Cargo bike against things
Twenty photos of my true love in different places. It’s come a long way in the last three years, with iterative updates as things break and get fixed or annoy me and get swapped out, but I truly feel like I’m only a couple steps away from the ultimate final form of this bike. Is there anything I’m missing? Anything y’all would improve or add?
Support your LBS
This is an appreciation post both for local bike shops for letting me interrupt their queue (thank you @stevens_bicycles) and companies trusting the stuff they make (thank you @ethirteencomponents) enough to believe it’ll hold up to the type of riding I do. I recently passed 3,500 miles with 110,000ft of 📈 (5,600km / 33,500m) on this beauuutiful orange cassette and it’s still running as good as day 1. Having a 9t small cog lets me keep spinning up to 25mph and that 52t on the high end means I can cross mountains nooo problem. Place yer bets on how long y’all think this’ll last? Another 3500?
Interstate 80
Leaving Tahoe and getting on Interstate 80 began one of the more enjoyable parts of my tour east. The expected response of “omg cycling on the highway MUCH DANGER!!!” is honestly hilarious once you get rolling. It’s actually some of the easiest riding I’ve ever done! Huuuge shoulder the entire way, grades never over 10%, free camping at rest areas, food rescue from truck stops (damn Maverick y’all the best), and being statistically safer than riding across town to grab a coffee means I was chilllllin for the next thousand miles. So many good chats with truckers and travelers at rest stops, incredible views as valleys opened up exposing mountain ranges in the distance, and little towns along the way for me to ramble around for some extra flavor. Quiet country roads are nice riding but I’ll always take a highway if it’s legal for bikes.
Bedrock
I’m sure someone’s thought of a better line than “once you go Bedrock you never go back” but that’s honestly all you really need to know. For bikepacking, bike touring, any kind of 99% outside sort of life it just makes sense to become a sandals person. Letting your feet BREATHE while riding feels OH so good and never having to wash socks is a huuuge added bonus. I put 32,000 miles (51,000km) into this pair before swapping to a fresh set when I got new pedals, but I’m sure they woulda kept going for another year or two nooo problem.
Central Valley to Tahoe
Central Valley Misc
LA to Fresno
Forms of Protest with True Marmalade
From Ope! Bikes:
In this episode, we’re venturing beyond the world of ultra distance racing and into something a little more poetic and a little more unconventional—with our guest, nomadic rider and storyteller, True Marmalade.
Erik Binggeser—better known by his rolling moniker, True Marmalade—has spent the past few years crisscrossing the U.S. by cargo bike, logging over 50,000 miles on a titanium Omnium as part of a slow, deliberate, and deeply intentional life on the road. Born and raised in Michigan, Erik’s journey winds through a former corporate career, a stretch of vanlife, and ultimately into a mode of travel that blends bikepacking, minimalism, food rescue, and a whole lot of human connection.
Last weekend I caught up with Erik right here in St. Louis, Missouri, where he was hunkered down for a bit—recharging, resupplying, and taking a short pause from the road. While in town, Erik joined a group ride with Matt and the crew over at HoboHubWorks, and showed up to soak in the action at Penrose Park Velodrome. It was a short stay, but a perfect opportunity to sit down and talk.
In this conversation, Erik and I talk about what it means to leave behind the idea of accumulation and lean into subtraction. We unpack his use of the Wandrer app, discuss life as a Type 1 diabetic on the road, and explore the mental and physical shifts that come with living from a bike. We also dig into the gear that keeps him moving—from custom bags by South City Stitchworks to a variety of collaborations with builders and bagmakers across the bike industry, turning his journey into a rolling canvas of creative partnerships.
And of course, we dive into Erik’s daily practice of dumpster diving and food rescue: how it began, why he continues to share it so openly, and what it’s revealed about waste, resourcefulness, and our connection to community.
There’s something gently radical about the way Erik moves through the world—what he’s doing feels like a form of protest, a kind of anarchist calisthenics, if you will. Erik challenges the status quo and invites us to rethink how we live, travel, and connect with others.
Listen to the interview here: https://opebikes.buzzsprout.com/2088510/episodes/17350817-forms-of-protest-with-true-marmalade
more of the best ones
Where to next? Honestly I need to know, gimme tips, where should I take this project next? It was one hellova grind rambling LA the way that I did so nearly aaanywhere else gotta be a breeze in comparison. Any city with 500k-1mil people should have enough dead ends to fill a month of rambling and raise a couple grand of fundraising for a new local org doing the same kinda great work that LABA does. All those donations y’all sent in have been put to use supporting their earn-a-bike program refurbing donations to get more kids out there riding, exploring their neighborhoods, and establishing a more empathetic POV than they’d get being ferried around in the back of a SUV eyes glued to an iPad instead of being a part of the world around them. Someone’s gotta know someone else doing good like this in a city and I’m hopeful that I can keep this everydeadend project going.
