Explore Outdoors with Atlanta’s Black Cycling Clubs

By Alecia Zackery

Published March 4, 2025

Atlanta has earned a few nicknames over the years. Most recently it is recognized as the City in a Forest. With great outdoor spaces nestled between our inner-city neighborhoods, there are many ways to explore the city too busy to hate.

You’ll find skaters at Old Fourth Ward Skate Park and see people on scooters in Piedmont Park. Add to that, biking, which has taken over our streets and avenues like never before. Groups have always hosted holiday-focused bike-a-thons and annual cycling and racing events, but none compare to the rise of Atlanta’s Black bikers who are taking the sport to new heights.

Among other notable trends, Atlanta’s Black community is strong, rich and diverse in cultural activities and activism. Social experiences that grab bystanders’ attention are charity events, Black-owned bike shops along Atlanta Beltline’s Westside trail and inclusive bicycle groups such as Metro Atlanta Cycling Club, MOBB Cycling Club ATL and Black Girls Do Bike.

Atlanta Magazine relates how Atlanta’s Black cyclists are “cranking Atlanta’s two-wheeled revolution:”

Ryan Lee from Atlanta discusses the impact of Black cycling groups in the Atlanta community. “From the O.G.’s at Metro Atlanta Cycling Club, which started in 1986, to Covid-era upstarts like ATL Pedal Bikers, the area’s Black cycling groups are broadening perceptions of who rides bicycles and creating social circles centered around healthy living,” he says.

Kris Dunbar marvels at how Atlanta’s Black cycling culture has evolved since he arrived in 1996. “The seeds have been planted and watered, and things are starting to bloom,” he says. Now more than ever, cycling clubs are paving new paths for underprivileged youth while also making history with bike donations, one spoke at a time.

You can preview your bike route around the city with one of our virtual cycling tour videos.