Hello,
So, I live in deepest darkest devon, my reccomendations are as follows
1) do not for the love of all that is holy cylce on the road, narrow lanes high hedges, the locals hunt cyclists for sport. They will put your broken body and bike on display as a lesson for others.
2) do not for the love of all that is holy cycle on the road, the tourists cannot drive on devon country lanes and will crash into you, hedges, sheep, locals intoxicated and blind on home made cider.
3) some lovely gravel type rides and lots and lots of off route paths, Tarka trail, drake trail, Wrey trail (Most of these are old railway lines and long distance) you can cycle from star cross (car park by the railway station) along to exeter, into exeter or turn back on yourself and down to exmouth. All off road and 40 miles long…Do not take the path from exmouth to budleigh salterton, they will burn you as a witch, or try and breed with you for some new DNA into their rather shallow gene pool.
4)Dartmoor is beautiful, but also will kill you,my experience is you need a mountain bike. The sheep are wild, and are accoustimed to tourists and so no longer fear people…indeed I hold some of them have developed a taste for human flesh. This said, their is a lovely loop from princetown to burrator and back up, civilised option is down the railway line and back up. self loathing is down the railway line and back up “the widow maker”, Party mode is down the widowmaker and up the railway line. Such a good ride on an MTB. The ice cream van at burrator resivoir is there all the time, has been known to sell amphet…occasionally police turn up
5) you can ride from princetown to plymouth along old railway lines, stop in yelverton for cake and the bike shop. Do not stop in plymouth, the locals may stab you, even worse some of the enviromentalists may give you a lecture on the evils of carbon fibre. again,, all off road (Bar a 2 mile section and a nice descent where sheep will charge at you..think of it like mario Kart on hard mode)
