Drakes Trail (part of the Devon C2C - NCN27)

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Mick F
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Re: Drakes Trail (part of the Devon C2C - NCN27)

Post by Mick F »

honesty wrote:You've also got the NT shop and cafe in Lydford, which is rather good.
You mean at Lydford Gorge beyond Lydford at the old manor. I raised the subject of Lydford with regard to Granite Way.

There is only a pub, and a carpark with toilets in Lydford these days sadly, though Lydford is a lovely village and worth visiting.
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Re: Drakes Trail (part of the Devon C2C - NCN27)

Post by honesty »

Yep, though it is just down a hill from the village so I'd count it as part of it (a very steep hill admittedly!)
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Re: Drakes Trail (part of the Devon C2C - NCN27)

Post by Mick F »

Sorry, I really am!
I'm splitting hairs here again. :oops:

The cafe and shop for NT are at the far end of Lydford Gorge away from Lydford village.
The gorge runs from at the bottom of the V steep hill out of the village below the castle and along the river to the Old Manor - locally called Mucky Duck. Nearly two miles from the southern end of the Granite Way.

It's at Mucky Duck where the cafe and shop are.
https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=lydfor ... 95,,0,4.76
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Re: Drakes Trail (part of the Devon C2C - NCN27)

Post by honesty »

Yes there is a cafe there, there is also one (and a shop) at the Lydford village end of the gorge right at the bottom of the hill from the castle.
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Re: Drakes Trail (part of the Devon C2C - NCN27)

Post by Mick F »

I stand corrected then. :oops:
There wasn't anything there when we were last in there .......... granted, quite some years ago.
It was just a carpark and a ticket office.
(been living here too long, so I'm full of old info)
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Re: Drakes Trail (part of the Devon C2C - NCN27)

Post by honesty »

They've put a wood framed pagoda structure on the grass outside of the shop and they've got a cafe in it. Very nice as well. :)
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Re: Drakes Trail (part of the Devon C2C - NCN27)

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Sounds like a re-visit is on the cards.
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Re: Drakes Trail (part of the Devon C2C - NCN27)

Post by honesty »

We've got a national trust family membership and i do tend to use the NT properties as coffee and cake stops when touring, plus you get a chance to have a bit of a walk around if you want.
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Re: Drakes Trail (part of the Devon C2C - NCN27)

Post by jimbop »

Hi all, I'm visiting my mum in Tavistock this weekend and i decided that I'd ride Drake's Travel rather than get her to pick me up from Plymouth railway station. I ride a Cannondale CAADX and last week swapped the stock 35mm Sammy Slick (knobblies with a smooth centre line for better on-road performance) for a pair of 30mm Espoir Sport slicks because i spend most of my time on-road. I did the off-road track around Richmond Park at the weekend to see how the 30mm slicks worked 'off-road' and found that they weren't too bad on the dirt track with the odd small gravel section...just so long as I ran them at about 1psi! I'd have preferred the Sammy Slicks for that track but as long as I was sensible then the slicks were fine. On the way back on Monday morning i mightn't have time to do the trail (I'll see how long it takes me on Friday), so I'd prefer to keep the slicks on in case I want to ride the roads back to Plymouth.

From what little i've read the surface is fairly well prepared but it would be great to get any thoughts people have on which tyres to go for on this ride.

Cheers,
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Re: Drakes Trail (part of the Devon C2C - NCN27)

Post by NATURAL ANKLING »

Hi,
Last time I used it they were repairing it, probably two years ago.
Its quite easy and quick apart from a small section near clearbroke which might well have been fixed, ask Mic F?
Slicks not so good if its wet but 30 mm would be ok if dry.
There are some old railway tracks but nothing too rough IIRC.
Go for it.
Yelverton to tavistock is easy faster on the road at that point, but still easy going.
I was easily doing 15 mph up the trail so it can't be that hard.
Good luck.
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Re: Drakes Trail (part of the Devon C2C - NCN27)

Post by jimbop »

NATURAL ANKLING wrote:Hi,
Last time I used it they were repairing it, probably two years ago.
Its quite easy and quick apart from a small section near clearbroke which might well have been fixed, ask Mic F?
Slicks not so good if its wet but 30 mm would be ok if dry.
There are some old railway tracks but nothing too rough IIRC.
Go for it.
Yelverton to tavistock is easy faster on the road at that point, but still easy going.
I was easily doing 15 mph up the trail so it can't be that hard.
Good luck.
There are some later posts if you have a search.

Thanks v much indeed. I spoke to a nice lady at Tavistock Cycles because i wasn't sure if i'd get a response and she agrees with you, i.e. as long as the forecast stays dry then slicks should be fine. Having lived in Tavistock for almost 15 years growing up i'm fascinated to discover something off the beaten track. Treated myself to some bikepacking bags today so i'll test out one or two of the bags on this little trip before going for a proper camping trip.
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Re: Drakes Trail (part of the Devon C2C - NCN27)

Post by niggle »

I did the full C2C there and back in 2013 on a touring bike with 35mm slicks- Vittoria Voyager Hypers. I recall a section or two where I think the suppleness and volume of these tyres would be preferable to your 30mm tyres due to the rocky surface, but I am not sure exactly where that was and it might have been improved by now anyway.

If you feel like splashing out a pair of these in 35 or 38mm will cost you £30 posted and I can assure you they are absolutely awesome fast rolling, light and super comfortable tyres- see the threads on the forum.

https://www.planetx.co.uk/i/q/TYVIVOHY/ ... lding-tyre
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Re: Drakes Trail (part of the Devon C2C - NCN27)

Post by jimbop »

niggle wrote:I did the full C2C there and back in 2013 on a touring bike with 35mm slicks- Vittoria Voyager Hypers. I recall a section or two where I think the suppleness and volume of these tyres would be preferable to your 30mm tyres due to the rocky surface, but I am not sure exactly where that was and it might have been improved by now anyway.

If you feel like splashing out a pair of these in 35 or 38mm will cost you £30 posted and I can assure you they are absolutely awesome fast rolling, light and super comfortable tyres- see the threads on the forum.

https://www.planetx.co.uk/i/q/TYVIVOHY/ ... lding-tyre

Get Intel thank you. I will be taking it steadily - mainly because I'm a beginner and I don't have much strength nor fitness, so hopefully I'll arrive at any dodge sections at a fairly minimal pace [emoji4] I have read good things about the Hypers and when my current slicks run out I might go to them but I live in a small flat in London and having one spare set of tyres to store already is plenty. Really looking forward to my ride on Friday. I was going to extend the ride up to Burrator but it looks like it adds a lot of climbing and i'm not strong enough for too much of the uphill action just yet!


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Re: Drakes Trail (part of the Devon C2C - NCN27)

Post by Vetus Ossa »

jimbop wrote:
niggle wrote:I did the full C2C there and back in 2013 on a touring bike with 35mm slicks- Vittoria Voyager Hypers. I recall a section or two where I think the suppleness and volume of these tyres would be preferable to your 30mm tyres due to the rocky surface, but I am not sure exactly where that was and it might have been improved by now anyway.

If you feel like splashing out a pair of these in 35 or 38mm will cost you £30 posted and I can assure you they are absolutely awesome fast rolling, light and super comfortable tyres- see the threads on the forum.

https://www.planetx.co.uk/i/q/TYVIVOHY/ ... lding-tyre

Get Intel thank you. I will be taking it steadily - mainly because I'm a beginner and I don't have much strength nor fitness, so hopefully I'll arrive at any dodge sections at a fairly minimal pace [emoji4] I have read good things about the Hypers and when my current slicks run out I might go to them but I live in a small flat in London and having one spare set of tyres to store already is plenty. Really looking forward to my ride on Friday. I was going to extend the ride up to Burrator but it looks like it adds a lot of climbing and i'm not strong enough for too much of the uphill action just yet!


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I used to ride that way on a variety of bikes all with 23mm tyres, it’s a pretty good surface and you should have no problem, apart from a bit of lose gravel on a couple of bends, but you wont be racing around them.
The climb up to Yelverton is steep if you are not so fit but I would recommend you walk up it and ride from Yelverton to Burrator and around the Reservoir (4 miles around) I do it regularly and it’s one of my favourite rides.
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Re: Drakes Trail (part of the Devon C2C - NCN27)

Post by NATURAL ANKLING »

Hi,
I could do that on 23's If I wanted (just agreeing with you), But anyone who rides on 23's would not struggle they are just a bit harder on the rear :)
The downside is if you don't slow down the risk is loss of control due to bumping around some and some loose stuff, more so going down, any off road is the same.
Going down would be a different story due to increased speed but still easy for anyone who has ridden a bike at least once in their childhood.

But if you are careful can do anything on any tyre and bike.

Its mostly very fast for off road, any bits that exist today where anyone apart from the extreme riders will have to dismount are very short and take minutes seconds even not a long slog through mud.
Its a nice fast easy ride, the detour around burrator is pleasant and should take yopu no more than 30 minuts or so added to the trip, if you don't stop for ice cream :)

But from burrator you will spy several tracks which lead up to princetown via several routes which if you try you will be lost in heaven for some days :mrgreen:
The main route to princetown over the moors via tracks is a bit rough and you would really need tyres approaching 2 inches for that.
Dartmoor has many track that take you over moorland where you will be all alone, walkers will be rare and cyclist even rarer, but easy to follow with a map and even camp too. That's for another day but real camping no houses no people only the animals you would expect to see on moorland................the quite is deafening too :!: You can do most of this stuff on a tourer 700 tyres at 35mm will suit minimum for this stuff, preferably with some tread.

There is no cycle route except off road, yelverton to princetown except purpose cycle track including old railway its a bit rough now, used to be better and its only weather that has made it that way today, when tracks go in and get used water runs down and washes away the loose and silt so rocks are exposed, but all ridable at careful pace with some very fast sections at parts.
Good luck.
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