Hi all,

This Saturday I will be riding the North Devon Coast-to-Coast route from Ilfracombe to Plymouth via the Sustrans Route N27.

1) Wish me luck! 😆

2) I’d like suggestions of useful (but not to bulky) things I should take with me – spare tubes are a given but anything else?

I’ll be in a group of about 20 riders so if you see us say “Hi”

1) Good luck

2)Fast link
Chain splitter.
Patches

1. Good luck, that’s a nice route
2. A cross bike

Thanks for that.

Good point about the bike, I have the choice of;

1) Road bike, 700×23 road tyres with 8 speed and double Sora gears

2) Giant XTC mountain bike with 26×2.0 tyres, 100mm front suspension and 9 speed and triple SLX gears.

Which would you take – I’m leaning towards the Giant but would appreciate your thoughts.

PS; not enough time to buy a CX bike but would agree it’s the best choice.

Hmm, of those two, probably the Giant. Gearing on the road bike would be fine, but maybe those tires might get a little sketchy in places. I did it on my old C’dale F1000, with 65mm of travel and some mtb 1.9 tyres (can’t remember which).

Oh, and just noticed details in your OP – unclear, but are you planning on doing it in one day? In which case, I’ll doff my cap and wish you good luck again!

I’d go and buy some new tyres for the giant that are suited to road riding before you head out.

Plenty of food and water (but not too much if you can stock up mid ride).

You can get sachets of energy drink so you can just add them to water. They may get you through towards the end of the ride.

Suncream?

A good slathering of minty arse lard cream or similar.

A sachet (or two) of recovery drink.

Some Pernod?

Again – Thanks guys.

Crispedwheel: Stopping at Tavistock on Saturday eve’ and finishing lunchtime on Sunday – we hope 😆

So the decision is;

Giant MTB
Tubes
Chain-splitter
Quick Links
Puncture repair kit
Energy drink
Suncream

Good job someone remembered the last item – I’m very pale skinned and toast like a teacake in almost any sun 😳

JAG – fair play to you. I did it a few years ago, south-north, over 2 and a half days at a leisurely pace. Really nice ride, great scenery and some decent climbs in there as well. You’ll probably appreciate the trail alongside the river into Plym on the second day! Second the comments above on the tyres – if nothing else, stick on your most worn-out spare pair!

Cheers Mate

Looking forward to the Ilfracombe to Tavistock section on Saturday and hoping the weather is at least dry.

I’ve started putting together the spares tonight and made plans to get some Energy drink from my LBS tomorrow afternoon.

I’ve even found some Suncream from last Summer 😆