Scotland Highlands and Hebrides. A couple of questions

[Aleksey-San]

Hey, folks. The clock is ticking and we are preparing to our trek in Highlands. One more question has been raised. It is about punctures due to princkly bushes or other bad plants on the way. Should we worry about it as much as about midges or not?

And just for your fun - this is how we start a cycling season in Russia . It was a week ago. Paved roads are mostly clean but small local ways or trails are like these

 

[Slick]

Hey, folks. The clock is ticking and we are preparing to our trek in Highlands. One more question has been raised. It is about punctures due to princkly bushes or other bad plants on the way. Should we worry about it as much as about midges or not?

And just for your fun - this is how we start a cycling season in Russia . It was a week ago. Paved roads are mostly clean but small local ways or trails are like these
View attachment 458109 View attachment 458110

Scotland is going to be a breeze after that lot.

You get the same number of punctures (I'm not particularly superstitious) as anywhere else I would imagine but certainly no more than you would probably consider normal.

 

[Pat "5mph"]

In my experience you get less punctures traveling in remote locations than commuting in town.
Once you're out of the big cities there is no broken glass allover the roads or paths.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

You are not likely to get much from prickly plants but you may get some from flints (very small sharp stones) in the road. You may have a puncture free visit or you may be cursing Scottish roads...

 

[Blue Hills]

In my experience you get less punctures traveling in remote locations than commuting in town.
Once you're out of the big cities there is no broken glass allover the roads or paths.

You are lucky pat.
I cycle a fair bit in wet rural lancashire - debris of all sorts from hedges continually washed into the hillside lanes.
I have always had the idea that thorns etc are more likely to cause rapid punctures than small bits of glass.
Best advice of course is to regularly check tyres for debris working its way through which seems to cause most punctures.
On tour I turn the bike over every morning and check the tyres.

Edit - and the flints which yukon mentions. True.
The natural world just hates tyres.

 

[snorri]

but you may get some from flints (very small sharp stones) in the road.

It would be an incredible misfortune to be punctured by flint in the Highlands, it is not found in these parts.

 

[mudsticks]

I have had a puncture from a bramble thorn on the Western Isles, but I was going a bit off road to find a camping pitch.

On the whole because there are fewer, trimmed thorn hedges, in the Highlands, than in other parts of rural UK, you are possibly slightly less likely to get a puncture there from vegetation.

You really need to worry about the weather more.

Take plenty of sunscreen

 

[Ming the Merciless]

It would be an incredible misfortune to be punctured by flint in the Highlands, it is not found in these parts.

Must have brought it with me!

 

[Pat "5mph"]

@mudsticks you really must stop posting deceiving pictures
Our @Aleksey-San will have the shock of his life when he finally gets to Scotland, ends up soaking wet, battered by the winds, on a one street village with no shops open, no phone network, squashed remains of snacks retrieved from the depths of his panniers for dinner

 

[Pat "5mph"]

It would be an incredible misfortune to be punctured by flint in the Highlands, it is not found in these parts.

True.
The only place I've seen flints is on a bit of the Union canal, and, strangely, on a short stretch after the BBC building along the Clydeside.
Got a puncture from there many years ago, avoided since then.
Every (rare) puncture I get is due to glass sherds or building debris.

 

[mudsticks]

@mudsticks you really must stop posting deceiving pictures
Our @Aleksey-San will have the shock of his life when he finally gets to Scotland, ends up soaking wet, battered by the winds, on a one street village with no shops open, no phone network, squashed remains of snacks retrieved from the depths of his panniers for dinner

Ah Pat... I know what you're up to, trying to stop more tourists clogging up Scotland.

I do seem to be unbelievably lucky with weather when I go there.

I generally get far wetter in Devon.

Although I do have 'fond' memories of those headwinds on the Uists - having to pedal quite hard to get down some inclines.. And that was going north.

 

[Blue Hills]

It would be an incredible misfortune to be punctured by flint in the Highlands, it is not found in these parts.

Didn't know that. No small sharp stone at all?
If so .great news as I find flints one of the worst things for punctures.

 

[Blue Hills]

@mudsticks you really must stop posting deceiving pictures
Our @Aleksey-San will have the shock of his life when he finally gets to Scotland, ends up soaking wet, battered by the winds, on a one street village with no shops open, no phone network, squashed remains of snacks retrieved from the depths of his panniers for dinner

And the week i spent in scotland years ago on a driving holiday. Company car petrol meant i could check the forecast every day and then set off cross country to try to find a dry non foggy misty bit. Still didn't work and wimpered back south after having seen almost nothing.
It is a wondrous place though.

 

[mudsticks]

And the week i spent in scotland years ago on a driving holiday. Company car petrol meant i could check the forecast every day and then set off cross country to try to find a dry non foggy misty bit. Still didn't work and wimpered back south after having seen almost nothing.
It is a wondrous place though.

this was because you were using evil private motorised transport Blue Hills.

Go by train, and bike, or on foot, and your virtue will be rewarded with days and days of unbroken sunshine

and sunsets such as this

 

[Blue Hills]

this was because you were using evil private motorised transport Blue Hills.

Perhaps mudsticks.

You may be pleased to know that I eventually wrote that car off (that's what i was originally told but it may have been saved) by crashing it into a policeman in an unmarked car and so my driving career ended.

And that's when I discovered cycling. Have made several visits to scotland but do want to get back on a bike with my ton of bike luggage. For i well remember seeing some bike tourists camped in some wondrous spots. Some no longer so free unfortunately due to inseason restrictions on free camping.

No one hurt at all in that crash I stress.