Bentonville-Based Gnargo Bike Co Transforms Old MTBs Into New Cargo E-bikes - Velo

Oct 26, 2024

Photo: Javé Photography

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Bentonville is a bike mecca, and the trails and gravel roads don’t discriminate against what kind of bike you ride.

Sparkly custom-painted Allied BC40 mountain bikes share the singletrack with pink and purple Huffys that can be purchased at Walmart for $118. Big burly eMTBs are often seen zipping alongside upright hybrid cruisers on the paved Razorback Greenway.

I noticed all of these bikes, and then one in particular, on a recent trip to the northwest Arkansas bike bubble. The one that stood out among all the rest? Whose name still makes me chuckle even as I write this?

GNARGO.

A friend and I were walking home from dinner one evening when we first noticed the e-cargo bike resting on its kickstand outside a restaurant. We looked at each other — what was this?

Upon first glance, it looked like someone’s DIY project, but the craftsmanship hinted at something different. The bike, with its textured pink paint job, had a curious front cargo platform laced with seatbelt-style webbing. The platform was welded to the front of the frame, which, judging by the narrow tubing, was steel and maybe vintage?

And then there was the name. We couldn’t help it, both snapping pictures of the all-caps GNARGO logo on the downtube.

A few days later, I was at an event at Hillfolk, a local textile shop, where, astonishing there were five colorful bikes stickered with the GNARGO label parked outside. This was clearly more than a DIY project.

As luck would have it, Elysia Springer, the co-founder of Gnargo Bike Co, was inside the shop. As I began to pepper her with questions about the bikes, I learned that what started as a pandemic garage project for she and her husband, Zach, has evolved into Bentonville’s — and perhaps the world’s — most innovative e-cargo bike manufacturing business.

The story of Gnargo Bike Co. begins like so many great ventures of our time: in a garage, during the pandemic lockdown.

Shortly before the pandemic, Elysia and Zach relocated to Bentonville from Minneapolis, drawn by the allure of mountain biking and then “sponsored,” as Elysia likes to say, by Zach’s job in product development at Walmart. They had two toddlers and a goal to integrate bikes into their family life well beyond the trail.

Pre-kids, the couple had been involved in bike advocacy since the early 2000s and watched with interest as modern cargo bikes made their way from Europe to the United States in earnest.

During the pandemic, the Springers started looking for a family cargo bike but couldn’t find the front-loader style in the price point they wanted. So they did what any design-thinking, tinkering, bike-loving people would do.

“It was like, ‘let’s just make it,'” Elysia said. “We met in art school and had already done some Franken-bike projects together, so this was actually like a very long project in the making — Covid just gave us time to do it.”

“Elysia was Gnargo’s first customer,” Zach added. “She really asked for this bike 18 years ago.”

What started out as a way to reduce car trips and spend time on bikes as a family quickly became something much bigger. Although the first design “was pretty bad,” Zach said, the couple continued to iterate. The final product — a mashup of an old steel mountain bike frame, some serious design modifications, and an electric kit — was so unique that people stopped them on the street to ask about it.

“We’d ride around with the kids or groceries, and people would stop us and say, ‘What’s that?’ And we’d be like, ‘It’s a Gnargo!’” Elysia said.

A Gnargo e-cargo bike is eye-catching, no doubt. We’ll get into the design in a bit. But the depth beneath the bike’s irreverent good looks is the first and most important part of the brand’s story.

While Zach and Elysia first designed the Gnargo out of necessity — there were no bikes available during the inventory-strapped pandemic, plus they didn’t really like what was on the market anyhow — they are not the type of people that do things without intention.

When the couple moved to Bentonville, Zach started volunteering at Pedal it Forward, a community bike shop that refurbishes used bikes to give away or sell at low cost. One day, he spied two classic mountain bike frames bound for the landfill. He snagged them and brought them home, where he “cut them apart, and welded them back together.”

The frames became the skeleton of the first Gnargo e-cargo bikes — and upcycling old frames is a process that continues at the company today. In fact, what began as a way to save money and keep a few old bikes out of the landfill has become fundamental to Gnargo’s ethos.

Before the Springers made Gnargo Bike Co official two years ago, friends, neighbors, and passerby asked about the bikes. Then, they started asking for bikes. Zach, who was working at Walmart at the time, realized that he had an opportunity to infuse meaning into the project from the start, unlike at work, where the corporate behemoth was always playing catch-up.

“There was a big push to become a regenerative company at Walmart,” he said. “And I had all these great ideas at work and I did some of them. But at home, I was like, ‘I want to do this for real. Like, I don’t want to try to fix a Titanic that’s already going in a direction, I want to start from the ground up.’

“Sourcing and upcycling frames could become the ethos of a brand rather than an afterthought to try to meet a sustainability measure,” he added. “And that’s really where it started. And then it became the hook for people.”

Zach and Elysia sunk Gnargo’s hook even deeper into sustainability and circularity with the opening of their Bentonville shop and factory a few months ago: they moved into a space across the street from their main source of frames, Pedal it Forward.

“We had been scouting out a place to be as close to them as possible — like, ‘how amazing would it be to be an actual real life example of circularity, a circular sourcing system?'” Elysia said. “And we are!”

Gnargo’s sustainability story doesn’t stop there. The brand’s relationship with Pedal it Forward has impacts that ripple beyond circularity; for each $50 that Gnargo pays Pedal it Forward for a donor frame, the shop is able to refurbish two bikes that it can then give or sell to someone in need of a bike.

“It’s a hidden part of each of our bike builds,” Elysia said. “Every one of our bikes funds two repairs that then go back into the community.”

Gnargo’s deep commitment to circularity and strong community relationships is impressive on its own merit, but at the end of the day the bike has to live up to its promise. If the goal is to create an e-cargo bike that can replace a car — Elysia calls hers ‘the minivan’ — then the bike needs to be as reliable, durable, and easy to operate as a car.

At the core of Gnargo’s design philosophy is the front-loading cargo bike. This layout isn’t just a design choice; it’s fundamental to both the bike’s function and user experience.

“In a front-loader, you’re keeping your most precious cargo — whether it’s kids, groceries, or gear — right in front of you,” Zach said. In contrast, rear loaders tend to feel like “the tail wagging the dog.”

When Elysia and Zach first envisioned the Gnargo, it was with their kids riding in front of them. The experience riding as a family has been far greater than anything they imagined.

“It’s totally changed our relationship with them,” Elysia said. “When you’re riding with kids, the whole experience changes when you can see them. You’re not shouting to someone behind you; you’re having a conversation and actually sharing the journey.”

E-cargo bikes aren’t just for hauling kids, though. According to Zach and Elysia, Gnargo’s can haul adult humans, too — or work equipment like ladders, or luggage, or harvested vegetables, or many cases of beer.

The bikes’ long wheelbase offers stability for heavy loads, and the 20-inch front wheel keeps the center of gravity low. This balance makes it easier to carry up to 350 pounds, which Elysia claims she has done on her bike. The front-loader design also improves handling, allowing for smoother rides even when loaded down.

As for the frame? ‘Steel is real.’

As you now know, every Gnargo bike starts with an upcycled steel frame, typically an 80s or 90s mountain or road bike from brands like Specialized, Trek, or Bianchi. Once Gnargo sources the bike, its fabricators disassemble it so only the rear triangle and top tube remain. They then update the rear triangle to have modern disc brake-stopping capabilities, gusseting the frame in key spots for integrity. There’s an extensive quality check process before the frames are then taken to a local powder coater to be stripped of all original finish and grease.

When the bikes come back into the manufacturing process at Gnargo, fabricators cut off the head tube and bottom tube and update the front geometry for a 68-degree head tube angle. “That’s a nice and comfy front end for a front-loader cargo bike,” Zach said.

A post shared by Gnargo Bike Co. (@gnargobikeco)

While parts geeks can customize a Gnargo e-cargo bike to their hearts’ content, using simple, standard components is the brand’s bread and butter. This is, again, to keep waste and excess at bay, but also to facilitate the ease and cost of repair and replacement.

One of the biggest pain points for many e-bike owners is maintenance, especially when dealing with proprietary parts that local bike shops can’t service. Gnargo sidesteps this issue by using standard components that are widely available and easy to source. This decision was driven by customer feedback, with many riders frustrated by the wait times and limitations they experienced with other e-bike brands.

“If something goes wrong, you can bring it into a bike shop and get it fixed,” Elysia said.

In terms of power, all Gnargos use a standard 750-watt motor that has a 40-mile range on a full charge. If anything goes wrong with the motor or components, Gnargo offers a year of maintenance.

Beyond design, function, and sustainability, there is another crucial element built into every Gnargo e-cargo bike: playfulness. Customers choose their frame style, color, finish, as well as the color of webbing for the platform. Of course, they also choose how they get to use the bike (see below Instagram for how these bikes can literally shred the gnar).

A post shared by Gnargo Bike Co. (@gnargobikeco)

Elysia Springer measures her Gnargo use in both miles and quality of life.

“During the past year I’ve put on over 3,000 miles on that bike,” she said. “And I’m not a crazy 100-mile gravel rider. Those 3,000 miles came from grocery trips, my commute to and from work, dropping the kids off, and all the little errands that you can replace car trips with. The quality of life is like, ‘yes!'”

Get in line, fast! The current wait time is about 6-8 weeks. But there’s not much you need to do beyond sending a $1,500 deposit, your standover height, and whether you’d prefer a step-through or straight tube frame.

Gnargo Bike Co. currently offers three models of e-cargo bikes: the Classic, the Looploader, and the Schoolie. The Classic is the longest, with the Looploader a few inches shorter. The Schoolie has a more space-conscious design and smaller front cargo space. All models come with front and rear lights, a computer, and a 750-watt motor. The Classic and the Looploader also feature bolt-on rear racks. Welded on racks are available for an additional $200.

However, with its birthright of iteration, the team at Gnargo can modify any model to a customer’s liking. Want rails around the cargo platform? Or, does your passenger prefer a beach lounger-style seat instead of the cargo platform? It’s all possible and more, usually for just a couple hundred dollars extra.

Furthermore, Gnargo plans to release some updates to its base models in 2025, including options for internal cable routing and a new thru axle front fork.

The best way to pick up a bike is in person at Gnargo’s Bentonville factory, but for those who can’t make it to northwest Arkansas, both the Looploader and Schoolie models can be shipped (the Classic must be picked up in person).

In fact, there’s another circularity detail in the shipping: YT Industries, which has a showroom in Bentonville, gives Gnargo its empty eMTB boxes for shipping!

Before each Gnargo rolls out of the factory, someone on the team test rides it for at least 10 miles. Bikes that are being shipped are disassembled, and Zach films the disassembly process so that it’s easy for the customer to build the bike back up at home.

After that, the only thing left to do is ride it. Smiles, miles, and community engagement are guaranteed.