Greetings from the gulf coast 👋
older guy new to cycling. Happy to be alive 😁

Welcome!

Why don't you ride your Synapse?

GOA - Goa | History, India, Map, Population, & Facts | Britannica

I really don’t know why. My wife calls it the inside bike 😂
I bought it anticipating some road riding but just never take it out. I doubt it has twenty miles on it.

They are great riding bikes. Mine has about 25,000 miles on it.

I used to ride around the Pensacola area for a couple of years. If there was ever an area suitable for wide tires, moderate speeds it was Pensacola. Chip seal roads prone to irregularity, sand on the corners, tourist traffic, nice sandy trails, etc. I had an old rigid mtn bike, aluminum to minimize deterioration.

It may be different these days. But not the salty air.

Most of the roads around me are hard packed sandy dirt with lots of rocks that pop out after it rains. I have thought about maybe wider tires on it but I already feel sort of bad that it’s an inside bike 😂 it is beautiful imo.
I put knobby 42mm tires and swapped the cassette on the trek

Welcome, from SE Wisconsin!

I bet if you got something upright with wider tires, you'd ride outside more. 42 mm is still pretty narrow for the conditions that you and Wildwood describe. I have a gravel bike with 40 mm tires and another one with 45 mm tires. The 45 is definitely better, and not inflated too firmly.

I have a fat tire eBike that I bought mostly for winter commuting here up north, but I use it sometimes on groomed gravel trails and mountain bike trails as well. I'm sure you see a ton of them down there, and it might be an option to reduce the sweating too. I hear they're cracking down on these dangerous eBikes down there though. It's funny that they worry more about that than people driving cars around who should've stopped driving years ago...

Welcome from Atlanta... I'm in the same boat as you, and heading to SGI in October. What is the biking like to the East end of the island?

SGI is awesome if I do say so myself 😁 first visit?
There is a nice bike path the length of the island and then you can go into the state park. It’s flat as you would expect but the wind can be stiff. The side roads along the bay are mix of pavement and sand. It’s a great place to be and a nice place for a bike ride.

Welcome.

Definitely not my first visit, I'm a many-decades SGI tourist.

I'm most interested in the ride from the last parking lot in the park to the east end of the island, which I've never biked before.

I was just talking with my wife about this, I haven’t been past the first pavilion on my bike. I’m sure you can still go gown to the second but they had closed the very end of the park it may be open again I’m honestly don’t know.

I didn’t get too far before I abandoned the adventure but the end of the park is open to bikes and walkers.

Welcome from the Great Corn Sea!

Welcome

welcome

Ahoy from the Great Lakes