Ill be bringing the new gravel bike build out to seminole state forest soon. I ride markham woods once a week on the MTB. Fun video, it makes me want to get wider tires and go do more!
@@astonrides Hey saw your UA-cam video. New to gravel from road TT finisher Ironman 1984 Hawaii before it went nuts! Looking for new herd of gravel cyclists outta CA. Thinking of few mid range grinders this year… retired. World open canvas forward…ideas? All feedback welcome… maybe a Sherpa lol!
Central Florida is the best riding for pretty much any type of biking, gravel included. Clermont area is pretty much the Mecca for triathln training on the entire east coast. The road riding is the best in this region not necessarily for the traffic or scenery, but because this is where the hills are. You can do a 60 mile ride and get in 6000 feet of elevation gain pretty easy (South Buckhill Road and Sugarloaf Rd is a must-do). Mountain bike, the two hottest areas are Croom and Santos which are both central FL. Croom is easily doable on a gravel bike as we do not have "real" mountain biking in this state. Best gravel riding is probably Green Swamp which easily has 100 to 200 miles of riding within that preserve. However, that area is tricky. Requires either local knowledge, or downloading a gpx route of a well established loop from ridewithgps. A super easy ride is the Apopka Loop Trail. You can get 30 to 40 miles of hardpack gravel in there. There is also a 40 mile "around the lake" (Apoka) loop which is popular and you can download the file for that. Its over 1/3 gravel, 1/3 paved bike trail, with a small road connector section. Park at Green Mountain Overlook Park to do this. Ocala has a crazy amount of gravel, hiwever a lot of the roads in this area are sandy and its not the best on a thin tire gravel bike. Better for bikepacking and mountain bikes with 2.1 inch or greater tires. Gainesville is great, but you either need to get gpx files in advance or go with local gravel riders who do known routes. Gainesville is not the type of gravel riding where you just follow one big trail. Its more like road riding where you have to know all the local roads (only in this case, a mix of gravel with some paved).
Cool video. I know Jeremy from bikepacking. I want to ask him about that story!
Haha! That’s Florida for ya 😂 I’ll be posting more ride vids around the southeast if you’re interested 💥
Yeah definitely! I'll try and join you some day too when I have a real gravel bike@@astonrides
How do you find those handlebars? And what sorta tyre widths are you running?
I really like them! This ride was on 38c Maxxis Ramblers
Let me know where you’ve been riding in Florida!
Left gravel bike at home…came out to Mayo…drove around Nocatee and St Augustine.
Chatted with few I met out at beach…that’s as far as I got. 🚴♀️💕
Ill be bringing the new gravel bike build out to seminole state forest soon. I ride markham woods once a week on the MTB. Fun video, it makes me want to get wider tires and go do more!
From CA where is best gravel in FL? Heading there in a month to enjoy weather
Hey mate! I’m a bit biased, but I’d say central Florida, all around the north of Orlando. Where are you headed?
@@astonrides Hey saw your UA-cam video. New to gravel from road TT finisher Ironman 1984 Hawaii before it went nuts! Looking for new herd of gravel cyclists outta CA. Thinking of few mid range grinders this year… retired. World open canvas forward…ideas?
All feedback welcome… maybe a Sherpa lol!
@@astonrides heard Ocala and Gainesville are good areas… anywhere off roads with cars.
Central Florida is the best riding for pretty much any type of biking, gravel included. Clermont area is pretty much the Mecca for triathln training on the entire east coast. The road riding is the best in this region not necessarily for the traffic or scenery, but because this is where the hills are. You can do a 60 mile ride and get in 6000 feet of elevation gain pretty easy (South Buckhill Road and Sugarloaf Rd is a must-do). Mountain bike, the two hottest areas are Croom and Santos which are both central FL. Croom is easily doable on a gravel bike as we do not have "real" mountain biking in this state.
Best gravel riding is probably Green Swamp which easily has 100 to 200 miles of riding within that preserve. However, that area is tricky. Requires either local knowledge, or downloading a gpx route of a well established loop from ridewithgps.
A super easy ride is the Apopka Loop Trail. You can get 30 to 40 miles of hardpack gravel in there. There is also a 40 mile "around the lake" (Apoka) loop which is popular and you can download the file for that. Its over 1/3 gravel, 1/3 paved bike trail, with a small road connector section. Park at Green Mountain Overlook Park to do this.
Ocala has a crazy amount of gravel, hiwever a lot of the roads in this area are sandy and its not the best on a thin tire gravel bike. Better for bikepacking and mountain bikes with 2.1 inch or greater tires.
Gainesville is great, but you either need to get gpx files in advance or go with local gravel riders who do known routes. Gainesville is not the type of gravel riding where you just follow one big trail. Its more like road riding where you have to know all the local roads (only in this case, a mix of gravel with some paved).