I’m thinking of doing the ilfracombe to Plymouth coast to coast. I have a mountain bike and a road bike. What would people recommend I used?
Any and all input greatly appreciated
Cheers, Chris

On road or off road?

If it’s the one in the Guardian this week, I think it involved a fair amount of off road though nothing too heavy – so a cross bike 🙂
I’d go mtb with nice’n’fast tyres, doubt you’ll be needing much tread on the Tarka trail.

I did it last year, following the Sustrans route
I used my cyclocross bike loaded with panniers with slick tyres, but would have been fine on a full on road bike. Only initial parts of the Tarka Trail are off road and a little muddy, rest is well surfaced or tarmac, will be fine on a road bike though
Friends did it on fully rigid old mountain bikes / Hybrids with slicks
A full on MTB, even a hardtail would not be needed and knobblies would drag too much

Its a good ride, bit hilly in places, we took 2 days –
Day 1 – Plymouth – Oakhampton (stayed in YHA at the station)
Day 2 – Oakhampton – Illfracomber
(and Day 3 – Ilfracombe back to Barnstaple to catch train back to Plymouth)
Email me if you want any info or details of accomodation en route etc

in fact it was this bike (taken in Plymouth near start of the route –

I did Ilfracombe to Okehampton on a Kaffenback with road tyres – we got a bit lost near the start and ended up on bridleways for a bit but definitely don’t bother with MTB tyres – most of it is on good smooth surfaces where it’s good to minimise rolling resistance.

Due to late start and getting lost we didn’t get past Okehampton as we were planning to do it in a day – so I don’t know what the trail is like past Okie.

Did the Sustrans route 27 a few years ago on my Halfrauds BSO in a day with commuter tyres, Plymouth to Ilfracombe stayed in a B&B then back the next day.

The route is easily done on a road bike or a MTB with slick tyres, there are no real sections where you will need proper off road tyres & there are long sections of tarmac to ride on.

If you are going from Ilfracombe to Plymouth then avoid the bw just outside of Braunton, it’s a narrow trail between to fields & was very overgrown when I rode it. I would carry on past the start of the bw to the road then head South to Braunton.

Stop @ the eco cafe @ East Yarde they do superb food.

When coming South take the route to the left of Tavistock i.e. Mary Tavy, Peter Tavy, etc the other route is IMHO not biker friendly & is quite a climb.