I’ve just found out that my Saturday with my daughter is off so I have an unexpected free day. I have to drop her off in Wellingborough (Northamptonshire) at 10am then the day is mine. Do I take the bike to Cannock where I’ve never ridden before? Or do I drive to North Wales and make a long afternoon and evening of riding?

(I have to drop her off in Wellingborough)

You have my sincere condolences 😉

I personally would make it easy upon myself and sit on the m1 up to the peaks and enjoy more riding than travelling time.

Wales 100%

Cannock’s good but not as good as natural in Wales but that is a whole lot more driving. Transporter’s right, the Peaks would be a better bet. Have you ridden there before? And any reason you can’t stay over and ride again Sunday morning before heading home?

She’s being dropped off at mine 8am on Sunday so that rules out a weekend away. Peaks is a good shout. Not ridden there in years.

Peak. Cannock is ace but from Northampton I’d be going up the peak and smashing a good loop out especially given the current weather.

Looks like you’re screwed for driving in every direction. 2.21to Castleton for the dark peak. 2hrs to Bakewell for the white peak. 1.30 to Cannock. 2hrs to Church Stretton for the long Mynd. I suppose that would still give you 6/7 hrs riding in the dark peak setting off back around 8, plenty of time for a big loop. If you need any route guidance, shout up, there’s lots of knowledge here.

I like Cannock, it’s unique/odd and has a surprising amount of arseholes using the place, but I like it.

Why does Cannock have the full-strip Troy Lee neon rompersuit, coupled with the ‘I’m too real for helmets’ beanie in the middle of summer and the worst attitude possible style of rider that I’ve never seen anywhere else?! Every time I go, loads of ‘em – you’d think they’d be happier do what they supposedly enjoy.

Cannock is ace

Have you ever actually been?

You’re really selling it P-Jay (puts Troy Lee rompersuit back in wardrobe).

Cannock’s a bit dry at the minute. I go a lot and generally love it but lately the sand and pebbles are slippery death. Plus if you’ve got a whole day natural would be a better choice. Without someone showing you round the off piste you’d be done the monkey in under 3hrs.

It gets a lot of chavs coz unlike most trail centres it’s relatively close to lots of shitty towns. lol.

Another vote for the Long Mynd. I live quite near to the Chase (in one of those ‘shitty towns’) and enjoy riding there but for an extra half hours driving i’d be up on the Mynd.

You’re really selling it P-Jay (puts Troy Lee rompersuit back in wardrobe).

Its actually a good ride, not as polished at many TCs because it’s volunteer made, but they’ve done a great job and yeah more nobs than most, but still a good day out.

Op. Let us know what you decide please. I love a bit of closure

Have you ever actually been?

1/2 times a week for many years. Have you? All weather trails well maintained, great off piste, countryside riding, downhill runs… all in it does a lot with not much.

Cannock is a trail centre with a few cheeky bits of trails, it can’t compete with the peaks or Wales but is convenient for what it is and the trails are good fun to ride.

Facilities are good as well, cafe, car park etc will be busy though if the weather holds, we had rain last night and were due some more this afternoon but doubt it will appear.

Whilst the Peak District is fantastic, Church Stretton and the Long Mynd would get my vote. Less driving and more riding.

Carlos

If you do go to cannock do not put your bike on your cars rack and then wonder off to the cafe/toilet as chances are your rack will be empty when you return

Another vote for the Long Mynd. I live quite near to the Chase (in one of those ‘shitty towns’) and enjoy riding there but for an extra half hours driving i’d be up on the Mynd.

Bear in mind that there is a running event happening across Long Mynd tomorrow from 9am. Theres about 170 people running about. Im one of them running the full marathon course.

Would you really pick the minge over the Peak District Carlos. I’ve always been a bit meehh about the Mynd as I’ve never found it particularly technical whereas the Peak has tech in spades!

1/2 times a week for many years. Have you? All weather trails well maintained, great off piste, countryside riding, downhill runs… all in it does a lot with not much.

Often enough to know it’s only worth the drive if I’m meeting someone there for a blast.

I found the Dog and Monkey disappointing; a lot of climbing for only one decent (at a push) descent.

On Thursday I did Dog & Monkey with a diversion for a spot of lunch at the Park Gate pub near Castle Ring.  Started at Springslade Lodge cafe (aka Lurch’s).  It was great and we hardly saw a soul (or any other Cotic).  Nice combination of built trails and natural.   It’s raining right now so might make it even betterer.

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Would you really pick the minge over the Peak District Carlos. I’ve always been a bit meehh about the Mynd as I’ve never found it particularly technical whereas the Peak has tech in spades!

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Nah not at all, you know most of my riding is the techy the better, but given the extra hour in the car from the OP’s location that’s 2hrs extra riding.  That’s the only reason.

The Peak wins every time for me as it’s only 30 mins max down the road.

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I love the Minge for the flowy ST and cheeky fp’s, there’s some good stuff off the usual tracks

Here we go again with the usual Cannock bashing. It’s a fun trail centre and doesn’t pretend to be anything it’s not- nice and flows and fun. Not massively technical or challenging – if you want something a bit more gnar then there is Style Cop, but I’ve never been to a trail centre that is massively challenging or technical, even the Welsh ones and the couple of Scottish ones I’ve been to (excluding the more DH orientated ones). They may be better than Cannock, but not like in a whole other league – just similar but alot more of it and alot bigger terrain, but some just feel like the climbing to descending ratio is worse.

I wouldn’t necessarily advocate making a special trip to Cannock just solely for Cannock, but given the OP’s situation the only sensible and viable options if he wants to spend more time on the bike than in the car, are Cannock or the southern end of the Peaks. Wales is way too far and Welsh roads and roads west of the M6 are SLOW so will take longer than Google Maps says it will, I’ve done the Long Mynd and, well, I won’t be rushing back. I’m sure there are lots of secret off piste runs that are fantastic, but if they’re secret then that’s no good for the OP so all irrelevant really.

So if all the OP wants is to get out on the bike for a fun and easy blast with convenience, then Cannock will fit the bill. If he wants something bigger, more challenging, getting out into the wilds a bit more, but with less convenience then the Peaks will fit the bill.

By the way, it’s raining now so by tomorrow the trails at Cannock will have dampened down a bit so won’t be as slippery as they have been recently.

I decided on Cannock and am sat having a cuppa in the car park. It was way better than I expected, I really enjoyed it. Got round both Dog and Monkey in 90 minutes without a stop. Wish I’d remembered to put cash in my pocket so I could have stopped at the cafe by the railway. I’d definitely come back.

Time for at least another lap of the dog then.

Done and very much dusted. Thought I’d got a great tan on my legs until I wiped them with a towel.

It’s a fun trail centre and doesn’t pretend to be anything it’s not- nice and flows and fun.

Second this. It’s one of my favourite places to take the family for a blast because it’s fast, not too hilly and loads of fun. Trails are typically in good nick and we’ve never had a bad day on the Chase.

OP, glad you had a good time. We’re off there in October and hoping that the conditions will be reasonably dry and firm when we go as I love the fast, flowing riding.

Were any trail sections closed for maintenance?

The very last bit of Dog. Apart from that it was all good.

Glad you enjoyed it. The first priority is to have fun at the end of the day so sounds like it was mission accomplished.

Glad you enjoyed Cannock,it gets a bit of a hard time on here in my opinion. There are loads of good hidden  trails around the chase as well if you know where to look, probably more than ever before at the moment.

Cannock is good.  Given the lack of gradient – I think actually it’s excellent.  I love about 35 – 40 minutes away and it’s always worth the drive over.

The black sections are pretty black – certainly more than Llandegla or Afan.  I think the trail construction – volunteer built or no, it’s as good as a lot of other trail centres in Scotland or Wales.

Saying all that I ride more outside of the trail centre – especially during the summer.  Even then though, I do build in a little bit of one or the other trails.

I find the Peak too stop start with all the rocks up there. I prefer fast flowing trails through woods so Cannock wins for me.

I’d say Cannock as it’s a shorter Drive for you.

The Peaks is a shorter drive for me so I would do The Peaks more often.

As for which is the better of the two, Cannock has less Gates and shorter Climbs, so it “flows” a lot better than Bridleway. There are no Dog Walkers, Hikers, Horses. That alone is great.

The Peaks has better scenery, and has some better descents, but some of the climbs are very long and can take ages, depends which track your doing.

I went today, took someone for their first visit. Enjoyed it again but as mentioned, very dry. Finding grip was hard in parts, I came off twice.

The berms had a lot of holes in which was surprising though, could do with a bit of filler.

I read somewhere it was on fire??

Somewhere in the area was recently apparently, but nothing looked to be affected from what I saw. There was a diversion on the final section but that looked to be due to logging.

Yeah some little scrotbags set 4 fires the other night.

Fire Service sorted it pretty quickly.

Trails still open, it was up by the visitors centre at Marquis Drive.