Riding at Walt Disney World Yes/No?
 

So I am running the Dopey Challenge at Walt Disney World in January. My husband plans to bring his bike. We plan to stay at one of the resorts. Are there roads he can take out of the park to ride? I'm assuming so... hell he'd ride on the expressway if he could... but I just want to make sure he can ride his bike while I am running.

Anyone familiar with the roads around the park? I know there is no riding 'in' the park, but I'm talking about outside the park.

We are from Chicago and are not familiar with riding in Orlando.

Thanks.

I've never seen anyone ride in the park, but there roads outside of the park that he can definitely ride on with some bike lanes. He may want to check out some of the group rides in the area as well.

Good site to find rides in the central florida area: Daily Group Rides |

I live over in the Tampa area, buy my in-laws are over in Orlando and have used that site to do a few of those rides listed.

Good luck.

If the alligators want to ride the monorail, walk more...no problem.

Thank you for the information!, I will pass it on to my husband :)

IMO, the roads are not really bicycle friendly. One thing to keep in mind is that the majority of the people driving ARE NOT LOCALS so lots of rubbernecking, looking at signage, and not sure where to go.

Enjoy the Dopey! Since they changed the marathon route some 3 years ago, I have been exiting Osceola Pkwy. at the 15 mile mark to go to McDonald's for an M&M McFkurry and then rejoin the race.

Bicycles are not explicitly restricted on Disney roadways EXCEPT for the small stretch of road between the parking entrance to the Magic Kingdom all the way to the Contemporary Resort (there are clearly posted "No Bicycle" signs). That being said, and as OldTryGuy stated, most of the roads do not have shoulders. There are plenty of tourists driving like maniacs trying to get from one park to another, looking at signs, switching lanes quickly to avoid missing turns, etc. I have ridden on property a handful of times, and only with local group rides (I wouldn't feel safe by myself).

That being said, if your husband insists on riding, there are plenty of options. First, the Fort Wilderness resort has plenty of internal roads that are perfect for cycling. He'd have to be okay with doing laps, but the speed limit of 25 throughout the resort roads makes it very biker friendly (and there's plenty of tree canopy as well).

To get off property and into some nice rolling hills, you can take Western Way on the southwest side of the property, take a right on Flamingo Crossings Blvd and head north on that road until it ends at Avalon Rd. Taking a right on Avalon will bring him north again towards the hills of Clermont and the nice old Florida town of Winter Garden. Plenty of quiet rural roads to ride on back there. Coming back to Disney he can go through the backstage area of the Magic Kingdom (bikes are allowed), take a left at the Magic Kingdom, ride past Space Mountain and wait for pickup at the Contemporary.

If he's looking for a group ride, Winter Garden Wheel Works, a bike shop maybe 25 minutes to the north by car, posts group rides on the weekends to their facebook page. DailyGroupRides.com will also yield some rides in the Celebration area.

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I did just what you are wanting to do. We live on the East Cost of FL and had a family BD party at Disney overnight. I took my bike and rode to each park within Disney. I had no problem. I might add that Disney does not add any bike lanes on their roads so you, as will as I did, need to take the lane. A lot of visitors for sure. So, the key is to ride EARLY. Sun up is best. Great morning ride as everything comes alive. Your key to know when to get off the roads is when the BUS service starts. Time to head back to the hotel. The Loop North around the MAGIC KINGDOM is real good. Did it twice. Stopped at all the hotels and talked to the guys out front. I would do it again.
https://ridewithgps.com/routes/8205244
https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/809402555

-Harris

The Strava Heat Map shows popular biking roads, based on a year of rides uploaded from strava members. Dark red is the most popular, then blue. I'd avoid roads that are only faint blue if there are nearby dark blue or red roads. (Outside of cities, there's not as many riders, so there's few red roads out there.)

Here's the Disney area map. On the left side, click "Toggle Labels" to show the road and town names.

Route Builder
They also have the Strava Route Builder, using the same data. You can click a starting point, click a waypoint, and it will pick popular roads to get there, and tell you mileage and elevation (heh.) You can undo/redo or drag the route to a different road. You need a free strava login to use it.

To use Route Builder:
Enter the town or location you want to start from, and the map zooms there.
On the left side, click the settings icon, then turn on Heat Map, so you can see the red and blue popular roads, to help decide which direction to go.

Example
Here's a sample route near Disney World that I made. I don't know the area, and didn't spend much time on this, but it should be a decent ride. You probably want a GPS to navigate some of these Route Builder routes, they can have a lot of turns. There's a simple cue sheet on the left side.

The elevation graph at the bottom makes it look hilly, but note the strava segments listed below. Most of the hills are 50 feet tall or less.

Ha, my experimental route headed toward Winter Garden--I could see lots of popular roads up that way. I turned back early to shorten the route. Interesting how the Route Builder picked the same roads.

Thank you all so much for your responses!, we really appreciate it.