Ride It Scotland Event

Drove up the other day to Loch Katrine from Aberfoyle. The road is now open but the weather forecast is looking pretty bad for the next few days so will be closed again.The road is not in the greatest condition and has lots of pot-holes.Rode it last year and its quite hard but well capable with a compact and a 28 or even a 25. Make sure your brakes are good as the run down is fast and twisty.Enjoy and pray for dry conditions.

I ride Duke's pass on a regular basis (lucky me!) and it's not a bad climb at all. I ride a 50/34 compact with 11-28 on the back, but normally only need the 17 or 19 for the steep side (South). The climb from the North side is pretty easy.

It's 2.5 miles at an average of 4.5% from the North, but quite a bit steeper from the South, average 8.5%

Here are the climb profiles on Ride with GPS....
From South: http://ridewithgps.com/routes/2106265
From North: http://ridewithgps.com/routes/2106267

See you on the ride!

You can check 2012 entry numbers by looking at last years times on the Evans website. They are still there.

I have ridden this event the last two years. 2011 was not highly supported, 2012 was full about a week before and I was surprised to read your post and find it was full already this year. I thought take up might be a bit slower with the fact the event is a month earlier this year.

Dukes Pass has been closed on off recently with snow and ice over the last week so I wouldn't go for a reconn at the moment.

The route they have used previously takes you over the pass north to south twice. This is the easier way across as the start of the climb on the north side is at higher elevation than Aberfoyle on the south. Don't think you would need anything too radical, but I do have a compact chainset on my bike.

Nice scenery, plenty of potholes, a few cattle grids around Loch Katrine and entry is relatively cheap. Decent showers and changing available in the Sports Centre base.