Information for persons visiting Nashville for a cycling vacation

Discover Tennessee Trails and Byways

Follow this Link to a cool site of Trails.

Take a look at The Old Tennessee Trail in particular. If you live on the South side of Nashville, most of your bike rides probably pass dozens of these historic landmarks.

The riding in this area is absolutely fabulous. Most visitors are amazed at just how many miles of beautiful smoothly-paved roads we have, with virtually no traffic. Our longest climbs are only a mile or so, but our hills are constantly rolling and sometimes quite steep. Training rides can test your skills and make you tough. This page will give you a feel for the lay of the land. We've put this together pretty quickly, and in no particular order, but remember, our business is bicycles...

What Is The Natchez Trace Parkway?

The 444-mile Natchez Trace Parkway commemorates an ancient trail that connected southern portions of the Mississippi River, through Alabama, to salt licks in today's central Tennessee. As a cyclist, this means you have a federal park that consists of miles of smooth pavement, closed to commercial traffic, with very limited access. You may ride three hours on a weekday and be passed by two RV's and a few motorcycles. Early sections are hilly, sections beyond Leiper's Fork flatten out to long slow grades, perfect for time trial drills, etc.

Restrooms are at regular intervals of 15 to 20 miles and there are scenic overlooks and waterfalls within 25 miles of Leiper's Fork.

Check out the Park Service website and fill in the e-mail to have them mail you a package. They have a great map with all the reststops/sites cataloged by Mile Marker.

Cycling Relevance: No commercial traffic allowed and the 45 MPH speed limit is strictly enforced - so no one but a few tourists are ever on this road. It's not a logical cut through to anything in this area, so no one is speeding to their next appointment and mad that you are in their way. If it starts to rain, this is the safest place to be. If you are weak on maps and cue sheets, then you will love the fact that you can't get lost. It's very easy to use the NTP as a spine and branch off of it for long loops in the country, rejoining the route when you need to check your bearings. The mile markers are numbered so you can always get a feel for where you are.

Edwin and Percy Warner Parks, collectively known as “The Warner Parks,” are managed by the Metropolitan Board of Parks and Recreation of Nashville and Davidson County. The Warner Parks are the largest municipally administered parks in Tennessee and together span 2684 acres of forest and field, 9 miles from downtown Nashville.

What does this mean to you as a cyclist? There are about 16 miles of very hilly smoothly paved roads winding through the parks. It's a challenging ride and a perfect place to hide from the wind in winter and the sun in summer. We have maps in the bike shop. Watch out for squirrels and deer crossing the roads, or on nice spring mornings, sociallites on cell phones with dogs on retractable leashes...

We think the riding in southwest Davidson County, Williamson County, and Maury County is just spectacular. Of course, that's the stuff that is just out our backdoor, so we may be biased. If you want to see if we are on to something, think about staying in  Leiper's Fork, Tennessee . Our main recommendation would be the small private inn options at the center of the historic village (or wide spot in the road). We became familiar with these options as they are owned and operated by our friend and Pilates instructor. There are two of these:

Miss Sweeney's Inn (for women only)
The Claiborne Cottage (men & women), located next door to Miss Sweeney's. 

Both are fully furnished, and very nice.  We are not affiliated in any way, other than the owner Julie keeps our backs straight and our stomach's flat. If you are interested in these, contact Julie directly.




If you have a larger group, you would probably do well to stay and Franklin, Tennessee. Most of the chain hotels are close to the interstate exit from I65. You would have a short crappy ride of a mile or two before you felt like that you were in the country, but this location would give you a lot more restaurant options, etc. If you do a hotel search for Franklin, Tennessee, he will get a lot of listings for the Cool Springs area. This is a large mall/retail area, and it would really suck to ride your bike out of there. Here are the names of a couple of properties at the Franklin exit, which I think would be better. Of course these are just national chains, and I am sure they are fine but of course I have never stayed there:

Holiday Inn Express-Suites Franklin, 4202 Franklin Commons Ct Franklin, TN 37067
Ramada Limited Franklin 6210 HOSPITALITY DRIVE, Franklin, TN 37064
Days Inn Franklin, 3915 CAROTHERS PARKWAY FRANKLIN TN US 37064
Comfort Inn Franklin 4206 FRANKLIN COMMON CIRCLE Franklin, TN 37067

I act as the ride director for a women's breast cancer fundraiser called Hope on Wheels. I've laid out a fantastic metric and full century beginning in Leiper's Fork and the markings are still on the roads out there (but oh so faintly...). You can see the terrain if you poke around the Hope on Wheels website and I'll provide the Excel file with the cue sheets below. As time permits, I'll add some more cue sheets with some of interesting loops.

Don't be shy about asking some of us to come out and ride with your group if you are nice people. We are big on the Southern hospitality thing and are glad to share the joys of our area with anyone who appreciates them. It should be noted we do not ride with the following:

• persons who blame any poor riding on their equipment
• persons who talk incessantly about their wattage or heartrate
• persons who need to contrast any particualr area with a more outstanding place in California or Colorado
• persons who feel the need to repeat some things we say in a very fake Southern accent
• whiners

To get the most out of riding here, you have to embrace Tennessee for what it is - beautiful and rural. See the art in a 70 year old barn falling to pieces, get excited about the buffalo down the road from Ashley Judd's house, appreciate the old men sitting on the porch at Fly's General Store, and don't be afraid to eat a double decker Moon Pie instead of your Power Bar. (We don't like people who talk about fat grams too much, sort of like the wattage thing...)

The fun of riding here probably deserves a few more highlights:

• climbing to the hilltop community of Theta, Tennessee (unincorporated) - There's one store and four churches in sight of each other.
• tooling along North Lick Creek, taking in the limestone bluffs on one side and the creek on the other - In summer, it's air conditioned. In the fall, it's a kaleidoscope.
• taking in the miniature livestock - This includes the dwarf ponies on Old Natchez, the miniature donkeys on Leiper's Creek, a few dozen baby llamas in Alpacastan or the baby goats at the foot of Shoal's Branch in the spring. No extra charge for a few hundred colts and calves you will pass if you ride for a few hours.
• contrasting the tops of the ridges with the flow of the valleys - With a little climbing you may be on top of the world (around here) for a bit and you will later surely appreciate a few miles of flat road (if we helped you find them).

ROUTE SUGGESTIONS

Here is an Excel file with two good starter rides to introduce you to the area. There's an "easy" version and a ""hard" version. The difference is the grade of the climbing involved; both are lovely. These routes start from the Hillsboro Elementary School which is just a mile or two away from downtown Leiper’s Fork. 

 

Hillsboro School, 5412 Pinewoood Rd., 37064, located in Leiper’s Fork.

 

From I65 in Brentwood, TN - Take the Old Hickory Blvd. West exit. Proceed about 4 miles to the intersection of Old hickory and Hillsboro Pike. Turn left onto Hillsboro Pike and go 3.2 miles. Turn right onto Old Hillsboro Road (TN-46). Continue for 11.4 miles and turn right onto Pinewood Road. The school is 1/10th of a mile further on the right.

 

Riding the Starter Loop will be a good thing and it will bring you back to Leiper's Fork for lunch/regrouping. The rest of the afternoon can be spent just hitting the Natchez Trace Parkway. There is an entrance ramp just past th Hillsboro School. Head North or left at the end of the entrance ramp toward Nashville for a constantly rolling 12 miles (to the terminus). Head south or right at the end of the entrance ramp to head toward Tupelo. The terrain in this direction includes long, slow grades. There are no turns, just take it as an out and back. Watch out for wild turkeys and if you see a Park Ranger jump into a single file pace line and smile.

The next file gives the 62 and 100 mile routes used for the Hope on Wheels event. These are great. If you ride them early in your stay, you will see a lot of ways to begin to modify your routes on your own. Remember, there are some very faded green markings to help you confirm your way.

Nashville is lucky to have a fantastic Ultra cycling community, organized under the charter of the Harpeth Bike Club. If you consider a century a good training ride,  visit the Ulta Cycling Home Page found within the HBC website for more information. The Ultra site is a plethora of information with everyting from a primer for the complete newbie to a schedule of all upcoming events.

We particularly like the ride schedule because each route is available as a downloadable file, complete with map and cue sheet. Ultra ride cue sheets are great in that they will be sure to route you on the safest roads in the area and will always pass convenience marts at regular intervals. Even if you aren't ready to tie into rides of 100 miles or more, you can use these routes as great resources to investigate new roads throughout the state. We commend our Tennessee coordinator Jeff Sammons (also a Gran Fondo club member) for the excelllent information he has made available to all.

I'll save you a click and pull in the route sheet for a spectacular 300K that begins and ends in Leiper's Fork. One of the great things about this route is that the final 40 miles are on the Natchez Trace Parkway, so if you don't wrap this up before dark, at least you will be on the safest highway in the area. On a night with a full moon, you could ride the NTP without lights (not that you should, or we would).

If you happen to be in a Southwest city, you can proabally get to Nashville on the cheap (Roundtrip from Chicago $128).  SW only charges $50 to ship your bike each way. If you want to ship your bike here, count on $115 or so UPS Ground, each way. Lots of people ship their bikes to us and we let them put them together on the back deck. We are also glad to build your bike back up for you (for a small fee). If you are sending something our way, please give us a call and let us know.

http://www.nashvillecyclist.com/architecture/frameset.html

http://www.harpethbikeclub.com/index.php/rides/ultra
Look around here. Some of these routes could be of interest.

http://www.leipersforkvillage.com/
We stop in leiper's fork on practically every ride we do.

http://www.granfondocycles.com/rides
link to my routes page, I can give you further direction...