Coffee Stops: Union Road Moto Velo
- Steve Toze
- Aug 8
- 3 min read
Crediton really needs something to put it on the map, it's a place that has lost it's charm perhaps purely existing to house Exeter's commuters and like many small towns on the outskirts of bigger ones the high street is fighting hard and there's a massive supermarket on the outskirts not helping that.
What Crediton does have that's pretty unique is Union Road Moto Velo and rather than being entrenched in the city of Exeter it's placement in Crediton makes it perfect for both motorcycles and cyclists to head there for a coffee. For us, it's around 50 miles from Plymouth and whilst back in the day I may have ridden this comfortably on my bicycle today I'd be hopping on my motorcycle and taking in some of Dartmoor's finest roads, undoubtedly experiencing sunshine, rain and wind all in one journey.
Rather than using my own knowledge of Dartmoor I had just acquired a Beeline (see separate review) and so dropped the destination into the Beeline app, turned off highways, engaged Fun and it worked up a beauty, roads I had never ridden before and I've been riding Dartmoor for over thirty years.
So after an epic blast that took in a bit of the A38, the Teign Valley and some tracks with gravel in the middle we arrived at Union Road Moto Velo. Like many places i'd seen it on the Instagram and it fulfulled the major criteria; fiercely independent, got a little more to it than just being a coffee place and of course serves up a decent cup of joe.
We rolled in around lunchtime and the parking area was already rammed with some sweet looking bikes, retro Ducati, the odd adventure bike and the first Yamaha XSR900GP that i had ever seen, such a sweet looking bike. Straight away you can feel the vibe, this place is a meeting point for all of the clans, people chatting bikes, people just chilling and of course the odd weirdo that you get in all cafes - remember if you can't spot the weirdo then you probably are the weirdo.
The menu is pretty basic, there's not a lot of space here to be whipping up a roast dinner so it was toasted sandwiches and cakes but this did the trick, coffee is high on the agenda for us every time and the guys make a decent Flat White. We'll add that the place was absolutely rammed but the crew there held it tight and made us feel super welcome.
There's a nice little merch area and they have some of their own designs on the go as well as actual riding kit. Beyond that it looked like some customisation of bikes was going down but that's got to be another feature another time. If you're from further afield they also have rooms to rent for your Devon adventure.
We dropped a second flat white and with the heart rate skipping up nicely pointed our bikes back towards the moors and the ride home, stoked that there's yet another great riding destination for a decent Sunday ride.
Find Union Road Moto Velo at No1, Union Road in Crediton or follow them on the 'gram @unionroadmotovelo
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