Southeast - Cycling on A1A in Ft. Lauderdale

I am going down to Ft. Lauderdale in February and will be staying off Las Olas not too far off of A1A.
Can I ride north up A1A for 20-30 miles? Is A1A a cycling friendly street?
My other option is to leave my bike at home and run the Broward Half Marathon on Sun Feb 18. I would rather cycle for 4 days rather than just run for 2 hours but I am not sure where to cycle. Being from Chicago, any place I ride down there in Feb is better than riding the trainer in my basement!!

Kenal0

I live by downtown, extremely close to Las Olas, and A1A is the only route I ride. It's plenty bike friendly. There are bike lanes for much of it, and the car lanes are wide where there are no bike lanes. Many cyclists use this route so (hypothetically) the drivers should be used to bikes in this area - especially where the road is close to the beach. You'll see a ton of riders from solo to groups of 30 if you go out early on a weekend morning. Consider going south to the 17th St Causeway then doubling back for the South Florida version of a short climb, which will give you a nice view of the Port, intracoastal and everything else.

My rides are usually 25-40 miles roundtrip but I've often gone north 25 miles from Las Olas, and like it enough to keep it as my main route. Still pay attention to the cars - the tourists and retirees don't know where they're going - and there's often a lot of debris in the bike lanes (sand, rocks, glass, junk). You'll enjoy the view.

Funny you mention Chicago, as my g/f and I are planning to move there in '07, hoping to live fairly close in, and I'm looking forward to riding along the lake, etc.

Message me if you want more info. Enjoy.

Thanks for the info. My parents have a house just west of A1A off Las Olas so I will bring my BikeFriday down to ride for 3-4 days. When you get ready to move up here, just switch to the Great Lakes regional group and you will find a nice group of guys that ride organized rides together all summer.
I ride the lakefront 2-3 times per week in the summer, talk about nuts!! Walkers, runners, rollerbladers and cyclists all on the same 6 ft wide path. Here is some pics from my moring ride
http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=228552

Kenal0

I ride A1A from South Beach Park (near 17th street) up to the Palm Beach Inlet and back all the time. By the time I get back to Hollywood, it's 105-110 miles.

Plenty bike friendly EXCEPT for a mile or two of A1A just North of Lighthouse Point where there's no bike lane or shoulder...seems the rich landowners annexed that part of public property to make their yards bigger. Being rich, they seem to have gotten away with it. Get through that section and you're fine.

Anyway, it's a good route. Watch out for door openings in North/South Beach Park in Ft. Laud., as well as pedestrians jaywalking and bikes going the wrong way.

Hope you like crosswinds....

I ride A1A in Pompano Beach / Ft Lauderdale last week. You will find lots and lots of riders. Sme solo and some packs. The bike lane is nice and wide and I found pretty much all the cars were courteous and used to seeing riders. The winds were pretty heavy off of the ocean but not unmanageable at all. Don't think I would want to ride a disc wheel there though :)