What are they like for cycling? Interested in bmxing, a bit of road, and of course, mtbing. Applying to both universities, and was just wondering..

Go to Aberdeen, great town. It's famous as the place that copper wire was invented.. two Aberdonians fighting over a penny.

aberdeen – transition extreme indoor skatepark down on the beach – as well as numerous council estate parks .

Pitfichie , benacchie and kirkhill/tyrebagger(ridable from town) all easy with the rest of deeside not far away.

Road is a stickler – have to ride for half an hour or so and avoid trying to do it between 7 and 9am and 4.30 and 7pm as people are rat racing the back roads trying to avoid the jams in the town centers boils my piss at times – they come round corners on the wrong side (provided its not a singletrack road)of the road at 60 on their mobiles rushing to get back to their TV dinner and strictly come dancing …..

nice enough on saturday and sunday up deeside and out towards inverurie and oyne

Don't know about edinburgh but i quite like aberdeen, been here since i came to uni 10 years ago. Eastern caringorms are pretty much on your doorstep, there is a big road club (deeside thistle)and plenty of mountainbiking around some within riding distance, some requirin a car. There is also transition extreme skatepark and climbing wall if that is your thing. Oh and if you surf then there is some of that available too.
The down sides are it gets dark about 3pm in the winter and when it is grey and rainy and windy (like today) then you can't tell where the city ends and the sky begins.
What are you applying to study?

Hope this helps

Edit: dammit beaten by trailrat

Edinburgh.

Decent network of cycle tracks but with a big gap across the centre. Decent ( if not amazing) "natural riding " around – pentlands and other places. Short drive ( but no train) to Tweed valley for the trail centres – couple of hours by train / car gets you into th4e mountains.
A good city for cycling – lots of cycle commuters.

Beautiful city to live in – but expensive – flats are expensive to rent – £250 pcm+ for a room in a shared flat £450+ for you own flat. Lots of kultur and nice pubs – but again beer is expensive

Cheers, really helpful. And I'm applying for maths.

Edinburgh ahs a Indoor bmx place as well – in ocean terminal – transgresssion or transmission or something – I don't know as I have never been there. a couple of rather poor out door tracks that I know of.

Weather like aberdeen its an east cosat climate – so dry and sunny but cold and sometimes windy. Hardly gets dark in summer, hardly light in winter. When the easterly wind comes it will cut you in two – but the sunshine and long summer days make up for it

My 2p, having lived in Edinburgh for 10+ years and Aberdeen for 3+ months…

Edinburgh is the better city, for when you can't get out on your bike. Much more to do, places to wander and explore, more cosmopolitan, many students/excellent student life (was a student here 🙂 ). In terms of expense, I think both cities are on a par, given that Aberdeen has the oil money.

Riding wise, I found the 'local' off-road riding outside of Aberdeen to far exceed what Edinburgh has to offer locally, but suffers in quantity (but then I was only there for a short while) as the local hills are quite small. They're also not as immediately accessible as the Pentlands. If you have access to a car, then there's Bennachie and Scolty. Edinburgh has the edge though as there is so much within a few hours of driving, unlike Aberdeen where you're a wee bit restricted.

Can't comment on BMX or road, but always saw plenty of roadies up in Aberdeenshire as there are lots of wee country lanes (although they can be a nightmare, as trail_rat mentioned – incidentaly I was in Aberdeen working on the bypass project which may help with this problem…). Road riding out of Edinburgh is (mostly, and purely my opinion) shite! BMX/skate park at Ocean Terminal and they'er building a big outdoor one in Saughton.

Edit: I'd pick Edinburgh, btw…

Never been to Edinburgh but brother is in Aberdeen and I think it's ace, does that help? 😆

Lived in or near Edinburgh for over ten years. I would say Pents are underrated and there is a good number of folks on here to show you the best bits, as well as the Uni clubs. Pretty much what everybody else has said is true. Bike shops are a bit of a mixed bag sometimes good, sometimes not although there is a good number of them.

Done nearly 20yrs in/near both Cities…..

Edinburgh: Much nicer city for most things but bigger/pricier. Plenty to see and do in terms of music/arts/cinema/food etc
Easier to ride round and close to Pentlands/Borders/7 Stanes.

Aberdeen: Miserable, insular, grey city with oil industry and little else. Perfectly located for getting out into the hills, deeside, cairngorms etc so much better base for biking/skiing/surfing etc. Fun to ride round in rush hour (if you like that sort of thing). Real pain in the arse to travel to/from.

I'd go for Aberdeen as you're closer to the great outdoors but Edinburgh's better for most other stuff.

Good luck with either…..

for aberdeen flat prices for a 1 bed center of town circa from 350PCM no bills from when i was looking – dont bother bringing a car though – youll pay 550 pcm for a flat with a parking place in town

2 bedrooms start at 650 PCM no bills -although in the vacinity of the uni

Nice dilemma…
Born, brought up, went to Uni in Edinburgh. Loved it and still do. Moved to Aberdeen 17 years ago and I'm never moving back. True Edinburgh's better as a city but Aberdeen's way better for the outdoors stuff. Nothing contentious in any of the above posts.

Enjoy.

I've never lived in either so can't comment much. I really really love Edinburgh though. Where is it you're moving from? Edinburgh is certainly more easily linked with the rest of the UK and the airport can take you to a wide variety of international destinations.

Might be worth considering the universities themselves. I know both have very long histories and a good reputation, but Edinburgh is probably a little bit more prestigious.

aberdeen is colder. and wetter. and darker.

Aberdeen is a great area for biking, get out to Ballater (45 minutes drive) there are some great natural trails, check out http://www.9zerofreewheelers.co.uk or http://www.ecurieneep.co.uk

Langy you say that Aberdeen is wet however I don't think it's as bad as some people think! When I brother moved there from the "sunny" South that's what he was dreading but he said it doesn't rain any more or less than other parts! Aberdeen has it's own micro climate, so it's horrific in the UK except Aberdeen has sunshine! weird, great place I love it shame it's just so bloody far from Oxford!

I lived in Edinburgh for 17 years (left for Peebles this year) and would recommend it highly – a nice size of city to live in and is a very good place to be a student (that's why I moved there). Where I lived gave me easy access to the cycle path network which meant I could get across the city only seeing roads a couple of times. Pentlands are fantastic for something so near the city – really enjoy riding there – but for anything else, you need to get a bit further out. It's got it's downsides of course – gangs of marauding neds/chavs abound like any other city (I found Edinburgh every bit as bad as Glasgow (where I spent the 18 years before Edinburgh) for that) and the accommodation prices are over the top.

Aberdeen I know less well – although 2 of my best mates and my cousin all went to uni there and absolutely loved it. Access to the 'gorms from Braemar is only a short drive away and that would be a big temptation for me.

There's a massive concrete bowl skatepark being built right now at Saughton in Edinburgh, easily rideable from the city centre. Looks like its going to be amazing.

Lived both places, as well as Glasgow, London, Manchester, Redditch, Brisbane and Sydney.

Edinburgh fav place I've lived.

Best combiniation of a size, stuff going on, city life and access to country side I've experienced. Edinburgh even has a wee mini mountain right in the middle of the city – Arthur's Seat.

Do you/will you have a car? You need a car to get to the riding around aberdeen, but you can get to the pentlands on your bike from Edinburgh.

Although Aberdeen is further North, because of it's position on the East, it takes just as long if not lobger to get to say Glen Coe than from Edinburgh. Edinburgh has better access on average to the whole of Scotland.

But at the end of the day as student, both places have really good student scene's so you'll have a great time wherever you go.

Kit – What are you on about? there's absolutely tons of good (quiet if you want that) road routes 10-20mins from Edinburgh city centre.
RM – What sort of BMX riding? there's Transgression indoor park, it's pretty small but has good lines, check out the vids on their website! Penicuik has a decent outdoor Skate park (designed by the same guy). there are big Trails (DJ) nr Edinburgh if you don't mind shovelling and that's what you're into, Musselburgh BMX track is in the process of being re-built (to regional standard) so there should be some racing again soon and thre's plenty good spots for street riding. I'll presume you've seen the Danny Mckaskill Vid (it's all shot in Edinburgh)
Edinburgh centre is actually alright for MTB riding too, you have Braid hills/blackhill, Corstorphine, Arthurs seat (illegal but too good to miss), Calton Hill all ok for a quick fix. loads of cycle routes and decent urban riding. then the Pentlands for all year round miserable XC. it's a bit rubbish for DH but most cities are and there are plenty great places under an hours drive for that.
There's a very good reason Edinburgh's rented accomodation is way more expensive than Aberdeen's.

Cheers again for the advice, really helpful.

For whoever asked, I'm moving from Portsmouth area. So doesn't really take much to impress me..

i am a student in Aberdeen also at RGU (both unis have a cycling club, the aberdeen one is more established and i am the president of the RGU one which me and my mates have just set up this year) edinburgh has one of the buggest cycling clubs in the country. for BMX/street stuff there is the big indoor skatepark (only allows under 24" wheels not 24" or above which is crap) and about half an hour out of town there is an outdoor skatepark at kemnay, we have scoured half of the city and found it fairly poor for street riding. Not a particularly big city in my eyes and is easy to get out of for road cycling however as mentioned before the traffic here is horrid as there is no real bypass so everyone flies about the back roads! but plenty of riding road wise within easy reach, lots of long straight roads. MTB wise there is a lot of stuff jst to the west of the city plenty of woods full of singletrack here there and everywhere but the hills arnt particularly large so nothing amazing but fun to mess about in and only about 15mins ride form centre of town. man made stuff – already been mentioned not many people mentioned natural stuff and there is absolutely heaps out of aberdeen only half an our to banchory where miles and miles and miles of geet big hills begin so spoilt for choice. aberdeen defo much better for getting to the 'outdoors' but as a fun city to live then edinburgh i would say much bigger and more going on, aberdeen has a new big shopping centre. weather wise – colder but overall less rain than most places in scotland jst cold instead of wet. travelling to and from – i dont think its that much worse than edinburgh apart from the airport motorway straight up form edinburgh and train line too jst crap airport. not sure what else? if you are coming to RGU i hope to see you in the cycling club next year if aberdeen uni then grrrr. i moved to aberdeen based on the reasons you are contemplating…. definately worth it!

Can't really comment too much about Aberdeen – from the few times I have been up there it seems a nice city.

Edinburgh is reasonably good. Coming from Portsmouth you will think its amazing, probably. The Pentlands are ok, but aren't really worth the hassle in winter. Against what some people have said above, there are some properly decent road rides around Edinburgh if you have the stamina to do 50-100 miles.

I'd also say that the Edinburgh Uni cycling club is very active, and when I was there was mostly mountain biking. Awesome club.

SandyThePig – Member

there are some properly decent road rides around Edinburgh if you have the stamina to do 50-100 miles.

Agreed. I dunno what folk are expecting in terms of road rides, but there's good stuff around Edinburgh in every direction (except North 😉 )

I dunno what folk are expecting in terms of road rides

Fun? Or am I missing the point entirely…

At least they talk English in Edinburgh, **** knows what they're on about in 'fit like' toon. 😉

At least they talk English in Edinburgh

because they are English…

There is plenty road riding around the 'deen. You can be out of town (west) in 20 minutes and into the countryside. Plenty of scope to.

Its definitely a couple degrees colder though. You'd need to MTFU coz its real up north! 😉