Just been looking at the website;

weblinky thing

Looks like it's almost all rideable – anyone done it? Thinking about September time so might have to detour past some of the boggy bits. Any advice graciously taken on board.

be aware that alot of the stuff near drumlanrig is very steep ups and very steep downs . i was licking my front tire most of the time when climbing up to wanlockhead and the front end was still lifting … the downs aint so bad though 😉

I assume you saw this on the Cycling section:

Cycling
Many sections of the Way are excellent for mountain biking with a wide range of tracks from forest roads to singletrack. However other areas are unsurfaced track over grassy hillsides. Due to the prevailing weather conditions in southern Scotland and the fact that much of the area is peat bog these areas often become so muddy that it is not possible to cycle them. This is very weather dependant so areas that might be easy to ride in the winter when the ground is frozen are impassable over the summer and autumn.

We are currently working on improving the Way for Cyclists and also producing a guide to riding the Southern Upland Way with advice on which areas can be ridden and alternative routes for areas that are impassable. For more information please contact one of the Rangers.

Looks like it's not one for just yet, but certainly one to keep an eye on perhaps?

Were you thinking a one-hit-wonder, or a multi-day ride?

i've ridden it from innerleithen to cockburnspath over 2 and a bits days and it was great fun! we didn't stick to it religiously though, some bits were really muddy and the like, but mostly it was fantastic – go for it!

I did it way back in 91/92 and there was some bike a hike up hills and was quite remote in places(excellent!).
As mentioned its originaly a walkers route so mostly twin tracks and grassy ways with a bit heather louping in places down in Galloway.
From Moffat onwards it gets better for cycling and is scenic up past St Marys Loch and over the Minchmoor where it passes the 3 Brethen Cairns,then its all fine and ridable at my end from lauder to cockburnspath…nice up around twinlaw cairns and at the river at Abby st Bathans.
I imagine the western end has improved paths now…ive since done the eastern end alot as it finishes just down the road at Cockburnspath,can get a train at Dunbar- ridable to there from Co-path along the coast on the John Muir Way,im sure you can get along the coast now to Berwick Upon Tweed now on the North Sea Way if you want to get a train return,
oh visit cove harbour too after you finish,its lovely down there on a warm day

Grand – lots of really useful info there, cheers to all!

Will likely be doing it with my wife so won't be aiming for any speed records… I guess the best way to do it is just to suck-it-and-see. If we come accross unrideable bits, we'll have the luxury of a few spare days so backtrcking and detours no problem.

The plan 'B' would be for me to ride it one way, meet the wife and dog at Cockburnspath and walk back the other direction.

coastkid – the train idea sounds good – I'll look into it. How many days did you take to do the whole thing and were you bivvying?

Did the section between traquair and St. Marys loch last weekend as part of a bigger loop, riding well at this time of year but september would depend on how damp a month it has been.

coastkid – the train idea sounds good – I'll look into it. How many days did you take to do the whole thing and were you bivvying?

we did it old school with panniers and ultimate peapod tents.. took us around 5 days but we did have a carryout every night as were young and daft 😆
reckon could do it with a bob trailer easy if you want to carry lots of stuff…
thinking of doing it mid winter as enough bothys now and will be deserted and doing a proper blog post/flicker set of the whole route for peoples reference 😮