Bikepacking the North Coast 500 in 6 days!

[@coloneljackmustard]

The NC500 is on my bucket list! Great film! Good music, direction, and cinematography!

[@jcgadventures1102]

Mega memories from my 2019 NC500 adventure. I hit a Scottish heatwave 20 degrees and sun most days, rode solo and wild camped for 4 nights, rode for 5 days and had the time of my life... This video out a smile on my lockdown blues 😁 Applecross/Baelach na ba and Lochinvar to Tongue were some of the best roads I've ever ridden in the world!! 👍

[@weekendwatts5837]

We'd have loved a heatwave!! It makes wild camping very appealing, not sure I'd have wanted to camp in the weather we had, but maybe we'll try it again! Absolutely beautiful part of the world.

[@benalderson3305]

Great video Weekend Watts! I am planning to do the NC500 this may and have been training for a number of months now. I'm still a bit worried about if I an fit enough. Do you mind me asking what sort of training you did to prepare? Or if there is a way you would gauge someone being fit enough to do this in 5/6 days?

[@tonypaddler]

Great video, please make some more 🙂👍

[@robertfarnsworth3706]

Wonderful, what a great place.

[@Dewwillrustem]

Great video thanks for sharing!

[@richardburrows8044]

Looking forward to doing the NC500 this summer (hopefully), enjoyed the video. Thanks 👍🏼

[@jackpinchin1476]

This looks epic, on the cards for this year 🥰

[@mathew66]

Just decided with 2 of my friends to give this a go last night. Training starts soon!! Hope u do it too mate

[@alantait5968]

Great video guys and thanks for the blog some really useful info for my planned NC500 🚴‍♂️🚴‍♂️🚴‍♂️

[@markmadigan]

Nice one guys! doing a similar route with my girl friend over 5 days at the end of May. Also staying in hotels and BnB's to keep the weight down.

[@weekendwatts5837]

Good luck!

[@PiquePictures]

This looks like an amazing ride!!!!!!! Loved your video!

[@luukspijkerman8939]

Thanks, lovely video!

[@RidingTheLongWayHome]

Nice video guys. That ride is on my wish list - if we ever get to the end of lockdown

[@weekendwatts5837]

I highly highly recommend it. Use it to celebrate the end of lockdown (whenever that may be!)

[@luis_film]

Nice route! You cut to south-est just after Tongue. I like the idea. I was thinking of something similar as I will also have only 6 days and don't want to risk overdoing.

[@mandopando68]

Do you have links for accommodation & routes😎

[@2009cats]

Did you bring a bike lock? How did you secure your bikes overnight or when stopping for lunch?

[@adamskimtb]

Epic road. Nice video. 👌 What is the situation with cars, busy road at this time?

[@716tommo]

top video and experience. defo doing this 1 day. what did yous do for accommodation?

[@weekendwatts5837]

We did a mixture of hotels/bnbs. Basically just looked at places that fell within a reasonable amount of kilometers for the day. Would be great to do it wild camping, if you get the weather for it!

[@katiej38]

were you able to have your bikes in your accom room overnight at all locations?

[@Midlifer69]

Cycled the whole route anti clockwise in 6 days back in August 2020 . One of the best experiences of my life ! Great video brought it all back thank you for posting ! Did you guys do this in Aug 2020 ? We were blessed with no wind and only one day of rain en route from Lochinver to Gairloch

[@BillEvans007]

Impressive. How did you manage to pack so little?

[@weekendwatts5837]

Ahah, i'll (Fraser) have to take credit for that. Reminding Alice that she'll have to carry everything she takes up Bealach Na Ba certainly helped. Also, one positive of staying in hotels meant we could give some clothes a wash in the sink (if needed)

[@janrog267]

What an amazing trip! Its going to be in the list do for this year, hopefully! Just need to train first in few sportives so legs wouldn't give up! lol Is it cheeky to ask, which hotels/airbnbs you stayed in that allowed bikes to be inside? and what time of the year was this? thanks in advance!

[@weekendwatts5837]

We stayed in at the hostel in Applecross, which has a bike room, but also let us take our bikes in. Gairloch Hotel also allowed us to bring them in. The other places were cabins/lodges (one called Star Cabin Lairg and the other at Ben Loyal Hotel). All were fine apart from one place in Lochinver which was a guest house and he was pretty rude so we had to leave them outside in the pouring rain. I'd suggest just messaging places in advance :)

[@giacomobianchi8]

Wow, super, thanks for sharing this video, loved it! Just a question, I am planning to ride the NC 500 next summer and I was wondering which bikes did you use? In particular which tires did you ride with? Thanks :)

[@weekendwatts5837]

Hey, sorry for the slow reply. Our bikes are just regular roadies - Alice's slightly fancier Liv Envie and mine is a Boardman Team (with upgraded groupset). The only real changes we made was fitting 11-34 cassette and longcage derailleur, then changing the tires to Panaracer Gravelking 28mm (we had to check they had enough clearance which they did). I'm probably going to make another video going into a little more detail about our kit and the route soon. Any other q's let me know :)

[@giacomobianchi8]

@@weekendwatts5837 great, thanks a lot! Another video on the kit would be amazing, really curious about that! Yes, I am currently using 25mm tyres but I was considering to switch to 28mm too. Thanks again :)

[@monkedits3964]

Guys, looks amazing! Literally tonight I booked a 6 day trip very similar to this around the NC500 for June! Any top tips for me? I was wondering about storing bikes in the hotels?

[@madduck09]

June you'll need a lot of insect repellent for the midges I believe!!

[@woodherd]

Excellent video. Just enough to give a flavour of the ride. What do you use to edit the videos?

[@weekendwatts5837]

Thank you! It was filmed on GoPro 8 and edited using Adobe Premiere Pro :)

[@seanherd-hoare2251]

Amazing stuff guys! Well done. How did you navigate whilst cycling?

[@rabittbol9415]

Amazing journey guys !! So amazing to see you through these wonderful landscape 🤩 I see you get off you bikes to go through cattle grids. How hazardous would it be to cross them while on bike ? Cheers!

[@weekendwatts5837]

It was amazing, glad you enjoyed. The cattle grids probably are okay to cross on bike, we chose not too as it was usually wet. Also it's a welcome excuse to hop off for a few minutes 😉

[@hlcor]

How did you the animation in the beginning of each day?

[@weekendwatts5837]

After Effects :)

[@Fliffly]

What time of year is this?

[@weekendwatts5837]

This was in August