Reviews for Monkey Trail - Cannock Chase

Summary:
not bad, if a little rutted!

Review:
I quite enjoyed this addition to the Follow the Dog trail. It made the trip actually worth it!
The trail itself is heavily on the uphill, and the downhills are ruined by the usual plebs locking up to go round berms and creating nasty braking bumps.
The DH bits are ok, but the flow is ruined by some poorly thought out corners and jump combos, infact I went careering through bracken when the trail bent right whilst I was still in the air!
Overall i was pleased with it and liked the small rock gardens on the downhill bits.
What i didnt like was the bit after the railway crossing on the way back, a pointles and quite sole destroying uphill, after this though it was not bad.
Worth a trip but FAR TOO BUSY!!!!

Summary:
Land of the up hill berm

Review:
I like it. admittedly I live close enough to ride to it (25miles) so get to use it as a practice trail to keep my hand in for CYB. True, its certainly not Snowdonia but it has some quick linked berms and medium size down hill jumps to make it mildly amusing. It is getting a bit bumpy in parts, probably because of most peoples fondness for locking up the rear wheel and raking the surface the moment it turns downward and yes if you take the third roller too fast you will land a fair distance from any trail. The spacing and scale of some of it is a bit weird; some of those switchbacks can be rode like mini berms if you're carrying enough speed which makes me think Clixbys the builders have tried to make a xc race oriented track, but out of very tight singletrack. The tight stuff in the forest is a bit tedious but on the whole its a bit of fun, not the world series.

Summary:
very good

Review:
Very good trails overall, some parts are getting eroded but adds to the bumpy surface. Some one said earlier it is so smoothe which is a lie as it gets real bumpy in places. He also said the rollers were dangerous, all i can say is learn how to ride first before attacking them, i can attack them at speed so im sure most other people can too.
Overall great fun, challenging espically on the climbs and well worth a visit people

Summary:
Its awesome in its own unique way.

Review:
We started mountain biking last year on follow the dog, and soon progressed to rides in wales , Brecon Beacons etc. Follow the Dog was a great introduction to new skills and got the heart pumping.

By comparison the monkey trail is in a different league - fairly substantial climbs followed by long descents that compare favourably to CYB and Llanlegda.

Admittedly it isnt rocky but the thrills come from descending flowy single track with jumps , berms and switchbacks thrown in.


Bike control is more about high speed cornering and picking the right lines.

I think it tops Llanlegda because of the narrowness of the trails - you can go wrong here - where at llanlegda you have a lot of lee way. The first ascent at Llanlegda is very dull.

The trail is wearing a bit due to the sandy nature of the chase. Doesnt really impact it too much.

Absolutely love it. I d rank it alongside CYB but its a very different sort of trail.

Summary:
Not great

Review:
Im with duffyc on this one.
The trail builders have done an excellent job but it just felt like i was riding the same section over and over. Switchback climb followed by a descent that didn't really get the blood flowing. Maybe riding in Wales spoils us and we expect too much. Great if you live close by but im not in a hurry to get back to Cannock.