National Cycle Network Route 7 Balloch Croftamie Endrick Water Drymen Guide
Vložit
- čas přidán 9. 04. 2016
- Part of a series covering cycling in the Highlands of Scotland - Sustrans National Cycle Network Route 7 Lochs and Glens North (Glasgow - Inverness). Watch for new sections as they get added. The routes are all done as return trips so you can see the conditions and scenery in both directions and are intended to give you a feel for the route, gradient and surface - as well as showcasing the beautiful scenery.
A beautiful evening run, Balloch to Drymen - the shortest stage on this Route 7 series , approx 10 miles from the Leven Bridge - and chasing the sunset back to Balloch and Loch Lomond on the return leg.
It’s a short ride a couple of hours of cycling time, ideal for an evening. The stage overlaps the John Muir way for a lot of its length.
Loch Lomond and Balloch are only 10m above sea level so we are starting low, and almost immediately have a 50m climb up through the Balloch Castle Country park - that’s the biggest and longest climb. We then drop a few metres down to the main Stirling road before another short climb to about 80m and a very gradual downhill for a few miles to the bridge over the Endrick Water at about 15m and then finish with a short sharp climb back up towards Drymen and a final gentle downhill and flat section ending at about 55m.
It’s minor road and footway/cycle track, roughly 70/30 proportions. No rough stuff at all and some of the road sections were getting resurfaced. The roads have little traffic and have generally good visibility. There are 3 main road crossings with fast traffic.
The pipe bridge/walkway over the Endrick Water near Croftamie is a highlight of the route - once a railway bridge its just a pipeline now with a narrow and high metal walkway on top. It’s approx. 50m long, just 1m wide (98cm inside clearance). I’m not good with heights, but for me it was fine - not being able to see the ground (it sits on top of a pipe) through the grating helps, so no problem crossing. You might prefer to walk across - especially if on a road bike and you are worried about your tyres. The sides are high enough, but when sitting on a saddle you might feel a bit exposed, especially if windy. It’s a nice spot.
Cycled with a Specialized Tricross with 32c Marathon Plus tyres.
GoPro Hero 4 Silver, 1080 wide, protune, gopro colour -0.5 ev to retain the skies using the Grad Filter effect in • Grad Filter Effect Tut...
Additional material Lumix TZ30 set at -2/3 ev
Edited with Sony Movie Studio Platinum 13. No stabilisation (it cuts the field of view). Some CZcams compression artifacts after upload owing to the lack of stabilisation lots of detail and not enough bits to go round.
Royalty-free music by Underwaterbeats and Riot (courtesy of You Tube Music Library)
Enjoyed that again, I cycled from Balloch to Luss a couple of weeks back, beautiful countryside
+Ray Peckett Thanks Ray - Yes -and cycling lets you enjoy the scenery at just the right pace
Great videos and humour :) Lots of help as well to see the route 7, Just preparing for Glasgow Inverness cycle in a week time.
Thank you. Good luck with the run.
Superb video Roddy, we've just got our new bikes and will do your route tomorrow. Thank you.
Janis Ball Thankyou. Looks like you have good weather for it. Do report back.
Absolutely fantastic I think I'll be doing a lot of these sections in the near future, let's hope I get the good weather you seem to get. Really enjoying the videos and the patter.
Thanks Roddy - Just doing short stages lets me cheat with the weather - I admire the people who plan a week's tour months ahead and do a route end to end. Forecast looks good for Tuesday this week though - planning to finish the route - Carrbridge to Inverness that day.
Brilliant as always :)
+Brendan O'Brien Thanks Brendan
very good !
Great humour - 'that's what did for the Daleks' :P
+Three G Thankyou - the first set of steps I came across had to be noted :-)
Good video,are you going all the way to Inverness ?
+knrsthotmail Thanks. Yes that's the plan. Did the 'big one' a couple of weeks ago , Blair Atholl to Newtonmore over Drumochter and Glasgow Balloch last week. So final two will be to Carrbridge then Inverness. MIght try it in one piece but >100miles in a day is maybe a bit much. Lots of editing to do
+Sartorial Pictures Planing on doing Glasgow to Inverness this June / July over a weeks time ;) Thanks for the videos they've been really helpful! Do you take photographs along the way?
+Diogo Sérgio glad they help. I sometimes do grab some stills on these runs but not often. Not sure why.... its like I'm stuck in 'video mode' and any stop time has to be used to get content for the edit.
4:46 THE TYRE DESTRUCTION BRIDGE
Theres no need to go over that bridge. if you had turned left instead of crossing the road at Croftamie, its less than a mile to drymen.
tusskmusic good hint for those who don't want to stay on ncn7
That alternative is fine if you are confident on a busy fast road. It is a shorter less hilly route, but for the less experienced cyclist I would suggest follow the NCN7, or at least have a look at the bridge before dismissing it.