# Aussie moving to Scotland.



## waldog (Nov 4, 2005)

Hi, as the title suggests i'm moving to Scotland for roughly a year and am currently trying to put some plans into place. I've checked out the 7stanes website and it all looks fantastic!!!!

My questions are:

Where else is there to ride other than the 7stanes?

What bike will be best for the 7stanes area (i have a 5 inch dually)?

Should i bring my bike or purchase something once i'm there?

What's a good city to base myself in, need a hospital to work in, i'm a nurse?

Thanks in advance,

Grant.


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## MarkFu (Jul 29, 2008)

Hi Grant,

Scotland has a whole lot more than the Stanes to offer. The Cairngorms (Aviemore would be a good base). Anywhere around Fort William. Further North there are more trail centres (Golspie, Laggan). The Isle of Skye is apparently fantastic. Basically, almost all of Scotland is a bit of a mtb honeypot, they don't have the access restrictions that England has either. As long as you don't mind horrendous mozzies and very changeable weather, then you'll have a great time.

With regards to the Stanes, pretty much anywhere in S.Scotland will put you within fairly easy reach of them. Edinburgh is probably a good bet location wise. I'm sure some of the Scottish contingent will have a lot more info than i have.

Oh, and a 5" FS shouldbe fine for most of the trails there  .

Mark


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## miggy (Nov 25, 2008)

on top of what Mark mentioned there are alot of Local trails that don't apear on the Foresty comision web site, for the north east aberdeenshire try Ecurie neep web site, there are also good trails around Perth and at Falkland near perth and Steling. if you are more into all day epics there are plenty all over, basically where ever there are hills or a walkers track. the island of Aran has a good club also, and you can cycle back country on the Isle of Harris (where you wont meet anyone for days)


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## Northwind (May 13, 2009)

Whole country's nothing but hills and trees  I'd recommend you pick up the Bike Scotland Trails Guide and the Bikefax book for your area- probably Southern Scotland and the Seven Stanes. Both great guides, lots of stuff both built and natural. I was surprised to find both of my main local loops in there, frinstance, and actually found a diversion in one of the books which I didn't even know about myself! Very good.


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## Pingu (Jul 18, 2008)

Hi Grant,

7 Stanes is good with Kirroughtree being my favourite. It's about 2 hrs south of Glasgow. And Glentress whcih is about the same distance away.

Depending on where you plan to stay there are loads of options. For good routes in and around Glasgow you should check out the Glasgoew Mountain Bike Club. They have regular night rides in the week and organise stuff for the weekends too.

I used to live in the north of Glasgow and there were good routes in and around Mugdock Country Park linking to the West Highland Way and beyond. Lots of good singletrack but you would really need to be shown the good stuff as it's easy to get lost. 

In terms of bike......... I'd bring what you've got. Prices in the UK are a rip off for bikes :madmax: Full sus is fine or hardtail should be good.

For working in a hospital........ there's plenty in Glasgow to choose from. Check out the NHS website for locations.

Buy some avon skin so soft for your rides...... as you will get eaten at this time of year! 

Have fun


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## lynseyf (May 1, 2007)

Hi, The Pentlands are right next to Edinburgh, you can ride right from the city centre along the canal right to the edge of them. 
http://eucc.eusu.ed.ac.uk/pentlands_map.php
Glentress and Innerleithen are about 1 hr drive from Edinburgh, check the helmet cam footage of Innerleithen in one of the threads above.


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## Trail_rat (Oct 25, 2006)

ninewells hosp at dundee would be a good base - sidlaws and tentsmuir can be ridden to. Glentress/inners - laggan couple hours away by car - Angus Glens under an hour - pitmeadden-perth-stirling-falkland all near by 

Where scotland differs from Aus and Nz i found when i was traveling over there is that in scotland we can ride where ever we want as long as we are responsible(no litter /fires/massive groups) - we dont need permission from landowners etc.

Any bike will be fine - prices in the uk are a bit cheaper/comparible to aus from what i saw when we were over in february - even with our recent price hikes - but no reason not to bring your bike with you if you have a nice one


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## lathikadas (Jan 2, 2008)

hi
i've been to Scotland 11 days and i can say that is not the best place to ride.
i carried my bike with me and only could ride in Fort Williams and near Inverness
The majority of the traks are plenty of mud... impossible to ride on them... and very, very few tracks or paths over the country
sorry, but this is my point of view


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## weescott (May 7, 2006)

lathikadas - You can't have done your homework very well then.There are hundreds of miles of paths and tracks across the Cairngorms and a shed load of dedicated trails.

Where exactly did you ride? I take it you rode Golspie, Learnie, Laggan, Witches trails, 7 Staines...?


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## miggy (Nov 25, 2008)

did you go to any of the seven staines on the forestry comision website, did you hook up with any of the clubs? 

just though it was a bit of a sweeping statement against a MTB gold medel wining country


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## lynseyf (May 1, 2007)

lathikadas, obviously you saw far more of the country in your 11 days than those of us who live here ever have. Try googling right to roam, you can ride anything you see in Scotland. I guess some of the mountain trails might get a but muddy bu surely thats the point of being in the wilderness? The trailcentres are generalyy pretty good, the trails are really well built and stay surprisingly mud free even when there's been lots of rain but obviously you will know a lot more about this than me


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## Boycey (Apr 2, 2009)

I spent 2 weeks of this summer in scotland mountain biking, the first week cycled from creetown to edinburgh via some of the 7 stanes centres. And the second week spent with a day ride round isle of skye (awesome technical trial) then cycled from the island across scotland to montrose. Was some of the best riding i've ever done, only annoying thing and downside to the trip was the midge's :madman:


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## lathikadas (Jan 2, 2008)

weescott said:


> lathikadas - You can't have done your homework very well then.There are hundreds of miles of paths and tracks across the Cairngorms and a shed load of dedicated trails.
> 
> Where exactly did you ride? I take it you rode Golspie, Learnie, Laggan, Witches trails, 7 Staines...?


Really i do my homeworks specially when i travel abroad with my bicycle by plane, what is really hard

I visited mtbscotland forum website... a page that dissapeared few time before i travelled to Scorland. I asked and received some advices. I took gps tracks and maps of laggan, Fort Williams, the mtb site near Inverness (i can`t remember the name, and some other). I visited the Forestry Comission website too.

I rode in Fort Williams, Inverness, Skye and Edinburgh.

Your problem is that you only can ride in pre-prepared places... i mean, you only have tracks or paths built specially for mtb, or you can ride trough hiking paths, but you can't ride anywhere you want, perhaps is not forbidden, but you really can't because there is no path or trail to go from town to town... (ok, you have a road perhaps, but they are narrow and plenty of traffic). I live in spain. Here you have many traks or mountain path where you can ride and go from one town to another. There you can ride The which trail (very, very funny in fact), but is the only place near Fort Williams you can ride.... Ok, you have the Caledonian Channel to travel cicloturism, beautifull, lovely, but that is not mtb.
I think ther is a problem of climate. It's not easy for you to have good tracks or paths not flooded... but really i think what i have said. You have a very beautifull country to hike, to visit, to live, but not so good to ride mtb.

Regards


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## lathikadas (Jan 2, 2008)

miggy said:


> ...
> just though it was a bit of a sweeping statement against a MTB gold medel wining country


Your World Championship track is amazing and very, very funny (i rode 5 times in two days), but that not means you have a gold medal mtb country, if you mean that..


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## lathikadas (Jan 2, 2008)

lynseyf said:


> lathikadas, obviously you saw far more of the country in your 11 days than those of us who live here ever have. Try googling right to roam, you can ride anything you see in Scotland. I guess some of the mountain trails might get a but muddy bu surely thats the point of being in the wilderness? The trailcentres are generalyy pretty good, the trails are really well built and stay surprisingly mud free even when there's been lots of rain but obviously you will know a lot more about this than me


... really not....

i'm spanish. i can speak english and french but as a second language, and obviously i can't pick or understand ironic sentences or some idioms.

i don't mind muddy trails. we have plenty of mud in the north of spain (i live in the dry centre). i have rode with mud, and that's not the problem.

i obviously don't know more about rain or ride under the rain like you, but that's not the point.

i only have expressed an opinion in this free forum. i have not offended to anyone, i think. i have rode here in spain, in german, france, norway and italy, and i can say that Scotland is not the best place to ride unless you have very good places to ride mtb.

Bye


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## lynseyf (May 1, 2007)

Ah right, actually I agree with you now but I think you just worded it badly. There are millions of places to mtb but the cycle network linking towns is very poor and you really need a car to get to good trail centres or mountains if you live in the city. The cycle paths within towns are also pretty poor but there is generally some hills accessible from cities, see my link for the Pentlands from Edinburgh, you can cycle along the canal to get to them which is lovely.


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## chick0 (Apr 4, 2009)

lathikadas said:


> hi
> i've been to Scotland 11 days and i can say that is not the best place to ride.
> i carried my bike with me and only could ride in Fort Williams and near Inverness
> The majority of the traks are plenty of mud... impossible to ride on them... and very, very few tracks or paths over the country
> sorry, but this is my point of view


This is one of most ridicules statements i have ever read about Mountain biking in Scotland.

There is a reason that Scotland is named the "Mountain bike capital of Europe" and the "global superstar" of the Sport!!

For 2 years running Scotland has been awarded the worlds top destination for Mountain biking by the Mountain Bicycling Association (IMBA)..


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## seosamh (Mar 17, 2007)

lynseyf said:


> lathikadas, obviously you saw far more of the country in your 11 days than those of us who live here ever have. Try googling right to roam, you can ride anything you see in Scotland. I guess some of the mountain trails might get a but muddy bu surely thats the point of being in the wilderness? The trailcentres are generalyy pretty good, the trails are really well built and stay surprisingly mud free even when there's been lots of rain but obviously you will know a lot more about this than me


if fairness if they've been recently, it has been exceptionally muddy and wet and alot of the trails are very boggy that would usually be rideable. i'm just back from a week up in the torridon area, and if dry the trails would have been alot more ridable, i even managed to destroy my brakes it was that muddy wet and steep. still good fun, but for the more natural stuff some of it you have to be fairly hardy to ride, plus all the rivers have been in spate for yonks, i've never seen so much water coming off the hills..


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## seosamh (Mar 17, 2007)

lathikadas said:


> ... really not....
> 
> i'm spanish. i can speak english and french but as a second language, and obviously i can't pick or understand ironic sentences or some idioms.
> 
> ...


Qué tal lathikdas, entiendo qué dices, llueve mucho en escocia ahora, en algúnas de las rutas hay mucha agua y está muy fangoso..Pero si vienes cuando el clima es mejorar, creo que disfrutas las rutas mas.. Yo viajo en algúnas rutas en la semana pasada y tambien creo que están muy mojado y no bueno. Desgraciadamente verano en escocia puede estar como este.

Aunque como digo, espero que vuelves cuando el clima es mejorar!

Lo siento por el mal español, estoy solo aprendiendo español por seis meses pasado!


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## swaussie (Jul 23, 2007)

My advice from one Aussie to another is to ride yourself stupid in Scotland and then save your money and head to Les Gets in France next summer. Rent a bike while you are there if you cant be bothered with the hassle of taking one with you. It will blow you away just how good the riding is and how amazing the alps are. There is nothing in Aus (pretty much the world) to compare to the riding there and the memories will be something you will talk about for the rest of your life. Make sure you take a week or more off to go there, you will NOT regret it!!!


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## boristhespie (Nov 29, 2009)

_Where else is there to ride other than the 7stanes?_

The country is now a freezone for mountain biking. respect the folk who live and work there and you can go alsmost anywhere.

Scottish Mountain biking terrain is for "real" men. Hardy stuff.


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## weescott (May 7, 2006)

Pretty much the whole of the Cairngorms have trails. The Fungle and Mount Keen are favourites of mine. You can cycle almost all off road from Stonehaven in the North East to Fort William in the West (where there is the WC DH and XC tracks). Close by is IMO some of the best trails in the UK (Laggan Wolftrax). There are some great trails near Inverness. I cycled General Wades military road then along the banks of Loch Ness about 10 years ago great scenery. North of Inverness I hear there are great trails. A lot of great riding on the Isle of Skye too.

Have a look at Google maps. Look at the mountainous areas and there is mountain biking there.

Glentress etc are all fantastic fun but further north there is some very different mountain biking to be had.

Here are some apa typical bike pics of mine from some trails in NE Scotland:


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## boristhespie (Nov 29, 2009)

Not much riding a just now. We had over 3 feet of snow yesterday in most of the highlands and Perthshire.

Pretty good winter for snow riding though.


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## Decklogic1 (Feb 11, 2010)

Inverness is a good base, has a large hospital, and is in a central location to multiple trail centres, and wild trails.

Remember though - Anywhere in the UK can be pretty unpredictable for weather - Scotland more so - so if you are a fair weather biker, be prepared and willing to get dirty


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## CaveGiant (Aug 21, 2007)

I should point out that Scotland is great to ride.
7 stanes is mostly there to keep the English away from the real trails.

The terrain will be VERY different to what you usually ride.

The british isles are wet and muddy, it takes a bit of getting used to.


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## Velobike (Jun 23, 2007)

As an Aussie, I can say Scotland is great and the further North, the better.

Heaps to ride because you can go anywhere.

It's full of real unmaintained mountain tracks, so you can expect a track to be anything from dry and hard, to wet, to boggy, to iced up, or simply to disappear for a mile or two. Maybe for some of our more delicate overseas visitors we should create some specially paved tracks with fit young maidens running alongside sheltering the rider with an umbrella. Otherwise MTFU and experience real country.


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## nuclear_powered (Apr 18, 2007)

He's over there in a few days, the OP. Probably too busy packing/organising to see how much advice he's gotten.

From reading the above, I'm quite jealous of him.


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