Review Date
January 27, 2006

Overall Rating
 4 of 5

Aerobic Difficulty
 2 of 5

Technical Difficulty
 3 of 5

Ridden Trail:
Once a week

Reviewed by: idleuser ,  Weekend Warrior

Summary:
It's a very simple trail with easy access to anyone with a car or who lives nearby. Fortunately it is a legal mtb single track trail. Unfortunately though there is not much variation topographically. The trails are fairly level throughout but the twists and turns with occasional fallen logs keep it mildly interesting. I've ridden the trail so many times though everything comes second nature and it has lost it's flare. It's actually quite easy to get a handle on. It's nice though because it's about a 1.5 - 2 mi circular single track trail mixed with a couple other short sections. There's one by the river when you make a right after the bridge. It's a bit narrower and a little more... "hilly" I guess. Check it out.

The only reason I ride it so often is because it's a 20min ride from my house.

Review Date
July 26, 2005

Overall Rating
 2 of 5

Aerobic Difficulty
 1 of 5

Technical Difficulty
 4 of 5

Ridden Trail:
Once a month

Reviewed by: maxuhm ,  Cross Country Rider

Summary:
I just moved to the area from Minnesota (via london) and found this trail online. Realizing that this is Illinois I accepted that most trails are not going to have sizeable climbs or seriously undulating terrain and Knock Knolls certainly has neither. It does a good job with the small amount of space available, and there's not much more one could do trailwise with the available terrain. It's a technical ride with an unending amount of sharp turns. Without any hills or straight(er) sections of singletrack, a decent workout requires riding hard through numerous hard turns wherein handling becomes a serious issue. The past two rides have ended with me being punished for not setting up turns well enough for the amount of speed I was trying to carry. So in the end it's a great trail for working on handling, but otherwise it doesn't offer anything beyond proximity.

Review Date
May 19, 2004

Overall Rating
 3 of 5

Aerobic Difficulty
 2 of 5

Technical Difficulty
 2 of 5

Ridden Trail:
Once a week

Visitors rate this review
2.00 of 5, 1 votes

Reviewed by: coolercanuck ,  Weekend Warrior

Summary:
Don’t get me wrong, knoch knolls park is great and all. Its great if you’re the type of person who likes trails that get progressively more flat and boring every month. It’s got some nice hardpack/ single track to ride, with the occasional log. Lots of these logs are natural and fall on the trail on their own. So some people build up more sticks to make these logs crossable by EVERYONE. But then someone goes and takes away these crossings, making things suck again.
I have no idea who does this. I understand why unnatural stunts are destroyed like teeter totters (even though they kick ass) that have nails and stuff in them, but when park district police or the local bike shops that sponsor the races in their or god knows who go in there and destroy log crossings it pisses me off. These crossings do not harm the park. They make trails better and easier to ride. Yet SOMEONE goes and rips these things apart, taking away everything but the natural fallen log, and that makes the trails a pain in the ass for everyone. Even worse is some chainsaw- happy loser who has gone through there lately. I found a chunk of tree and PLACED it on top of a circular log to make an all-natural teeter totter. I used no unnatural fasteners of any kind. For god’s sake, this thing looked like it was made by a cave man. I thought “Hey, its all natural, they have no reason to wreck it.” Man was I wrong. I come back within a week and I find woodchips in its place. Someone is going out of their way to make these trails less fun for the people who ride them. Even worse is the destruction of dirt structures. I SEE NO PURPOSE IN SMASHING JUMPS OR BERMS!! These are made of dirt, frikken dirt that has been re distributed into a different place to make biking more enjoyable. Heaven forbid we build berms so we can go faster, and jumps, o man, what are we thinking. A jump that’s out of the way and completely ride at your own risk, what are we thinking.
Anyways, all this ranting about trail destruction might get me somewhere. If anyone knows something about park regulations or who is responsible for trail “maintenance” (and I use the term loosely), please, email me.

(coolercanuck@wideopenwest.com)

Review Date
April 27, 2004

Overall Rating
 2 of 5

Aerobic Difficulty
 1 of 5

Technical Difficulty
 1 of 5

Ridden Trail:
Once a week

Reviewed by: gary/teamsally ,  Weekend Warrior

Summary:
if someone with knowledge and/or authority could email me regarding what is going on at knoch knolls it would be appreciated. Every time i go out there something (log crossing or trails change) is changed. It would be nice to know that things that are natural and or better left alone would still be in tacted. Is the city changing things or is it hikers,bikers, kids etc. Please, someone email me and let me know what is going on !!! the park district went in a cleaned out what most everyone liked riding on or over out there and now there has been a few nice added trails and or re routes and every time i go out there its either bolcked off or ripped down. Please, whoever is responsible, leave it alone !!! i don't think anything out there is a detriment to anyone...hikers,bikers,kids. In fact, there were piles of would chips left right in the middle of a double track section today. I rolled thru it and a large piece of chip(more like a limb) got caught in my spokes and caused me to endo...now, do i rip the park district or better yet formally complain to the city ?? hum !, all we want out there (and i know i speak for quite a few bikers) is it to be left alone. Natural (fallin) trees down in the trail need to be crossed so let the bikers turn them into log crossings...its safer then having someone pull all the (downed) limbs away from the tree to make it tougher to cross/and or stop and step over it. PLEASE, whoever is wrecking Knoch knolls for bikers, LEAVE IT ALONE !! or email me and explain why these frustrating changes are happening.
thank you (mortgageil@att.net)

Recommended Route:
when its left alone , all of it is fairly aerobic and it was fun to ride a year or so ago

Other recommended trails in the same area:
For those of you that miss the stunts that were in KK ...check out challenge park or of course palos (until they shut that place down also)

Review Date
October 30, 2003

Overall Rating
 1 of 5

Aerobic Difficulty
 1 of 5

Technical Difficulty
 1 of 5

Ridden Trail:
Once a month

Visitors rate this review
3.00 of 5, 2 votes