Morning all, we’re off to South Devon next week. We have a place in Shaldon, on the mouth of the river Teign. I tend to get up to Haldon once in the week if I’m lucky. Five year old can manage the green/blue trails but the three year old will go either in his seat on my bike or on the trail-gator. They both love the skills area. Watching Albert shred the berms on his balance bike is awesome 😂.

Anyway, I’m after some local knowledge of any trails I can tackle on my own, either in the Teignmouth, Shaldon or Torbay areas, and any easy to follow trails on the Exeter side of Dartmoor. I’ve got a book and OS maps but time is of the essence, I need to get out and back fairly quickly or risk the wrath of Mrs Georgesdad.

Any help gratefully received

Scadson freeride?

There are a load of bridleways and rupps round shaldon and teignmouth for a quick spin. Haldon is very close and worth visiting – just follow the obvious cheeky singletracks to the bottom, winch up hill and repeat. There’re a lot of people that would show you round, myself included.

Dartmoor is a different beast – the Classic East Dartmoor loop is a monster but there is a shorter version here: https://ridewithgps.com/routes/27202247
it’s 25km but dartmoor miles count twice!

here’s the full day by the way:

https://ridewithgps.com/routes/27202227

And here’s a reasonable one on haldon
https://ridewithgps.com/routes/24895397

Thanks for the suggestions, I’ll have a browse later on. It only takes me 20 minutes to get up to Haldon so it’s a winner. Fancy a trek over Dartmoor though, I like my natural trails.

Lustleigh cleave then. Super tech natural trails.

Lustleigh cleave does seem like the obvious choice, although not sure how overgrown the top section might be this time of year. You do have some trails at Cannonteign falls, but most of the lines are overgrown at the moment.

If you dont fancy guiding yourself around Lustleigh (its not that hard) then you could always ride Haldon, look for some of the offpiste and then maybe pedal around to cafeside for some more freeride style tracks, dont worry though as nearly everything has a chickenline around it.

Lustleigh Cleave is awesome, I lugged a bike down from Aberdeen on our summer visit to the inlaws in Torquay a few weeks ago specifically to ride that. Definitely not one for all the family. Also I’d agree Dartmoor trail miles count twice, I do something along the lines of the shorter east Dartmoor loop, I always underestimate how long it will take me and commit to being back to wife and kids earlier than I actually manage! Think that 25k loop took me a shade over 3hrs (total, not riding). It’s a very high ratio of smiles per mile though (if you like techy natural singletrack).

I hear good stuff about lustleigh cleave, but have never been.

Is that first link you posted blscklabbikes the route or the main route?

What they’ve said really.

Lustleigh cleave is bloody awesome. The run from hunter’s tor, on to the nutcracker and then down to the bridge too far via the sneaky traverse is perfect natural riding (wear pads, there’s a lot of pointy hard stuff).

The unmarked stuff at Haldon is running perfectly at the moment – although it’s been a tad wet for the last 24 hours so it’s probably gone from marbles to buttered scaffolding poles.

Either will give you a good day. But if you can get to the cleave you won’t be disappointed.

it’s 25km but dartmoor miles count twice!

Ive ridden in all sorts of places around the country on all sorts of bikes, and live right in the middle of South Wales surrounded by awesome riding.

And you’re right – even on the road, Dartmoor is really tough. I love it there though. I used to live at Haytor for a short time.

Lustleigh Cleave looks promising…

it’s 25km but dartmoor miles count twice!

Fractal, innit!