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This is a longer route back from The Weir to Bude's Crescent car park than using the flat Bude multi-use trail the whole way.   This involves cycling 1600m up a very minor lane (so not entirely traffic free and a long stretch for small legs), then 100m on the coast road before the 2km ride on a delightful grassy coastal bridleway all the way back to Bude.

To access this grassy bridleway on your way back to Bude:
Return from The Weir using part of your outward route in reverse
(so going back under the A39 by the two wooden footbridges and the underpass next to the river, turn left onto the little road, go over the two hump-backed bridges and through the gate on the left after the bend and onto the tarmac track on the A39 grass verge.   After 200m take the concrete slope down on the right and go back under the A39 and up to the water treatment plant access road, turn left onto this access road and ride past the water treatment plant on the multi-use trail to where it is crossed by a small lane - the crossing in this picture).

This is where the alternative route back starts.   Turn left onto this lane and ride up it for 1600m to the T-junction at the coast road, crossing both the river and the canal and ignoring one minor lane off to the right after 800m.

Turn right onto the coast road and ride 100m to where a signed bridleway (to the coast path) goes off on the left. Follow this bridleway north along the clifftop, through a gateway into a second field with a long gentle grass-path descent to a walled gateway at the foot of the slope.  

From the walled gateway the coast path (for walkers) continues straight north along the cliff edge.   However, take the bridleway which veers right to go diagonally up the hill along an obvious track in the grass.   From the top of this slope the bridleway continues north, past two wooden gateways in the nearby hedge, to a steel gate.

Go through this steel gate and, keeping the fenceline on your right, ride down a broad grassy path to a gate at the bottom (caution - the last few metres down to this gate is fairly steep)

A GPS track of this coastal grass bridleway between Upton Cross and the Falcon Hotel is available (See the 'GPS track files' section at the foot of the Routes page.

This gateway exits near some old bungalows onto a track between the church and the seaward end of Breakwater road.

There are two options from here:

a) (less traffic) turn right and cycle along this track to the church carpark and on to join Breakwater Road beside the Falcon Hotel.

b) (more scenic but possibility of some traffic) turn left and cycle along this track until it comes to a small grass oval at the seaward end of Breakwater Road.  Go round this oval and cycle the whole length of Breakwater Road to its junction with the coast road by the Falcon Hotel.

Turn left onto the coast road bridge.   Here again you have two options, either:
a) push your bike across the traffic island at the top of the bridge and through the small gate on the other side onto the towpath.   Push your bike a short way along the towpath and the short path on the left that links the towpath to the Crescent car park and the Tourist Information Centre.
b) cycle over the bridge and on to the next traffic island (just beyond the Crescent Stores).   There turn right (pushing your bike via the traffic island) to enter the Crescent car park via a stone gateway.