St. Austell to Tavistock
 

I am planning to ride from St. Austell to Tavistock and am hoping someone on this forum can recommend a safe route.
A390 via Liskeard is the obvious direct route but looks to be very busy, very fast and very narrow and I would probably be insane to attempt that road. Any other suggestions pleased?
Thanks.

Hey there Mr Tigger, I'd highly recommend heading over to the UK based CTC forum and asking there, you'll probably have a better chance of folks responding that live and ride in the area

hill
Give this route a go: https://www.komoot.com/tour/1890958116
It avoids major roads and uses a lot of country lanes, but still passes through towns on the way. It's a bit hilly mind, but there is no avoiding hills in Devon and Cornwall.

Thanks. is there a RWGPS version? I don't have komoot.

Sorry, my plans came to one day ride in the Peak District, due to family medical issues.

Thanks, much appreciated.

I was curious about some of the concern above about narrow lanes and cycling trails. There are so many side roads in Britain that one rarely has to ride on a road in fast traffic or a cycle way (see rivers RWGPS route above). It takes longer, but who rides a bike to get anywhere fast?
For my rides in Britain - or I suppose anywhere else (I ride about 100 miles a week) it is fun to actually 'ride' the entire route beforehand by using Google Street View.
From my observation (I grew up in Norwich) Britain offers the very best in scenery and quaintness for the cyclist.

Depending on how much weight you'll be carrying, you'll very much appreciate very low gearing, with the occasional 1 in 5 , or 1 in 4 steep little surprises.

Quite true. My low gearing is one to one: 50/34 and 11/34

One to one for unloaded is one thing (I prefer lower personally even unloaded) but one to one, about 25 gear inches, sure doesn't cut it for touring carrying stuff.

I've been watching a British tv series that takes place in rural England. Yes, nice scenery and quaintess, but boy are those roads narrow and full of curves. And people appear to drive pretty fast on them as well, even if they take up more than half the road and can't see around the next bend. I guess that's what you end up with when your roads were built by Romans two thousand years ago.

I doubt I'd have the courage to pedal rural England, though I spent some months there when I was young and have kept a deep fondness for the region, especially for the sheep :-)

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...fe1b6d26c.jpeg

I would highly recommend a touring company to do one of the many iconic rides in Britain to get both the company and the support. Having others on the road with you will go a long way to ease any fearfulness that could otherwise deter you from enjoying what is still a gorgeous country to ride in.

I'm quite sure you have heard of 'walking'? Nothing wrong with walking hills - it helps the quads and hamstrings and all the rest of the legs.

That works too. Have done it at times. Prefer pedaling.

I have found some parts of Britain excellent for cycling. But I was touring in parts of southern England this year and I found the road network in sections of Devon, East Sussex, & Kent to be not very good for bike touring. Often there were not good alternatives to busy roads, and even roads with less traffic had issues with being extremely narrow with hedgerows on both sides of the road. Because these roads were also full of blind curves, I had to bail out into a hedgerow on numerous occasions when an oncoming vehicle suddenly appeared. Also, the Sustrans trail quality ranged from good to abysmal.

Odd that a post I made yesterday in response to axolotl never appeared. I clicked 'Quick reply' so maybe that does not work?

Mine is 46/30T and 11/40 (but I didn't bring either of those bikes).

Walking (while pusing a bike) is an act of shame.

I can honestly say, in 4 years of living in Cambridge, I never walked a bike up a hill.

Ah Cambridgeshire, a county renowned for its Alpine passes and epic mountain ranges.

The shame is bearable. It’s the peasants in mountain villages throwing rotten eggs and tomatoes at me that, I must admit, gets to me

Aotearoa?
It is so much easier to say and write 'New Zealand':geek:. :-)

Then I apparently have been shamed on a regular basis. When my heart rate monitor tells me I am working too hard pedaling up a steep hill, I stop and get off the bike to walk.

Sorry, it wasn't meant as a serious comment.

(Cambridge is as flat as the Chicago suburbs where I grew up.)