The mornings are starting to cool off here in Orlando, so I decided to take advantage of this and go for a bike ride. I have heard that Lake Nona Blvd is a great place to bike so I decided to check it out. I was really impressed! The path runs about 5 miles from Narcoossee Road to the end of Lake Nona Blvd. It’s long enough to get a nice ride or you can turn around at any point if you need a shorter ride. I have seen the experienced “nascar” bikers do a few laps and/or use this stretch to warm up before going on to other trails. I really like that it has a very wide path for bikers, joggers and walkers. This is nice if you have kids or just want to leisurely ride a safe distance from the road. For the more experienced there are bike paths on the road. The road is 2 lanes each direction with green space/median dividing oncoming traffic, and there isn’t much traffic, yet. Plus, the cars all go in the left lane to pass you. So overall the road is pretty safe. There overall ambiance is very nice and “naturey”. There are pastures of cows, ponds to view (possibly with alligators) and lots of anole lizards that like to race across the path just in front of your bike tire.
On my way home I noticed the road has reflective biker decals identifying the bike path. As I continue riding, I thought the head of the decal biker dude looked funny/different compared to the previous ones. Sure enough!! On the next decal I could make out that the biker guy was wearing a bike helmet! Prior to this he did not have a helmet on. The next day I ride the road until it ends and I noticed that there are at least 3 different biker decal guys on this route. This is likely due to the road being completed in segments during the past few years. The first part of the path has a biker guy with no helmet, this may be either the safer part of the path or it was paved before they knew the safety benefits of bike helmets. Further down the road the road decals are given bike helmets, which can actually look like a mutated Acorn Head at first glance. As you get near UCF and Sanford-Burnham, the newest part of the road, you will find larger biker dude decals, with much larger helmets on, and they are riding into traffic (probably why they need the bigger helmet). I actually saw a biker decal without a head. It is nice that they have a stretch of the road dedicated for the headless biker.
The usual Biker road decal
This guy has an Acorn Head
New and improved Biker decal
The headless biker of Doom
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