Devon coast to coast

stumpym4

Looking at riding this mid june, thought about camping and leaving the car in ilfracombe , riding the odd 60 miles to okehampton,stay the night in b&b and then complete the ride the following day followed by train back to barnstaple with a 10 mile ride back to the car and tent ..
question is anyone rode it before and how did they do it ?? ..... road or mountain bike ?

Mikey23

an excellent plan, must do the whole thing myself one day. ive done quite a lot of it as i live round here

the bits im familiar with are the top end through braunton and along the tarka to torrington, tavistock to yelverton over gem bridge and through grenofen tunnel, granite way from okehampton to lydford and plym valley from shaugh bridge and lebeer tunnel to plympton. all of this ive done on a roadie but im aware that there are some bumpy sections beyond torrington and at the top of the plym valley route that commentaries recommend are better suited to an MTB. Im stubborn and would do it on my roadbike though!! your itinerary seems sound. i would personally do it in two stages but im sure there are those who have done it in a day.

a beautiful route with some stunning scenery

briantrumpet

A nice ride, but much more fun would be a circumnavigation - 340 miles, 30,000ft of climbing.

http://bikeroutetoaster.com/BRTWebUI/Course/292712

MyPace

I've just done it over Easter.

It'd be possible in a day, but we did a leisurely 4 day touring trip with a tent, cycling in the morning before setting up camp and looking around.

Its possible on a road bike provided its got durable tyres as theres a few off-road sections. I did it on 28mm Gatorskins. It i did it again i'd probably go for beefier thicker tyres (i was carrying a tent etc..)

its a great ride, hardly any traffic, great scenery, well surfaced quiet railway lines. You could have a few days at the end to try some surfing or visit Lundy island too.

Mikey23

Excellent... I think I will do it soon. I'm familiar with the bits I know but not the bits I don't if that makes sense. Novice riders, dog walkers etc can be a bit of a pain at times. Both my offs have been on the tarka trail and they both hurt!

whoof

I rode this last year this time from Barnstaple to Plymouth missing out the Ilfracombe bit (which I've also ridden before). You can't book a train from Exeter to Barnstaple it's just turn up and hope there is a space. We travelled on a Friday evening and there was loads of space. The route is varied:Tarka Trail is flat tarmac bike/footpath, in the middle section there were short(ish) bits of fine gravel track and at about 20 miles from Plymouth it was only suitable for a mountain bike but only for a few hundred metres. We both used touring bikes which were fine.

We did it in two days at a leisurely pace and stopped over night in Okehampton at the Youth Hostel cafe on station next door does good tea and cake. The YHA is up a hill out of the town so buy any food in Okehampton before riding up if you are cooking. However,it is still in walking distance if you want a look around take the short cut through the park to the town on the right hand side on the way down.

It's a lovely route and the majority of it had no one else on it.

stumpym4

Cheers for the replys, time booked off at work, so need to get my ass into gear now and book the other things ! ... wife's coming down now but staying in the tent and waiting for me to finish the ride and get back ...
Planning on doing it over the 2 days, illfracombe-okehampton .. roughly 60 miles then b&b and then okehampton-plymouth 35 miles ish ! ..... and then hopefully train back to barnstaple that afternoon and then ride back to illfracombe for another night in the tent .
I did think about doing it in 1 day but decided that doing it that way i wouldn't enjoy the scenery etc and miss taking lots of photos
Have decided to do it on my mountain bike with touring tyres on ( schwalbe land cruisers) ... i used these when i rode from aberystwyth to birmingham over christmas .. 143 miles in 3 days and they seemed ok for both road and off road