I’ve just booked a week in Cornwall at the start of August. It’s a family holiday but it would be great to escape them all for an afternoon and get a bit of riding in.

Are there any decent (and open) bike hire places down that way?

Any recommendations for routes also welcome. Something fairly techy, not too interested in following an old railway trackbed for miles.

Cheers.

If you want a quick one, and you’re near by, Cardingham Woods is worth a play.

Trail Monki are worth talking to… they normally do hire bikes, but might not be at the moment.

Cornwall is’t especially small, whereabouts are you? Cardinham, Grogley, Kernow Bike Park, Woodys Bike Park, The old tin mining area upriver from Falmouth (name escapes me) are all worth a look. Dartmoor if you’re in Saltash or somewhere.

Can’t help with bike hire unfortuantely.

I’m sure there was an article about Cornish riding in a mag racently. Can’t think of the name of it – Solotrack? Singletrail? something like that.

Singletrack issue 129 Classic Ride | Cornish Classic

Yeah, I recalled that not long after posting. I’m just outside Newquay so that route is a reasonable 30 minute drive away I think. The GPX download seems a bit screwed though.

Has anyone tried it out? Based on the comments, the fun stuff is off piste.

Cardinham and Lanhydrock are within 40 minutes drive, you could try a ride along the coast path.

The coast path won’t be a good idea in summer, that’s very much a locals-only treat for the off-season.

The route in STW wasn’t bad, but does ride around the better stuff. Then again all the better stuff is unmarked, and prone to being rebuilt between printing and riding, so I can understand why they stuck to legal rights of way. The mine mentioned above is Poldice Valley, and Carn Marth/Brae over Redruth have good tech descents on, both of which you’ll ride past.

If you want a quick ride and you didn’t take a bike then Cardinham has a solid 10k waymarked loop and bike hire (via trail munki, check they’re actually open), so is definitely the best option for a quick ride. Grab the pork ciabatta from the cafe to refuel.

Bike park Cornwall is open too now. No idea if it’s any good though.

Grogley, just outside bodmin, is within half hour or so. Pretty sure trail munki bike hire are based in bodmin.

Home

Thanks everyone. There are some promising options there.

I like the look of Cardinham as I don’t get the chance to ride much flowy single-track from my front door at home in the Peak District.

It also looks similar to Ae Forest which I rode whilst up in Scotland last year and loved for a quick blast.

Unfortunately, trail munki bike hire is suspended at the minute. Hopefully this will change by August.

You can do both Lanhydrock and Cardinham at the same time (10 minute ride between both), if you are a National Trust member park at Lanhydrock as the Cardinham car park is expensive. Lanhydrock has bike hire as well if its open.

Poldice is good fun and Bissoe bike hire is nearby.

If you have a guide there are plenty of local fun rides like Carn Brea nearby, you can link Poldice, Carn Brea and Carn Marth into good 50km loop and do the coast to coast to coast trail at the same time with a bacon sarnie at Bissoe and an ice cream/cream tea at Portreath.

if you are a National Trust member park at Lanhydrock

lanhydrock was pre-booked parking only a couple of weeks ago. I don’t know if they have relaxed that.

the skills track was revamped just before lockdown and so got three months to bed in. its way better.

I am a NT member so linking up with Lanhydrock sounds good. It is open but advance booking only.

The coast between Portreath and St Agnes has lots of old mine working trails so the ‘footpath’ designation becomes pretty irrelevant – there’s a few technical bits and places, there’s the cafe at Chapel Porth and the old mine workings at Wheal Coates are pretty dramatic in all weathers. Some of the tracks are narrow in places and a long drop into the sea focuses the mind.

That coast path is *lovely* but in August it’s going to be pretty damn busy.

Time it right and it’s a *really* nice ride though.

While we have the locals on .. is there a c2c cycle route out of Portreath or did I imagine that

The C2C goes from Portreath to Devoran and it is mostly off-road. It’s not long but goes through Unity Wood and Wheal Maid/Poldice there are some fun trails in both of these locations if you need a diversion.