Biking Jacksonville's Beaches

The road ride: three towns in a straight line

Atlantic Beach, Neptune Beach and Jacksonville Beach sit end to end along the same shore, and the streets a block or two behind the dune run the whole way. It is flat, it is gridded, and the posted limits on the residential streets are low. You can ride from the oak canopy at the north end to the numbered avenues deep in Jacksonville Beach without ever having to be brave.

Keep off the through roads. Atlantic Boulevard, Beach Boulevard and Butler Boulevard carry highway traffic, and Third Street carries A1A through the beaches with a posted limit that changes as you go. The parallel residential streets get you everywhere those roads go, more pleasantly.

South of Jacksonville Beach you cross into St. Johns County and Ponte Vedra Boulevard, which is the prettiest road on this coast and the one that asks for the most care. Oaks, old houses, ocean a block away, and not much room between the white line and the hedge.

The beach ride, and how to do it properly

This is the thing that makes the First Coast different. The sand here is finer and firmer than the sugar sand of the Gulf beaches, and the strip just above the waterline packs down hard as the tide falls. On a cruiser with wide tires it rides almost like pavement.

• Go at or near low tide. Check the tide before you go, because on a rising tide the firm strip narrows and then disappears.
• Ride the damp packed sand, not the dry sand above it. Dry sand is unrideable on any bike and exhausting to push through.
• Give walkers, anglers and anyone with a dog a wide berth, and go around groups on the land side.
• Stay away from marked nesting areas and from birds resting in flocks at the tide line. Riding through a flock scatters birds that are there to rest.
• Watch for shell beds and washed-up debris after a storm, which are easy to hit at speed on a smooth surface.
• Rinse the bike with fresh water when you are done. Salt spray plus a beach ride is the one combination that shortens a bike's life.

The stops, north to south

Riding a cruiser here, specifically

The bikes at Amenio partner homes are Beach Bike cruisers with a carbon belt drive instead of a chain. That is a good match for this coast: no chain to rust after a salt-air ride, no oil, and nothing to drop off. The brake is a coaster brake, so you stop by pedaling backward. On packed sand, that is worth practicing before you need it, because a coaster brake will lock the rear wheel and slide if you stamp on it.

• Brake early and gently on sand. Ease into the pedal rather than jamming it.
• Let some speed carry you through soft patches instead of steering around them.
• Lights after dusk, and take them seriously on Ponte Vedra Boulevard.
• Lock up at the pier and at Beaches Town Center. Both are busy and both are easy places to lose a bike.
• Carry water. The shade ends the moment you leave the oak streets.

Common questions

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