In this video we start at Black Sabbath Bridge in the centre of Birmingham and use a number of canals and a disused railway to make our way to Cannock Chase, known for its great gravel cycling. We use the Birmingham and Fazeley Canal, The Tame Valley Canal, which passes under Spaghetti Junction, The Rushall Canal and the Mclean Way from Walsall to make our way to Chasewater, before finishes the Journey to Cannock Chase and its base of fire roads and gravel tracks.

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Route Links:

https://www.komoot.com/tour/2440972400?share_token=aszPZCn3pevdVD5ZdlfS1koKQa3o5SKTbriccSJoVrgvGh17es&ref=wtd

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/course/382254033

Back The Track website:

http://backthetrack.org.uk

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Birmingham, a city famous for its many miles of canals, its spaghetti-ylike motorway junctions, and being the birthplace of heavy metal music. But one thing Birmingham is not known for is its gravel riding. But barely more than 20 mi away lives a gravel mecca with plenty of fire roads and endless forest trails. And today I’m going to show you how to get there by bike with almost no need to cycle on a road. So join me for this ride from Birmingham city center to Canic Chase. With the recent passing of Birmingham legend Aussie Osborne, where else could I start this ride but Black Sabbath Bridge, which takes Broad Street over the Birmingham mainline Canal with Black Sabbath music blasting out over the speakers. I was a little paranoid of receiving a copyright strike on this video. So, it’s time to head down these stairs into the void. That down there with slightly bigger tires. If you didn’t understand that thick West Midlands accent, he said you could ride that down there. Maybe on my mountain bike. Certainly not on my gravel bike that I’m riding today. This first stretch of toe path along the mainline canal was extremely busy due to Birmingham City University holding its graduation ceremony nearby. So I decided to walk down this section of toe path and start the ride properly at Old Turn Junction. And from here we’re going to head along the Birmingham to Fasley Canal heading towards Aston. We’ll then take a left turn onto the Tame Valley Canal. We’ll head north until it meets the Rushall Canal where we’ll take a right turn and make our way up to Warsaw. We’ll head through Warsaw and onto the McClean Way, which takes us up to the Chase Water Reservoir. From there, we’re onto the final leg into Canic Chase itself. It’s a 26 mile ride here from the city center out to where we’re going in Canic Chase. So, let’s get going down the Birmingham and Fasley Canal. Obviously being fairly close to the city center, this is not a section of tow path to be setting KM on. So, take it easy and make sure you have a bell. As we head past the city center, we get a great view of the BT tower. I did previously say in my Brumy Loop video that this was the tallest building in Birmingham, but in fact that was incorrect. As stated by somebody in the comments, the tallest building in Birmingham is in fact the Octagon. This building here that we can see on the right hand side towering at 155 m high. This residential building that houses 364 apartments was topped out in September 2024 when it officially became the tallest building in Birmingham, surpassing the BT tower. You’ll notice here as well that we started to send down quite a number of locks. And there’s actually 13 locks in total here known as the Farmer’s Bridge locks. Now, there’s so many locks here because Birmingham actually sits quite high up around 500 ft. And many of the canals around Birmingham city center are at what is called the Birmingham level, which is 453 ft above sea level. And although we are still very much in Birmingham here, we are starting our descent from the Birmingham plateau. All the locks have the usual toe path to the left hand side. Many of these sections of toe path along with other sections along this route have raised rows of cobbles making it extremely bumpy to cycle along. Now these cobbles were put in like this to give horses extra grip as they made their way along the canal. But they also make it extremely bumpy as you cycle down them. So do take care. However, these sections of cobbles are extremely good at testing out my new action camera, the DJI Osmo 4, and its stability function, which aims to keep the picture from jarring around as you go over bumps like this. Let me know in the comments what you think of the new footage. Does it look better than my old ancient GoPro? Is it more stable? I’d be interested to know what you think. And at this point, I’d like to say a big thank you for all those that have supported the channel so far just by watching the videos, subscribing, or even buy me a coffee via the link in the description. It all massively helps and has allowed me to invest in new equipment like this to make these videos better for you. So, if you haven’t already subscribed, please do so. It’s absolutely free and it makes a massive difference. And make sure you turn on that notification bell so you don’t miss out on any future videos. The canal proceeds to head under a building. And it’s quite bizarre to see these 18th century locks towered over by this modern building. The canal then makes its way under Livery Street through a rather small and tight tunnel. But then as we come out of this tunnel, we make our way under the entrance of Snow Hill Station through a rather grand structure. Although I think it has seen better days with graffiti covering its walls. It’s definitely lost some of the grandeur it would have had back when it was built by the Victorians. The next lock is the final lock in the Farmer’s Bridge flight, the 13th lock. From here, we have quite a flat section all the way to Aston Junction. However, even though it’s flat, it’s still pretty bumpy in places with these cobbles. At Aston Junction, the Birmingham and Fasley Canal meets the Digbath Branch Canal. It looks like the main body of the canal goes around to the right here, but that is in fact the Digbath Branch Canal with the Birmingham and Fasely Canal carry on left under the Black and White Bridge and down through a set of locks. The Digbath Branch Canal was completed in 1799 and provided a link from the Birmingham and Fasley Canal down to what was the War and Birmingham Canal, which is now part of the Grand Union Canal. After passing over this distinctive black and white bridge, a type which can be found all over the Birmingham Canal navigations, we carry on down the Birmingham and Fasely Canal and down the second set of locks on this journey. This is known as the Aston flight and it’s made up of 11 locks. That means in this short journey down the Birmingham and Fasley Canal, which we’re on for about 3 m today, we make our way down 24 locks and drop 91 m in elevation or almost 300 ft. We’re now passing under the Birmingham inner ring road and entering into the area of Aston. This is quite an industrial area of Birmingham and also the area of the city where a band called Pula Tulk was formed who eventually changed their name to Black Sabbath or something like that. As we head down this section, you’ll notice that there’s a lot of bridges over nothing at the side of the canal like this where we go up and we go down. Now, these are where there would have been old warves that head into industrial areas or little short branch canals where industry used the canal to transport its war materials in and transport its finished products out. And even though the industry no longer uses the canals for transport, these industrial areas still remain along the banks of the canal. I quite like the fact that this old chimney here has been reused as a mobile phone tower. Quite a clever use of old infrastructure which used to be part of the MW Bros limited metal rollers works here in Birmingham. And although that particular business has moved on, industry is still flourishing in this area with the smells and the sounds still going on all around. The Birmingham and Fasy Canal was built to connect Birmingham to the Coventry Canal, which also connected to the Oxford Canal, giving Birmingham a link via the canals to London. An act of parliament was passed in 1974 to authorize the building of the canal, although it had a bit of a checkered construction. The original engineering company employed to build the canal, Pinkertons, only worked on the canal for about a year before they were essentially sacked due to concerns around poor workmanship and poor quality of materials used on the canal. Pinkertons then took the canal company to court with a case that rumbled on for around 10 years, ending up with George Pinkerton ending up spending some time in jail for making lielless remarks about the canal company clerk. We’re now coming to where the Birmingham Fasy Canal crosses over the River Tame and then crosses under the M6 motorway. From here, we’re going to head under the M6 and take a left turn to make our way up the Tame Valley Canal, which we’ll be following for 6 miles as it heads north through Birmingham. We’re now coming under the Brumford vioaduct which forms part of the M6. And fun fact, this is actually the longest motorway vioideuct in the country. This elevated section of motorway runs between junction 5 and six of the M6 and is 3 and 1/2 m long. When it was completed in 1972, it surpassed the second seven crossing as the longest vio in Britain. The Tame Valley Canal heads alongside this fired duct for a short while before heading under the Grally Hill Interchange, junction six of the M6, more famously known as Spaghetti Junction. There’s quite a large covered section to make way under before you pop out into the light and get a view of some of the spaghetti roads that crisscross this area. The junction that was opened in 1972 connects the M6 motorway with the Aston Expressway or the A38M. in turn connecting those also to the A5127. The name Spaghetti Junction was coined by a journalist who described the under construction interchange as resembling a plate of spaghetti. And when looked at from above, he certainly had a point. It’s quite a strange world down here under that mess of motorways. And when you finally emerge from under the interchange, it makes the canal infrastructure that was built in the 1800s feel quite quaint. And when I say 1800s, I’m not mistaken. This canal was actually opened in 1844, quite late in terms of canals. It was conceived to relieve pressure on the busy Birmingham Canal system in the center of the city. It connects the Birmingham and Fasley Canal to the Warsaw Canal, allowing boats to bypass the city center of Birmingham and join the Birmingham Mainline Canal further north. Once we reach Brook Rail Road, we need to cross over the canal as the toe path carries on along the other side. This does require us to go up some steps which you will need to carry your bike up. You’ll then need to push your bike along the foot path or ride along the road over the canal before crossing the road and heading down the toe path on the other side. This brings us out onto a rather pleasant section of canal toe path with a good surface surrounded by lots of green vegetation. After crossing under the M6 yet another time, we start to make our way up a set of locks. This is the Perry Bar lock flight, which consists of 13 individual locks. It raises the canal 106 ft or 32 m up to what’s known as the Walsaw level. As we continue up this set of locks, we passed by what was Perry Barf with the entrance crossed over by one of these distinctive BCN black and white cast iron bridges. This would have been an important area of the canal with goods coming in and goods going out being shipped all across the country and to ports around the country to be shipped even further a field. The canal makes its way under the M6 for the fourth time as we continue our way up the Perry Bar locks. If you ignore the work going on here and the work boats, this is actually a really pretty section of the canal. On the left hand side, you might notice when there’s a gap in the bushes the large athletic stadium here. This is the Alexander Stadium which was built in 1976. It’s hosted many important events over the years with the most prestigious being the 2022 Commonwealth Games for which the stadium underwent significant renovation. Not far from the stadium, we come to the top lock of the Perry Bar lock flight. This is numbered as lock number one as the locks on this canal are numbered in the opposite direction to which we are riding. The original lock keeper cottage still stands on the right hand side of the canal as we make our way up the lock. Moving on from here, the canal heads into quite a deep cutting with Tower Hill Foot bridge towering above the canal. This section of canal is dead straight. Always a giveaway that a canal is of more modern construction. If you can call 1844 more modern. Early canals tended to follow the lay of the land. However, as technology improved and engineers became more confident, later canals were driven through the landscape using deep cutings and high embankments to make more direct routes. After passing through the cutting, the canal brings us out into the area of Birmingham known as Great Bar. And here we move from being in a cutting to being on a fairly long embankment. And from the top of the embankment, we get great views back to Birmingham city center. There you can see the octagon standing proud. It’s hard to believe that we started our ride there in the city center not too long ago and we’ve made it out deep into suburbia without even touching a road so far. We’re now coming to the end of this six mile stint along the Tame Valley Canal. And you know you’re getting to the end because we pass under these two bridges which are the link roads for the M5 and M6. Construction on the M5 motorway began in 1962, but this section linking it with the M6 wasn’t completed until 1970. The bridge in front of us on the right marks the beginning of the Rush Hall Canal, which is where this route will be taking us next. But before we head down there, I just wanted to take a look at this fisherman, patiently waiting by the side of the canal. If you’ve ever cycled down a canal and not seen a heron, has it really been a canal ride? The sign here tells us that by going under that bridge and heading up the Rushaw Canal, we’ll make it to Catsill Junction on the Worly and Essington Canal with the short 2.7 m Rushaw Canal built to join the Tame Valley Canal and the Worly and Essenton Canal. In order to join the Rushaw Canal, we need to backtrack a little bit from here and take a bit of a loop the loop. So, we head left here before we get to that bridge and we keep heading around the curve until it takes us up until a bridge which crosses over the Tame Valley Canal. Once over the Tame Valley Canal, we cross over the Rush Hall Canal. Take a right and then we can continue our journey up the Rush Hall Canal towards Walsaw. But before we do that, we need to cross under the M6 motorway for the fifth time during this journey. And I suppose it’s no surprise really that the canals do crisscross with the motorway network as the places that we want to go haven’t really changed. It’s just the method of getting there has changed. We now go by car instead of boat. And I suppose most importantly, goods are now transported mainly by lries, taking away that allimportant revenue stream from the canals, which ultimately led to their decline. Not far into our journey along the Rushaw Canal, the hard surface turns to a gravel surface. And I suppose ultimately this ride was about getting from Birmingham to Canicchase, that gravel riding Mecca. So having a little bit of gravel along the way is definitely not unwelcome. Plans for the Rush Canal were passed through Parliament in 1844, not long after the Tame Valley Canal had been completed. The purpose of the canal was to link the doorend branch of the Worly and Essington Canal to the Tame Valley Canal and this would allow coal to come down from the mines around Can and reach Birmingham in the Black Country more easily. The canal was finished in 1847 and it has nine locks along its length, dropping the canal down 65 ft from Longwood Junction to Rushel Junction with the Tame Valley Canal. There’s quite a few houses along its length that have gardens that back right up onto the canal, but I found one family that had taken up residence on the canal bank itself. We leave the Rushaw Canal just before it passes under Moat Bridge and take a left to head through Walsaw Country Park. We’re now 11 milesi into this journey just on the edge of Warsaw and we need to make our way up these steps and carry on our journey along this rather pleasant gravel path which takes us through Warsaw Country Park and towards Warsaw Arboritum Park. If you’re planning on riding this route, the Kimoot and Garmin Connect links to the route are in the video description. And if you want to say thank you for those or thank you for the video, you can support the channel by buy me a coffee via the link also in the video description. And if you’ve watched the video up until this point, I’m guessing that you are enjoying it. So, please do give it a like and consider subscribing to the channel. It’s absolutely free and it helps me out massively. After passing through a very busy Warsaw Arboritum full of families enjoying the late Friday afternoon sunshine, we pass this pretty lake and then head to the road where we’re going to do our first bit of road riding on this route. We leave the park and come out into Lichfield Street, which we’re able to cross using a cycle crossing and then head down But Street towards the McClean way. We have about half a mile of road riding here, mostly on these quiet residential streets. We head over the top of the Warsaw to Sutton Cfield Railway before dropping down to join the McClean way. The marker post here tells us that this is part of the National Cycle Network, Route 5 to be precise, and it’s well tarmaced all the way up to Pelaw. The McClean way will now take us all the way from Warsaw up to Brown Hills. This section of path is a disused railway line, and I did start to get concerned that actually there might be some steam trains still running down here by the amount of smoke I saw ahead. However, unfortunately, it was a fire in the bushes at the side of the track. The gentleman here signaled that he was on the phone to the fire brigade. So, I gave him the thumbs up and carried on past this bush fire. Hopefully, the fire brigade were able to attend quickly and make sure that didn’t spread any further. But if you do live nearby or use this section of path, please do let me know. The McClean way was originally part of the South Stafford railway network linking Warsaw to Lichfield and it’s named after John Robinson McClean a prominent engineer and railway pioneer with the South Stafford Railway Company. The line was originally opened in 1849 for passenger travel, but mainly used by goods traffic, transporting coal from the Canic coal fields down into Birmingham and beyond, much like the canals that we’ve also used today. Unlike many other railway tracks that were ridden on the channel, this line actually survived the beaching cuts and wasn’t officially closed until 1984 when the tracks were ripped up. Back in the day, this was no quiet branch line. As you can see by this bridge at Vicorage Road, this was double tracked, allowing trains to travel in both directions at the same time. On the sides of this bridge, if you look through the metal fencing, there’s also some great signs that say McClean Way. It’s just to say the fencing’s in the way, so you can’t see them clearly. This section in the McClean way around Pelol has recently been tarmaced, only being finished in May 2025, a couple of months before this video was filmed. However, the tarmac does come to an end and we join a gravel track for the remainder of our journey towards Brown Hills. An organization called Back the Track has been responsible for many improvements along the McClean Way along the years and particularly this final section between Pelaw and Brown Hills. Many volunteer hours have been spent clearing the way and making this old railway suitable for cycling and walking. They have the aim to continue the greenway from Brown Hills to Lichfield. And my understanding is that the local councils have the lease of the track bed between Brown Hills and Lichfield. They just need the effort, the time, and the money to make that part of this old rail track cyclable and walkable. So hopefully it won’t be too long before that happens, and I’ll definitely come back when it’s complete. If you want to know more about that organization, Back the Track, I’ll put a link in the video description. It’s definitely worth visiting their website. There’s a lot of really interesting pictures and history of the development of the McClean way along the years. As we head away from Pelaw, there’s a great little reminder that this did used to be a railway track with this lovely old signal still in place at the side of the track. To the right of us lays a lot of open land. This was previously an open cast coal mine that was reclaimed in the ’90s. This is one of the mines that would have had its coal transported by the railway down to Birmingham. As we come to the outskirts of Brown Hills, the Mlean Way crosses over the Worly and Essexan Canal. This canal received its act of Parliament in 1792, allowing construction to begin. And much like the rail line we’re cycling along, the purpose of this canal was to connect Wolverampton and Birmingham to the coal fields of Can. Although plenty of other materials were transported down the canal, including limestone. It had quite a few branches including the door end branch which was eventually linked to the Rushall canal which we were cycling on earlier. So you could avoid that road section in Warsaw and use the door end branch of the canal to make your way here to the McClean way. However, I haven’t done that because one, I’m not sure what the toe path is like. So if you’ve cycled it, please do let me know in the comments. And two, the nickname for that canal is the Curly Whirly and it would have added on quite a few miles and not been a very direct route. Moving on from the canal, we have quite possibly the worst barrier I’ve ever had to take my bike through. Things like this stop all but the most able-bodied walkers and cyclists from making their way through and enjoying the greenway. Why they put them in, I don’t know. I know people will say they’re there to stop motorbikes, but in this day and age with the scourge of electric motorbikes, it’s not going to stop them getting through and it stops other people enjoying the greenway. The route takes us right through the center of Brown Hills. Although you wouldn’t know it as you feel quite isolated from the urban chaos around down here in the bottom of this cutting, surrounded by vegetation. At the far northern end of Brown Hills, we again cross paths with the Worley and Essington Canal. This is the Anglesy branch of that canal which was constructed between 1848 and 1850. And this is a superb example of an iron aqueduct passing over the railway here. After passing under the aqueduct, we need to make our way to the steps on the left, which will take us up to the canal, which we’ll be using for the next part of our journey. Although these steps are quite steep, it does have a little bit of a bike ramp at the side. So, if you angle your bike over, you are able to push your bike up rather than having to carry it, which is a nice touch. At the top, we get a view of the aqueduct from above. And we can see those steps there where we came up from. But we’re going to continue heading north up the Anglesy Branch Canal towards Chase Water Reservoir. A feeder canal existed from 1797 linking chasewater reservoir with the worly and canal. However, this wasn’t navigable by boats. It was simply to provide water from the reservoir to the canal system. It wasn’t until 1850 that this canal became navigable for boats and it was done so to service the increasing number of coal fields that are opening up around the chase water area. We stay on the canal for just one mile before it brings us out at the base of the Chase Reservoir Dam. You can clearly see that this is the end of the line for the canal with the water for the canal system being supplied by a feeder pipe under the large dam behind us. The dam was completed in May 1797. However, in June 1799, the dam burst, releasing a flood wave downstream along the crane book towards Shenstone. The flood water caused significant damage to roads, bridges, and even killed livestock in the area. The canal company had to pay out compensation to all those who had suffered losses, and the dam had to be rebuilt, which they quickly got down to doing. And in March 1800, the new, bigger, and better dam was open. Our route now takes us around the eastern edge of the reservoir using a number of access roads and some traffic-free trails. Part of the route follows alongside the Chase Water Heritage Railway. This is a former collery railway running around the shores of chase water. It was used by the many coal fields in the area to transport their coal. But with the decline of the coal industry, the railway closed. And it wasn’t until 1964 when a 25-year lease was agreed with the now Chasewater railway that it began to be transformed into the heritage railway we see today. After passing the station here at Chase Water Heath, we take a left to carry on heading north away from the reservoir up a cycle track. Again, if you’re thinking about doing this route and you’re worried about getting lost, the Garmin Connect and commute links to the route are in the video description. And if you want to say thank you for those, you can also buy me a coffee via the link in the video description also. And if you’re enjoying the video and finding it useful, please do give it a like and subscribe to the channel. It all makes a massive difference and cost you nothing. Now, a word of warning here. The route has been quite flat so far as we’ve pretty much exclusively used canals and old railways. However, we are now starting to climb as we head towards Canak Chase. And there are a few hills ahead of us. This path brings us out by the side of Can Road. We’re able to use a number of cycle paths to make our way down Can Road and onto Stables Way, which has a shared use path running alongside it. However, the shared youth path does end when we come to the junction with Maver Avenue. So, we do have to do a little bit of road riding to make it to the next section of our route, which is just past this roundabout. And you’re looking for a bit of a grally section on the left. It’s not exactly clear, but again, use the Garmin Connect and Commute routes. We do have to push the bike a little bit to lift ourselves up onto this old road. And this is Old Ironstone Road, which forms the next part of this route. This old road is no longer in use for cars, so it’s completely traffic-free, and it will take us the next mile or so across this old collery. The road does get a bit rough in the middle of this section, and it can be quite hard to follow at times. So, do make sure you keep an eye on your GPS, but eventually it brings us out on nice smooth tarmac with a junction with Einstein Road and Sevens Road. We’re going to head straight across Sevens Road and onto Ironstone Road. This is a fairly quiet residential street and a nice downhill section to enjoy a bit of speed after that climb up from Chase Water Reservoir. At the bottom of the hill, we pass a sign to let us know we are officially in Canace, an area of outstanding natural beauty. And although we can celebrate that we’ve made it to Canak Chase, from here the route starts to climb with possibly the worst hill of the journey so far. The hill tops out on Holly Hill Road before we take a left turn into the forest area that Canak Chase is so well known for. We’re also leaving the road for the last time in this journey and by my approximation from Birmingham city center to here where we’ve entered Canak Chase Forest and its maze of gravel tracks and fire roads. We’ve only spent 2 miles cycling on the road. The end point of this ride is going to be Moors Goose Car deep inside Canic Chase. So, I have a couple of miles to enjoy the amazing gravel riding that this area has to offer. I also get to enjoy some of the spectacular views that can be found inside this area of outstanding natural beauty. It’s hard to believe that not much more than 20 miles away from here, I was in the center of what Wikipedia states is the second biggest city in the UK. Although I think the people of Manchester might have something to say about that. The highest point on Canic Chase is 794 ft high or 242 m. And we’ve actually just brushed by the side of that point, reaching an elevation of 236 m according to Garmin. So, we now get to enjoy a fairly long descent down this gravel track, which is really good fun. Do be careful not to get carried away, though, unless you are on a mountain bike, of course, as the track is not perfectly smooth gravel by any extent, and there are cracks and obstacles in the track that will throw you off, especially if you’re on 45 mm tires like myself. But, I think having the smaller tires almost makes this more fun because you’ve really got to look ahead and have the technical ability to make sure you’re placing the bike where it needs to go. always looking for the smoothest part of the trail because you can’t just hammer through letting the tires and suspension do the work because one, I haven’t got any suspension and two, my tires are not fat enough for that. We eventually reach the bottom of this hill and then start to climb up the other side of the valley for what is the last climb of this ride. Canchase was designated as an area of outstanding natural beauty on the 16th of September 1958 and is actually the smallest so designated in mainland Britain covering an area of just 68 km squared or 26 square miles. The area is covered in historical coal mines and it was also used for two large World War I military camps. But since its designation as an area of outstanding natural beauty, it is better known for its leisure activities, particularly mountain biking. It has a number of mountain biking trails to suit all different abilities. And if you’re into mountain biking and haven’t tried it here, I definitely suggest that you do. It even has some trails for the very youngest, allowing you to get that cycling spark ignited as soon as possible. After reaching the top of that final climb and crossing over a small road, we get to enjoy the final descent of this ride. I have a confession to make. I’ve never actually taken my gravel bike to Canak Chase before. I’ve mountain biked here quite a few times, but this is the first time on a gravel bike, but I’m definitely going to be back. I think a Canic Chase loop video might be in the works because this is exceptionally good fun. Glorious gravel and fantastic scenery. I was enjoying this so much that I was almost disappointed when I saw the car park ahead as I came to the bottom of this climb. At this point, I have to give a big shout out to Mrs. Cycling Nate who came to pick me up at the end of this ride. She’s always extremely supportive of my cycling adventures, and a lot of these YouTube videos couldn’t happen without her dropping me off and picking me up in the right places to make these videos happen. If you want to thank her for her support, you can buy her a coffee via the link in the description. Just put a note when you donate that this is for Mrs. Cycling Nate, and I’ll make sure it gets to her. If you’re not as lucky as me and have a lift home, you can cycle down to the road, the A460, and take a right turn. Follow the road for around 2 miles and you’ll arrive at Rouley Town train station where you’ll be able to catch a train back to Brum. If you’ve watched all the way to this point of the video, you must have enjoyed it. So, please do give the video a like, drop me a comment, and subscribe to the channel if you haven’t already. And that’s it. We’ve come to the end of the line. We’ve made it from Birmingham City Center all the way to Canic Chase with about 2 mi of road riding in this 26 mile ride. I’d like to thank you very much for watching. I hope you’ve enjoyed it and happy cycling.

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26 Comments

  1. Great video… im lucky enough to live full time in my van and park over the Chase most of the time… Loads of cheeky routes around here, too… 😉

  2. Didn't spot me as you went through my area 😉

    FYI you don't have to use the stairs to cross the road, you can go under the the bridge and turn up the bank (on foot).

    The McLean Way is a much better option than the canal, god that thing is shite to cycle on 😂 you made the right choice.

    Ironstone Rd in the rain is basically a bog, highly recommended never doing this in the wet.

    Having done most of this in one ride out another, its good to see it getting some love. Glorious Gravels Cannock Chase ride is 🤌 and a great way to experience the Chase.

  3. Brilliant video as usual. I’ve done this route but in reverse. Paths on the Curly Wyrley are fine btw. I now want to do the route the way you have from Gas St. Thank you so much.

  4. Awesome video. I like to ride canals and i also use the DJI osmo action 4 camera. Very good camera. I will soon be getting the 5 pro. Thanks for the video and keep them coming.

  5. Brilliant! When you get to Walsall Arboretum (Walsall Country Park), you don't need to haul the bike up the steps, just follow the new path on the left. Oh, and Daw End is pronounced Doe End.

  6. Great video again. Be careful passing on McLean way not the best reputation as an area (especially nr the fire)
    There is a road that mirrors Lichfield road and was known to a few cyclists being stopped and having their bikes stolen from them. This may never happen to you but stay alert of your surroundings.

  7. Perfect timing. I’m in the area in later this month. I’ve a friend living near the Chase and works at Snow Hill. I’ll race her in!!! Enjoy the coffee.

  8. Cracking one this, brings back a lot of memories as I grew up in Burntwood. The new camera looks really stable, but is it just YouTube or is the video itself lower bitrate?

  9. As a local resident, we don't want more Brummies on the chase, they come in summer dump loads of litter and we have to pick it up. The parking at Marquis Drive has become impossible. They don't pick up their dog mess and are generally very rude. You wouldn't need to go to Rugeley to catch a train, Hednesford train station is the same line and closer, also Cannock station is also close.

    We even have weirdos coming to film fake ghost videos in our German cemetery which is very disrespectful. People bringing motorbikes to go on dirt trails where the deer live awful

  10. Great cycling route and thanks for uploading. For your information and hopefully next time you travel this way, just look again at the barrier approaching Brownhills which you found to be a problem. In the base of the passageway through rhe barrier are a pair of cutouts designed to match bicycle pedals so that the bike can be simply rolled through, I've done it many times. Regrettably, the barrier is necessary to deter antisocial behaviour on motorbikes.

  11. Thanks for a great route. Might have tried it in reverse if it wasn't for the steps and the "narrows". My e-bike is 30 kg. Perhaps as far as Walsall is doable from Rugeley.
    A couple of points came to mind :
    + Daw End is apparently pronounced "Dough End", according to Andy Tidy whose historical vlogs we've watched.
    + Cannock Chase has recently been redesignated a National Landscape along with other AONBs and SSSIs.
    We love watching your videos, particularly in the West Midlands, as they suggest possible routes on my new bike.

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