there from Glen Co Mountain the base just quite a nice climb actually and then fake this out this place has been a bit tough so far about 90% I would say has been ridable and just these we we bits you have to go off for short periods so far climbing over here down to bridge of or and then on to tend drum GFF thinks an hour to tend drum I’m skeptical I’m waiting for my coffee it’s just after it’s about 20 8 now and we’re a few hours in still need coffee [Applause] so this is Bridge of ory yeah cool oh nice all s thank you there’s a push then yes the green well ideal looking forward to this biggest bowl of porridge oh yeah very much D 44 my in yes that was actually pretty good [Applause] thank you onto a pland in a while I think a lot of this in between wow this is incredible so stunning just caught my eye as we’re gone past not getting too close to the edge I’ve got B track record here right heading down into loand the last few kilometers have been hell and I think more hell is to come even more hell just very stop start push your bike gets wedged on rocks up and over stuff oh wow [Applause] Lo yeah 96 km in so is the entire length of loan full of roots three hours or so first three hours of walking right okay this is steep oh my God yeah woo see Gavin thinks 3 hours of walking it’s everything everybody said it would be and worse it’s not that bad it’s not that bad it’s bad started I we just started yeah hell getting there so I think we’re about 3 qus of the way along maybe roughly yeah I hope I think it’s been hard going but I feel like it’s a bit of a right of passage this one yeah see on the other side side made it through the worst and just enjoying a snack at the iners Sade hotel and then I think there’s not too much climbing left apart from conic Hill which would be pretty Savage yeah 600 left for the whole thing there I think about 3 and a half thousand yeah that’ll be decent decent and the rain so far has pretty much stayed off so we’re just enjoying a view out to loand it’s uh it’s stunning so still going alongside Lan still up and down off on but a lot more on the bike than off the bike so it’s good we’re making better progress It’s just so long and slow going to CL it’s absolutely stunning with the blue bills yeah that’s the weather coming proper torrential rain feel like I’m soaked and I just put my jacket on and we’ve got to go up kic hill now and there’s thunder and lightning it’s really not great and it’s going to be a really tough climb and I’m really kind of feeling tired so see you on conic Hill oh thank you thanks climbing up to conic hill now like 120 k30 can 2,400 M of elevation so far in for a big one oh God I know what it’s like on The Descent that really was a Savage claim when you’re tired especially see flipping Rocky yeah I’m going to walk that judging by the noises he’s making nice 100 Mil travel in a bar bag final claim now we’re 150 km 3,900 M Gavin seems to have acquired an extra couple of hundred meters somehow one so it’s a fair day but I’m so glad to be on the last climb now I’m really tired and M rolling through muguk mo guy one and half miles we’re basically there just arriving in M guy hey yes