Lands End to John O'Groats
 

Has anyone done it on a bike?

I've just been playing around on goodle maps. Lands End to John O'Groats is approximately 1850-1900 round trip avoiding motorways entirely. I'm based in Aylesbury. I'm thinking about 250-400 miles per day depending on the part of the country. But struggling to plan a route as there are so many things to see on the way.

So whats the best thing to do, plan a doabble route for the time available, then see whats on route, or plan the things i want to see/places i want to go to then plan the route around them?
I'm thinking the first option. plus put a few motorway stints in to speed things up a bit.

How do you do it?

Ideally i'd like to do it in a 7-8 days, starting on a friday night, finishing on the friday/saturday after.

i'd pick where you want to go, plan a rough route for that & then make it up as you go along. its how i do my trips.

I'd definately tailor your trip to visit nice places, rather than let the trip dictate what you see. Luckily in Scotland that's relatively easy. Just stay West and it's pretty much all lovely north of Glasgow till you run out of land. Ride past Loch Lomond to get to Crianlarich, then head north to Glencoe, Fort William, Ullapool etc. hugging the coast as much as possible. It doesn't hugely matter which road you take: it's all great.

Personal favourite bits of Western Scotland are: the road over Rannoch Moor, Glencoe and the road to Skye. Possibly the jewel in Scotlands crown is to ride over the 'pass of the cattle' to Applecross, not least because Applecross has a great pub with great food and an excellent little campsite. Then ride north around the peninsula for stunning views of Torridon.

When I head down to England I head down the A74, but stay on the old A74 rather than the M74. It's a great road and very quiet.

Have fun.

Matt :)

Yeah, I agree with Matt on hugging the west coast of scotland.

Treen, near land-end is where I'd stay to start with. I'd take in North Wales on the way up.

I did this same round trip (Lands End ~~> to JoG - and back again) during August - the summer of 2006. In between the two UK extremes I covered a lot of motorway miles though, plus a diversion across to Ireland.

I agree, The west coast of Scotland is absolutely brilliant ...:thumbup1:

Click on the pic below for more details:

http://keithooper.smugmug.com/photos...07_kraTR-S.jpg




http://keithooper.smugmug.com/galler...807_kraTR-A-LB
http://keithooper.smugmug.com/galler...92804807_kraTR

looks like a great trip, a little further than i was thinking, i'd save ireland for another trip, great photos too!
IanD

You might find it useful to research the 1950s ride by Ed Turner and two friends who did it on Triumph tiger cubs. A couple ( or three years ago ) it was done again by a small group of women on Enfields. ( see here ) Real Classic - All about buying & selling, riding & restoring real classic motorcycles

Hiya

Have a look at Long Way Round UK

We did the whole of the UK coast in 10 days but covered 3000+ miles.

Happy to answer any questions directly if you wish.

Wonky

I did it a few years ago as a result of a bet in the pub,
Norfolk to Lands End, 400+miles, then 'the ride' 854 miles Lands End to John o groats, 12hrs 13mins, then back to Norfolk 600 miles. three days, Knackered!! On a Triumph Sprint Sport.
Things we take on over a pint!
Now we're riding the world, www.pooleglobaltrek.com but not so quickly!
Pooley.

Did it a couple of years ago, write up here :mchappy: