So me and crashtestmonkey are off to Aberdeen for my brother’s wedding on 28th March .. want to make a trip of it, but weather could be horrific or may not. We have MTB’s (hard tail, full sus) cyclo cross bikes and road bikes! which do we take? What do we do? Where should we go?

Glentress? Fort William? 7 StaneS? or take cyclo x bikes for more flexibility?> Or road bikes for some of the 100 best climbs?

Any advice would be great! Thanks.

Any or all of the above. End of March should be fine for any sort of riding really. You do know how big Scotland is, yeah?

Without sounding too condescending, bring the appropriate bikes for what you are going to ride. Scotland is quite diverse as you know and all the options you’ve thought of will be great so you need to make your minds up what sort of riding you want to do. planning a great road trip is the easy part.

CX bikes aren’t really any more flexible. just a bit quicker on the dull sloggy bits off-road or a bit slower on nice tarmac but quite a bit less fun on all fun bits (unless fun for you is racing CX of course). worst of both worlds IMO.

Dundee at the same time as you. Road bike for me, Etape Caledonia route & 3 pistes Cairngorms loop hopefully. Or the Snow Roads 300km. But will probs take an mtb too just in case. Even if I had one I wouldn’t take CX I think like wot mtbel says.

End of March? Nice early loops around South Cairngorms and East Glens should just about be loosing snow…MTB, whichever you like the
most.

(if the spring is particularly cold and snowy, change all that for the road)

And as scotroutes points out, stay local, don’t go driving all over Scotland just to go to a place you have heard of – East near and a few miles from Aberdeen is littered with great rides.

I know about picking appropriate bike for riding which is why I was asking for recommendations on what people would do! I’m guessing we were thinking somewhere on route to Aberdeen as we’ll be coming up the west coast, so we aren’t going to outer hebrides or John O’Groats! so what would you suggest?

MTBing then. ..

Living in Dundee and knowing what the weather is like around here I’d be as flexible as you can. Plan 3 different rides and then make the decision as late as possible, possibly while packing the car, hopefully that way you will end up with the right bike.

Nice weather, head into the Cairngorms towards Braemar, nasty weather, head to Inverness or Glenlivet for the trail centres around there. If you hate yourself bring the road bikes.

Shackleton that sounds ace thanks!

It would be a full sus mtb for me. As your in the Aberdeen area you could ride local stuff like Bennachie, Millstone Hill and Scolty Hill. You could also head further a field to somewhere like Ballater and do the classic Loch Muick and Glen Clova ride (snow levels allowing).
Maybe combine this with a couple of days somewhere on the way up here.

don’t believe you’ve mentioned where you’re coming from or what route you’d be taking to Aberdeen so giving you pointers on where to mtb on your way there or back isn’t really all that easy.
What sort of mtb riding do you like?
ie. traditional XC loop, hike a bike middle of nowhere trudge, Trail centre, technical descending… the list is endless but a clue as to what you’re looking for wouldn’t go a miss.

We are heading up from Oxfordshire so I don’t really know what route we’ll be doing as never driven up to Aberdeen before but brother always says up west side to Gladgow then across. Love mix of riding but I’m guessing trail centres, XC type stuff .

If you’re going to a trail centre then bring the full sus. Then once in Aberdeenshire there’s plenty of non-trail centre rides that still benefit from a full sus.

Personally, I’d be inclined to bring the road bikes. If you’re not familiar with an area and have nobody to show you around then you’ll probably get lost looking for the best MTB trails. At least with a road bike you can look up the road maps and pick a route.

The mountain biking around Aberdeenshire is among the best in the world!! Take you trail bikes and get out there…….

http://www.mtbtrails.info/Trail_Venue.aspx?VenueNumber=15

Loch Muick and around, from Ballater….. a few options!

Also Bennachie, would suit less favourable weather and would give longer and shorter options!!

Bennachie routes

There are many Aberdeen folks on the forum – give us a shout closer to the time and I’m sure we can show you some of the fun bits.

I’d say bring a full suspension MTB and enjoy some of the great trails around here. If I’m about, I’d be happy to show you round Bennachie and Scolty – both are great :).

Edit – and as we used to live in Kidlington and now outside Aberdeen, I’d second the route.. up the A34/M40/M42/M6/M74 to Glasgow then towards Stirling and then up A9 to Perth then A90 to Aberdeen.

clareymorris:

Just looked at that link – Looks wicked!

I live in Angus & will certainly b checking them out this year! 🙂

Glasgow, then A9 to Aviemore and fill your boots on MTB trails galore.

On to Aberdeen by tourist route – or just stay in Aviemore and have a ball!

Stop at Dunkeld and get a days riding the 4 peaks of the town, or.focus on the hermitage, maybe get an uplift day with progression bikes. Stop at Stirling and do dumyat, or Ben cleuch or both. Perth Kinnoull hill for a play about. Falkland, ballo for dh. Pitmedden for a good mixture. Cathkin braes if a hard xc race course floats your boat. New pump track at Chryston near Glasgow. Xc loops out of Pitlochry. Laggan trail centre plus non map trails over the Rd. Check the ecurie neep club around Aberdeen for trails up there.

Just go via Wrexham and hire bikes there. It’s shite up here.

Used to live in Kidlington! So did we now we’re in Bicester .. with that hateful Bicester village! Aberdeen sounds good and normally my brother would be free but since it’s his wedding, I imagine he’s going to be pretty tied up in the days running up to the wedding. HE’s getting married at Raemoir House Hotel. Any accommodation in Aberdeen then that’s reasonably priced (prior to the wedding).
Thanks!

Raemoir House Hotel could be fun for cycling – you can pretty much head out the back of the hotel and you’re onto the Hill of Fare – some great tracks around there. Though, that might not help much if you’re just there for the wedding (might be missed if you pop out for a ride). If you’re staying at or near the hotel, you’re about 5 mins drive (or an easy cycle) from some excellent tracks..

See: Hill of Fare
or a variation on it: Strava link

Or Scolty has a huge range of trails and it just the other side of Banchory: Scolty trails

Aberdeen accommodation can be very expensive and generally you don’t get a lot for your money. Hotels in the town seem to be geared towards folks on oil industry expense accounts and there’s generally a lack of supply and too much demand –> expensive. Though this may change if the horror stories about the state of North Sea oil are to be believed.

Book your hotel early! If your staying mid-week expect high prices due to the lack of hotel rooms in Aberdeen.

Rode the Hill of Fare a few months back, first time despite being local! Wasn’t that great, a lot of it was a very old DH track that was pretty overgrown and in need of quite a bit of maintenance to be honest.

The run off the back of the hill with the mast is awesome, lots of drainage channels and boulders to catch you out!

Another alternative near Aberdeen is Pitfichie which is semi-trail centre type riding in places with an old SDA DH track at the further end of the main trail that’s pretty good.