LOCAL KNOWLEDGE
RIDE readers share their inside tips on riding in the Cairngorms
‘You just don’t get the volume of traffic’
KENNY MOORE BMW R ninet Racer
“One of the beauties of the Cairngorms over the other places in Scotland to visit on a bike, like the NC500 and the West Coast, is the roads can be deserted. You just don’t get the volume of traffic and there are wide-open stretches. You only have to worry about the sheep and the gravel. In terms of character, it’s a bit bleaker than other parts of Scotland and, importantly, it doesn’t have as many midges. And although the Cairngorms has its own micro-climate, the eastern side of Scotland also tends to be a bit sunnier than the West Coast too. Good places to stop include the Fire Station in Tomintoul — you often get a group of bike riders outside.”
‘It’s quite wild and bleak — but beautiful’
IAN BROMLEY
Ducati 1199 Panigale “The thing I like about the Cairngorms — apart from it being local, which is pretty handy for a blast for a few hours on a Sunday — is the scenery. It’s quite wild and bleak, not as rugged as the West Coast and there’s more farmland — but it’s beautiful. In the north, you tend to ride over the mountains and in the south, you ride through the valleys. However, when you look at a map, there’s really only one road north to south and nothing east to west. So it’s not as if there are a lot of junctions and all the larger through traffic takes the A9, so it’s never really busy either, apart from the odd farm vehicle. Some of the riding can be a little bit tricky — gravel and sandy in places — but on the whole, the surface is pretty good because it doesn’t get used much.”