I appreciate it has it’s haterz on here but jeez it’s in need of a bit of love. I appreciate it’s all volunteers who do the maintenance and unfortunately I’ve never managed to help out as I get over there perhaps 6 times a year, but putting the carparking up to 6 quid and signs up saying we’ve upped the price to help the trails is a bit pissy really. Some sections have been closed for months, anybody got any insider knowledge of what’s occurring?

Yep, two weeks ago. Apart from the last section everything was open and running pretty well. I imagine all the extra car part money has been used to redo the toilets and help toward the rebuild of the last section?

£6 is a little high though not to bad but we’re going to get a discovery pass for £40 for the year.

It’s to cover all the people that happily use the trails (thus contributing to the wear and tear and the need to close sections for maintenance) but park for free elsewhere thus avoiding contributing to the upkeep.

Well, it’s not actually but my moan still stands!!

All forestry commission carparks are expensive these days 🙁
And I think volunteers are doing the work on what used to be the rollers.

Sherwood Pines has been £6 for ages, so it was only a matter of time. The Discovery pass now seems like a good deal.

Yep I rode last week, was riding well! Only the rollers closed but it’s been a while and could be a while I’m sure there’s a big build day soon to help get it in track.

Ride it today was pretty wet and the last section was closed. Don’t think £6 is really that expensive to be able to go and ride the trails. The prices you pay to go to national trust properties or legoland or other things it is pretty cheap for a couple of hours entertainment!

Fod is £7 now.
Yeah I know, cool story bro.

Not since summer, it was night and day compared to a few years ago and really enjoyed it.

Car Parks and paying to ride in general only seems expensive at @ £6 because we’re used to paying less, it would seem a bit of a bargain in isolation I think.

If I was going to paint a silver lining, higher car park prices make my mates and I get of our arse and carpool. 2 years ago 4 of us arrived in 4 cars at FOD from Cardiff, which is just draft really – not since they put it up to £7 though.

If you don’t want to pay parking, loads of other places to park, or get the train like I do, cheeky trails from hednesford all the way to birches valley, then breakfast in the cafe then enjoy the trails.

Rode in from gentleshaw common on Monday and onto the monkey forgot how much great singletrack there is over the comon and around castle ring with the monkey and parts of the dog some more off piste it made a nice 50 mile loop

Many of the people that park elsewhere for free don’t go anywhere near the waymarked trails, just saying 😉

I’m going in the morning. Parking at the Tackeroo and riding the way marked trails.

Parking at the road crossing & riding the Monkey.
On a singlespeed fatty.
What could possibly go wrong…

The discovery pass seems good value when at Swinley it’s £100 or something daft, just for Swinley.

Cannock used to be my local trail centre but not been there for two years. There were ‘braking bump’ issues about a year after the Monkey opened not helped by a bad winter and I think the eye way taken off the ball with the forestry commission show. But since then all the major issues seemd to have been fixed when I last ride it. Why are the rollers being redone?

Is £6 expensive to park?

Is £6 expensive to park?

Yes and No.

No as it’s really the only barrier to x KMs of purpose made trails that have to be built and maintained by someone.

Yes compared to Llandgela £4, Afan £1 Cwmcarn £3 (or a £1 of you’re quick and the orher other Afan at £3.50.

They’re all ludicrously cheap really, it just seems expensive when the bump the price up.

Cannock has had very little closed this year compared to the last couple of years, it’s only the last section that’s closed and that’s being completely redesigned because the end of it had gotten really messed up.

Parking is steep though IMO, but the car park is always heaving at weekends so it’s obviously not too expensive.

No, couple of other sections closed today. However some of the puddles (lakes) on upper and lower cliff really need a bit of attention before the surface bottoms through and turns to shit.

You can keep up to date find out what is going on with trails via Chase Trails web site or Facebook page. They do a remarkably good job all things considered.

Was there last Sunday – all open I think apart from the rollers at the end.

I was really impressed with how many families, kids etc were out and how everyone was playing nicely together.

My one-one scandal is experiencing a recurrence of it’s creaking swap-outs, plus it was running a chain that’s dried out and rusted then was once resurrected but now neglected, so not exactly a silent runner, the noise from which p!ssed me off all ride, until passing someone on a much nicer, newer bike uphill, his comment “that creaking old bike just cruised past me” was *almost* pleasing enough to keep things as they are.

Anyone ridden cannock lately?

Erm

Friday: trans-Chase epic in world class conditions. No trail left unridden, some of them twice. Many PRs
Saturday: sessioning Cat 4s. More PRs
Sunday: HOW wet 😯

I’d rather pay £6 for Cannock than £8 for Dalby.

Wasn’t it rocketdude. Bit of an endurance with the cold as well. We set off at approx 7.30am waterproofs on from the start and it started raining an hour in. There always comes that point in a wet ride where you stop avoiding the puddles coz it won’t make any difference and just run through the middle of em. Yayyyyy *splash* still ending with a great big grin.

Yeah just a bit 🙂

I went out in the afternoon and it was still streaming. Manualling through the puddles helps *cough*

Took my two lads round the Monkey early yesterday. It was puddle city for most of it. Apologies to anyone held up by the two young lads on Fatty’s. 😉

Takis, I passed you near the start of the monkey. Was your lad on a white ‘on one’ fatty?
You were both stopped on a berm, your lad on the inside and you said ‘sorry for holding you up’ and I replied ‘it’s okay, I fancy a go on one of them things’ or something similar. I was riding a black Soul. Nice to have met you… briefly!

wrightyson – Member
No, couple of other sections closed today. However some of the puddles (lakes) on upper and lower cliff really need a bit of attention before the surface bottoms through and turns to shit.

Yeah I saw on the FB page last night that they’re replacing Hugh’s bridge too. It’s a shame really, as that right at the end of the section, but I think they would have had to divert quite a lot before.

That said, it was only closed that day for the first time, the rollers section is a complete re-route job so will be out of action til well into the new year.

It’s a bit harsh too to complain about sections being closed but then in the next breath say they need to sort fix several more sections because there are puddles there in the winter, they can’t do it with the trails open, and there was only 4 people out working on it yesterday, they’d get a lot more done with more people.

I volunteer by sticking up for them on the internet rather than digging 😆 😳

I was out yesterday morning watching my wife do the “Tough 10” run. I saw quite a lot of bikers who were just uniform brown head to toe, off-piste did look really rather manky!

We did a quick lap of the Dog later in the afternoon, it had dried out a bit, the sun had come out and it was lovely… 🙂

My biggest issue with the £6 parking charge isn’t the charge itself, it’s paying for it.

I don’t know many folks who carry that sort of change around these days so it would help if the FC would join the 21st century and install a few P&D machines that had working card readers on them.

I’m sure there used to be one near the top end of Birches Valley but every time I’ve gone to use it it’s been covered up.

However some of the puddles (lakes) on upper and lower cliff really need a bit of attention before the surface bottoms through and turns to shit.

I believe that Upper Cliff is due for felling soon hence the lack or repairs. Lower Cliff needs a bit of TLC since it opened a while back.

To be honest I don’t often ride the main trails, tending to stick to the off piste stuff although as the weather gets worse I’ll probably be heading back to the main trails.

I was at Whinlatter a few weeks ago and the payment system there for parking was fantastic. License plate recognition meant that you didn’t even have to pay as you left. I paid 2 weeks later over the web. Who carries cash around these days? as for Birches Valley, I’ll get one of those season tickets as soon as they leave the gates open late. That would suit us much better as leaving your car at Marquis drive after dark is always a bit of a gamble.

jekkyl, that was us mate. 🙂
Eldest was a bit ahead on his normal O-O Fatty, I was shepherding the youngest round on his 24″ O-O Fatty.
He was a bit out of his depth TBH, but totally blown away to riding the same track as proper mountainbikers. I was on my singlespeed Puffin, not the tool for the Monkey but preferable to the FS any day of the week. 😉

Cannock doesn’t half get some hammer so it is bound to never be perfectly groomed and will always have some sections in need of repair and some TLC. But that’s mountain biking and the reason for chunky tyres and suspension.

Definitely needs a more convenient payment system though, they’ve just put some new pay machines in and it seems a bit short sighted for them not to be capable of contactless card payment.

There were a couple of machines that did card cards but they’ve been covered up for ages. You can pay by card in the forestry office but it’s a pain.