Cycle touring FAQs

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Your  cycle  touring  questions  answered Following on from my cycle camping post, I thought I’d look at cycle touring in a bit more detail. You’ve read those stories of daring and adventure, of cycle tourists taking on the world and the elements and emerging, triumphantly, at the end, right? The reality will at times be ... Read more

Ghost Rides!

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Kitty Jay’s grave I love cycling at night, on otherwise pitch-dark lanes. It’s a totally different experience, and the reason why I started Darkmoor. However, not everyone thinks cycling 100+ miles, right through the night, is great fun, and people aren’t always able to fit in such rides. Park that there for a moment, and ... Read more

Tips for going cycle camping

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Tips  for  going  cycle  camping Recently, I was asked what cooking gear I use when I go cycle camping, and that made me think about a general post about cycle camping. I’m a very big fan of cycle touring, and to me, cycle touring means cycle camping. Ernest Hemingway said it best: “It is by ... Read more

Emergency!

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I recently read about a cyclist based in Edinburgh, who crashed after hitting black ice. She both broke and dislocated her elbow, and couldn’t even stand up, due to the pain she was in. She was riding with another cyclist, who also crashed and was also injured. The crash happened at around 11h30, and from ... Read more

Lockdown Lacklustre

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COVID19 turned the world upside down – that’s an indisputable fact. It’s a horrid disease, and many thousands have died from it, with more still apparently suffering long-term health affects, after having survived it. As I write this, I’m aware of how lucky I am in not having had the illness, nor having anyone close ... Read more

Traffic-free Cycling Route Guide Ratings Explained

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Star-rated  traffic-free  cycle  routes As you may have noticed, I started grading the route guides I publish, using a star grading system. This grading system is to give an indication of family-friendliness of a route, which is a grading that will also help new adult cyclists, as well as less confident adult cyclists. Some routes ... Read more

Family-friendly Cycling on Drake’s Trail

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Drake’s Trail starts in Plymouth and at first mostly follows the course of the river Plym, eventually leading to Clearbrook, which is a village on the edge of Dartmoor. From Clearbrook, Drake’s Trail leads through Yelverton, on to the town of Tavistock, 19 miles later. Most of the route is built on a disused railway ... Read more

“Act as if our home is on fire. Because it is”

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“Act as if our home is on fire. Because it is” *These are the words of the incredible Greta Thunberg, a 16 yo climate activist from Sweden, who has single-handedly done more to highlight this extinction-level issue than most politicians combined. That in itself is a damning indication of just how miserably politicians are failing their ... Read more

New Devon Coast To Coast guide!

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I’m rather excited to share this with you! I’ve finished my Devon Coast To Coast guide, and it’s available right now! I’ve known for a long time I should write a detailed guide, similar to the far shorter Drake’s Trail guide on this blog, but covering the whole NCN 27 route. Several years ago I actually ... Read more

Mojo

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I had a crash just over two years ago. A driver suddenly turned in front of me from a side road, without stopping, and I crashed into the back of her car. I ended up with a spine injured in three places, a severely bruised left thigh, an injured left shoulder and a torn right ... Read more

DayCycle – Tavistock & Princetown Loop

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As any cyclist living in or near Plymouth can tell you, we’re spoilt for routes down here! A firm favourite, amongst fast club riders and more social cyclists, is a Tavistock – Princetown loop. My version of that is detailed below. The starting point will be Coypool, where there is ample free parking available. At ... Read more

Folder!

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Yes indeed! I got myself a folder. It belonged to a friend, who had it for a number of years, though only ever used it for a few short rides. She wanted to get rid of it, so for a small payment I gained a folding bike. The brand name is Airwalk – I’ve never ... Read more

Just go for a ride

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There is a German word, weltschmerz (literally world pain or world grief) that roughly translates as a general feeling of gloom with regards to life overall, and weltschmerz sometimes perfectly describes how I feel when I’ve been overwhelmed with negative things. In life, we magnify what we focus on, and it is a sad side effect ... Read more

When police fail you…

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Close  overtakes  and  police  response Two things almost any cyclist will tell you is that they’ve had dangerous, close overtakes from drivers, and that reporting it to police more often than not results in nothing being done. As a result, many (most?) cyclists have very little faith in police actually enforcing the law and taking ... Read more

Devon and Cornwall Police – Operation Closepass

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After much anticipation, the day finally arrived on which D & C Police would launch their Operation Closepass! For those unfamiliar with this, it is a method of roads policing pioneered by the West Mids Police Roads Policing Unit, and basically involves a cop, in plain clothes, riding a bicycle up and down a stretch ... Read more