October 9, 2024 • 39 mins
The All Bodies on Bikes team had a busy summer! Tons of events, live podcasting while living out of a van, big industry moves... and more! Listen up for a recap from fearless leaders Marley Blonsky and Kailey Kornhauser with tagalong co-host Ellen Schwartze
We also share an update on what's next for All Bodies on Bikes: new chapters (👋 hey there, Portland and DFW!), new resources, and our first big fundraising push. (Psst, did you know you can already donate on our website??)
Referenced in the show:
Marley's summer road trip podcast series — just skip back a few episodes to find:
- SBT Gravel Behind the Scenes with Amy Charity & Greer Van Dyck
- Live from Joyride with Lisa Congdon and Kelsey Long
- Queer + Bikes with B Steele and Lauren Mehl
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
marley (00:00):
Hello.
(00:01):
Hi.
How's it going?
It's so good.
How are you?
Oh, man.
I am having such a good day.
ellen (00:07):
Yeah.
Like a total like "up" day.
marley (00:09):
Yeah.
Just total up-day.
Super productive.
And I have a date tonight.
ellen (00:14):
Yes.
Date night.
marley (00:16):
It's a third date.
I know we went from exchangingnumbers, like first date, second
date, third date within a week.
ellen (00:25):
That's very exciting.
It is very modern.
I also saw that I think you are,aren't you cooking for this?
marley (00:31):
I am.
I am.
I already made the pasta.
It's drying right now and I'll make ahomemade Alfredo sauce and some broccoli.
I don't know what I'm doing for protein.
We're just going to ignore that foodgroup tonight because I would normally do
like salmon, but he doesn't like seafood.
And I don't want to cook chicken.
ellen (00:46):
There's quite a bit of protein in the pasta, I'm sure.
And the broccoli.
Yeah, vegetarians everywherehave survived for decades.
marley (00:55):
That's so true.
ellen (00:56):
You could be my date next time, by the way, if you're
going to make fresh pasta.
marley (01:00):
It's funny.
I was talking to our guest earlier today.
We were doing some business ythings which to listeners, this
will all make sense in a minute.
And she said the exact same thing.
ellen (01:08):
We're ready to be your date, no matter what.
You will have dates, becauseKailey and I, our next guests,
are wonderful dates, I will say.
Yes.
But.
marley (01:18):
She is actually in the waiting room.
Should I go ahead and let her in?
Yes.
Yes.
All right, here we go.
ellen (01:22):
I'm so excited to
marley (01:23):
see her.
Me too.
I saw her earlier, but excitedto chitty chitty chat chat.
Here she comes.
Chitty chitty chat chat.
I don't know what that,where that came from.
Chitty chitty chat chat.
ellen (01:35):
It's chitty chitty bang bang.
marley (01:36):
Oh, yeah, that makes sense.
ellen (01:38):
Hello, Kailey!
kailey (01:40):
Hello!
Hi, Ellen!
ellen (01:42):
Hi, so good to see you.
How are you?
marley (01:44):
Ah, it looks like you're like the Scottish Isles or something right now.
kailey (01:48):
Yeah, this is the Siuslaw, Central Oregon coast.
marley (01:53):
Is that where we went bikepacking?
kailey (01:56):
Close, like pretty close, just a little south.
This is Cape Perpetua.
It's really pretty.
It's my favorite partof the coast for sure.
It's not the best biking road though.
It's real hilly.
. ellen (02:09):
Fun to go down..
marley (02:11):
Not so fun to go up.
Although I've made peacewith climbing lately.
I like it now.
ellen (02:15):
Okay, making peace with it and liking it to me are very different things.
marley (02:19):
That's true.
Yeah,
I wouldn't say I like it yet,but I definitely have made peace
with it because it means once Iget up it, I get to go down it.
ellen (02:25):
Yeah.
Okay.
Fair.
Yeah.
I can be on board with that for sure.
marley (02:28):
Yeah.
ellen (02:29):
Should
marley (02:29):
we get into things?
ellen (02:31):
Let's do it.
Yeah, here to give us an update onall bodies on bikes, what you've
been up to basically for the summer.
So for listeners who've been here fora hot minute, we're going to start
doing quarterly updates with your twofearless leaders, Kailey and Marley.
And if you follow Marley on Instagram,you've had a wild, wild Summer of
(02:51):
van do it life and Kailey, you'vetraveled a bunch too, and it's been
for fun and it's been for all bodiesand it's been for lots of reasons.
So give me a highlight of your summers.
Where did you go?
What kind of communitythings were you doing?
kailey (03:07):
We did so much stuff.
I feel like we could popcornback and forth, Marley.
That sounds good.
Cause some of it I was therefor, and some of it was just
like Marley solo wild road trip.
We started in May with our fiveboroughs bike ride in New York city.
And we kicked things off with an allbodies on bikes, New York city chapter
(03:30):
ride there, which was wild and it waswonderful to like bike in New York city.
And then we rode with a group on the fiveboroughs bike ride, which is a ride that
goes through all five of the boroughsof New York city, which was so cool.
It was rainy and cold.
It was very summery.
marley (03:52):
It was 40 miles of car free streets.
There were no cars anyway.
It was incredible.
Oh my gosh.
Like we got to go on the Arizonabridge, which I don't know if New
Yorkers hear that and they're like,why are the bicyclists on there?
But it was really cool.
And we're definitely goingto do that again next year.
So if you saw our adventuresin New York and we're like,
Oh, I would love to do that.
(04:13):
Keep that one on your radar.
ellen (04:16):
I want in.
I'm coming next year.
kailey (04:18):
And then a couple weeks later, we were in Bentonville, Marley's hometown,
for Bike Fest, leading a ride there.
marley (04:26):
Yeah that was a mountain bike ride.
One of my favorite things aboutAll Bodies on Bikes is we're not
stuck or tied to one discipline.
So the five boroughs tour was a road ride.
And then there was the Bentonvillebike fest and one of our partners
Shimano asked us to lead a ride.
And so we did a mountain bike ride.
And then the next day atornado hit, it was crazy.
ellen (04:44):
Oh gosh.
That was so like, Bentonville was hit.
That was a bad tornado.
marley (04:48):
It was a bad tornado.
And actually the one here wasn't that badcompared to what hit our neighboring town.
But we had a good time on the rideuntil we went into full on cleanup mode
and I hauled trees for a couple weeks.
Right after that, wewent to unbound gravel.
The next week we had an expothere and then we led a shakeout
ride, which was really fun.
(05:08):
Very fun.
Yeah, it's nice because our shakeoutrides when we first started doing them
would be like two or three hundred people.
And now they're not that big.
I, I don't have a good reason why.
I think just because there aremore shakeout rides and folks
Don't feel like they all haveto go to one, but it was lovely.
kailey (05:23):
More inclusive ones.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I think there were four
marley (05:27):
or five specific no drop rides at Unbound this year, which was really cool.
ellen (05:31):
That is super cool.
And just to be clear, the ShakeOutride happens before the Ride ride.
marley (05:36):
Yes.
Yeah.
ellen (05:38):
Yeah.
It's opposite for whatmy brain wants it to be.
marley (05:41):
Mm.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So it's like in my brain, the wholepoint of a shakeout ride is to
make sure that your bike and yourbody feels good for event day.
Nothing is creaking, nothing israttling or making weird noise.
You put everything backtogether correctly.
But a lot of people use it as An opener.
And I just learned thisterm the other day.
(06:01):
So like people who ride pretty hard we'lluse it as a way to get their legs ready
for unbound or for whatever the event is.
But ours tend to be more of a social pace.
And they're not really a warmupexcept for in the sense of making
sure your equipment is ready to go.
ellen (06:16):
Got it.
Yeah.
I like that though.
Yeah.
And that makes sense too.
Like now that you say it, some peoplewould actually have a warmup day.
Whereas I'm, It even in myheyday, I'm looking at these
rides Oh, this is a one day.
Like I have one day andit's going to be ride day.
Yeah.
So that makes sense.
marley (06:32):
That was another reason we started asking events to do it
is because oftentimes the shakeoutrides would be 20 to 30 miles long.
And if you're doing the 25 orthe 50 mile, why in the world?
That's a big
ellen (06:42):
deal for you.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And why in
marley (06:44):
the world would you go ride the same distance the day before?
Yeah, it just doesn't make sense.
ellen (06:50):
Yeah.
marley (06:50):
So then from there it was we're getting into actual summer
and a bunch of our chapters hadcamp outs, which was really fun.
Swift Industries, who's alongtime partner, a longtime
friend of All Bodies on Bikes.
They host a global overnighteron the solstice and three
of our chapters did that.
So Seattle, Chicago andWestern Massachusetts.
(07:11):
I want to say Albuquerque too.
I could be wrong about that, but it waseither three or four of our chapters.
I don't have the dataright in front of me.
I'm a good ed, but I don't have it.
It's okay.
kailey (07:20):
We're
marley (07:20):
going to fact check it.
ellen (07:23):
I'll be, I'll be popping back at the end of the
episode to tell you everything
marley (07:26):
Marley said.
ellen (07:27):
So wait, but it was a, it was a solstice ride, but we,
you had coast to coast coverage.
It sounds like if you had Seattleand Massachusetts, there's a ride,
I think it's in the UK where on thesummer solstice, you chase the sun
because the UK is skinny enough thatit's you can ride forever and ever and
ever because the day is so long too.
You like can make it.
I don't remember if youmake it coast to coast.
(07:48):
I'll you'll have to fact check me on that.
But yeah.
So I like that we kind of like didour best with America chasing the sun.
kailey (07:58):
And this is our second year doing this camp out in partnership with SWIFT.
The first year we had some other chaptersparticipate and every year it seems like
a couple of the chapters get rained out orit's too hot and they end up rescheduling.
We'll talk about some of the The onesthat got rescheduled or some of the
coming up soon opportunities thatare coming up in a couple of months.
(08:20):
We'll talk about that later on.
marley (08:22):
Yeah one of my favorite events of the summer was
actually on my birthday weekend.
Sorry, I'm going back in time to May.
It was Kansas city did thisincredible bike camping trip.
There was like 50 people on it.
I think the median age was 50.
And everybody from four months allthe way up to 70 years old was on this
trip and it was just so wholesome.
(08:43):
We rode like 10 miles each direction.
Super, super inclusive.
Instead of cooking dinner,we went and got pizza another
couple of miles down the trail.
And it was just such I don't know.
So refreshing because I thinkoftentimes these bike camping or bike
packing trips that you hear about arethese epic, incredible adventures.
But it's okay to just have a littlebackyard overnight adventures too.
kailey (09:05):
There was an ice cream truck and all bike camping
should have an ice cream truck.
Okay.
You're speaking in a camping language.
That's going to be an annual event.
So if you missed it, you willhave another opportunity next May.
Yeah.
Which will be great.
marley (09:23):
What else did we get up to?
A couple of big gravel events throughoutthe summer when I was on my van trip
we went to the last best ride we wentto Joyride and we actually released a
podcast from Joyride, a live recordingso if you haven't listened to that, you
should go do that and then of coursewe went to Steamboat Gravel it was our
last year taking a team to SteamboatGravel and it was absolutely incredible.
(09:44):
We took 11 athletes this year andall of them finished their distances.
It was an incredible show ofperseverance and grit and determination.
It was really, really cool.
And then we finished up with GravelWorlds where we were at the expo and
we helped host the first to last party.
So it was a very busy, but.
Overall incredible summer.
And so good to see so many people andhugs and ride with so many people.
(10:08):
So thanks everybody for comingout and making those a success.
ellen (10:11):
What is like your best memory or was there anything
super surprising about the summer?
kailey (10:17):
Yeah, it was really special for me to see the team at Steamboat.
Like we've put the team togetherand brought a team for three years.
But I wasn't able to make it the lasttwo and to be there and get to see it
and see the team And see the perseverancethat marley's talking about and also
(10:38):
something that I wasn't expecting to be sospecial but really was was getting to see
everybody in their kits and the expo likewe unveiled a new expo design that bobby
or our like chief of all things design puttogether and it just like It was really
cool to see all of that visual cohesion ofall bodies on bikes and just the presence.
(11:03):
And it feels surface level onone hand, cause it's like, Oh,
it's just like how it looks.
But the fact that it looks thatlegit, and we have a team of people
wearing their like sponsored athletekits, like it's really cool to see.
It's, it's pretty impactful to see that.
For me, that was, that was thehighlight and it was the end of summer.
(11:24):
How about you Marley?
marley (11:25):
Oh, I'm so bad at reflecting.
And looking back I think for me, I'malways just amazed at how far the word
has spread about all bodies on bikes.
I think I lack perspective on it and it'salways incredible to go to these events
and see people from across the spectrum.
Good.
across the spectrum, but the ones thatalways get me are the very stereotypical
(11:46):
cyclist looking people, your, your whitemale in his forties or fifties saying,
thank you for doing what you're doingand for expanding representation and
what it means and just for being here.
And that's always surprising to me.
And I guess it shouldn'tbe but it still is.
ellen (12:04):
I think it's important because it's a bit of a milestone when you're speaking
up for marginalized voices, right?
Like for the, the majority tohave come up and said, I see you.
And I recognize that this is important.
Like I could see thatthat would stick with you.
That makes tons of sense.
Yeah.
Thanks.
kailey (12:22):
I don't know if we've reflected on this together, but we've been at
enough events enough years in a row.
People that came up to our expo tents,like the first year we were there
and said Oh, I'm here as a spouse orfamily member of somebody who's racing.
And I don't know much about you guys,but I saw the name and it drew me over
(12:45):
and I never ride a bike or whatever.
And then they come back to us the nextyear and they're like in the event.
Like that, they're like doing therace themselves and they got a bike
like that is just so frickin cool.
And feels like really fullcircle in this special way.
Yeah.
That part is so cool that that'sstarting to happen more and more now.
marley (13:09):
It is.
And I think, I think the other coolthing that's happening, and Kailey,
you might not agree with me on this butat first it was like the All Bodies on
Bikes was the Kailey and Marlee show.
People really knew us from the filmand now a lot of people know All
Bodies on Bikes and have no ideathat there's a film out there.
And so it's, it's pretty cool.
The kind of legacy that we've built andthis community that we've built has,
(13:31):
that was one of our goals that we set wasto have it not be the Marlee and Kailey
show, but it really has grown beyond.
Just us, which is incredible.
ellen (13:39):
Now it's the Marlee, Kailey, and Ellen show.
I'm just kidding.
Yes, exactly.
Oh, that's funny.
But I can relate that back toour next question of how, how are
feeling like it's strengtheningall bodies on bikes community?
That has to feel like that's part of that.
marley (13:54):
Yeah I think a big part of it is
so some of our chapters have notnecessarily struggled, but they, they
haven't really gotten off the ground yet.
Maybe in a place wherewe only have one leader.
And we've learned a lot and we'lltalk about this in a little bit
in terms of new chapter formation.
But, yeah.
I think about the five boroughsto her in New York City.
That was a great opportunity to bringthe New York City community together
(14:16):
and also let them know, Hey, we'relooking for some additional leadership
to support this chapter and it's working.
From those conversations in May, wenow have two new leaders who have
joined our New York City leader.
And are really going to helpfortify and build up that community.
In those places where we have thechapters, I think the events help
amplify the chapters and make themstronger, but in the places where
(14:37):
we don't have a chapter, it plantsthe seeds as we continue to grow
that, Hey, this could be a thingthat regularly happens in your area.
kailey (14:46):
I think this year I've been really struck by the like diverse
range of ages we are having to eventsand it's different at every chapter,
but certain chapters just seem to drawthis yeah, like the spring roll bike
camping in Kansas was like, we had aperson riding who was nine years old.
And I don't know that I imagined us beinga space where like youth programming was
(15:12):
such a central part of what we do, butat Unbound, we've really connected with
some of the youth mountain bike teamsthat are there at the event and we've seen
those kids growing up year after year.
And I think that like connection to youth,but also connection to like older people
who are coming back to biking or maybecoming to biking for the first time.
(15:34):
That's like strengthening our communityand also what all bodies on bikes
means in a way that like is beyondwhat I had envisioned originally.
And that's been really neat to see.
And it's like organically, likeoutside of our control, not that
Marley and I didn't want it to gothat way, but it's just grown that
way organically, which is really cool.
marley (15:54):
Yeah.
I think a lot of it coincideswith the growth of e bikes.
They're becoming cheaper, they'remore accessible for folks.
And there's not a lot of group rideswhere e bikes are explicitly welcomed.
And on our group rides, they are.
And so I think those thingsdovetail together really nicely to
bring more people into the fold.
ellen (16:11):
I love to hear it.
So what's coming up in the fall?
marley (16:15):
More of the same.
Events.
Love it.
Bikepacking.
Same, same.
Same, same.
Exactly.
Same, same, but different.
Yeah, I think, so Kailey had mentionedthat a couple of chapters had to
reschedule their bike camping trips.
So Richmond is, Richmond,Virginia, right Kailey?
kailey (16:31):
Yep, so we'll be doing a one night bike camping trip in Richmond.
That's our rescheduled solstice trip andwe're going to be doing that mid November,
but before that we'll be in Bentonville.
With the Bentonville chapter, Marley,myself the Kansas city chapter is
going to be there too for anotherone night bike packing, right?
marley (16:52):
Yep.
Another bike camping tripout here in Bentonville.
And then our Albuquerque chapteris doing kind of a, an on
ramp series for bike camping.
So it's a, all the detailsare on our website, but it's
a three part prep workshop.
culminating in a bike campingtrip this fall in Albuquerque.
So that is really cool.
And I love that our chapters arereally playing with their weather and
(17:14):
their geography and that, typicallysummer is seen as like camping season,
but in all of these places, it is.
prohibitively hot.
So we're moved it to the fall.
So that'll be really fun.
Yeah,
ellen (17:27):
I like that Albuquerque is going to give you like extra training.
I'm the kind of person who would wantthat like full knowledge before I'm
stuck out in the dark, but it soundslike any of them are going to make
sure that you feel super comfortablebefore you go out bikepacking.
That's the goal.
Totally.
kailey (17:42):
Yeah, we, for all of the bike camping events chapter leaders
send out some type of Google form orsurvey in advance to get a sense of
like, where folks are at experiencewise, what equipment they have and
some of them like Albuquerque do abig ramp and some other chapters are
doing similar things, but others.
(18:04):
It's more like the chapter leader willreach out to you if you need some help.
And we had last year DC did a onenight bike camping and we had people,
it was their first time camping.
They didn't have any camping equipmentand we had them sending pictures of their
bikes with their setups to us before.
And we were troubleshooting in the weeksleading up to the trip and We made it
(18:28):
all work and everybody had a good time.
So we'll, we will always find away to make it work for people.
And even if that's just like a oneon one text chat before the trip.
We can, we can do that too.
marley (18:39):
Yeah.
I love it.
I think the other thing too, is formost of these that we have a SAG
vehicle going, so a support vehicle.
Sometimes there's people whothey have a tent, but it's too
big to strap on their bike.
We're not going to expectthem to go buy a new tent.
And so taking that vehicle really helpslower those barriers even further.
So if somebody, is on a road bike thatcan't strap, we can't put a rack on there.
(19:01):
There's definitely ways to get.
over those humps.
I hope nobody comes on a road bike tothe Bentonville one though, because
we're going to be on some chunky gravel.
So that would be, I don't want tosay an insurmountable challenge, but
definitely a much bigger challengethan I'd be ready to take on.
ellen (19:17):
Okay.
Good to know.
But mainly if you're curious at allabout these, definitely reach out.
So you're 100 percent a leader.
Yeah.
Awesome.
Love that.
And then what about new riders?
Are there rides for new riders this fall?
kailey (19:32):
Always.
marley (19:32):
Yeah.
kailey (19:33):
Women led cycling.
And they're doing on ramp series.
They just did one a few months ago.
That was an on ramp, essentially fourconsecutive rides that led up and helped
people prep to go on a bigger group ride.
That happens weekly.
But now they're doing anon ramp to make people feel
comfortable with bike commuting.
(19:55):
That's an opportunity forpeople who are are totally new.
To either learn how to ride in the citycomfortably or learn how to ride in
groups comfortably, which is, is neat.
Yep.
I cut you off Marley.
marley (20:08):
Oh, I was going to say, I think most of our, most of our rides are
generally perfect for newer riders.
We, if there's not one, so a greatexample is this past weekend or this past
week, our Massachusetts chapter did anadventure ride is what they called it.
And it was like all terrain.
There were some hike a bike sections.
It was a little bit longer.
And That one would not be a good onefor newer riders, but we were pretty
(20:30):
explicit in the language there.
It's, it's funny, I think all Bodies onBikes rides fall into one of two camps.
They're either that introductorysocial ride where, we're going
less than five miles, we're goingfive to eight miles per hour.
Really, almost anyone, atany ability level could join.
And then there's the more adventurouslonger rides because as it turns out,
people in bigger bodies or non traditionalbodies like to ride long distances,
(20:52):
like to do stupidly hard things.
And so we like to provide aspace for that to happen as well.
And those, again, we try and justbe super clear in the language
of who that's intended for.
kailey (21:04):
But if you're ever unsure that reach out to your chapter leader or reach
out to us, that applies across the board.
Always okay to reach out and ask.
marley (21:14):
A hundred percent.
ellen (21:15):
Speaking of chapter leaders, we're going to move into a bit like broader
conversation about all bodies on bikes.
I think one of the questionsyou both receive a lot is
when are chapters expanding?
What's the status of the chapters?
How do I chapter?
So can you give us a little peekor ideas on what's happening
with these in the future?
What has happened?
(21:36):
What's going to happen?
All these things.
marley (21:38):
Yes.
I love this question and you're right.
We do get it all the time.
And I feel bad because sinceearly 2023, we have not been in
a place to add more chapters.
As the executive director, I reallywanted to grow really quickly.
And I was given some feedback fromour existing chapters to, Hey, Marley,
slow your roll, if that's okay.
(21:59):
We need time to get our feet on theground and figure out what we're doing
before new chapters come on boardand we have to They don't have
to mentor them, but it wouldfall into a natural mentorship.
And I'm really glad we, we pressedpause and didn't decide to grow any
new chapters because it has allowedus to put in place a much more formal
(22:19):
system of how do we start a new chapter?
What does training look like?
What support materialsdo we have for them?
And so we're gettingready this fall to launch.
I think it'll be, it'll be betweenthree and five new chapters.
And the reason why I'm not supersure on that number yet, just
because there's a couple of thingsthat have to fall into place.
So one of our big learningsfrom our previous rollout.
(22:40):
Was that chapters need more than oneleader trying to lead a chapter as a
solo person is very, very, very hard.
Because the way that our rides arestructured, you need at least three
or four people to lead the ride.
And if you're constantly recruitingvolunteers for every single ride
that's just an exhausting process.
And for new chapters, we're asking thatthey have at least two preferably three
(23:02):
or four people to come on as leaders.
We're also looking at geographic location.
It doesn't make sense givenwhere our other chapters are at.
We've had a million requestsfrom the Northeast Corridor
and we already have New York City.
We have Western Massachusetts.
It'd be cool to have a Boston chapter.
It doesn't make sense for us right now,given that we don't have anybody in Texas,
(23:24):
we don't have anybody in California.
It's, we, we just got to bestrategic right now and we will
eventually grow to where we have 25.
50, who knows, maybe evena hundred chapters one day.
But for right now we're not there yet.
So we're just trying to bereally strategic geographically.
And then this last kind of criteria is alittle more nebulous, but we try and get
a feel for what the existing cycling sceneis in a place and how would all bodies
(23:47):
on bikes kind of slot into there, isthere already an inclusive cycling scene?
Are there other organizations that wecan partner with as we're trying to
Getting off the ground and growing.
Is it a hyper competitive scene?
Just what is the, the general scene?
Are there shops thatwe could partner with?
All of those things.
So once we get those things in placeand that's what our new chapters are
(24:09):
working on right now is getting their,their leadership team put together.
We're going to do a threepart training series.
Last time we had all of theleadership come down to Bentonville
and we did a weekend away.
Funding has dried up in thenonprofit world a little bit.
So we're not going to be able to bringeverybody to Bentonville, but we're
going to just do a three part training.
So the first part will be likeeverything you don't need to
(24:29):
know about all bodies on bikes.
The second part will be, here'show to be a chapter leader.
Here's how to host rides,how to do all that stuff.
And then the third will be, resourcesand just other internal things that our
chapter leadership needs to be aware of.
That was a long winded answer,but new chapters are coming
is the long and short of it.
Long
ellen (24:48):
winded, but super clear.
Like it feels good to know that you'regoing to take care of somebody who's
ready to, to launch an all bodies onbikes chapter, are we announcing where
the chapter is going to be, or is thisa TBD super surprise later announcement?
marley (25:02):
We can announce a couple of them that are definitely happening.
So Portland, Oregon isdefinitely happening.
The DFW area in Texasis definitely happening.
And then the other ones we arestill working on those other
parts of the, the equation.
So we'll announce those later.
Yeah.
ellen (25:18):
To be continued, but very exciting.
marley (25:20):
Very exciting.
Portland
ellen (25:21):
and DFW, welcome to the All Bodies fam.
Yeah, very exciting.
And then is there anything elselike related to all bodies on
bikes growing outside of thechapters that you wanted to share?
marley (25:34):
That's a good question.
I think You know, going back tothe events, we are working on our
2025 event calendar right now.
And if there's a certain event thatwe should have on our radar we have
unintentionally become very gravel heavy.
And that was never the goal.
All Bodies on Bikes was never intendedto be a gravel cycling organization.
It just so happens that that'sthe kind of riding I like to do.
(25:57):
And so it's really easy to go outand have a presence, when it's an
event that's already exciting to me.
So if there's an event that should be onour radar that you know would be great
for us to come lead a ride at or do anexpo at or have some sort of presence,
please let us know, get in touch.
Because we're putting together thatcalendar now and just trying to be
strategic for next year about where wespend our money and efforts to travel to.
ellen (26:19):
Okay.
Speaking of money and efforts,what do you want to share about
fundraising opportunities?
What's you, you just mentioned a secondago too, that like money is dried up.
It's just it's across the whole world.
It feels like the like funding and moneyand fundraising is all difficult right
(26:39):
now because the billionaires are going to
marley (26:41):
space instead of giving it to us.
ellen (26:44):
This is the next bike frontier, maybe.
marley (26:47):
I don't know.
I don't know.
I don't know.
I don't agree with the wayyou're going to debate.
On all bodies on the moon.
ellen (26:54):
On bikes on the moon, but yeah.
Yes,
marley (26:56):
yeah.
Moon bikes.
No, I make a joke that money has driedup, but we did just get a really big
grant from the Walton Family Foundation,which is super, super exciting.
Which means that we can pay a salary.
I think I might've mentionedthat last week on the podcast.
But we have one full timeemployee and that's me.
And that's really exciting becausefor the past couple of years, I've
(27:17):
been Not getting paid for this work.
And so we are officially officialand that's really exciting.
So thank you to theWalton family foundation.
ellen (27:25):
Employee number one.
marley (27:27):
Yes.
kailey (27:28):
Pretty awesome.
marley (27:30):
Yeah.
It's been
kailey (27:31):
a long time.
We are very happy that Marley canfinally be a paid employee and
not like a full time volunteer.
Yes.
Working her butt off.
marley (27:42):
Exactly.
The other cool thing is it letsme Hold back, not hold back.
What's the word?
Cut back on like the influencer marketingwork that I was doing and the, I don't
have quite have to shill myself out forlike toothpaste and random beef jerky
snacks for 2, 000 here and 500 there.
Like I have a steady source ofincome, which is really nice.
ellen (28:01):
It takes a lot of the pressure off.
You can focus on the work becauseyou're getting paid to do the work.
Exactly.
marley (28:07):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Congrats.
All right.
Very, very exciting.
Other big thing.
And I, I hope this isn't annoyingto folks but we are going to start.
Our first real fundraising campaign.
So we've been a nonprofitfor almost two years now.
We've dabbled a little bit infundraising here and there.
We did a raffle at Unbound a coupleof years ago, but other than that, we
haven't done any strategic fundraising.
(28:29):
And so we'll be launching ourfirst fundraiser this fall.
And we would love everybody's supporton that because our organization is
doing, I need to work on my elevatorpitch about why people need to support.
ellen (28:40):
Let me help you out.
If I were to give you money, whatare you going to spend it on?
marley (28:45):
Programming infrastructure supporting our chapters, getting
more people onto bicycles ina supported inclusive way.
ellen (28:53):
That's a fire.
See, you just needed a pretty good.
marley (28:55):
Yeah.
ellen (28:56):
Yeah.
I needed a good tee up for that.
So if I were to give you 20 dollars,I feel like that would mean that Some
of the pizza on one of these bikecampaign trips is like, it's covered.
It's going to help to relieve some ofthe pressure off of either the chapter
leader who might also be donatingtheir time and money, like there are
many tangible ways that we'll be ableto really take the money and run.
marley (29:20):
Exactly.
Yes.
And we're not spendingfrivolously over here.
We're keeping our expenses pretty low.
So it, every dollar goes a longway for all bodies on bikes.
You can actually donate nowif you go to allbodiesonbikes.
com.
But we will be.
Much more strategic about it andreaching out to our Instagram and
reaching out to our email communityand all that, which speaking of, if
(29:40):
you're not on our email newsletter, youshould be we send it out once a month.
There's no spam.
And you just go to all bodies on bikes.
com and add yourself to our newsletter.
Sign up.
ellen (29:50):
Yeah.
It comes directly from Marley.
It's not a marketer in the background.
It's literally Marley saying, this iswhat I'm going to tell you right now.
kailey (29:57):
Yeah.
It's really delightful.
We can't
marley (29:58):
afford
kailey (29:58):
a marketer.
I may be a little biased, butit's my favorite email I receive.
It feels very personal.
And it's always a joywhen I see it in my inbox.
marley (30:09):
Yay.
That makes me happy to hear.
We have an almost 89 percent read rate.
So I, I think.
I think other people feel the same way.
That's really good.
Yeah.
ellen (30:16):
It's a big deal.
My, my day job is marketing and I'd get araise if I could do that with my database.
It's what I would do.
Yeah.
marley (30:24):
Yeah.
It's funny because I get emailsfrom other nonprofits and they're
emailing, three or four times a week.
And all I can think about istheir communications team and
development team is working so hard.
So that's a lot of emails.
ellen (30:34):
That's a lot of emails.
It's a lot of emails, I would argue,about their ROI on those emails, but
hopefully they're doing their own math.
Our math won't work thatway, is what we're saying.
It'll be an email from Marley
marley (30:46):
once a month.
Once a month.
ellen (30:48):
One delightful email a month from a real human.
marley (30:51):
Yeah and I can't promise that that'll stay at that cadence,
especially as we get into fundraising.
There might be more than once a month.
Okay.
One will definitely be delightful.
But they'll continue to be
kailey (31:00):
delightful.
Yes.
marley (31:02):
Exactly.
They'll all be delightful, but oneof them especially will be delightful
because it'll be updates on what we'redoing and where to find us and all the
good stuff we're chatting about here.
ellen (31:14):
I love it.
So more to be continued.
We'll be excited to take your money, butwe also think that you're going to want
to because we're going to have lots ofreally good reasons to give it to us.
Tell me a little bit more.
You both have been working really hardon industry certification stuff and
like taking this whole conversationto the industry to change it.
So what's happening there?
marley (31:35):
Yes, this is probably my favorite part of the work that I get to do.
Like chapters are cooland leading rides is cool.
But, But when we started this, Ireally had a vision that we were going
to change things and shake them up.
And it's happening.
Things that we want to see are standardsfor where the weight limit is posted.
Right now, there is no standard for whereto post To put that information, so some
(31:59):
brands put it on their website, some putit in their owner's manual, if you can
find it what we're pushing for is thatthe weight limit would go on the geometry
chart so similar that you have like reachand standover height, those are standard
for all bikes other things get measuredin different ways, but reach and standover
are very similar, or they're measuredin a standard way that there would be
a weight limit, For the stock build.
(32:19):
So that's one thing we're pushing for.
But the other part is we really wantto be working with bike shops and bike
companies on how to work with people inbigger bodies in a way that is respectful
and dignified and gets everybody ontoa bike that's appropriate for them.
I know, I think Kailey, I'm sure you'veheard horror stories, but people just
(32:40):
walking into bike shops and either beingtreated really poorly or, if they are
treated nicely, getting onto bikes thatare completely inappropriate for them
and have way too low of weight limits.
And I don't think it's inmost cases, it's malicious.
I think it's an ignorance thing.
And so making sure that People arewell informed on the challenges
(33:03):
facing bigger body riders, but alsothe solutions because there are
incredible solutions out there.
One of the biggest pain points is wheels.
People in bigger bodies, heavier peoplebreak spokes on their wheels pretty
frequently because they're just not onsuper strong wheels, but strong wheels
and custom wheels are one of the easiestmodifications you can make to a bicycle.
(33:24):
It does cost some money.
And so It's not accessible to everybody.
But there are also just stronger,higher spoke count wheels out there.
And if we could normalize it tohave that conversation I think
that would go a really long way.
ellen (33:37):
Have you started conversations like this already?
How are they going?
marley (33:40):
We have all bodies on bikes was invited to join the national
bicycle dealers association.
They had their annual industryconference in Bentonville.
And me and one of our chapterleaders went and presented about
this and pitched the idea to themand said, is this something that.
Would help you?
And overwhelmingly resoundingly.
They all said, yes, like this isa challenge that we're facing.
(34:01):
We want help with this.
And so then after we presented thatconference, we were invited to join the
national bicycle dealers association.
And so we'll be working withthem to vet our materials.
We'll have a pilot groupthrough that organization.
And as we roll out this training for bikeshops we'll have close partners that'll
help us do that, which is really exciting.
(34:21):
That is so cool.
kailey (34:22):
Yeah so we're working on the pilot now.
We're again, being conservative inour approach, but the pilot will be
like, rolling out within the next6 months and then longer term, the
certification program will come.
But Marley, do you also haveyou talked about the website?
Web page.
No, folks can put up.
(34:42):
Okay.
Yeah, I forgot about
marley (34:44):
that plug.
Super, super cool.
One of the things that Kailey and Ido is we do a size inclusion training,
a size inclusion awareness, and Ihad a brand or had this company they
basically make websites for bike shops.
And they have a library ofavailable pages to bike shops.
If they wanted to do a resource pageon gravel biking or a page about group
(35:04):
rides or Buying your first bike, whateverit might be, this company helps build
those web pages and make sure that theinventory is integrated with the website,
just all the backend stuff that ifyou're opening a bike shop, like that's
one less thing to be on your plate.
And so they reached out andasked, in exchange for giving
us a training, could we.
(35:25):
Build out a biking for biggerpeople resource web page.
And I said, absolutely, thatseems like a perfectly fair trade.
And so I gave them a size inclusiontraining and in exchange, they built out
a biking for bigger people website thatis part of their standard library now.
And I think we've got 60 or 70shops across the US who have that
(35:46):
as part of their website now.
ellen (35:48):
That's amazing.
marley (35:49):
Yeah.
The really cool thing is, most of itpoints back to All Bodies on Bikes.
Because we have those resources builtout on our website, and so yes, it
does point to, in stock bikes thatwould work well for that customer.
But it also, points to ourplus size clothing resources.
It points to our resource on how toshop for a bike, things like that.
ellen (36:10):
Yeah.
I like that that way it's centralized too.
Like it's not that they'retrying to reinvent the wheel.
The wheel, but exactly every time thatthey need to just have this information.
Like they're probably local shops.
They want to be providing these resources.
marley (36:22):
And so the cool thing is we're being recognized as an
industry authority and like arecognized subject matter authority
on this, which is super, super cool.
Yeah, it's, it's weird.
imposter because I don't know.
It's
kailey (36:37):
nobody else is doing this.
You're the leader of it.
marley (36:45):
Yeah.
It just, it feels, it feels surrealsometimes to have people agree
that we have found a challenge andagree that it's a known problem and
want to work towards solving it.
It's, it feels surreal, butI think because for so long
it was such a challenge.
I think back to your trip acrossAlaska, Kailey what year was that?
2017?
2018.
ellen (37:07):
So not even a decade, but you've seen the pendulum really shift.
Totally.
And
kailey (37:12):
I think like the biggest thing is Like in 2018, it still felt like if you
were in a larger body and you couldn'tfind a bike or clothes, it was your fault.
Yeah.
Now it like, at least I, when I'm lookingat a website that doesn't have the
right clothes or equipment for me, I'mlike, Oh, it's your, it's their fault.
(37:33):
Like, why don't they make stuff for me?
And they feel ownership over it too.
Like it's an everybody problemto figure out and not a personal
failure of myself that I'm in alarger body, which feels really cool.
And we have this massive community,like thinking about the scope of the
events that we were at this summer.
(37:54):
And the there are events that Marleyand I can't even think of because
the chapters hosted them and there'sso much going on, it's hard to even.
Keep track of all the wonderful things.
And there's people who only knowabout all bodies on bikes from
the chapter they're engaged with.
That is so cool.
Like it has grown and grown.
marley (38:13):
Yeah, it really is super cool.
ellen (38:16):
Awesome.
This has been such, an upliftingupdate to where there's been such good
progress and there is so much momentumhappening and everything's like we're
at the precipice of something great.
Yeah.
I'm feeling like this isjust it's a positive update.
How often do you get one of those, butalso like thinking about all the hard
work that you both have done over the lastthree, six months, it's, it's super cool.
(38:38):
Thank you for sharing this with us.
marley (38:39):
You're welcome.
And I hope people find it interestingat the little in the weeds.
But we're also trying to be transparentand pull back the curtain on what
all bodies on bikes is up to.
Yeah.
ellen (38:48):
So I think takeaways for our audience, in case anyone is a too long
didn't listen and just skips to the end.
I don't know if that's thetype of listener or not, but
marley (38:57):
They can always put us on fast.
I wonder what we sound like onfast speed little squirrels.
Yeah.
ellen (39:04):
I don't know, especially with all the laughter that we just had.
I don't know.
If anybody does listen at 2x speed,don't tell us, I think, because
I don't think I want to know.
marley (39:13):
I don't want to know.
. ellen (39:14):
It's like suddenly I'm a soprano instead of an alto.
But main takeaways, you guys had afantastic summer, went to lots and lots of
events, met lots and lots of cool people.
You have plans for the fall.
All of those plans are up on ourwebsite to where you can go to all
bodies on bikes, check out yourchapters and see what's going on.
Lots of bike, camping things happeningall across the country, especially
now as the weather is getting nicerand we're going to have and donate
(39:39):
and give us a little bit of money.
Subscribe to the email list and subscribeto the podcast and We'll see you soon.
I think that's it.
I think that sounds great.
Thanks Ellen.
See you soon.
Thank you.
Thanks Kailey for joining us andwe'll see you again in a few months.
Thanks for having me.
Hello.
(00:01):
Hi.
How's it going?
It's so good.
How are you?
Oh, man.
I am having such a good day.
ellen (00:07):
Yeah.
Like a total like "up" day.
marley (00:09):
Yeah.
Just total up-day.
Super productive.
And I have a date tonight.
ellen (00:14):
Yes.
Date night.
marley (00:16):
It's a third date.
I know we went from exchangingnumbers, like first date, second
date, third date within a week.
ellen (00:25):
That's very exciting.
It is very modern.
I also saw that I think you are,aren't you cooking for this?
marley (00:31):
I am.
I am.
I already made the pasta.
It's drying right now and I'll make ahomemade Alfredo sauce and some broccoli.
I don't know what I'm doing for protein.
We're just going to ignore that foodgroup tonight because I would normally do
like salmon, but he doesn't like seafood.
And I don't want to cook chicken.
ellen (00:46):
There's quite a bit of protein in the pasta, I'm sure.
And the broccoli.
Yeah, vegetarians everywherehave survived for decades.
marley (00:55):
That's so true.
ellen (00:56):
You could be my date next time, by the way, if you're
going to make fresh pasta.
marley (01:00):
It's funny.
I was talking to our guest earlier today.
We were doing some business ythings which to listeners, this
will all make sense in a minute.
And she said the exact same thing.
ellen (01:08):
We're ready to be your date, no matter what.
You will have dates, becauseKailey and I, our next guests,
are wonderful dates, I will say.
Yes.
But.
marley (01:18):
She is actually in the waiting room.
Should I go ahead and let her in?
Yes.
Yes.
All right, here we go.
ellen (01:22):
I'm so excited to
marley (01:23):
see her.
Me too.
I saw her earlier, but excitedto chitty chitty chat chat.
Here she comes.
Chitty chitty chat chat.
I don't know what that,where that came from.
Chitty chitty chat chat.
ellen (01:35):
It's chitty chitty bang bang.
marley (01:36):
Oh, yeah, that makes sense.
ellen (01:38):
Hello, Kailey!
kailey (01:40):
Hello!
Hi, Ellen!
ellen (01:42):
Hi, so good to see you.
How are you?
marley (01:44):
Ah, it looks like you're like the Scottish Isles or something right now.
kailey (01:48):
Yeah, this is the Siuslaw, Central Oregon coast.
marley (01:53):
Is that where we went bikepacking?
kailey (01:56):
Close, like pretty close, just a little south.
This is Cape Perpetua.
It's really pretty.
It's my favorite partof the coast for sure.
It's not the best biking road though.
It's real hilly.
. ellen (02:09):
Fun to go down..
marley (02:11):
Not so fun to go up.
Although I've made peacewith climbing lately.
I like it now.
ellen (02:15):
Okay, making peace with it and liking it to me are very different things.
marley (02:19):
That's true.
Yeah,
I wouldn't say I like it yet,but I definitely have made peace
with it because it means once Iget up it, I get to go down it.
ellen (02:25):
Yeah.
Okay.
Fair.
Yeah.
I can be on board with that for sure.
marley (02:28):
Yeah.
ellen (02:29):
Should
marley (02:29):
we get into things?
ellen (02:31):
Let's do it.
Yeah, here to give us an update onall bodies on bikes, what you've
been up to basically for the summer.
So for listeners who've been here fora hot minute, we're going to start
doing quarterly updates with your twofearless leaders, Kailey and Marley.
And if you follow Marley on Instagram,you've had a wild, wild Summer of
(02:51):
van do it life and Kailey, you'vetraveled a bunch too, and it's been
for fun and it's been for all bodiesand it's been for lots of reasons.
So give me a highlight of your summers.
Where did you go?
What kind of communitythings were you doing?
kailey (03:07):
We did so much stuff.
I feel like we could popcornback and forth, Marley.
That sounds good.
Cause some of it I was therefor, and some of it was just
like Marley solo wild road trip.
We started in May with our fiveboroughs bike ride in New York city.
And we kicked things off with an allbodies on bikes, New York city chapter
(03:30):
ride there, which was wild and it waswonderful to like bike in New York city.
And then we rode with a group on the fiveboroughs bike ride, which is a ride that
goes through all five of the boroughsof New York city, which was so cool.
It was rainy and cold.
It was very summery.
marley (03:52):
It was 40 miles of car free streets.
There were no cars anyway.
It was incredible.
Oh my gosh.
Like we got to go on the Arizonabridge, which I don't know if New
Yorkers hear that and they're like,why are the bicyclists on there?
But it was really cool.
And we're definitely goingto do that again next year.
So if you saw our adventuresin New York and we're like,
Oh, I would love to do that.
(04:13):
Keep that one on your radar.
ellen (04:16):
I want in.
I'm coming next year.
kailey (04:18):
And then a couple weeks later, we were in Bentonville, Marley's hometown,
for Bike Fest, leading a ride there.
marley (04:26):
Yeah that was a mountain bike ride.
One of my favorite things aboutAll Bodies on Bikes is we're not
stuck or tied to one discipline.
So the five boroughs tour was a road ride.
And then there was the Bentonvillebike fest and one of our partners
Shimano asked us to lead a ride.
And so we did a mountain bike ride.
And then the next day atornado hit, it was crazy.
ellen (04:44):
Oh gosh.
That was so like, Bentonville was hit.
That was a bad tornado.
marley (04:48):
It was a bad tornado.
And actually the one here wasn't that badcompared to what hit our neighboring town.
But we had a good time on the rideuntil we went into full on cleanup mode
and I hauled trees for a couple weeks.
Right after that, wewent to unbound gravel.
The next week we had an expothere and then we led a shakeout
ride, which was really fun.
(05:08):
Very fun.
Yeah, it's nice because our shakeoutrides when we first started doing them
would be like two or three hundred people.
And now they're not that big.
I, I don't have a good reason why.
I think just because there aremore shakeout rides and folks
Don't feel like they all haveto go to one, but it was lovely.
kailey (05:23):
More inclusive ones.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I think there were four
marley (05:27):
or five specific no drop rides at Unbound this year, which was really cool.
ellen (05:31):
That is super cool.
And just to be clear, the ShakeOutride happens before the Ride ride.
marley (05:36):
Yes.
Yeah.
ellen (05:38):
Yeah.
It's opposite for whatmy brain wants it to be.
marley (05:41):
Mm.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So it's like in my brain, the wholepoint of a shakeout ride is to
make sure that your bike and yourbody feels good for event day.
Nothing is creaking, nothing israttling or making weird noise.
You put everything backtogether correctly.
But a lot of people use it as An opener.
And I just learned thisterm the other day.
(06:01):
So like people who ride pretty hard we'lluse it as a way to get their legs ready
for unbound or for whatever the event is.
But ours tend to be more of a social pace.
And they're not really a warmupexcept for in the sense of making
sure your equipment is ready to go.
ellen (06:16):
Got it.
Yeah.
I like that though.
Yeah.
And that makes sense too.
Like now that you say it, some peoplewould actually have a warmup day.
Whereas I'm, It even in myheyday, I'm looking at these
rides Oh, this is a one day.
Like I have one day andit's going to be ride day.
Yeah.
So that makes sense.
marley (06:32):
That was another reason we started asking events to do it
is because oftentimes the shakeoutrides would be 20 to 30 miles long.
And if you're doing the 25 orthe 50 mile, why in the world?
That's a big
ellen (06:42):
deal for you.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And why in
marley (06:44):
the world would you go ride the same distance the day before?
Yeah, it just doesn't make sense.
ellen (06:50):
Yeah.
marley (06:50):
So then from there it was we're getting into actual summer
and a bunch of our chapters hadcamp outs, which was really fun.
Swift Industries, who's alongtime partner, a longtime
friend of All Bodies on Bikes.
They host a global overnighteron the solstice and three
of our chapters did that.
So Seattle, Chicago andWestern Massachusetts.
(07:11):
I want to say Albuquerque too.
I could be wrong about that, but it waseither three or four of our chapters.
I don't have the dataright in front of me.
I'm a good ed, but I don't have it.
It's okay.
kailey (07:20):
We're
marley (07:20):
going to fact check it.
ellen (07:23):
I'll be, I'll be popping back at the end of the
episode to tell you everything
marley (07:26):
Marley said.
ellen (07:27):
So wait, but it was a, it was a solstice ride, but we,
you had coast to coast coverage.
It sounds like if you had Seattleand Massachusetts, there's a ride,
I think it's in the UK where on thesummer solstice, you chase the sun
because the UK is skinny enough thatit's you can ride forever and ever and
ever because the day is so long too.
You like can make it.
I don't remember if youmake it coast to coast.
(07:48):
I'll you'll have to fact check me on that.
But yeah.
So I like that we kind of like didour best with America chasing the sun.
kailey (07:58):
And this is our second year doing this camp out in partnership with SWIFT.
The first year we had some other chaptersparticipate and every year it seems like
a couple of the chapters get rained out orit's too hot and they end up rescheduling.
We'll talk about some of the The onesthat got rescheduled or some of the
coming up soon opportunities thatare coming up in a couple of months.
(08:20):
We'll talk about that later on.
marley (08:22):
Yeah one of my favorite events of the summer was
actually on my birthday weekend.
Sorry, I'm going back in time to May.
It was Kansas city did thisincredible bike camping trip.
There was like 50 people on it.
I think the median age was 50.
And everybody from four months allthe way up to 70 years old was on this
trip and it was just so wholesome.
(08:43):
We rode like 10 miles each direction.
Super, super inclusive.
Instead of cooking dinner,we went and got pizza another
couple of miles down the trail.
And it was just such I don't know.
So refreshing because I thinkoftentimes these bike camping or bike
packing trips that you hear about arethese epic, incredible adventures.
But it's okay to just have a littlebackyard overnight adventures too.
kailey (09:05):
There was an ice cream truck and all bike camping
should have an ice cream truck.
Okay.
You're speaking in a camping language.
That's going to be an annual event.
So if you missed it, you willhave another opportunity next May.
Yeah.
Which will be great.
marley (09:23):
What else did we get up to?
A couple of big gravel events throughoutthe summer when I was on my van trip
we went to the last best ride we wentto Joyride and we actually released a
podcast from Joyride, a live recordingso if you haven't listened to that, you
should go do that and then of coursewe went to Steamboat Gravel it was our
last year taking a team to SteamboatGravel and it was absolutely incredible.
(09:44):
We took 11 athletes this year andall of them finished their distances.
It was an incredible show ofperseverance and grit and determination.
It was really, really cool.
And then we finished up with GravelWorlds where we were at the expo and
we helped host the first to last party.
So it was a very busy, but.
Overall incredible summer.
And so good to see so many people andhugs and ride with so many people.
(10:08):
So thanks everybody for comingout and making those a success.
ellen (10:11):
What is like your best memory or was there anything
super surprising about the summer?
kailey (10:17):
Yeah, it was really special for me to see the team at Steamboat.
Like we've put the team togetherand brought a team for three years.
But I wasn't able to make it the lasttwo and to be there and get to see it
and see the team And see the perseverancethat marley's talking about and also
(10:38):
something that I wasn't expecting to be sospecial but really was was getting to see
everybody in their kits and the expo likewe unveiled a new expo design that bobby
or our like chief of all things design puttogether and it just like It was really
cool to see all of that visual cohesion ofall bodies on bikes and just the presence.
(11:03):
And it feels surface level onone hand, cause it's like, Oh,
it's just like how it looks.
But the fact that it looks thatlegit, and we have a team of people
wearing their like sponsored athletekits, like it's really cool to see.
It's, it's pretty impactful to see that.
For me, that was, that was thehighlight and it was the end of summer.
(11:24):
How about you Marley?
marley (11:25):
Oh, I'm so bad at reflecting.
And looking back I think for me, I'malways just amazed at how far the word
has spread about all bodies on bikes.
I think I lack perspective on it and it'salways incredible to go to these events
and see people from across the spectrum.
Good.
across the spectrum, but the ones thatalways get me are the very stereotypical
(11:46):
cyclist looking people, your, your whitemale in his forties or fifties saying,
thank you for doing what you're doingand for expanding representation and
what it means and just for being here.
And that's always surprising to me.
And I guess it shouldn'tbe but it still is.
ellen (12:04):
I think it's important because it's a bit of a milestone when you're speaking
up for marginalized voices, right?
Like for the, the majority tohave come up and said, I see you.
And I recognize that this is important.
Like I could see thatthat would stick with you.
That makes tons of sense.
Yeah.
Thanks.
kailey (12:22):
I don't know if we've reflected on this together, but we've been at
enough events enough years in a row.
People that came up to our expo tents,like the first year we were there
and said Oh, I'm here as a spouse orfamily member of somebody who's racing.
And I don't know much about you guys,but I saw the name and it drew me over
(12:45):
and I never ride a bike or whatever.
And then they come back to us the nextyear and they're like in the event.
Like that, they're like doing therace themselves and they got a bike
like that is just so frickin cool.
And feels like really fullcircle in this special way.
Yeah.
That part is so cool that that'sstarting to happen more and more now.
marley (13:09):
It is.
And I think, I think the other coolthing that's happening, and Kailey,
you might not agree with me on this butat first it was like the All Bodies on
Bikes was the Kailey and Marlee show.
People really knew us from the filmand now a lot of people know All
Bodies on Bikes and have no ideathat there's a film out there.
And so it's, it's pretty cool.
The kind of legacy that we've built andthis community that we've built has,
(13:31):
that was one of our goals that we set wasto have it not be the Marlee and Kailey
show, but it really has grown beyond.
Just us, which is incredible.
ellen (13:39):
Now it's the Marlee, Kailey, and Ellen show.
I'm just kidding.
Yes, exactly.
Oh, that's funny.
But I can relate that back toour next question of how, how are
feeling like it's strengtheningall bodies on bikes community?
That has to feel like that's part of that.
marley (13:54):
Yeah I think a big part of it is
so some of our chapters have notnecessarily struggled, but they, they
haven't really gotten off the ground yet.
Maybe in a place wherewe only have one leader.
And we've learned a lot and we'lltalk about this in a little bit
in terms of new chapter formation.
But, yeah.
I think about the five boroughsto her in New York City.
That was a great opportunity to bringthe New York City community together
(14:16):
and also let them know, Hey, we'relooking for some additional leadership
to support this chapter and it's working.
From those conversations in May, wenow have two new leaders who have
joined our New York City leader.
And are really going to helpfortify and build up that community.
In those places where we have thechapters, I think the events help
amplify the chapters and make themstronger, but in the places where
(14:37):
we don't have a chapter, it plantsthe seeds as we continue to grow
that, Hey, this could be a thingthat regularly happens in your area.
kailey (14:46):
I think this year I've been really struck by the like diverse
range of ages we are having to eventsand it's different at every chapter,
but certain chapters just seem to drawthis yeah, like the spring roll bike
camping in Kansas was like, we had aperson riding who was nine years old.
And I don't know that I imagined us beinga space where like youth programming was
(15:12):
such a central part of what we do, butat Unbound, we've really connected with
some of the youth mountain bike teamsthat are there at the event and we've seen
those kids growing up year after year.
And I think that like connection to youth,but also connection to like older people
who are coming back to biking or maybecoming to biking for the first time.
(15:34):
That's like strengthening our communityand also what all bodies on bikes
means in a way that like is beyondwhat I had envisioned originally.
And that's been really neat to see.
And it's like organically, likeoutside of our control, not that
Marley and I didn't want it to gothat way, but it's just grown that
way organically, which is really cool.
marley (15:54):
Yeah.
I think a lot of it coincideswith the growth of e bikes.
They're becoming cheaper, they'remore accessible for folks.
And there's not a lot of group rideswhere e bikes are explicitly welcomed.
And on our group rides, they are.
And so I think those thingsdovetail together really nicely to
bring more people into the fold.
ellen (16:11):
I love to hear it.
So what's coming up in the fall?
marley (16:15):
More of the same.
Events.
Love it.
Bikepacking.
Same, same.
Same, same.
Exactly.
Same, same, but different.
Yeah, I think, so Kailey had mentionedthat a couple of chapters had to
reschedule their bike camping trips.
So Richmond is, Richmond,Virginia, right Kailey?
kailey (16:31):
Yep, so we'll be doing a one night bike camping trip in Richmond.
That's our rescheduled solstice trip andwe're going to be doing that mid November,
but before that we'll be in Bentonville.
With the Bentonville chapter, Marley,myself the Kansas city chapter is
going to be there too for anotherone night bike packing, right?
marley (16:52):
Yep.
Another bike camping tripout here in Bentonville.
And then our Albuquerque chapteris doing kind of a, an on
ramp series for bike camping.
So it's a, all the detailsare on our website, but it's
a three part prep workshop.
culminating in a bike campingtrip this fall in Albuquerque.
So that is really cool.
And I love that our chapters arereally playing with their weather and
(17:14):
their geography and that, typicallysummer is seen as like camping season,
but in all of these places, it is.
prohibitively hot.
So we're moved it to the fall.
So that'll be really fun.
Yeah,
ellen (17:27):
I like that Albuquerque is going to give you like extra training.
I'm the kind of person who would wantthat like full knowledge before I'm
stuck out in the dark, but it soundslike any of them are going to make
sure that you feel super comfortablebefore you go out bikepacking.
That's the goal.
Totally.
kailey (17:42):
Yeah, we, for all of the bike camping events chapter leaders
send out some type of Google form orsurvey in advance to get a sense of
like, where folks are at experiencewise, what equipment they have and
some of them like Albuquerque do abig ramp and some other chapters are
doing similar things, but others.
(18:04):
It's more like the chapter leader willreach out to you if you need some help.
And we had last year DC did a onenight bike camping and we had people,
it was their first time camping.
They didn't have any camping equipmentand we had them sending pictures of their
bikes with their setups to us before.
And we were troubleshooting in the weeksleading up to the trip and We made it
(18:28):
all work and everybody had a good time.
So we'll, we will always find away to make it work for people.
And even if that's just like a oneon one text chat before the trip.
We can, we can do that too.
marley (18:39):
Yeah.
I love it.
I think the other thing too, is formost of these that we have a SAG
vehicle going, so a support vehicle.
Sometimes there's people whothey have a tent, but it's too
big to strap on their bike.
We're not going to expectthem to go buy a new tent.
And so taking that vehicle really helpslower those barriers even further.
So if somebody, is on a road bike thatcan't strap, we can't put a rack on there.
(19:01):
There's definitely ways to get.
over those humps.
I hope nobody comes on a road bike tothe Bentonville one though, because
we're going to be on some chunky gravel.
So that would be, I don't want tosay an insurmountable challenge, but
definitely a much bigger challengethan I'd be ready to take on.
ellen (19:17):
Okay.
Good to know.
But mainly if you're curious at allabout these, definitely reach out.
So you're 100 percent a leader.
Yeah.
Awesome.
Love that.
And then what about new riders?
Are there rides for new riders this fall?
kailey (19:32):
Always.
marley (19:32):
Yeah.
kailey (19:33):
Women led cycling.
And they're doing on ramp series.
They just did one a few months ago.
That was an on ramp, essentially fourconsecutive rides that led up and helped
people prep to go on a bigger group ride.
That happens weekly.
But now they're doing anon ramp to make people feel
comfortable with bike commuting.
(19:55):
That's an opportunity forpeople who are are totally new.
To either learn how to ride in the citycomfortably or learn how to ride in
groups comfortably, which is, is neat.
Yep.
I cut you off Marley.
marley (20:08):
Oh, I was going to say, I think most of our, most of our rides are
generally perfect for newer riders.
We, if there's not one, so a greatexample is this past weekend or this past
week, our Massachusetts chapter did anadventure ride is what they called it.
And it was like all terrain.
There were some hike a bike sections.
It was a little bit longer.
And That one would not be a good onefor newer riders, but we were pretty
(20:30):
explicit in the language there.
It's, it's funny, I think all Bodies onBikes rides fall into one of two camps.
They're either that introductorysocial ride where, we're going
less than five miles, we're goingfive to eight miles per hour.
Really, almost anyone, atany ability level could join.
And then there's the more adventurouslonger rides because as it turns out,
people in bigger bodies or non traditionalbodies like to ride long distances,
(20:52):
like to do stupidly hard things.
And so we like to provide aspace for that to happen as well.
And those, again, we try and justbe super clear in the language
of who that's intended for.
kailey (21:04):
But if you're ever unsure that reach out to your chapter leader or reach
out to us, that applies across the board.
Always okay to reach out and ask.
marley (21:14):
A hundred percent.
ellen (21:15):
Speaking of chapter leaders, we're going to move into a bit like broader
conversation about all bodies on bikes.
I think one of the questionsyou both receive a lot is
when are chapters expanding?
What's the status of the chapters?
How do I chapter?
So can you give us a little peekor ideas on what's happening
with these in the future?
What has happened?
(21:36):
What's going to happen?
All these things.
marley (21:38):
Yes.
I love this question and you're right.
We do get it all the time.
And I feel bad because sinceearly 2023, we have not been in
a place to add more chapters.
As the executive director, I reallywanted to grow really quickly.
And I was given some feedback fromour existing chapters to, Hey, Marley,
slow your roll, if that's okay.
(21:59):
We need time to get our feet on theground and figure out what we're doing
before new chapters come on boardand we have to They don't have
to mentor them, but it wouldfall into a natural mentorship.
And I'm really glad we, we pressedpause and didn't decide to grow any
new chapters because it has allowedus to put in place a much more formal
(22:19):
system of how do we start a new chapter?
What does training look like?
What support materialsdo we have for them?
And so we're gettingready this fall to launch.
I think it'll be, it'll be betweenthree and five new chapters.
And the reason why I'm not supersure on that number yet, just
because there's a couple of thingsthat have to fall into place.
So one of our big learningsfrom our previous rollout.
(22:40):
Was that chapters need more than oneleader trying to lead a chapter as a
solo person is very, very, very hard.
Because the way that our rides arestructured, you need at least three
or four people to lead the ride.
And if you're constantly recruitingvolunteers for every single ride
that's just an exhausting process.
And for new chapters, we're asking thatthey have at least two preferably three
(23:02):
or four people to come on as leaders.
We're also looking at geographic location.
It doesn't make sense givenwhere our other chapters are at.
We've had a million requestsfrom the Northeast Corridor
and we already have New York City.
We have Western Massachusetts.
It'd be cool to have a Boston chapter.
It doesn't make sense for us right now,given that we don't have anybody in Texas,
(23:24):
we don't have anybody in California.
It's, we, we just got to bestrategic right now and we will
eventually grow to where we have 25.
50, who knows, maybe evena hundred chapters one day.
But for right now we're not there yet.
So we're just trying to bereally strategic geographically.
And then this last kind of criteria is alittle more nebulous, but we try and get
a feel for what the existing cycling sceneis in a place and how would all bodies
(23:47):
on bikes kind of slot into there, isthere already an inclusive cycling scene?
Are there other organizations that wecan partner with as we're trying to
Getting off the ground and growing.
Is it a hyper competitive scene?
Just what is the, the general scene?
Are there shops thatwe could partner with?
All of those things.
So once we get those things in placeand that's what our new chapters are
(24:09):
working on right now is getting their,their leadership team put together.
We're going to do a threepart training series.
Last time we had all of theleadership come down to Bentonville
and we did a weekend away.
Funding has dried up in thenonprofit world a little bit.
So we're not going to be able to bringeverybody to Bentonville, but we're
going to just do a three part training.
So the first part will be likeeverything you don't need to
(24:29):
know about all bodies on bikes.
The second part will be, here'show to be a chapter leader.
Here's how to host rides,how to do all that stuff.
And then the third will be, resourcesand just other internal things that our
chapter leadership needs to be aware of.
That was a long winded answer,but new chapters are coming
is the long and short of it.
Long
ellen (24:48):
winded, but super clear.
Like it feels good to know that you'regoing to take care of somebody who's
ready to, to launch an all bodies onbikes chapter, are we announcing where
the chapter is going to be, or is thisa TBD super surprise later announcement?
marley (25:02):
We can announce a couple of them that are definitely happening.
So Portland, Oregon isdefinitely happening.
The DFW area in Texasis definitely happening.
And then the other ones we arestill working on those other
parts of the, the equation.
So we'll announce those later.
Yeah.
ellen (25:18):
To be continued, but very exciting.
marley (25:20):
Very exciting.
Portland
ellen (25:21):
and DFW, welcome to the All Bodies fam.
Yeah, very exciting.
And then is there anything elselike related to all bodies on
bikes growing outside of thechapters that you wanted to share?
marley (25:34):
That's a good question.
I think You know, going back tothe events, we are working on our
2025 event calendar right now.
And if there's a certain event thatwe should have on our radar we have
unintentionally become very gravel heavy.
And that was never the goal.
All Bodies on Bikes was never intendedto be a gravel cycling organization.
It just so happens that that'sthe kind of riding I like to do.
(25:57):
And so it's really easy to go outand have a presence, when it's an
event that's already exciting to me.
So if there's an event that should be onour radar that you know would be great
for us to come lead a ride at or do anexpo at or have some sort of presence,
please let us know, get in touch.
Because we're putting together thatcalendar now and just trying to be
strategic for next year about where wespend our money and efforts to travel to.
ellen (26:19):
Okay.
Speaking of money and efforts,what do you want to share about
fundraising opportunities?
What's you, you just mentioned a secondago too, that like money is dried up.
It's just it's across the whole world.
It feels like the like funding and moneyand fundraising is all difficult right
(26:39):
now because the billionaires are going to
marley (26:41):
space instead of giving it to us.
ellen (26:44):
This is the next bike frontier, maybe.
marley (26:47):
I don't know.
I don't know.
I don't know.
I don't agree with the wayyou're going to debate.
On all bodies on the moon.
ellen (26:54):
On bikes on the moon, but yeah.
Yes,
marley (26:56):
yeah.
Moon bikes.
No, I make a joke that money has driedup, but we did just get a really big
grant from the Walton Family Foundation,which is super, super exciting.
Which means that we can pay a salary.
I think I might've mentionedthat last week on the podcast.
But we have one full timeemployee and that's me.
And that's really exciting becausefor the past couple of years, I've
(27:17):
been Not getting paid for this work.
And so we are officially officialand that's really exciting.
So thank you to theWalton family foundation.
ellen (27:25):
Employee number one.
marley (27:27):
Yes.
kailey (27:28):
Pretty awesome.
marley (27:30):
Yeah.
It's been
kailey (27:31):
a long time.
We are very happy that Marley canfinally be a paid employee and
not like a full time volunteer.
Yes.
Working her butt off.
marley (27:42):
Exactly.
The other cool thing is it letsme Hold back, not hold back.
What's the word?
Cut back on like the influencer marketingwork that I was doing and the, I don't
have quite have to shill myself out forlike toothpaste and random beef jerky
snacks for 2, 000 here and 500 there.
Like I have a steady source ofincome, which is really nice.
ellen (28:01):
It takes a lot of the pressure off.
You can focus on the work becauseyou're getting paid to do the work.
Exactly.
marley (28:07):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Congrats.
All right.
Very, very exciting.
Other big thing.
And I, I hope this isn't annoyingto folks but we are going to start.
Our first real fundraising campaign.
So we've been a nonprofitfor almost two years now.
We've dabbled a little bit infundraising here and there.
We did a raffle at Unbound a coupleof years ago, but other than that, we
haven't done any strategic fundraising.
(28:29):
And so we'll be launching ourfirst fundraiser this fall.
And we would love everybody's supporton that because our organization is
doing, I need to work on my elevatorpitch about why people need to support.
ellen (28:40):
Let me help you out.
If I were to give you money, whatare you going to spend it on?
marley (28:45):
Programming infrastructure supporting our chapters, getting
more people onto bicycles ina supported inclusive way.
ellen (28:53):
That's a fire.
See, you just needed a pretty good.
marley (28:55):
Yeah.
ellen (28:56):
Yeah.
I needed a good tee up for that.
So if I were to give you 20 dollars,I feel like that would mean that Some
of the pizza on one of these bikecampaign trips is like, it's covered.
It's going to help to relieve some ofthe pressure off of either the chapter
leader who might also be donatingtheir time and money, like there are
many tangible ways that we'll be ableto really take the money and run.
marley (29:20):
Exactly.
Yes.
And we're not spendingfrivolously over here.
We're keeping our expenses pretty low.
So it, every dollar goes a longway for all bodies on bikes.
You can actually donate nowif you go to allbodiesonbikes.
com.
But we will be.
Much more strategic about it andreaching out to our Instagram and
reaching out to our email communityand all that, which speaking of, if
(29:40):
you're not on our email newsletter, youshould be we send it out once a month.
There's no spam.
And you just go to all bodies on bikes.
com and add yourself to our newsletter.
Sign up.
ellen (29:50):
Yeah.
It comes directly from Marley.
It's not a marketer in the background.
It's literally Marley saying, this iswhat I'm going to tell you right now.
kailey (29:57):
Yeah.
It's really delightful.
We can't
marley (29:58):
afford
kailey (29:58):
a marketer.
I may be a little biased, butit's my favorite email I receive.
It feels very personal.
And it's always a joywhen I see it in my inbox.
marley (30:09):
Yay.
That makes me happy to hear.
We have an almost 89 percent read rate.
So I, I think.
I think other people feel the same way.
That's really good.
Yeah.
ellen (30:16):
It's a big deal.
My, my day job is marketing and I'd get araise if I could do that with my database.
It's what I would do.
Yeah.
marley (30:24):
Yeah.
It's funny because I get emailsfrom other nonprofits and they're
emailing, three or four times a week.
And all I can think about istheir communications team and
development team is working so hard.
So that's a lot of emails.
ellen (30:34):
That's a lot of emails.
It's a lot of emails, I would argue,about their ROI on those emails, but
hopefully they're doing their own math.
Our math won't work thatway, is what we're saying.
It'll be an email from Marley
marley (30:46):
once a month.
Once a month.
ellen (30:48):
One delightful email a month from a real human.
marley (30:51):
Yeah and I can't promise that that'll stay at that cadence,
especially as we get into fundraising.
There might be more than once a month.
Okay.
One will definitely be delightful.
But they'll continue to be
kailey (31:00):
delightful.
Yes.
marley (31:02):
Exactly.
They'll all be delightful, but oneof them especially will be delightful
because it'll be updates on what we'redoing and where to find us and all the
good stuff we're chatting about here.
ellen (31:14):
I love it.
So more to be continued.
We'll be excited to take your money, butwe also think that you're going to want
to because we're going to have lots ofreally good reasons to give it to us.
Tell me a little bit more.
You both have been working really hardon industry certification stuff and
like taking this whole conversationto the industry to change it.
So what's happening there?
marley (31:35):
Yes, this is probably my favorite part of the work that I get to do.
Like chapters are cooland leading rides is cool.
But, But when we started this, Ireally had a vision that we were going
to change things and shake them up.
And it's happening.
Things that we want to see are standardsfor where the weight limit is posted.
Right now, there is no standard for whereto post To put that information, so some
(31:59):
brands put it on their website, some putit in their owner's manual, if you can
find it what we're pushing for is thatthe weight limit would go on the geometry
chart so similar that you have like reachand standover height, those are standard
for all bikes other things get measuredin different ways, but reach and standover
are very similar, or they're measuredin a standard way that there would be
a weight limit, For the stock build.
(32:19):
So that's one thing we're pushing for.
But the other part is we really wantto be working with bike shops and bike
companies on how to work with people inbigger bodies in a way that is respectful
and dignified and gets everybody ontoa bike that's appropriate for them.
I know, I think Kailey, I'm sure you'veheard horror stories, but people just
(32:40):
walking into bike shops and either beingtreated really poorly or, if they are
treated nicely, getting onto bikes thatare completely inappropriate for them
and have way too low of weight limits.
And I don't think it's inmost cases, it's malicious.
I think it's an ignorance thing.
And so making sure that People arewell informed on the challenges
(33:03):
facing bigger body riders, but alsothe solutions because there are
incredible solutions out there.
One of the biggest pain points is wheels.
People in bigger bodies, heavier peoplebreak spokes on their wheels pretty
frequently because they're just not onsuper strong wheels, but strong wheels
and custom wheels are one of the easiestmodifications you can make to a bicycle.
(33:24):
It does cost some money.
And so It's not accessible to everybody.
But there are also just stronger,higher spoke count wheels out there.
And if we could normalize it tohave that conversation I think
that would go a really long way.
ellen (33:37):
Have you started conversations like this already?
How are they going?
marley (33:40):
We have all bodies on bikes was invited to join the national
bicycle dealers association.
They had their annual industryconference in Bentonville.
And me and one of our chapterleaders went and presented about
this and pitched the idea to themand said, is this something that.
Would help you?
And overwhelmingly resoundingly.
They all said, yes, like this isa challenge that we're facing.
(34:01):
We want help with this.
And so then after we presented thatconference, we were invited to join the
national bicycle dealers association.
And so we'll be working withthem to vet our materials.
We'll have a pilot groupthrough that organization.
And as we roll out this training for bikeshops we'll have close partners that'll
help us do that, which is really exciting.
(34:21):
That is so cool.
kailey (34:22):
Yeah so we're working on the pilot now.
We're again, being conservative inour approach, but the pilot will be
like, rolling out within the next6 months and then longer term, the
certification program will come.
But Marley, do you also haveyou talked about the website?
Web page.
No, folks can put up.
(34:42):
Okay.
Yeah, I forgot about
marley (34:44):
that plug.
Super, super cool.
One of the things that Kailey and Ido is we do a size inclusion training,
a size inclusion awareness, and Ihad a brand or had this company they
basically make websites for bike shops.
And they have a library ofavailable pages to bike shops.
If they wanted to do a resource pageon gravel biking or a page about group
(35:04):
rides or Buying your first bike, whateverit might be, this company helps build
those web pages and make sure that theinventory is integrated with the website,
just all the backend stuff that ifyou're opening a bike shop, like that's
one less thing to be on your plate.
And so they reached out andasked, in exchange for giving
us a training, could we.
(35:25):
Build out a biking for biggerpeople resource web page.
And I said, absolutely, thatseems like a perfectly fair trade.
And so I gave them a size inclusiontraining and in exchange, they built out
a biking for bigger people website thatis part of their standard library now.
And I think we've got 60 or 70shops across the US who have that
(35:46):
as part of their website now.
ellen (35:48):
That's amazing.
marley (35:49):
Yeah.
The really cool thing is, most of itpoints back to All Bodies on Bikes.
Because we have those resources builtout on our website, and so yes, it
does point to, in stock bikes thatwould work well for that customer.
But it also, points to ourplus size clothing resources.
It points to our resource on how toshop for a bike, things like that.
ellen (36:10):
Yeah.
I like that that way it's centralized too.
Like it's not that they'retrying to reinvent the wheel.
The wheel, but exactly every time thatthey need to just have this information.
Like they're probably local shops.
They want to be providing these resources.
marley (36:22):
And so the cool thing is we're being recognized as an
industry authority and like arecognized subject matter authority
on this, which is super, super cool.
Yeah, it's, it's weird.
imposter because I don't know.
It's
kailey (36:37):
nobody else is doing this.
You're the leader of it.
marley (36:45):
Yeah.
It just, it feels, it feels surrealsometimes to have people agree
that we have found a challenge andagree that it's a known problem and
want to work towards solving it.
It's, it feels surreal, butI think because for so long
it was such a challenge.
I think back to your trip acrossAlaska, Kailey what year was that?
2017?
2018.
ellen (37:07):
So not even a decade, but you've seen the pendulum really shift.
Totally.
And
kailey (37:12):
I think like the biggest thing is Like in 2018, it still felt like if you
were in a larger body and you couldn'tfind a bike or clothes, it was your fault.
Yeah.
Now it like, at least I, when I'm lookingat a website that doesn't have the
right clothes or equipment for me, I'mlike, Oh, it's your, it's their fault.
(37:33):
Like, why don't they make stuff for me?
And they feel ownership over it too.
Like it's an everybody problemto figure out and not a personal
failure of myself that I'm in alarger body, which feels really cool.
And we have this massive community,like thinking about the scope of the
events that we were at this summer.
(37:54):
And the there are events that Marleyand I can't even think of because
the chapters hosted them and there'sso much going on, it's hard to even.
Keep track of all the wonderful things.
And there's people who only knowabout all bodies on bikes from
the chapter they're engaged with.
That is so cool.
Like it has grown and grown.
marley (38:13):
Yeah, it really is super cool.
ellen (38:16):
Awesome.
This has been such, an upliftingupdate to where there's been such good
progress and there is so much momentumhappening and everything's like we're
at the precipice of something great.
Yeah.
I'm feeling like this isjust it's a positive update.
How often do you get one of those, butalso like thinking about all the hard
work that you both have done over the lastthree, six months, it's, it's super cool.
(38:38):
Thank you for sharing this with us.
marley (38:39):
You're welcome.
And I hope people find it interestingat the little in the weeds.
But we're also trying to be transparentand pull back the curtain on what
all bodies on bikes is up to.
Yeah.
ellen (38:48):
So I think takeaways for our audience, in case anyone is a too long
didn't listen and just skips to the end.
I don't know if that's thetype of listener or not, but
marley (38:57):
They can always put us on fast.
I wonder what we sound like onfast speed little squirrels.
Yeah.
ellen (39:04):
I don't know, especially with all the laughter that we just had.
I don't know.
If anybody does listen at 2x speed,don't tell us, I think, because
I don't think I want to know.
marley (39:13):
I don't want to know.
. ellen (39:14):
It's like suddenly I'm a soprano instead of an alto.
But main takeaways, you guys had afantastic summer, went to lots and lots of
events, met lots and lots of cool people.
You have plans for the fall.
All of those plans are up on ourwebsite to where you can go to all
bodies on bikes, check out yourchapters and see what's going on.
Lots of bike, camping things happeningall across the country, especially
now as the weather is getting nicerand we're going to have and donate
(39:39):
and give us a little bit of money.
Subscribe to the email list and subscribeto the podcast and We'll see you soon.
I think that's it.
I think that sounds great.
Thanks Ellen.
See you soon.
Thank you.
Thanks Kailey for joining us andwe'll see you again in a few months.
Thanks for having me.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark
My Favorite Murder is a true crime comedy podcast hosted by Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark. Each week, Karen and Georgia share compelling true crimes and hometown stories from friends and listeners. Since MFM launched in January of 2016, Karen and Georgia have shared their lifelong interest in true crime and have covered stories of infamous serial killers like the Night Stalker, mysterious cold cases, captivating cults, incredible survivor stories and important events from history like the Tulsa race massacre of 1921. My Favorite Murder is part of the Exactly Right podcast network that provides a platform for bold, creative voices to bring to life provocative, entertaining and relatable stories for audiences everywhere. The Exactly Right roster of podcasts covers a variety of topics including historic true crime, comedic interviews and news, science, pop culture and more. Podcasts on the network include Buried Bones with Kate Winkler Dawson and Paul Holes, That's Messed Up: An SVU Podcast, This Podcast Will Kill You, Bananas and more.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.