New Foesrt or Devon?? week cycling

spykes

Ok so 5 lads relativly inexperienced and certainly NOT fit bar perhaps 1 lad all 28-32 in age.

4 mtb and 1 lad with road bike so mix of on and off road riding required.Looking to go for a week end of August.

I thought New forest was better for MTB ??? and Im the lad with the road bike.

Suggestions on cottages would be excellent too Cheers everyone. price limit £1000 for the 5 of us

mobilekat

There are loads of great rides on and around Dartmoor- plus we have the Haldon forest tracks too with some reasonable trails.
So if you like superb views, great technical and mixed tracks, and some 'interesting' hills Dartmoor gets my vote!

Depends on how much you like hills though- think the New Forest has a few less!

But you may well struggle to get a place in August for that price- have you considered a youth hostel or camping?

spykes

Thanks mobilekat anywhere inparticular in Dartmoor??

and I know we have left it late :oops:

mobilekat

Last weekend we did a great ride from Princetown, down to Burrator reservoir and back up -you head off down the disused railway, which has a cycle track linking down to the reservoir, back through a place called Sheeps tor, and then up a rather :shock: vicious rocky bridlepath and then some sandy tracks back to Princetown, . Its about 18 miles.- with an icecream by the reservoir! I am a bit of a wimp and wouldn't do the route in the opposite direction yet as the steep climb is nasty when wet if descending, and the slog up the railway would kill me- its about a 5 mile 2-3% track- just rough enough to kill your legs!

There are lots of bridlepaths on the moor, some of which can be very easy, others reduce us to walking!- there is a useful map that you can get that shows roughly where all the tracks are and grades them (but their grading can be a little odd!) - which is called 'Dartmoor and the surrounding area for cyclist'- we tend to also take an OS map too for better details!

You couldn't take a road bike along that route tho (unless you carried it!!), and you do need at least front sus unless you are a true masochist!

miss notax

New Forest is great for MTBing BUT you have to know where to look... It's also quite restricted in that you can only OFFICIALLY ride on the fire roads - not on bridleways. Although obviously you can always plead ignorance on that

Given the choice between the two, I would ride in Dartmoor (but we live in the New Forest so it's the appeal of giong somewhere new for us!) - more technical and less Rangers telling you off for riding in the wrong place

spykes

Thats great thanks for your opinion.

We have decieded on Devon. Any towns we should be looking to base ourselves???

We would like to be close to the coast and drive up/down to Dartmoor in the van

Chunkers1980

South Devon would be easier. It's a long way from the North coast down to Dartmoor.

Would recomend the Prince Town area as someone else has - it's stunning. Could look at the Tavistock area.

spykes

Ok thanks. Im clueless never having been.

Was thinking that Exmoor was close to North Devon and Dartmoor within reach.

mobilekat

If you base yourself near Tavistock there is a good (but quite hard!) downhill centre near by- you can get day passes from one of the local shops (dont go there with out a pass, this is Devon, we are a bit prone to tell you to 'Get of my land' if you are in the wrong place!)

You are then 20 mins from Prince town. The moors are great- but take some wind/ rain proof clothes, as the weather can change in 2 nano-seconds and hypothermia in August is quite common!!

Haldon Forest is then about a 1 hour drive away with a trail centre (and a good cafe) with a shower and bike wash etc.

Or stay down in South Devon- loads of campsites and some good mixed rides of lanes and bridleways. With your budget camping may be easier.
And then you can be on the moors in 30mins.
As you are down in August the driving does take a little longer than normal- due to weight of traffic!

Being local I would advise sticking to bridlepaths if you are on the moors as it is easy to end up in a bog- avoid the flat green bits! or lost (we do have a great bunch of mountain rescue guys tho!)

The one issue with Devon is the roads that do North-South are non-existent due to the moors in between! so it quicker from the bottom of Devon to drive to Dorset, Somerset or Cornwall, than to get to North Devon!