Dartmoor; July 2020
Gallery
Hexworthy and Huccaby Bridge
Having not seen my brother for a good few months because of lockdown and with my RoSPA 3 year refresher ride due the following week I thought I would "kill two birds with one stone" by riding down to Plymouth to visit my brother and, in the process, get in a bit of practice on my new Tracer. At coming up to 1200 miles the Tracer was run-in but the gearbox still felt a bit stiff when changing down. Maybe it was because of the type of riding I had been doing but the gearbox felt like it needed a few more miles running-in? I had planned a route that would see me clear of A31 and A33 traffic by taking the more rustic mid Dorset routes. This didn't quite work as my Garmin satnav decided that it knew better than my route planning software Autoroute. I must have travelled an additional 20 miles on gravel strewn single track roads and still I ended going through the centre of Dorchester. Something I was trying to avoid. Oh well, it did give the lower gears a good workout!
I took my usual route from Dorchester to Exeter taking the A356 to Beaminster and from there to Broadwindor and Raymond's Hill where I briefly picked up the A35 before dropping down to the A3052 to Exeter. After that it was the "Devon Expressway" (fancy name for the A38) to Ashburton where I left the A38 for Dartmoor. It's a nice little ride from Ashburton to Hexworthy. I stopped at Venford reservoir and Combestone Tor. I also crossed over Huccaby bridge where my parents used to take me swimming. There's a tiny bulge in the West Dart river there but it seemed like the English Channel at the time.
After Hexworthy I picked up the B3212 and headed for Princetown and Plymouth. I managed to find a nice spot to have lunch which had been made inaccessible to cars but was fine for a bike. I briefly stopped at Burrator reservoir near Yelverton but its proximity to Plymouth meant it was a bit too busy for me so I didn't stay long. I have to say that crossing Plymouth gave the gearbox a good workout. So much traffic and so many roadworks!
After spending a couple of pleasant socially distanced hours with my brother and his wife I headed back to Dorset. The A38 provided me with the opportunity to use the Tracer's cruise control and to see whether the Tracer's windshield is as bad as everyone seems to be saying. The cruise control is fantastic. It tracks the set speed well and it is so nice to be able to take your right hand off the throttle and give it a rest when cruising on a road like the A38. On the windshield, I really don't think it's that bad but there was a bit of buffeting to the top of my helmet (I'm 185 cm tall) so I've decided to give the Puig touring windshield a try. The ride was 287 miles and when I got home I felt that I could have kept going for a while. I think that the Tracer and me will get on fine when we go touring.