Saturday on Torque

There are bike rides.

The bike. The landscape. The wildlife. The climbing. The speed. The stops. And that brilliant feeling of leaving home, disappearing into Cannock Chase and eventually rolling back to exactly where I started. 🌲🚵‍♂️🧡

My latest ride on Torque began in Milford, headed straight into the Chase, included a couple of welcome little oasis stops along the way, and eventually brought me all the way back home again.

Nearly 18 miles of Staffordshire adventure.

More than 1,600 feet of climbing.

Forest tracks.

Huge pines.

Deer.

Iconic Chase scenery.

And enough orange detail to keep the whole thing unmistakably NIX.

This wasn't a quick spin.

This was a proper NIX // TRAIL day. ⚡

One of the things I love most about this ride is how simple the beginning was.

No bike rack.

No van journey.

No driving to a trailhead.

I started in Milford, got on Torque and rode.

That was it.

Milford sits perfectly for this kind of ride because within minutes the normal roads begin giving way to the landscape of Cannock Chase.

The trees get thicker.

The traffic thins out.

The gradients start appearing.

And suddenly an ordinary ride from home starts feeling like a proper little expedition.

Then, 17.82 miles later, I rolled back into Milford again.

Start line.

Finish line.

Home.

There's something incredibly satisfying about completing an adventure completely under your own wheels. 🏁🚵‍♂️

I love that moment when an ordinary ride suddenly stops feeling ordinary.

The roads get quieter.

The trees start closing in.

Traffic disappears.

The surface beneath the tyres changes.

And suddenly I'm properly inside Cannock Chase.

Torque looked completely at home.

Dark frame.

Chunky tyres.

Bright orange pedals and grips.

Forest floor underneath.

Fern and pine all around.

If ever there was a bike made for disappearing into Staffordshire woodland, this feels like it. 🌲🧡

DISTANCE 17.82 miles / 28.67 km

MOVING TIME 1 hour 33 minutes 25 seconds

TOTAL ELAPSED TIME 2 hours 59 minutes 19 seconds

AVERAGE SPEED 11.45 mph / 18.42 km/h

MAXIMUM SPEED 25.38 mph / 40.84 km/h

TOTAL ASCENT 496 metres / 1,627 feet

TOTAL DESCENT 496 metres / 1,627 feet

LOWEST ELEVATION Around 80 metres

HIGHEST ELEVATION Around 219 metres

AVERAGE CADENCE 74 rpm

MAXIMUM CADENCE 103 rpm

AVERAGE RIDER POWER 85 watts

MAXIMUM RIDER POWER 280 watts

Those numbers turn what felt like a brilliant afternoon exploring the Chase into something rather more serious.

Cannock Chase had quietly been making me work. 😂⚡

The total elapsed time was just under three hours, but I wasn't riding continuously for all of that.

And that was entirely intentional.

This wasn't a time trial.

I stopped at a couple of little oases along the route, took in the surroundings, had a breather and enjoyed being out there.

That is part of the ride for me.

I don't want every outing to become a race against a stopwatch.

Sometimes the best part is stopping somewhere good, looking around and thinking:

Then it's back on Torque and off again. 🌲☕⚡

The pauses are not wasted time.

They're part of the adventure.

There is something about Cannock Chase that I never tire of.

It's not just the trails.

It's the whole place.

Tall pines disappearing upwards.

Campervans tucked between the trees.

Gravel tracks curving out of sight.

Open clearings followed by thick woodland.

One minute everything feels open and peaceful.

Five minutes later I'm riding through trees with no real sense of how far I've travelled.

That's when it starts feeling like a miniature expedition.

And that is exactly why I keep coming back. 🌲✨

This kind of ride is exactly what the NIX world is all about.

Milford is the launch pad.

Cannock Chase is the playground.

Torque is the machine that connects the two.

It's a simple combination, but an incredibly good one. 😎🧡

This ride was exactly why I wanted an e-MTB.

Not because I wanted to avoid pedalling.

Quite the opposite.

The data shows an average cadence of 74 rpm, a maximum of 103 rpm, and a peak rider power of 280 watts.

My legs definitely received the memo. 😂

The Bosch assistance simply changes what's possible.

Instead of looking at another climb and wondering whether I really fancy it, I find myself wondering where it goes.

Instead of worrying about saving enough energy for the ride back to Milford, I can explore another trail.

Instead of turning back, I keep going.

That's the magic of Torque.

The motor doesn't remove the adventure.

It makes the adventure bigger. ⚡🚵‍♂️

The biggest number from the ride is probably the climbing.

Or, because feet somehow sound more dramatic:

Cannock Chase is sneaky like that.

There isn't necessarily one gigantic Alpine climb announcing itself in front of you.

It just keeps adding elevation.

A rise here.

A drag there.

A forest climb.

A fast descent.

Then another climb.

Eventually you look at the ride data and think:

Where did all THAT come from? 😂

With the ride topping out at around 219 metres, there was plenty of vertical movement packed into those 17.82 miles.

Then Cannock Chase delivered something completely different.

The signs warned me.

Fair enough.

And not long afterwards, the Chase provided the evidence. 🦌

I came across deer grazing quietly among the trees and long grass.

And moments like that immediately change the ride.

Suddenly the speed doesn't matter.

The cadence doesn't matter.

The next climb can wait.

I just stopped.

Watched.

And enjoyed it.

This is what makes riding somewhere like Cannock Chase so much more interesting than simply chasing numbers on a screen.

The ride statistics tell me how far I travelled.

The deer remind me why I went. 🌿🦌

Seeing a whole group of them quietly grazing in the Chase was one of the highlights of the day.

It's easy to forget that while I'm treating the forest as an adventure playground, I'm only visiting.

They're home.

Another natural stopping point came at the huge stone landmark.

Torque parked in front of it looked absolutely superb.

Black and graphite bike.

Orange details.

Huge weathered stone.

Muted Staffordshire sky.

Very NIX. 🧡📸

And this is another thing I love about riding Torque.

The bike somehow turns every stop into a photo opportunity.

I might technically be stopping for a breather.

But obviously this becomes:

Then another.

Then one from the other side.

Then maybe another just in case.

Photography is a terrible disease. 😂📸

And then there were the quicker bits.

My maximum recorded speed was:

On a mountain bike, that feels properly fast.

Twenty-five miles an hour inside a van is nothing.

Twenty-five miles an hour on two wheels with the wind in your face, trees either side and chunky tyres underneath you is an entirely different experience. 🚵‍♂️💨

Everything becomes immediate.

The surface matters.

The next bend matters.

The braking point matters.

The bike comes alive.

And for a few seconds I'm essentially a 63-year-old woodland missile.

Perfectly sensible behaviour. 😂⚡

There's still sometimes this odd idea that riding an e-bike somehow means you're not exercising.

My ride data would like a word.

Torque helped me.

Of course he did.

That's the point.

But I was still pedalling, climbing, balancing, steering and working throughout.

What an e-bike really gives me is range.

It gives me options.

And perhaps most importantly, it makes me want to go riding.

That's worth far more to me than worrying about whether someone somewhere thinks there's a correct amount of suffering required before cycling counts. 😄🧡

Cannock Chase never seems to give me exactly the same ride twice.

Some days it's dry and fast.

Some days it's wet and moody.

Sometimes it's busy.

Sometimes the forest feels almost completely empty.

There are always new tracks to investigate, different places to stop and another route disappearing between the trees that makes me think:

That little question is responsible for an awful lot of my mileage. 😂

And the best bit?

At the end of it all, I can point Torque back towards Milford and ride home.

By the time I rolled back into Milford, the numbers looked excellent.

Nearly three hours of total adventure time, including a couple of very welcome oasis stops along the way.

But the statistics only tell half the story.

The rest is in the photographs.

Torque against the trees.

The huge Chase stone.

The deer quietly grazing.

The trails disappearing into the forest.

The little stops where I simply parked the bike and enjoyed being there.

Those are the things I'll actually remember.

And that's increasingly what NIX // TRAIL means to me.

It isn't just a log of bike rides.

It's becoming a record of adventures.

Routes.

Places.

Photographs.

Machines.

Wildlife.

Stops.

And those little moments that would otherwise disappear.

Today I left Milford on Torque.

I disappeared into Cannock Chase.

I climbed 1,627 feet.

I hit 25.38 mph.

I stopped when somewhere looked worth stopping.

I watched deer grazing in the trees.

And eventually I rode all the way back to Milford again.

No car.

No bike rack.

No complicated plan.

Just me, Torque and the Chase.

That is a very good way to spend an afternoon.