Go on then, who fancies sending me a gpx for a 2 hour 15 mile off piste ride on Cannock Chase, some hills (if there any) would be good and some singletrack, starting from the tackeroo/marquis drive area. email on profile, go on don’t be greedy, share the knowledge, much obliged. 🙂

When you have one, let me know 😉

PS I can get you onto some nice stuff, but not sure I’d be able to get you off again. My sense of direction goes to pot at Cannock.

hehe hey up Dan. The monkey was awesome last night and the new lower cliff! you have to go have a shot, it is brilliant. Take thursday morning off and come with me 😉

Doesn’t exist sorry.

(I’ll have a butchers on the laptop tonight when the kids are in bed)

I went for an explore in a part of the chase if not ridden before and I was proactively falling over the stuff, it is tricky to link it together into a decent route if you don’t know it, which I don’t so I steal routes of strava 8)

cool thanks. I do often just take random singletrack off the main fireroads but always end up going back up it as I’m not sure where it’ll end up. Steadily over time I’m building up a better picture but it takes a long time coz the place is so flipping big.

Tell me about it, I live right on the chase but I still got lost at the weekend chasing tyre tracks and had use the garmin to get me back somewhere nearer home.

There’s a lot of good stuff down the back of springslade lodge, and you can’t go far wrong there, it’s quite a small wood

There’s a few single speed weirdo types who go out most Saturday mornings if you like off piste stuff and cake- drop me a mail if you aren’t a knee pad wearing gnarly type as you may be disappointed in our approach 😆

Thanks pop, your approach sounds ideal but saturday morning is a single man without a family riding times as far as I’m concerend and as such I am most defo not able to ride my bike then 🙁

You cannot get lost on The Chase…..its simply not big enough, unless your sense of direction really is that bad.

Sorry, local lad who knows it like the back of his hand hence no garmin routes and not rode in months so a bit unfit to say the least

Getting lost on the chase is the best way to find the off piste. Before the proper trails were built itwas all everyone used to ride. Go and explore and you will be glad you did!

Sandboy +1.

There’s a few single speed weirdo types

I think I rode with one of them once, on a sort of blind date for grown men with 2 wheels 😆

He left me for dust 🙁

As mentioned earlier…Springslade lodge and around the quarry. Then over Broadhurst Green Road. Plenty to find around there.

I used to know loads, but the fc have pretty much destroyed them, blue spot and the fast flowing one through the woods, there was the one with the bridges etc…think a rider fell off had to get ambulanced out with a back injury that killed that one off, I can still see 3 cheeky trails over the monkey side. Need to explore..

There’s loads of lovely cheeky stuff. Be a bit stealth around the rear of spribglade as bits are sssi and staffs cc get a bit narky about larger groups being visible. Not all of the chase is fc land so it varies. As an aforementioned ss freak wot knows the chase well, more than happy to meet up with folks (yes even if they have danglers for gears and boingy bits) and take them on a tour of the wiggly giggly off camber jumpy pumpy lumpy fast and flowy bits

Nothing to see off-piste

Official trails much better

As above, off piste is rubbish…stick to the Monkey

Yep, absolutely nothing to see off piste… Best to stay away, I’ve heard there’s a big black cat that will bite you if you stray more than 5 foot from the official stuff.

ahhh yes, but the black eyed ghost child lurks on follow the dogging monkey!

main thing is that there is “off-piste” that folks know and “off-piste” that unless you built it or know someone who did, you’ll never even know it was there 🙂

Rocketman, I see your posts about the chase often. I need a gpx please or stick me on your strava so I can rip off your routes please.
Real name on profile. 🙂

Jekkyl, I’ve got a couple of routes for you, but I can’t find you on strava under the name on your email address and I’m wary of sending them to randoms, do you want to drop me an email to the address in my profile and I’ll reply.

Also, I have to ride at kid friendly times so if you fancy meeting up over the winter let me know, I normally ride on my own but it’s less fun in the dark.

Normally out 6amish on a saturday for a couple of hours or for an hour or so any night in the week after 8.30 other than wednesday.

yup email please dude. my email is just a different spelling of michael, which is my real name 🙂 I may take you up on that offer of a ride, I like meeting strangers in the dark lol.

edit: if you’re free this thursday morning, starting about 10am?

Can I come, can I come? 🙂

Seriously, I’d love to tag along but can’t do this Thursday. Jekkyl knows me so I will stalk him for updates 😉

{EDIT} you do realise that being shown around Cannock off piste in the dark is hardly likely to result in said off-piste lodging in memory 😆

ahhahah yes, but my garmin has a memory too, fortunately.

If you can get up early on Saturdays then it gets light well before curfew at the moment. I miss early summer, I was out before 5 a few times

Some good stuff on here:

https://www.strava.com/activities/268630988

Dont all get too excited & please stop posting links straight up. If folk want to find them then they can.

If you go looking for trails don’t bother following the single speeders. They will stick to fire road. Fat bikes perhaps, if anything as they are more common than doggers and werewolfs at the moment, and that is saying something. 😉

scruff – Member
Dont all get too excited & please stop posting links straight up. If folk want to find them then they can.

Strange attitude, given that this is a cycling forum it is likely that the only people reading this will be other cyclists. The audience here is limited and the chase is a big place, putting a link up here isn’t going to turn your off piste runs into the sort of traffic the monkey gets. Why wouldn’t you want to help out other cyclists to find good routes?

some of the trails a very sensitive to seasonal erosion and others can be in areas of “slightly naughty access”

most of the regular cheeky trail users tend to respect this and certain trails don’t get ridden in the depths of mucky winter or certain trails tend to be ridden in small groups out of hours as it were, to reduce potential conflict with other users which then results in the FC brashing the trails as the last thing they need is some tit on bike chasing a strava record or just riding like a knobend on a sunday afternoon and ejecting out a cheeky trail into a fire road on top of horse riders or similar.

the chase is only a small area for a very high mtb population and a lot of other user groups so a bit of sensitivity is needed. Its why we were very careful in route selection for the singlespeed uk champs and also with the guided rides in the cheeky stuff

jekkyl, my horse is very high. 😉

right that’s it, I’m gonna strava stalk the lot of ya. 😛

@tazzymtb I don’t think the chase never really dried out this year. My last ride was a few weeks back and although it wasn’t cold you could almost say it was winter. Very rutted and boggy in places. Off piste stuff around the pines seems to hold up a lot better, whether thats due to less traffic though.

some trails dry very quickly, others turn into quagmire as soon as there is a hint of moisture. the cheeky is riding very well at the moment, last night was tip top and tomorrow should be nice dry and fast again in most places. 😀

True..if it ain’t dry now then it never will be. I might be tempted to have ride there this weekend. How’s badgers?

Jekkyl- if you think sat morning is single man territory please dont let my wife and 3 kids know……. albeit the kids are old enough now to still be in bed when I get back saturday lunchtime!!

I’ve gotten ‘lost’ at Cannock a few times – on my SS – definitely not sticking to fire roads … Been thinking about tarping up in the pines sometime – It’s a beautiful place ..