Hi All, planning to get out on the bikes tomorrow, we're staying with family in the north cotswolds and these are the two areas we're think off… Malverns are closer but Cannock could be done also…

Which would you recommend and why?

Cheers,

Chris

Malverns will be full of walkers if the weather is good – unless you have an early start.

Forest of Dean might be another idea?

Whats Forest of Dean like for decent mtb i.e. smatterings of technical and singletrack, the forrestry commission website implied a lot of the 'trails' have been closed recently?

Loads of decent riding much closer to you than either the malverns or cannock.

All sorts of routes over the Cotswolds, but for technical singletrack, you just can't beat the Forest of Dean… Was there last weekend and if trails were closed, I didn't spot them!

Same as mboy said.

No trails shut apart from part of the Fodca trail – all forestry work stops at the weekends.

FoD has 'unlimited' singletrack – trouble is non of it's marked. So either find a local to show you round or just 'explore' (take a 125000 map). Park at the the bike centre – good cafe, bike shop, toilets, showers etc.
One of my mates regularly does a 40 mile xc route in the FoD – all on different paths/singletrack with no repetition the entire ride.

cannocks new trail phase 2 is awesome but it will be absolutely rammed tommorrow as it is every sat/sun,theres loads of excellent natural riding over there too but you need to know it obviously

I rode the new trail at cannock yesterday, even in the pouring rain it did'nt take anything away from it. I thought it was brilliant very well thought out and flowing great in most places, most of the others I spoke to were all of the same opinion, a part of Wales in the west mids !

Many thanks to all the chase trails guys who spent a heluva lot of thier time working on these trails instead of riding, fantastic.
I left some cash in thier collection tin in the bike shop, I hope others will do the same. Thanks again see you soon.

Having lived and ridden in both places: the riding is better on the Malverns, as long as you know where to go – if not, Cannock would be the better option, as the new stuff is ace. Both are top places to ride, so you can't go far wrong with either…

Cannock, i was there last bank hol and the trails were fairly quiet

Cheers all, I'll let you know where we end up and how we get on!

Chris

An obvious statement I know, just give the Malvern walkers a bit of space…there have been letters in our local paper this week demanding that the conservators control cycling on the hills after a recent exchange.