Simply put, the Music City Dope Pedalers are good vibes on two wheels

Every other Friday for This Is Nashville, I hop out of my host chair and into the passenger seat to ride shotgun with some of our fellow Middle Tennesseans. This time we’re switching things up. I’m riding a bicycle!

For “Nate the Great” McDowell, Fridays can be a very busy day. By day he works in IT. By night, he’s the sousaphone player for Brassville, a Nashville-based brass band. In between work and band gigs, he somehow finds the time to lead the biking group Music City Dope Pedalers on rides through the city.

“I’ll get off from work, go on a bike ride and then have a Brassville gig. People in the group, they’ll know when I have a show because I’m like booking it. We get back and I’m pulling clothes out the car. They’re like, ‘where are you going?’ [I’m like,] ‘we got a show tonight!” he says. 

Nate’s love of biking started when he was in college. His car broke down and he needed a way to get to campus. He bought a bike and it was love at first ride. In summer 2021, he started noticing folks looking around for a biking group, and a lightbulb went off in his head.

“I wanted to do something every week [and make it] so you don’t have to think about it. Same place, same time, and just show up and be there when you can,” he says.

So that’s what he started. The first ride that summer only drew three people. But since then, it’s grown to 20 riders. If you are driving around Germantown on a Friday evening, you’ve probably seen them.

The rides are not competitive, they are meant for fun. An opportunity to meet fellow Nashvillians who love to ride bikes, to meet and form community. That’s exactly what Nate had in mind when he started the group.

“You’ve got people that just want to kick it and do something different, just a different form of activity and recreation. And it’s more of a social thing for them. Yeah, a positive, healthy way to unwind with some friends,” he says. 

Once I buy a bike, you’ll find me out on the road with them.