Is Cannock a horror show?

Curry last night Rd?

Yes indeed very windy, but on the chase you are pretty sheltered from the worst, even most, of the wind on the way round. Strongly suggest you avoid Brocton coppice if you are going off piste due to the danger from wind damage there especially. Otherwise it was riding well. Enjoy and have a safe journey.

More to the Chase than Birches Valley & Marquis Drive.
There are other car parks you can strut around you know. 😀

But you have a dedicated built cafe, bikeshop, parking and facilities

The cafes & facilities were all there before FTD or MT trails…

There are other car parks you can strut around you know

First layby on Bednall Belt is current cottaging favorite. Just walk into the trees for ‘Big Hairy Bear’ fun. Hora- no pebbles on those bits, plenty of ‘Newtons Cradles’ though.

WATS UR FAVE CARP ARK M8??

Shoal Hill, back in the day.

I like Cannock and think they’ve done well with the elevation they have. H8rz are always gonna h8

Going today.
My favourite weather, nice grippy frozen mud.

Should be good today. I love it when it’s frozen, it’s nice and fast.

I went on Friday and it wasn’t too bad…although because my Rune was out of action, I attempted it on my XS BFe jump bike which was bloody hard work.

Fantastic ride today, perfect conditions, not frozen but very grippy, much more so than when bone dry.
Hardly any puddles, or standing water, not even much mud.
Finished up clean enough to drive home without changing first.
The only problem was the low sun, made it either really bright or very shadowy.
Can’t really blame the FC for that.

Erm…. I think Cannock is quite good fun. I seem to be out of step.

Iache and wobbliscott +1. FTD and the Monkey are great. Chase Trails have done excellent work with the funding, manpower and terrain available. I love natural more but Cannock is convenient and enjoyable. The black XC sections are particularly good and more ‘black’ than the majority of English or Welsh black XC options. If you want more DH challenge, Stile Cop is easy to locate and great fun.

I can’t believe you are complaining about stones Hora – it is off-road! Next you will say the South Downs are crap because the chalk is slippy in the wet!

Paperjohn+1 too!

How dare you Sir, Chalk is not sloppy in the wet, it’s teflon death! 😀

I meant – slippy! Ninja edit on way!

Cannock was windy and wet, but great fun even so, hope the guy who face planted in front of me is OK and the girl who binned it on the rock garden descent is OK?

Always happy to step into a Cannock thread and defend it to the hilt. It’s great. Would I travel 3 hours to get there if somewhere like the Lake District was also 3 hours away? Probably not, but I’m than happy to put in a 2 hour round trip in the car for a quick blast of the Monkey Trail. Deffo more fun if ridden fast.

I still don’t get what the problem is with these mythical pebbles. We are talking about the same Cannock, right? 😕

When bone dry in the summer, the loose pebbles are a pain, but yesterday it was perfect.

I rode yesterday and the day before.

The only trail sections I did were the first section of the Dog and the descent to the railway crossing.

The man made trails are good fun but there is so much more to Cannock but I’m not saying where it is, you just need to go off the beaten track and explore!

I think the FC has done an amazing job on the chase, my only gripe is some of the people who ride there.
I often take groups of 4 or 5 new riders there who are trying proper riding for the first time. Quite often large groups of riders will rudely overtake on the ups without so much as a good morning, we then inevitably catch them as they stop right in the middle of the trail before any slightest bit of downhill and fettle with their 4k bikes, adjust sispension settings, switch on their go pros and have a chat about how gnar they are.
I tend to pull in behind them and wait for them to zoom of so we can avoid the repetition of this for the whole day. They can see we are waiting on them, they wave you through only for the same thing to happen again 5 mins later. Just ride the bike FFS

I can empathise with that Rab.

I travel about a 1.5 hour round trip to get to Cannock and that is fine. Is it my absolute favourite place to ride – no it isn’t, but it is a great place to ride in all weathers and offers a good solid ride. The off-piste stuff can be brilliant – I ride that as often as I ride the manmade stuff there in the dry.

I still don’t get why people have a problem with the stones in any weather. If you can’t ride a pebbly trail – you may as well give up IMHO. Cannock is largely sandy soil with pebbles – live with it or ride somewhere else.

Rab – I agree, there do appear to be so e grumpy so and so’s up there. Is you hi to some people they look at you like you’ve just sworn at them! Most people seem ok though.

The groups can be frustrating both ways; those that will not get out of the way for faster riders and those fast groups who seem to like catching people up. I do my best to be courteous both ways.

As I’ve said before, I genuinely don’t really notice the pebbles. The off piste stuff that I know about is great but can get a bit grim in the winter.

I’m staying with family in Sheffield and was planning to ride up here in the morning but the weather is rank and am actually thinking that I may leave earlier tomorrow so I can ride the chase instead. The horror!

I love riding at cannock. I’m fairly new to the whole trail centre thing, I’ve only ridden cannock and kirroughtree, and I didnt think kirroughtree had much over cannock in anything other than length. I think the black at cannock is harder (other than mcmoab) and more intimidating than Kirri as well.

They’ve done a great job with the terrain they’ve got. Luckily I can ride cannock from my door, so I don’t get my audi dirty in the car park.

Cannock is great and I always enjoy it. Yes there are braking bumps and too much stones, but if you want an all weather trail, thats the price you pay.

i dont ride the off piste stuff in the winter as it just trashes the trails.

fallsoffalot – Member
i dont ride the off piste stuff in the winter as it just trashes the trails.

Same here – happy to ride if frosty or on top of snow as well though…