East Dartmoor adventures on the Marin

[hawkhill97]

A few years back I built up a 2000 Marin Mount Vision:

https://www.retrobike.co.uk/threads/2000-marin-mount-vision-build.400588/

It rapidly became my favourite retro MTB I've had, and is pretty much perfect for big days out on the moors. Since moving away from Devon I don't manage this sort of riding as often as I'd like, but I try and get out a couple of times a year for a camping trip on Dartmoor / Exmoor, and the Marin is usually the bike of choice for this sort of thing.

Last year I did a brilliant ride on North Dartmoor, exploring the network of military access tracks. This bit of Dartmoor is very rugged, with big rugged hills, very little wooded cover, and plenty of granite tors.

https://www.retrobike.co.uk/threads/marin-mount-vision-tour-of-dartmoor.480549/

This year, I decided to explore East Dartmoor. This area is much more wooded, with considerably steeper valleys, and more natural bridleway routes compared to the semi surfaced access tracks South of Okehampton. I've done more walking than riding around this area, but knew a few spots I wanted to link up, and a little while sitting down with the OS map yielded this route as a starting plan - about 20-25 miles of mostly off-road riding, taking in a few impressive tors and some lovely woodland.



Like most of us (I suspect!) on here, I'm not quite as fit as I used to me, so despite not seeming that far, 20 odd miles on Dartmoor is pretty much an all day ride for me these days. Soaking in the landscape is just as important as cranking up the hills and bombing the descents, so the plan was to take plenty of nice food, lots of flasks of tea, take the whole day, and top it all off with a camp at the end.

 

[hawkhill97]

After an early start, I set off in the grey drizzle for the moors. The weather brightened up along the way, and by the time I got to Lustleigh village, around 10ish, the sun had come out and the roads had dried up.

Lustleigh cleave is a stunning ravine ancient woodland full of big mossy granite boulders. The initial climb out of the village through the woods was pretty savage - it's not often a photo shows how steep a trail is very well, but I think these come close!



I'd already made my peace with the fact that I was probably going to be pushing the bike up the steepest sections of trails so that I conserved enough energy to make it around the loop without dying... good luck to anyone trying to ride this bit without a motor!

After a short savage push up the hill, the trail levelled out into some cracking natural singletrack. As us retrobikers all know, a good retro MTB can be even more fun than a modern bike on this sort of terrain. The Marin accelerates beautifully when you give it some oomph on the pedals, and is super responsive through the twists and turns, and having said to myself I'll conserve my energy I got a bit carried away - flying through the trees was an absolute joy.

 

[hawkhill97]

The trail soon began to steepen down towards the first river crossing. The fixed (almost full XC pedalling height) seat post soon makes itself known once the terrain becomes steeper and a little more technical, so I took it nice and steady and finessed my way down. The granite forms some excellent natural rock gardens, but since they are far less curated than what you'd find at a trail centre, bombing down would be inadvisable - or at least only for the very brave - even on a more capable modern MTB.



The problem with going more slowly on these sorts of trails is that it's very difficult to manual off of small drops - everything has to be rolled, which on this bike means getting right back behind the saddle and hoping like heck the drop isn't too big... At least the bottom bracket on the Marin is high enough that you don't have to worry too much about clearance for the chain rings! I reached the bottom of the trail without any drama, but with a big grin on my face...

Which only widened when I saw the amazing bridge across the stream!



From here I climbed steadily back up through the woodland, contouring along the side of the valley, before picking up a forestry track that took me back down to a second stream crossing.




The forestry track was steep, rocky, and loose, but wide enough to bomb down off the brakes and dig the bike into the turns. While this sort of terrain can sometimes be a bit of a snooze fest on a modern MTB, it's quite exhilarating on the Marin!

 

[hawkhill97]

An altogether more sensible, though no less picturesque, bridge took me back across the river, and I continued along the forestry tracks on my way towards Trendlebere Down.




The track steepened into a fair old climb up to the road, with lovely views down the river valley to the left.

 

[hawkhill97]

After a brief section of road, I set off West along the edge of Yarner Wood. This was the first proper brutal long climb, and a fair amount of pushing was involved!


By the time I got to the point pictured below I was getting a bit grumpy - a sure fire sign that snacks were required! A quick cuppa and a slice of cake later and I resumed pushing the bike up the hill with a smile on my face.



It was still a bastard of a climb though!

Getting to the top was something of a relief. I was also really looking forward to the next section of the ride, a more gradual traverse of the hill side out towards the iconic Hay Tor.

 

[hawkhill97]

Just look at that. How can you not be excited with that trail in front of you, aiming for the tor on top of the hill? Hay Tor might be a bit of a honeypot/tourist spot, but you can see why.



After the long uphill grind, the slight downhill gradient had me flying down the trail again, with a brisk Dartmoor wind in my face. I'd set the suspension up a little harder than usual for this ride, which enabled me to keep the rear shock un-locked but retain just the right balance of pedalling efficiency and compliance. It's a nice feature of the single pivot suspension lay-out that you can change the amount of sag without drastically altering the suspension dynamics (my more modern Marin with a 4-bar linkage is much fussier about running the "correct" amount of sag due to a more complex rear axle path).



I briefly picked up the old tram lines on the Dartmoor way on my way through to Hay Tor, before turning off and cruising my way up the last climb to the top.

 

[doctor-bond]

What a superb ride haven’t been down that way for years but will deffo need to.

 

[hawkhill97]

Not a bad spot for some lunch



I could see the route to Hound Tor, further along my planned loop, in the distance:



But since it was a cracking day, and it's not very often that I make it over to Dartmoor, I thought I'd make the most of it and ride around the Hay Tor area some more first. Setting off towards Saddle Tor, it was quickly apparent that the direct route was far too much of a cliff face to be rideable, so I headed South down the hillside before swinging West along the ridge.



You can see the distinctive saddle shape of the tor well in this pic, along with some very chilled out Dartmoor ponies.

 

[hawkhill97]

I remember climbing Saddle Tor many times as a kid, so it clearly had to be done today. This was as far as I could get on the bike...



But a quick scramble up soon got me to the top.





The whole area up here is stunning and I could happily have pootled around for hours, but time was already getting on a little bit more than I'd planned and I had a lot more distance to cover, so I traversed back around to the North of Hay Tor.



Problem is, there are so many nice bits of natural technical climbing around here that once you see a tor top, it's very hard not to get suckered into the game of seeing if you can make it to the top without putting a pedal down. This is as much about line choice as anything else, but there are usually a few little technical wheel lifts required at some point, both on the way up and back down. The one pictured above was particularly entertaining.

 

[hawkhill97]

Back on track, I completed my loop around Hay Tor, soaking in the incredible scenery all the while.



From here I picked up the Dartmoor Way once more, following the old tram lines. The riding up here was even better than I'd remembered, and the Marin was the perfect bike for it.



I couldn't resist following the tram lines to the end rather than heading straight along my planned route.



They gradually petered out and came to an end, at which point I retraced my steps and continued on with the loop. Fortunately, as you'd expect from an old tram line, the terrain was almost flat, and I was able to make good pace, while also spinning and recovering some strength in my legs a little.