Originally Posted by
floridamtb
I do levee rides on the MTB a lot with CSP and have put many many miles in on the levees. Years ago I rode an older MTB with tires similar to whats on the Crossrip (Bontrager H2). I'm looking for something lighter than the MTB, something that I can do a loop from Lox, down to Markham or Atlantic and then back up via the roads. Hence the FX or Crossrip. When I do decide then I'll be headed to Trek Sunrise, been working with Jeff there for since 2013 when he was at the Fort Lauderdale store.
Have you ridden Shark Valley? Great place to see lots of gators
Shark Valley is one of the coolest places I've been on a bike. This is the best time of year to go - no mosquitoes or deer flies, the water is down, and the gators and other wildlife are out.
My son an I did the loop there about 3-4 weeks ago and no exaggeration we saw at least 100 alligators between the parking lot and the tower (7 miles). Many were literally a couple of feet from the paved trail and some were actually lying with their tails out in the roadway. You had to avoid riding over them! It was a little unnerving at first but once you realized that they were very used to people and were totally non-aggressive. They would just open an eye and look at you as you passed.
I have yet to ride the entire 25 mi levee loop in Broward - Altantic W to Sawgrass Rec Park (27), down to I-75, in to Markham Park, back up to Atlantic. I've ridden most of the route individually though - all except the 2 mi stretch on the narrow shoulder of 27 (kind of scary with cars and trucks passing at 70-80mph) and the western half of the trail from 27 back to Markham.
There are some great trails south of Markham as well although I've not explored them all yet. Also some great trails north and west of Lox. I've done a few of them but not all. So far the roughest ride is the stretch from Atlantic out to SR27. If you do the loop clockwise and the wind is out of the east, that can be a brutal 10 miles.
There are some other trails in Everglades National Park and Big Cypress that I plan to do before late spring (when it starts getting hot and the bugs come out). If you take SR41 (Tamiami Trail) west there are some great places to explore in Everglades City and Chokoloskee. Also, the 38 mi road from Homestead to Flamingo is really cool with lots of smaller loops. Much of this is far less visited than Shark Valley.
I seriously considered both the Trek DS and FX as my first bike for the levees. However, I found a mint 2011 Giant Roam 1 in a Pawn shop that looked like it had been ridden maybe 5 times and stored in the garage for $150 so I figured I would try it. I made the mistake of letting my son ride it and he loved the bike so I gave it to him and figured I would find another one. I ended up buying another Roam new from Bike America for not much money and figured I would ride it until I figured out what would be better. So far I haven't felt like I need to upgrade it but am actually looking at buying a road bike ???