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As some know, we operate from Ullapool in the north west coast of the Scottish Highlands. It's a lucky spot for any business, especially one catering to the motorcycling crowd, and we try to make the most of all the incredible riding we have at our doorstep with regular weekend day trips.
Over our time here we have seen the introduction and development of the North Coast 500, a route launched by the North Highlands Initiative in 2015 which has been a huge hit for the pleasure driving and motorcycling sector (as well as for cyclists). While we certainly enjoy the NC500, it can often be packed with vehicles small and large that hamper enjoyment.
Additionally, there are already plenty of articles and guides out there to help you make the most of the main roads on the trail. This year we have decided to take the time to share some of our local knowledge of the Scottish routes that we like to ride that are off the NC500 and still offer unique and thrilling twisties, panoramas and unique spots for a cup of coffee.
Hopefully this will be helpful if you're looking for something a bit different this year or just want to avoid the crowded NC500 main route. We'll be providing Calimoto links you can use to follow these trails to make things easy.
"This is probably my favourite longer route to do in terms of scenery and road changes. Starting in Forfar and heading West is always a good bet for some seriously fun riding. Along this route you'll pass through Perth, Creiff, Glen Ogle, Tyndrum and Glencoe before hitting Fort William which has plenty of places for lunch and a petrol station on the way out for the more fuel hungry bikes.
Heading east out of Fort William and on to Spean Bridge with a nice stop at the Commando Memorial which is both humbling and beautiful with its views of the surrounding area. Carrying on East and sticking to the A86 all the way to Kingussie will keep you away from a lot of traffic. I always take the B9152 from Kingussie to Aviemore as it avoids the less exciting A9, then head to Grantown-on-Spey, this is where it gets exciting as it's much narrower and steeper roads to Tomintoul over the Lecht through Braemar and over Glenshee where you end up back on some wider, more sedate roads to wind down and head for home. It's such a mix of roads and scenery that for me keeps me coming back"
Nick McClellan
Nick has suggested the short stretch of road from Mosstodloch to Rothes and has this to say about it:
"Rather than heading back home from Elgin to Glenlivet, I took a longer route via Mosstodloch to Rothes and rejoin my usual route afterwards.
Its an early June morning with the sun at my back. The road, bike and rider just seemed to gel into one. Nine miles only but shear pleasure.
From Mosstodloch, its a couple of long sweeping bends on excellent surface and the rest on reasonable tarmac with continuous wooded bends until Rothes. Oh, and not one vehicle all the way to Rothes."
At risk of giving you too many options that will conclude our riding recommendations for now, but we'll be sure to keep updating throughout the rest of this year and beyond if we find some roads that we love. Thanks for taking the time to read and we hope you have an excellent season this year. Don't forget something for the midges if you're coming in the summer and check us out over on our Instagram and Facebook pages to see what we are up to!
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Wayne Parkinson
March 20, 2023
We have been coming to Scotland since 2011 on our motorbikes and we are coming again in June we have a base in strathpeffer I hope to try some of your routes you have there if you could email them me please that would be great