Is Cannock Chase still Good? – 2025 MTB Trail Guide #mtb #bikepark #mountainbiking #emtb #emtblife

Even though Cannock Chase Trails is just on my doorstep its been a while since i’ve ridden here, but with summer on its way I thought it makes sense to review one of my classic mountain bike trail guides for 2025.

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So, I’m here at Canet Chase today, which is actually one of my most local trails, but I’ve not been here in ages. So, I thought it’s about time I came and did a full up to-ate trail guide. You look cold. Oh, so if you’ve not been before, Can is situated just north of Birmingham and it’s got all the facilities. car park, kids adventure playground, coffee bar, cafe, toilets, and of course, a mega bike shop. So, there’s blue roots around all this. This is a little feature to get you started. Rock garden. That’s a pedal. You got to pedal to get across it. It’s awful. [Music] Sick, man. Yeah. You look cool. So this is Cardiac Hill here which is a straight five road climb but there’s loads of little off pieced bits here and there including if you just go to the left of it in this bit of woods there’s a really cool off piece climb. So we’re going to go do that instead of going straight up that a bit more interesting. Although what used to be a climb looks like it’s more of a descent now. So maybe we’ll have a look at it. But I actually think it’s been turned into a a downhill section now. Right. It’s all pretty trail center stuff at this bit. Now that’s disend. There’s two main trails here at Canic. Well, there’s actually quite a few trails now. There’s a few blue trails which are really good for beginners and families. And then there’s two main red trails which is the classic follow the dog and monkey trail. Nothing too technical really here at Canock. We’ll show some off piece in a bit, but it’s pretty simple. So, when you get to about two and a half miles in, you’ll come to this point. It’s a fork in the road. You’ve got the dog going one way and the monkey going the other way. We’re going to go check out the monkey today. We’re going to head over to the other side. And we’re also going to check out some of that off piece. And once you get down to this bit, you come across the railway bridge. Cross the railway bridge. Cross the road and then you the monkey trail. So this climb on the first climb of the monkey trail on my old analog bike. This used to be quite a good test. Obviously on the eve, it’s a lot easier, but it’s a little bit technical in places. That wind is really picking up few tight turns, but it’s nothing too challenging. The monkey is definitely the more fun side. Right, this is a comes into a bit of a descent in a minute. It’s a bit pedy to start off with. There’s a few cheeky lines, I think, from memory. So, it could have all changed. Nothing too strenuous. Just on the monkey now. These climbs are nice and steady. I’m doing them one-handed and making the turns. Dropping onto another little descent here on Monkey Trail. Again, nothing too strenuous from memory. Just flowy. Little jump up here. Woo. It’s quite hard to see cuz all the the dapples, the classic dapples from the trees as the light comes through looking for the corners. So, we get around to a section which called the original monkey because this was the original monkey trail. And then uh you get a black section. So, you’ve got red goes off to the right here. The black goes down to the left. Now, there’s a big sign that says qualifier here, and it turns a a full 180 degree left-hander into a drop. Now, it’s pretty easy drop. It’s pretty straightforward. A lot of people that struggle on this, they struggle on getting turned. They’re still turning around this burm and then they’re going off it and they’re all crooked and lopsided and lent over and stuff like that. Oh, in the wrong gear. Simple as. And straight after that drop, we’re into this nice little rock garden, which is probably a little bit more technical. This is way more fun. So, if you’re used to riding like Wales, Scotland, places like that, then this isn’t going to be too taxing. Um, in fact, often I sometimes think some of the stuff that’s graded black at Canock would be graded red at other places in the UK. We’ll just continue down this trail now. I’ll do the rest of this black run as it’s pretty dope. It’s got some nice little technical rock gardens in it. We’ll just ride the rest. See if we can hit it all straight off the bat. So, you can go high. They’ve all been really washed out. So, it’s a really big drops in those rocks now cuz I think it’s just how the trails wore in. And this is a tricky one. Track stand. Not Look at that. Yes, that was tight. chat behind me. So, I’m on a big Mandrea 29iner ebike. It’s quite hard to get around some of them technical tight turns. But I didn’t dab. I didn’t put a foot down. We’ll have to have another go. Could have gone a bit quicker. Oh, missed a rock section there. This is quite a nice little section if you just like techy stuff. Few man-made rock gardens. It’s a bit of fun. I think I need a bit of air in my shock. I’ve been doing a lot of bike parks recently and I think a few big landings and I’ve bottomed out my shock and I think I need to get a bit of air in it because this is technical. I’m striking a lot of pedals today and I don’t usually and I think the sag’s quite low. Right, I’ve just found a trail. I think it’s off pieced, but huge parts of it are so well built. It actually looks like it’s official. At first, I thought it was a whole new official trail section. It’s got some big tables, big BMS, properly surface, proper drainage. But then, as I’ve readen up it to try and find the start of it, I spotted like a wheelbarrow and stuff like that. And then there’s big sections like this where it starts, which is just normal off pieced, you know, woodland trail. So, I’m gonna go ride down this and see what it’s like. But it looks absolutely amazing. Hopefully, it just runs downhill. We get some speed up. So, look, I mean, look at this. This is sick. I think this is all off piece. Someone’s built this. Fair play to them. It goes across the road here over a tight bit and then into this jump section. This is where it gets fun. Can I carry enough speed? Jump. Missed it. But that’s Ace and I’m not sure if that’s official or not. If you’ve built that or someone’s built that and if you’ve built that, fair [ __ ] play, bro. Do some classic off piece now from Fiveways. This is uh the hillside that’s affectionately known as Blue Spade. So, we’ll go and check that out. Really easy to find. It’s no secret. None of this off piece is really secret. It’s just at the bottom of upper and lower cliff. And if you come off the fiveways bit, you can just scoot down into it. Dead easy to find. The family’s just gone down there. So, I think I’m going to go down one of these trails. I’ve been down this one for ages or any of it for ages. So, don’t have any clue where I’m going really or what to expect. So, taking it easy. It’s super ruty. Whoa. Used to go that way. Trees have fell over. We got to go up this way a bit. Looks like there’s a route round obviously. Right. Head down this bit now. Back into the trail. Oh. This is nice. This is what we want. Some sniper roots in the rut. Definitely need some air in my shocks coming down that then. Definitely felt it. I could feel myself like getting through the travel more and more compressed. Right, we’ll go back up. There’s a nice route up. Some real cool rooy stuff there. Some big roots, wasn’t there? Let’s go back up. Let’s get some more done. Fire road here is the bottom of uh upper and lower cliff. I think as you come down the lower cliff one, just take a swinger left. Instead of going straight on and upper cliff, just swing a left and you come up this fire road here. If you’re a more experienced rider and you don’t really want to do much of the loop, but you want to come and play on all the cool off piece stuff and the techy stuff, you can park at a different area which is a lot closer and easier to get to. use if you come to the pump house car park. However, just to be warned, do get a fair bit of crime around here and it has been known for cars that get broken into. Right, let’s choose a different one this time. Might go a bit further down. There’s some jumps. Oh, I missed a bit there. better line into that. Oh, okay. The wind’s took it. Oh, there’s a drop off there. People riding that. Can we get back having to be super super cautious because there’s just trees blowing down all over the place. I’m going a little play up here because there’s nice This used to be a nice little jumpy bit. See if I can get through this. Used to go down there over these jumps. These jumps have been blown out. Whoa. Trying to stop off. That was hard. There was like a second drop then that completely caught me out. That way it sent me this way. This is sniper stump. That wasn’t it. Whoa. What a in the rut off the drop. Another drop. Lost my momentum then. Got to gain it back again. Whoa, mate. Whoa. That was my my legs go. Ow. Got it. Ow. [ __ ] hell. That was ruted. That was so tight. I can’t get bike off now. Oh, I thought I thought I rode that out for a second. Oh, serious footage and that stump up there. Oh, I don’t know what happened then. I think I come down cuz I couldn’t see last minute. I tried to hop up into here. I think and go that open up the corner. I should have just stayed low. Holy crap. Thought I almost got away with it. Need to be done with uh that side. We’ll finish that there, shall we? I’m going to go up to upper and lower cliff now and do some of the off piece coming off that. And if you can’t find the off piece off that, you’re blind cuz you literally can’t miss it. Let’s find some off piece. There’s one there. I don’t want to do that one. I think I’ve done that one before. There’s one there. Going to go a bit further along. I don’t know any of these, but I just remember last time I came, I turned off quite soon. So, this time I’m going to look for one a bit further up. See if there’s something I haven’t done before. Uh yeah, like this one. This looks good. Down we go. This looks pretty direct. Roosty. Nice. Whoa. Couple of big drops there that you can get into them. Oh, no. It bullet. Very serious just happened. How’s that? You want to see the video? It’s the head eagle. I’ve seen you on YouTube. Have you? The head. How’s it going? Are you vlogging now? Yes, mate. Yeah. Do you want to be in it? Go on. What’s all your names? Oscar. Oscar. Michael. You got Instagram and stuff. Go. Give us all your Instagram handles. Sergeant D. Hang on. Hang on. We’re going to Instagram. Come closer. Come on. You don’t even know your Instagrams. I’ll tag you in the videos. You got YouTube as well. Oh, look. He’s actually showing me a lot. You boys. You boys local then? Are you or a big crash? I’ll show you. was actually sick. Okie dokie. It’s just had a big crash. We’ll put it in the video. Oh, let’s look at it. Whoa. Yeah. Let’s do that again. Go on. Jens, you’re getting viral. Oh, that’s definitely going in the video. So, where are you boys all from then? You’re all Can you’re all locals, are you? London. They are. Okay. Oh, yeah. It’s only there, isn’t it? Let’s get on the voodoo. Voodoo. My bike’s in the shop. That’s all right. There’s nothing wrong with that bike. Looks all right, doesn’t it? The WT trail boss is on it. Nice to meet you guys. Right, I’m going to session down here. Have a shout out on the vlog. Yeah. Go on. Shout out Virus downhill team. Virus downhill team. Shout out virus downhill team. Shout out the virus downhill team. Keep shredding guys. Keep shredding. Yeah. Right in a bit. Lers. [Music] Whoa. Rotty. Woo. I’m going this way in a bit. Whoa. Aing hell. That’s been blown out. That’s pretty sick. Right. I’m heading down to the next uh I was getting this is the lower cliff. I’m going to go down the upper cliff. If it’s not too windy, you can hear me that tread some more trail. Right, this is the main run of lower cliff or upper cliff. I forget what it’s called, but I’m looking for the off piece. There’s a turn in here in a minute. Here it is. We’re going to go down this way. Wa! So ruted. Look how ruted this stuff is. Holy shimolley in the rut. Ah, the trees have got that cool like doppel effect and you just can’t see. Whoa. Hit a stump then a pedal strike. Whoa. Staying in the rut. Staying in the rut. No matter how managed to stay in that rut then I was on the brakes a lot cuz I think my suspension’s so low. I’m like getting pedal strikes left, right, center. That was hard. So ruted. After that, it was time for a quick pit stop and a refresh at this lovely little cafe next to the train tracks. Then I headed on my way. That was a nice bit of a pit stop. Little calf there next to the railway tracks. Just be crossing. Uh, I’ve just crossed back over now. So, we’re back on the dog side now. So, we’re going to follow the dog. Uh, follow the dog. Follow, follow the dog. It’s going towards the end of the monkey trail and find the grip. Oh, cut the corner. Straa lines. And if you’re just riding the monkey, this is quite a nice trail to look forward to at the end. So, it’s pretty much downhill from here. There’s a couple of short climbs, but nothing major. Trail diverses here. And the black is this like boardwalk, and it goes into like a boardwalk and then a rock garden. Can be a bit tricky, but let’s see. See if we can do it. [ __ ] hell. I need to do that again. Oh, [ __ ] Need to just keep pedaling. I couldn’t see where I was going. Right. Is this rock garden which is easy enough? I think I don’t mind black sections. I don’t mind technical sections, but that just doesn’t flow. It’s like make it black. Like the rock garden is just fine, but it’s just too tight. And this is like super long bike. I don’t know. It’s easy to complain when you’re struggling or something, isn’t it? If I could do it, I’d be like, “Oh, this section’s really ace. Look, look at me do But it’s just one of those where I think the rock garden’s nice and you kind of ruin the rock garden. Loads of people just cut the boardwalk out and go straight into the rock garden. So the height you can’t see the cord. This cord is lovely. I think it’s a lot of people go that way. These ones here. Switchy switchy and the black. We got to get through that gap. So, if you like the look of this place and you want to ride somewhere similar, like another trail center. Or maybe you’ve ridden here and you’re looking for another spot like this, go click on this video just here and that will take you to one of my other trail guides of a very similar trail center just like this. And if you want to see the free ride and downhill area known as Star Cop, click here. Don’t forget to subscribe as well by the way.