I will be in Key west this weekend and need to do a 7 hr bike ride. looking at the map highway 5 links all the keys together which in theory suggests a nice place to ride…unless of course the highway doesn’t permit bikes.
any ideas?
I’ve been down there once and I don’t think it would be the best place to get in a ride that long. Its a small island full of tourists. I found it a great place to run, but cycling would probably be pretty limited. I don’t know if highway 5 permits bikes, but I do recall the speed limit to be relatively low. If it does allow bikes then you’ll be in for a fantastic ride. Good luck.
Agree. The roads are rough, traffic is bad, and the island is small. I was there two years ago and I didn’t see any good places to ride in the Keys. BTW, don’t you mean Hwy. 1?
I’m betting you either need to get out of the Keys, plan to ditch the ride, or do laps in a big parking lot. There is a bike path along Highway 1 for a good stretch but I wouldn’t count on it being suitable for training.
One alternative is the main road through the Everglades NP. Downside to that is that it is not smooth, kind of like a bad chip seal, and probably more than a little hot with wind and 800,754,291 mosquitos if you stop. No stop signs or lights and very little traffic though, I did a ride there one February, 70 miles and I saw 2 cars the whole time. Watch out for the big hill, there is a grade that goes for over 100 feet that rises up to the pass that is 3 feet above sea level. The descent can be a bit tricky.
Most other places I’ve seen to ride involve going north of Miami.
yes, i do mean hwy 1, google maps showed it as 5 for some reason. sadly i DO need to do the ride and i will be based in key west so highway one for 3 1/2 hrs and back seems to be the only option…
thanks for the info
Most of that road is bridges, i.e. no shoulder and two lanes each way. Not sure if they allow bikes on the bridge sections. Even if they do that road gets very congested and on the weekend I would think riding it would be, oh how shall we say it, a bit fucking insane.
If you get up real early in the morning (5ish), you could loop the island a couple times, I think its about a 20 mile loop. I did this a few years ago but I was on a motor scooter ;~)
Dave in VA
I was there in March and could only run…and that was if I got up early and beat all the tourists. I drove to Key West from Miami and can’t imagine riding anywhere there! I spent the days out at Sunset Key, hoping to swim in open water, and was really dissapointed to find the swim area VERY small and the water pretty chilly! As the previous poster pointed out, the road going into the Keys is narrow, two lane, full of tourists in Winnebagos. Alter your schedule to do a long run or bring your wind-trainer!
Usually still a few people passed out in the street then.
My wife and I took bikes to Key West, but we took her beach cruiser and my son’s mountain bike which I rode just to avoid the horrendous parking problems–easier to just ride a bike to get somewhere.
I agree with j p o. I’ve seen bikers on hwy 1, but i’m always amazed they don’t get killed. I saw a group of 6 biking from Ft. Lauderdale to Key West, and that blew my mind. Most of the people driving in the Keys on Hwy 1 have a decent amount of liquor in them at any given time, there is very little shoulder, lots of people pulling big boats, and a high volume of traffic on the weekends. I don’t see a lot of options in the Keys, unfortunately. The one positive would be that each mile is marked, and everyone gives directions based on a landmark’s nearest mile marker (MM), so it would be easy to measure your distance.
If you were to drive up to the mainland, the Everglades NP ride would be an option. WEAR BUG SPRAY!!! I was there in February (non-mosquito season) and got assaulted in the 30 seconds that I got off my bike to pee. Also, the road is very rough. You will be vibrating for a few hours after you get off your bike. For mainland rides, you may want to contact someone at Everglades Bicycle Club (http://www.everglades-bicycleclub.org/) to get some suggestions for rides around Homestead. They may be able to send you maps from one of their century rides.
Hope this helps. If I were you, I’d do a long run instead (google the for maps to the Half Shell Raw bar Half Marathon or Southernmost Runners’ Club) and have a few margaritas. Also, I think this weekend is the annual swim around Key West (12 miles). Link to this is also thru southernmost runners site.
I would think renting a beach cruzer and pounding around the residential areas for a couple three hours would be the safest. Don’t laugh, beach cruzer training is good for the body and soul. After that ride you would be one big smile, trying to find a 60 mile course on your real bike would be very frustrating. Kind of the old Lemonade story.
I’m not ever particularly worried about traffic when I ride, aware, yes, not worried. But I would definitely be worried about traffic if I was riding a bicycle on A1A between Florida City and Key West. Believe me, as I others have advised, you do not want to do 7 hours on that road. It’s not worth it. Just wait until you get back to wherever home is and do your ride then.
Cheers
Barry
We have a coach down there with IM experience and he knows the area as he lives there. Contact him: Drew Haggard:Iron140man@aol.com. Hope this helps!
So I did my 7hr ride last weekend in the keys after all…
I left at 5am to avoid traffic after the horrow stories and was a little surprised it was dark until 6:15! Still, for the most part traffic was light and being a saturday there were very few trucks so it wasn’t so scary ones the sun came up.
After the warnings about getting a flat of course I got one right in the middle of 7 mile bridge! I was actually thinking about getting one at the time and sure enough seconds later…! Luckily I went out of my way to buy c02 cartridges when i arrived so it wasn’t an issue. i think i was pretty lucky to only get only the one flat and was happy to be carrying 3 spares.
Glad i got it in but it was probably one of the most boring rides of my life once i got over enjoying the beautiful ocean…the ipod was a neccessity. frequent gas stations were a plus though. Good training for the monotonity of IMFL if you need it!
Good job on the ride – can’t believe it was dark that long though (scary no?)!
…and don’t worry IM-LP won’t be boring. You’ll be wishing for South Beach and the Keys on those Bears… 
Mel