A New American Town - Bentonville, Arkansas

Transforming Bentonville: Gnargo Bike Co.'s Affordable, Upcycled Cargo Bikes

• Visit Bentonville • Season 17 • Episode 30

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What happens when art, cycling, and sustainability intersect? Meet Elysia and Zach Springer, the dynamic duo behind Gnargo Bike Co., a Bentonville-based bike manufacturing company that's redefining the cargo bike industry.

Listen to how passionate artists and cycling advocates became successful startup founders. They share how their early encounters with cargo bikes in urban environments led them to tinker in their garage, crafting custom bikes from repurposed materials. Their journey from small-scale operations to a full-fledged manufacturing business, supported by local programs like the Greenhouse Outdoor Recreation Program, and working with Pedal it Forward showcases the power of community and innovation.

Experience Bentonville's vibrant biking culture through Elysia and Zach’s eyes as they discuss the craftsmanship and community spirit that drive Gnargo Bike Co. And learn more at Gnargo Bike Co.

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Nat Ross:

All right, downtown Bentonville. We are near the square and we've got some special guests today for the new American Town podcast. This is presented by Visit Bentonville, and Visit Bentonville is on a mobility kick. So we've got a local company and we've got the owners of the company in-house. Elysia and Zach from Gnargo Bike Co. Welcome.

Elysia:

Hello.

Nat Ross:

All right. So I think a lot of folks have seen what you guys have been up to the past couple years In general. Tell us about Gnargo, how it got started and what you guys are doing, and then I've got a bazillion questions for you awesome yeah, oh, Gnargo man, it's a almost lifelong dream between Zach and I.

Elysia:

We kind of fell in love over art and bikes.

Elysia:

I like to that's like the beginning of us is the beginning of Gnargo really and truly. But we've been in cycling advocacy since way back early 2000s, lived in some very big-time bike metropolitan areas and we saw cargo bikes when they were first being imported to the US so early exposure there. And we are artists, so we've probably been kind of sculpting and scrapping things together. And once we started a family we really had this goal to be able to ride as a family, do most of our things on a bike as a family, and once we made it to Northwest Arkansas we really were able to realize Gnargo as a as a thing.

Zach:

Heck, yeah, yeah. And as somebody who has spent a lot of time making things, watching my family become hometown icons on things that I made for them is like such a heartwarming experience. And the experience has grown so much with the support of this community. And just to think, six, seven years ago I was listening to this podcast in anticipation of visiting Bentonville before we ended up moving here rapidly after that first visit. So it's an honor to be here and I think I don't even know if we've introduced ourselves, Please do yeah, AlicElysia, do you mind introducing yourself?

Elysia:

Yes, I'm Elysia. Prior to Gnargo, textile background went, went into education, worked with the youngest artists I like to say infants through like pre-k for over a decade. So frontline teaching, doing admin, some product development in that space. I started a whole other company making sensory toys before Northwest Arkansas and been a maker my whole life too.

Nat Ross:

Love it.

Zach:

Zach yeah, Zach Springer. I have a long history and fun retail innovations and got an opportunity here with the thanks of the Greenhouse Outdoor Recreation Program to really take a crazy idea that we started in our garage and see what happens when you put the right mentors in the room and a little funding and, yeah, Heartland Forward. Also, we also went are currently in one of their incubators. So we've really taken the startup community around here and used it as a total asset in our growth and it's been huge. So I'm really enjoying being an entrepreneur these days.

Nat Ross:

Well, I think one thing that's going to blow people's minds is you guys actually make bikes in northwest Arkansas. So Gnargo Bike Co is a manufacturer, a US-based manufacturer, but you guys put your own touch, not just the art but the sustainability, and you take the form and turn it into function in turn of a cargo bike. So I think a lot of folks they're familiar with the final mile, they understand kind of the closer the final, the chain, especially consumer goods in this world that we're living in now, especially consumer goods in this world that we're living in now, the footprint is massive and you guys have been reducing the footprint and making it it's just easy to watch when someone's on a bike, whether they're on their way to school, grocery, shopping, commuting, just traveling to back and forth from town. And Nargo has been since you guys have landed in town. It's a big statement that there are a lot of locals riding the bikes and then you guys sell bikes all over the world.

Nat Ross:

So fill us in exactly on what it was like to go through the manufacturing process of a Gnargo bike and what a cargo bike may be differentiated for for an exercise or a greenway, util, utilitarian tool. You guys have so many possibilities that these bikes provide. So in in, in your terms of like, what services Gnargo does best for the Bentonville community or for communities like ours that folks are interested in, not just hopping in their cars and and perhaps like doing it for themselves. What does Gnargo do?

Zach:

Well, let's just start with the nuts and bolts. So Gnargo is a manufacturer that started here in Bentonville two years ago, and we started out of a necessity for an affordable cargo bike in the midst of COVID. Alicia was our first customer and she asked 18 or so years ago that I make her this cargo bike, and what it turned out was I was volunteering at Pedal it Forward and I saw a couple of like classic mountain bike frames go into the landfill pile and I grabbed them and I took them home and cut them apart and welded them back together. I had made plenty of crazy Franken bikes in the past. You've probably seen some tall bikes of ours cruising around town. We do not sell those, by the way. We do sell cargo bikes, though. So we built her a cargo bike. First design was pretty bad and we just iterated. We are design thinking experts and we really do like to listen to customers. So we listened to her as a customer and we defined that design, and our neighbors started asking for them, and what it is is.

Zach:

We take the rear triangle and top tube of a classic mountain bike or road frame and, if it has the proper specs, um of like not a retail store bike, something that was probably sold at a dealer, a specialized, a Trek Bianchi, nicer named frames. We will take those frames and we'll update their rear triangle to have modern disc brake stopping capabilities. We'll gusset the frame to make sure that's not going to break there. We go through all the quality checks and our local powder coating partner, wayne's Powder Coating, they actually take and they remove all that original finish and all that original grease. And then it comes back into our manufacturing process where we go through a whole quality check to make sure that frame isn't compromised somewhere. And then we go and we cut off the head tube, the bottom tube, and we completely update that front geometry to be a 68 degree head tube angle, a nice cozy front end with a cargo bike on the front of it. That's where it started. Today we do offer rear loaders as well. You want that.

Elysia:

In addition, there's a lot of modifications we can customize that are really from customer feedback or like hey, do you guys think you could do this? And it's just been this really incredible collaborative process but, I want to touch on who's riding and why Please?

Elysia:

yeah, so I was saying a little earlier before this started. I had an upgrade to my bike a year ago it was a year ago, Labor Day, and since then I've put on over 3,000 miles on that bike and I am not one of those crazy 100-mile gravel riders. I'm not going on crazy extensive rides. These 3,000 miles came from grocery trips, my commute to and from work every day, dropping the kids off, all the little errands that usually nine out of 10 trips you can replace car trips with. That's what I've done and that's 3000 miles in a year. And it's amazing. Quality of life is just like yes.

Nat Ross:

That is fantastic. Plus, you're introducing the kids to this outdoor freedom and this lifestyle that is. It's all around us, but you guys are modeling it.

Zach:

Yeah, you know something that I do like to differentiate. When you ask back to like, what are cargo bikes? We think of cargo bikes and there's plenty of people that might think differently, but we think of front loaders and rear loaders. And a front loader, we like to say you're keeping your most precious cargo in front of you. Rear loader, we like to say it's the tail that wag the dog.

Zach:

And um, and that's why you look at our website and you'll only see front loaders. Um, it is our bread and butter. It's what we aim to. I love that you brought up kids, because our relationship with our children on a rear loader was different than a front loader. I was talking to them differently when they were behind me than I do when they're in front of me and we're discussing, you know, their day at school on the way home. So the kids are brought along for the journey, but I cherish that moment that they're on the front of my bikes because it's this like guaranteed conversation that we can have that we probably can't have anywhere else with other distractions, you know.

Nat Ross:

We're seeing that like we're noticing the stuff around us outside as well that like we can have that common conversation about well, one one neat thing that I see for sure is the commuting element um in the schools and dropping the, the nargo bikes, um, the kids are with you and you get that family time from the morning, dropping them off in school, picking them up in school, because I live near you guys, so I get to see kind of the coming and going and I love the fact that the family is a big part of it and that's important for you know from the Bentonville community and Visit Bentonville and all the outreach that this area has provides a lot of freedom, a lot of outdoor opportunities, and it's not just for kids to be able to do the parks or the greenways but, to experience this as a family.

Nat Ross:

Let's talk we have. We want to send people to check this stuff out, because it's beyond cool, because you guys are artists. You get to help create and help them make something neat and guide them along the process. But where do they go? What's the website and how could they learn more? And also, where can they visit your in-store location, which is even cooler I would send them to our instagram.

Elysia:

That's where our like most up-to-date and fun content is, and that's just at. Narco bike co. Um our in our. You can walk into our shop now. We're at 3905 wishing springs drive yeah, northwest wishing springs drive it comes up as road sometimes when you google it, but it's the same place and if you're visiting bentonville.

Zach:

Uh, you should know about the blue hole. So, um, the blue hole is on northwest wishing springs, yes, and it's a part of sugar sugar Creek and you can take your family there for a quick little dip and a rope swing. But also we're right across the street from there. So when you're drying off and you want to test out a cargo bike, come on over.

Nat Ross:

And and also the premise of how you got started in your relationship. You guys have a good collab partnership with Pedal it Forward, so that's the big a flagship Pedal it Forward location and Pedal it Forward so that's a flagship Pedal it Forward location and Pedal it Forward is a thriving part of the community that the donation factor gets these kids or families or folks on bikes that they don't know the avenues and they may not go into a bike shop. Alicia comment on that please, yeah.

Elysia:

So we've been scouting out a space to be as close to them as possible. We thought, wow, how amazing would it be to be an actual real-life example of circularity, of like a circular sourcing system. And we are. We're across the street from our main source of frames, pedal it Forward and we've also what's kind of a hidden part of our builds and our pricing is, when we pay the $50 for each frame that we are taking from Pedal it Forward, that $50 goes towards two builds that they can do to fix a bike up and go that's two bikes to a community member in need.

Nat Ross:

Which is something that Gnargo Bike Co does too.

Elysia:

They give back through the bikes and all of that. So every one of our bikes funds two repairs man, this is great stuff.

Nat Ross:

So, um, before we wrap up, um, this great chat, um, is there anything else? For folks that you get questions about cargo bikes or a bike because it's easier to pedal, um, it's not an exercise thing, although, although it is outdoors. So for those folks that are dabbling and wanting to try a cargo bike, it is pretty easy. It's very easy.

Elysia:

I like to say so because we are a front load cargo. It is a bit different from your bucket style bike. Those have really far extended front steering that can take a while to get used to and know where you're turning and having to adjust to that. I am pretty proud of how easy our bikes are to just hop on. It super intuitive. There isn't a whole lot of transition period between your mountain bike or your road bike to our bikes. Like the steering is really easy. It doesn't.

Elysia:

You don't have to adjust it's made me better jumping on my mountain bike well, we like to see like all right, well, let's see if it'll go down Thunderdome does, let's see if we'll go down Jesse's Okay.

Zach:

Yeah, we got to do quality testing. We're in Northwest Arkansas. We're going to do quality testing on the trails.

Elysia:

You're speaking to mountain bikers who are pushing the capacity of cargo.

Zach:

Yeah, we like to sponsor like local races, and then they'll put a class in there. That's the Nargo class and we'll be racing.

Elysia:

Thunder Don't Throw Down on Gnargos or tall bikes so we like to do some crazy stuff, yeah, yeah. Well, you guys are artists, and then this community.

Nat Ross:

It actually is a culmination of a lot of the pillars that this community is thriving on currently, and you guys have two of them, kind of, that are local, that you brought to share with us.

Elysia:

So let let's just send everybody again one more time to the Instagram page and so Narco bike co let's G N a, r G O, b I K E C O Love it. And our address for our shop is 3905 Wishing Springs Road.

Zach:

Our shop is 3905 Wishing Springs Road and that's in Bentonville.

Elysia:

So it's right on the border of Bentonville, Bella Vista, but right off the Greenway. You can ride there. This is great.

Nat Ross:

So, zach, we didn't get to spend enough time together. There's so many things that folks can learn, so I know where I'm going. I'm going to the location to watch some of the fabrication and the cool stuff that goes on, and everyone else can come visit the location as well on their own time. So this is a great episode. The bike culture Thanks to Visit Bentonville for supporting and partnering with companies like Gnargo Bike Co. This is a new American town, straight out of downtown Haxton Studios in Bentonville, Arkansas, and we are with Gnargo Bike Co, the owners, Elysia and Zach. So come visit them and we can't wait to talk more bikes.

Nat Ross:

Yeah thank you. Thank you so much.