Cannock Chase or Swinley Forest

[Mr Gearchange]

Hello MTB,ers.

Planning a ride out in a couple of weeks with a mate.
He is suggesting Swinley Forest which I haven't ridden.
I am suggesting Cannock Chase which he hasn't ridden.

Can someone who has ridden both tell me what the better option would be.

My mate is much more of a XC guy - although has just bought a 150mm travel Zesty and frankly needs to man up and start doing some more exciting riding that befits his new bike.
I'm all about the descents - but not averted to a bit of peddling around - my bike is a 170mm Enduro thing.

Which is the best all round option for some mixed trail/XC/DH/Jumps?

[shouldbworking]

Out of those two, cannock blows swinley out of the water imo on the xc front. I can't comment on the downhill side of things as I am frankly too much of a wuss to venture onto the DH trails. Swinley has some, Cannock has some (stile cop).

[Silver940]

I'd say Swinley hasn't got anything that warrants more than a 120mm bike to be honest. I've done all of it on a 100mm hardtail. It's good fun but a lot of pedalling.

No idea on Cannock.

[Digga]

Silver940 said:

I'd say Swinley hasn't got anything that warrants more than a 120mm bike to be honest. I've done all of it on a 100mm hardtail. It's good fun but a lot of pedalling.

No idea on Cannock.

A word of warning about my local trails; even if you ride black xc trails elsewhere, treat the blacks on the Monkey Trail at Cannock with respect. Some are very technical, a fact that has been remarked upon by some of teh mtb mags who've reviewed it.

I rode part of the Monkey on Sunday and, even on the non-black sections, riders were falling off all over the place.

[daddy cool]

I live 0.8 miles from Swinley, so its my local haunt. Havent been to Cannock but my pal went in the summer and said "its amazing, its like Swinley, but more!"
Now Swinley is set into routes, you'll likely end up having to redo sections or whole routes to make a decent ride out of it, otherwise it is over quickly. Doing the Blue & Red combined with mates, taking it easy and having stops for chats usually takes ~1hr45. Doing it flat out alone ~1hr16 - so i suppose it depends if you are having a fun social ride or racing each other.
Note that development work will be starting soon, so keep an eye on this site for last minute changes/diversions etc
https://www.facebook.com/TrailTeamSwinley

I have a pal coming down 24th Nov thats never ridden a trail before, so i'll be taking him round. Im not a downhil demon though, prefer XC and my Boardman FS with 130mm is plenty.

You could do a ride there, hope in the car and go down to Tunnel Hill about 10 miles away (just south of Camberley). Not been myself yet, but supposed to be quite fun.

[P-Jay]

Digga said:

Silver940 said:

I'd say Swinley hasn't got anything that warrants more than a 120mm bike to be honest. I've done all of it on a 100mm hardtail. It's good fun but a lot of pedalling.

No idea on Cannock.

A word of warning about my local trails; even if you ride black xc trails elsewhere, treat the blacks on the Monkey Trail at Cannock with respect. Some are very technical, a fact that has been remarked upon by some of teh mtb mags who've reviewed it.

I rode part of the Monkey on Sunday and, even on the non-black sections, riders were falling off all over the place.

As much as I hate to admit it, the Black stuff at Cannock is probably the toughest XC stuff I've ridden in the UK, and I count Afan, Brechfa and Cwmcarn as local trails.

It's a funny old place though (for me) it's feels like like sections of fire road and trail punctuated with obscene obstacles.

[Engineer1]

I do think Cannock can suffer from the fact there is one trail and the trail team ride it so if they fancy a bigger challenge then in one goes the current fad seems to be wooden bridges. Still it is my local trail and I try and get there as often as I can.

[shouldbworking]

Glad it's not just me who finds cannock a bit more tricky than the average trail centre.. I've ridden plenty of blacks and even stuff on the red like tom, dick and harry at cannock were at least as difficult.

Weather would be the real decider for me at this time of year. I can imagine Cannock turns from the braking bumps into a swamp.

[G0ldfysh]

Swinley is pretty short, hour and little bit, your done if you grit your teeth on some of the hills.
29er full rigid is enough, can go faster with some bounce but there is nothing on the XC stuff that 100% requires suspension.

[BOR]

shouldbworking said:

Weather would be the real decider for me at this time of year. I can imagine Cannock turns from the braking bumps into a swamp.

I've ridden at Cannocck a few times, and it is indeed, very, very lovely. Except when water pools in the pot-holes.

Riding through the puddles throws a mix of water and very fine sand up, which you will be trying to wash out of your forks, socks, shorts and anus for weeks after.

I'm coming over all queasy just thinking about it. I honestly would refuse to ride my bike there after a lot of rainfall.

[Digga]

P-Jay said:

As much as I hate to admit it, the Black stuff at Cannock is probably the toughest XC stuff I've ridden in the UK, and I count Afan, Brechfa and Cwmcarn as local trails.

It's a funny old place though (for me) it's feels like like sections of fire road and trail punctuated with obscene obstacles.

Agree with all of the above.

I freely admit that I would never contemplate riding some of the rock garden black sections alone - there are a couple of places where potential for injury are huge.

BOR said:

Riding through the puddles throws a mix of water and very fine sand up, which you will be trying to wash out of your forks, socks, shorts and anus for weeks after.

Ture story; some of the major bike component manuafcturers (suspension and drivetrain) from the USA have actually been out to ride the Chase and take soil samples, specifically because of the very high levels of abrasion-related failures that are fed back to them through the variou slocal bikes shops.

[alfabadass]

I've only ever riding Cannock. Previously read that it was pretty easy? I don't feel so bad at struggling on some bits, most notably the tom dick and harry section. That bit is tricky, especially after its been raining.

In fact, I went today and ended up face planting myself in a puddle on that section!

[NIIKME]

Hi OP I ride both regularly. Cannock is less man made and more challenging on both a fitness scale and rocky sections; particularly a recently redesigned section of rock garden called "tom, dick, and harry" which usually sees a few people get off and walk! Generally the sections of large rocks (more like boulders) are pretty unique to Cannock and offer the average rider a bit of a heart in mouth moment until you realise you can simply roll over them pretty safely with a bit of speed. Swinley is great but quite different because you ride hard packed terrain, very swoopy, and high berms on the blues making it fast if thats the way you like it. The red sections are not really reds IMO if compared with Wales etc.....however, as they wear in they are starting to form some holes and drops which no doubt they will start to fill in (boo!) if they haven't already. I've done a fair few trail centres and have to say Cannock is probably up there as a favourite.

[Hard-Drive]

Never done Swinley but I've done Cannock quite a few times and it seems different every time. There's two cracking bits of downhill trail just before you finish the Monkey trail...prob my fave in the UK along with Climach-x.

Cannock has got a lot harder than it used to be in length, technical level and stamina needed. Tom and Dick are OK...Harry can be very tricky!

Apart from one arse of a fireroad grind it's pretty much all singletrack too these days. I've ridden it on HT and FS but definitely enjoy it more on an FS these days.

My mum lives near Swinley so me and SWMBO will have to pay a visit soon and take the HTs for some swoopy bermy action...

[Herman Toothrot]

Is Swinley now sign posted then? I went in the spring and it was hard to make a decent ride as basically riding blind, I ended up finding an area where there were a lot of short downhills and jumps people were riding on full on DH bikes, Scalp's etc. I was on my hard tail XC bike with 100mm fork and rode all the runs easily and spent he day playing round in that one small part.

Off to Aston Hill tomorrow to try out the new bike :-)

[yellowjack]

Herman Toothrot said:

Is Swinley now sign posted then? I went in the spring and it was hard to make a decent ride as basically riding blind, I ended up finding an area where there were a lot of short downhills and jumps people were riding on full on DH bikes, Scalp's etc. I was on my hard tail XC bike with 100mm fork and rode all the runs easily and spent he day playing round in that one small part.

Off to Aston Hill tomorrow to try out the new bike :-)

I've only done Swinley (Red) a couple of times this year. It was signposted already when I first went, sturdy timber posts, with the route name, and numbered so you can tell if you've cocked it up (the route, that is). There are a few segments where an extra intermediate post or two wouldn't go amiss, but on the whole it's pretty good. I ride up from Farnborough and pick up the Red Trail where it crosses the Devil's Highway, usually do a full lap and leave the route from where I started. If it wasn't 40+ minutes of (mostly) road riding to get there, I'd go more often, but I have Hawley and Minley woods on my doorstep, and can get to Long Valley/Caesars Camp without having to ride on-road for any great distance. Road riding wears my tyres too much, so I try to keep it on the dirt as much as I can.

I got lost once, at one of the 'Star Post' junctions. I couldn't see the post at the start of the next section, so ended up sniffing about down three of the track options with no joy, only to return to the junction to find the doofus who'd been taking a break had been concealing the bloody post from view.

[Digga]

Hard-Drive said:

I've done Cannock quite a few times and it seems different every time. There's two cracking bits of downhill trail just before you finish the Monkey trail...

They are called, in order of riding, Upper Cliff and Lower Cliff and yes, they are ace.

First time we ever rode Lower was a few months before the 'official' opening when locals has been given the green light and they were seeing how it bedded-in. there was about ten of us, mostly on rigid-forked hardtail and it was a night. I was one of the funniest, hairiest rides I've ever had.

[Mr Gearchange]

Ok - thanks Chaps

I've pointed my mate towards this thread and he's keen to give Cannock a go. I haven't been there for well over 18 months and sounds like it sounds like the chase trails guys have done some more work which I'm keen to try out.

[ewenm]

Cannock is on Countryfile on Sunday. Apparently my cousin makes an appearance (he's an instructor for one of the MTB schools that use the Chase).

[Digga]

ewenm said:

Cannock is on Countryfile on Sunday. Apparently my cousin makes an appearance (he's an instructor for one of the MTB schools that use the Chase).

Would he happen to have been a pretty handy BDS downhill racer at senior and later elite level a year or two back, currently racing a bit of Enduro, or am I thinking of someone else?