Anyone give me a brief run down? Never been, booked a few days camping with family so looking for family rides, boy is 8 and easily scooted round the blue at Swinley today for reference. Also longer xc style rides for me. I am happy to do small drops but am pretty much a wheels on the ground rider but happy to push down anything nasty!!

Start at Pedal a bike away at Cannop and work your way outwards from there.

Verderers is nice an flowy
Free miners is a bit more tech
the first two down hill tracks are roll-able,
Some locals will be able to help out with off piste

Verderers looks like the kid would manage. Looks good thanks.

Yeah, Mini is 7 and can do all the Verderers as can a friend of his. I also see younger children riding there in the holidays. It can get a bit bumpy when dry down the final descent but its a hoot!

There is also a fun pump track now which kids love and also a skills area. Verderers is pretty rough near the end but it gets a ton of traffic.

The skills area has some rollable jumps and the pump track is fun for a while. There’s also a drops run in the skills area with progressively bigger drops – might be good practice for you!

The downhill runs aren’t very jumpy – more rooty tech so might be worth a look at those too. Launchpad is easy but fast and wide – if your little one can control their speed ok they’d probably quite enjoy that too – although it’s a grind to the top of the fireroad.

might be good practice for you!

No thanks!!

Rode verderers a couple of weekends ago for the first time, it’s little more technical than I was expecting for a blue trail! Enjoyable though, good day out. The café at Mallard’s pike is nice if you;re doing a loop of the family trail (long and flattish)

Rode verderers a couple of weekends ago for the first time, it’s little more technical than I was expecting for a blue trail!

Really? I think it’s a typical trail centre blue – mostly flowy and quite smooth – albeit the bit into the final descent has got a bit cut up and slightly rockier than it was a while back.

I know it’s completely different as uplifted trail centres / dh centres but the blues at BMCC and Antur both shocked me the first time I rode them.

It’s more tech than the blue at Cannock! 😋

It’s more tech than the blue at Cannock! 😋

I’ve never ridden at Cannock although work is taking me up there in a few weeks so I may try and stick the hardtail in the boot of the car and have a cheeky look. Prob ride a red rather than a blue though.

Yeah don’t bother with the blue, it’s a family trail, I think it’s blue rated because the ‘Cannock cobbles’ will shake apart any suspect bikes.

Edit: the monkey and the dog especially are more red light, if you have been to more mountainous areas. That is not to detract from their strong points though.

I don’t ride a huge amount of trail centres, mostly we ride from home, but we rode the red and balck at Llandegla recently and while the verderers wasn’t quite as tech as that, it wasn;t a stroll in the park

Edit: the monkey and the dog especially are more red light, if you have been to more mountainous areas. That is not to detract from their strong points though.

I went to North Wales a few weekends ago and did 2 blacks at Coed Y Brenin / an uplift day at Antur and did the Snowdon Ranger path – I’m a bit rock’d out at the moment!

Plus if I get to Cannock it’ll be on the ht rather than big fs bike and my lower back gets tight quite quickly on the ht (previously bulged a few discs in my back).

So I’d be looking for flowy / swoopy kind of trails rather than tech. Red light sounds perfect 😃

@joebristol – you’ll like Cannock, keep your tyre pressures low as the cobbles can give a lot of buzz in places.

The Verderers is classified as blue, OK for riders starting out and rideable on a hybrid bike.

So says the info at Pedal-a-bike—away. Not a **** chance. It’s always been blue (fit capable rider) with a red descent. Recently it’s cut up badly with the descent fairing the worst.

I’m not much of a fan TBH, there are large sections that have been maintained recently, but the switchback climb and the descent desperately need some work.

The trails at peddal a bike away are lots of fun. If you want a real easy family ride there is a nice section allong the river Wye from Symonds yay to Monmouth. It is flat but you can explore away from the track . There were plans to extend the rout as far as Monmouth but I don’t know if this happens. Also the Scarecens Head is a cracking pub and bike friendly.