John 'o' Groats to Lands End

[Carl 389]

OK don't laugh.

Just something I would like to do on my Africa Twin.

I wondered if any of you have done this trip.

I would like to do it over a long weekend,(four or five days??) with out to much motorway stuff. I have looked at the map and got a rough route planned, but am open to suggestions, please.
Cheers,
Carl.

[DougB]

Hi,
When are you planning the trip?

I really rate the A9, which starts at Perth and is the main route north on the East/central-ish side heading north. It's a bad road accident wise because it's long and normally contains a high number of caravans which lead to dangerous overtaking by cars/bikes. But the scenery is worth it, some superb vistas. I used to do a quick round upper Scotland weekender every July with a bunch of mates. We'd basically go up the east coast to J'o'G and stay overnight, then next day take the road along the top of Scotland to the west coast and then back down again through Ullapool, and eventually back down to Edinburgh. You can do the route either way (the West coast bit is a big single day ride, or a two-day cruise). I'm not living there at the moment, but I can get the exact route from them if you're interested?
Any reason you're doing it J'o'G->LE? The other way would be better I think, 'cause you'd be heading towards beautiful scenery, quiet roads, easy going people - rather than riding away from it. Just a thought...?

Cheers,
Doug

[This message has been edited by DougB (edited 16 December 2002).]

[Carl 389]

The reason I was going to do it JoG to L E is because I live in essex and was going to go up country first ,then back down. It is a shorter route home after the trip as well.

Hoping to go early spring. Would the roads be clear of snow by then?

[Fuzzy Duck]

Hi Carl

I did this trip in August 1998 - 'cos I just bought a BMW K75 and wanted to try it out for distance. It's not the most scenic of routes (not the way I did it) - and I reckon in hindsight I would have been better off spending the time riding in France, Wales, Scotland or Ireland - or perhaps around more scenic parts of the England - but at least I can say "I did it".

Land's End is nice - and cheap entry for bikes when I was there £1!

Day 1
B3301, B3300 Redruth - A30/A390 Truro, A39 Barnstaple, Exmoor & Minehead then up to Derby to see my mum - 337 miles and it rained a lot!

Day 2 - A38/A52, M1, M8, A1 A68 to Lauder - 250 miles (I avoid motorways when touring thesedays as they're pretty boring)

Day 3
Dunno roads but ended up in Lairg - 275 miles

Day 4
John O'Groats - 88
Nice bowl of soup in the cafe there - but not really much to do or see
977 miles travelled (although I think you could do it in 874 miles)

I hope this helps - but I can't say I reccomend doing this run - there are much better routes around - and there's the trip back home too.

Nowdays if I'm Uk touring I'd rather spend my time around Wales or any hilly bits of Scotland.

Hope this helps and good luck in whatever you decide to do...

------------------
Fuzzy Duck
(I'm quackers about bikes)

[DougB]

From the A1 you take the A68 at York (I think). The A68 is a pretty good/scenic road which will take you up to Edinburgh (speed camera's all over the place though). From there take the A90 over the Forth Road Bridge (worth stopping in S. Queensferry if you've time, it's the Edinburgh side directly under the Bridge.) Scoot up the motorway to Perth, although it's motorway it's not too bad and has a couple of bends and only takes 30 mins. At Perth I'd recommend the A9 up through Inverness to JOG. Depending on the weather you can go across the top of Scotland (can't remember the road number) and back down through Ullapool. I wouldn't recommend this in bleak weather as it can be really soul destroying, and you can't really see the sheep on the roads as there's no fences. If the weather is bad you could go from JOG back down to Inverness and across to Fort William and back down that way through Glasgow. The Inverness-Ft William road is good.

The roads will be fine, other than the sheep - and expect it to be cold/wet, you might be lucky and get some sun.

Found this site which might be of limited use:
http://www.rampantscotland.com/know/blknow_mileage.htm

Cheers,
Doug

[ChrisK]

Hi, did John O`Groats to Landsend in 1992 on an old Guzzi twin, took 17-1/2 hours, 14 of which were riding hours. Major sore bot after this, also combined it with the 4 points of the compass,Lowestoft(East)Ardnamurchan(West) Dunnet Head ( North) and Lizard ( South) there used to be a club, the end to end club which has all sorts of info about the route and if you get you start form stamped at the John O`Groats hotel and at landsend it make a nice souvenier.

[Carl 389]

Thanks a lot for taking the time to reply.
There is some really good info there.

One of the reasons I want to do this journey is to be able to say 'I did it'. Iam going to find out more about that End to End club, a certificate would make a nice souviner.

ChrisK, how bloody fast were you going, did you get to see much?

[DougB]

Last time I went one of the group had a Ducati Supersport (the funny squarish 600 version). It conked out about 30 miles from JOG. We called the AA and after an age this farmer guy turns up. He looks at us, then at the bike, then at us and then back at the bike and starts shaking his head. "I know f*** all about bikes" he says... After a few prods of the bike he decides to load it onto a trailer and take it the 30 miles up to the hotel at JOG (it was getting late). After another hour or so he comes into view towing a horse box! Ducati and, a very embarrassed Ducati owner, get loaded into the back of this horse box. From behind all you can see is the 'race rep' helmet bobbing about in the back of the box as he's got to sit on the bike to prevent it falling over. At least the Ducati made it I suppose. After we let him get his first swig of the Italian Thoroughbread jokes began!

Good luck!


[This message has been edited by DougB (edited 19 December 2002).]

[ChrisK]

Hi, we wern't going all that fast, about 80mph most of the time, we set off at 4.30 pm and so most of the riding was at night, especially all the boring motorway stuff but as it was part of a two week holiday we had seen plenty of good sceenery and places on the way up, it also didn't help much that even though we covered the entire country it rained everywhere. My girlfriends comments on the mountains in Scotland were " It must be lovely here in Summer" to which I replied " It's bloody August" the rain was horizontal. Sorry I can't look up any info for you but I'm in Addis Ababa at the moment. Cheers, Chris