To make it a good day?

there’s a xc race on, shouldn’t affect the way marked trails though, oh, and the trees are closer together than you are used to probably

Nothing – go ride it. It’s all open atm so you’ve picked a good weekend and it’s going to be sunny. If you go Sunday bear in mind there’s a race on in the forest which shouldn’t affect the trail itself but you might find parking a bit of a pain and the shared areas a bit busy.

Ride the whole lot, monkey and dog, and ride the last 2 sections of the monkey multiple times cos they’re the best… (When you come out of lower cliff, turn left, go up the fire road, turn right at the fork up that fire road and rejoin the monkey going left at the top.)

Do the set menu of the dog and monkey nice and early, it is supposed to be hot this weekend so the marked trails will be busting at the seams by dinner time. Have a coffee at half time then go explore the rest of the place. There’s plenty of off piste stuff just follow your nose.

As above the last two sections of the monkey are well worth a second go.

Be prepared for no fried egg option in the bacon sarnie 😥

Will be riding on Saturday so will miss the race for the race car park. Sounds like it should be a good visit. Why through shortage? Should I bring my own wrapped in cotton wool??

Be prepared for no fried egg option in the bacon sarnie

Well that’s my weekend stuffed, Sunday morning ride not the same without a good healthy breakfast halfway round!

You get bonus points for finding the second cafe for a second breakfast 😉

Don’t know why stopped doing them a few years ago, maybe the handle on the frying pan broke.

Don’t know why stopped doing them a few years ago, maybe the handle on the frying pan broke.

I have not had butty from there for a few years no. Seriously.! They don’t do egg.!?

Don’t bring your energy drink plastic bottles or gel sachets if you can’t carry the empty ones home!

Make sure you take a bike with at least 160mm of travel, it’s pretty radical.

Make sure you take a rigid singlespeed, it’s pretty tame.

Theres quite a lot of pedalling reqd 👿
Hardtail will do it no probs.
For the terrain they’ve done a great job, not very technical but great fun. Try to ride it fast. 8)

I’ll be riding my 129.5mm 13 speed unicycle so that should be perfect.

On a serious note I’ll leave no rubbish in anyone’s backyard, bad form all round leaving that sort of crap anywhere.

Get there early.

Take a tube and a pump. Don’t rely of sponging from passers by.

Practise manualling through braking bumps. 🙂

If your bars are over 700mm get ready to punch some trees!

Yes its not technical and a bit tame, but given the elevation the folks have done a good job (its not Wales!). You can also do the red run at stile cop too as well as link up brocton coppice for a longer ride.

I normally get there for 7am on a Sun and its fairly quiet.

As mentioned, please do not drop any litter (including any iPhones) as I took half a pack home a couple of weeks ago and found an iPhone.

Worth a trip form Oxford? i fancy a change from swinley..
Also whats the closest train station to the start of follow the dog? and are the dh runs close by?
Cheers

Closest is Rugeley. Train out to Walsall & stay on to Cannock & then Rugeley. Your about 5-10 mins away.
West Coast main line runs through, & I think there is another Rugeley station but not sure any WCML trains stop there any more. They do at Stafford, which is about 45 mins brisk ride to the man made trails.

There are DH trails at Cannock as well over at Stile Cop. Not too far away from the main drag.

Is the car parking free or do I need a pocket full of change?

Cheers for all the advice – heads to bike to check width of fatbars on unicycle 😉

Threpenny Farthing an a Tuppence.

If your from the Sarff, then 3 of your pounds.

Place is always packed with tons of people from the northern west midlands speaking funny 😀

Yorkshire lad (well another twenty years to get my Leeds passport), so I’ll be bringing old money

Car parking at the trail head is £3 but elsewhere it is free.

I’m there racing my rigid singlespeed on sunday, can’t wait, weather looks to be good as well. Last time there was 20 years ago back when I was a nerdy student.

On Sunday I’ll be mainly Fat Biking with the single speeders.
I’ll have 9 extra gears to help me keep up with the SS racing snakes

I quite like the Chase. It’s my nearest descent riding spot and I reckon the builders have done a great job with the elevation that they have. The last two sections on the Monkey trail are ace and it is generally much quieter than the Dog which often gets full of a very mixed range of abilities.

I don’t think the trees are too close together. I can get my silly bars through all but two bits and still have all of my knuckles. Most people are pretty friendly too but you do gets few asshats.

SS racing snakes

😆

Be very careful if it’s wet, the pebbles can get very slippery.

If you are night riding, there has been a spate of Satanic rituals going on recently. I found two goats heads just off the trail last time I was there 😥

Many thanks to everyone who provided advice. Had a great first trip yesterday, dusty trails, sunshine and plenty of smiles per mile. Will be going back for more.

If your bars are over 700mm get ready to punch some trees!

Definitely this^^^^^

I run 780mm and I’m used to the bits where I expect to twang the trees and always take some bark home with me. 😛

Oh yes did a bit or tree twanging!

three of us punched or got speared by trees racing at cannock today

Just a flesh wound by Johnclimber, on Flickr

Ouch. That looks like it tanged a bit.

Owwwwwww

Tis just a scratch, I’ll survive…