Character Studies is an INDY series about familiar faces around the Triangle—and the stories you may not know about them.
Eross Guadalupe was first on the scene for the June 26 Ride Around Durham (RAD), a “no-drop” (no one gets left behind) group ride that meets every Thursday evening at Duke Chapel. He pulled up on his Kona Rove ST, the “Subaru of bikes,” as he calls it.
Guadalupe’s bike is dark metallic green—green is his favorite color—with thick Panaracer GravelKing tires and racks on top of both wheels. A Pokémon collector, he keeps a card of Scyther, a Bug-type monster (also green), in the spokes of his front wheel for added flair. Guadalupe bought the bike from Oak City Cycling in 2019. He says it’s great for on- or off-road cycling (on the streets of Durham, can you tell the difference?). It’s easy to add attachments like a rack or an extra bike seat, which Guadalupe uses to connect a baby seat for his one-year-old son, Zoren.
“I try to make it a point to take him with me. Because I pick him up from daycare, one of his first words was ‘bike.’ We take routes around the Ellerbee Creek trail and pass by the dino and he always waves. It’s so adorable. I’m trying to instill that passion early on. We got him a Strider bike, but he’s barely able to walk and not trip over himself, so we’ll wait a little bit.”
Arriving first to a group ride isn’t uncommon for Guadalupe, even when he isn’t being interviewed by the local paper. Often leading some of the most popular group rides in Durham like RAD and the Ponysaurus “Pony” Ride, Guadalupe is a fixture in the cycling community and the community writ large. His Visayan-heritage arm sleeve tattoo and trademark Durham-flag-inspired bike jersey are unmistakable. But a decade ago, he had never owned a bike. It wasn’t until he moved to Durham from Long Island in 2014 that he decided commuting by bike to his job (then at Duke) would be simpler and healthier. So he Frankensteined a bike using parts from the Durham Bike Co-Op.
“It was like 20 bucks to buy the bike, and then maybe $30 to help get it built up with the folks at the bike co-op,” says Guadalupe, who works in the health-care field. “So it really was a good launching point for me into the bike community.”
As he became more familiar with the mechanics, he invested in better bikes. Friends he met in the bike community showed him the ropes: what bikes to get, how to maintain them, and what routes to take on his commutes.
“When I first started here, I got lost a lot, but it was kind of fun. I would try to bike in different directions and have no idea where it goes, then I just use Google Maps to find my way back. It helped me get through the arteries and veins of the city, and get to the heart of the city from wherever that might be.”
Some of the folks from the co-op had a group called the Adventure Club of Bull City (ACBC). Guadalupe credits them as the originators of the Pony Ride. As folks from the group moved away, ride leadership needed a successor. An organizer who was moving suggested Guadalupe, who had helped marshal the ride once or twice.
“I was like, OK, I guess if no one else is, I’ll take on the mantle and keep it going.”
Each year, Guadalupe typically leads a ride around his birthday. This year, on June 10, he celebrated a little differently—with Erin Karcher, owner of Arcana, leading a Pride Month ride. He was happy to be a “sweeper” at the back of the group, supporting stragglers or folks that ran into mechanical issues.
“We did have a few flats and stuff, so it was kinda needed, but I’m glad I was able to bail people out,” Guadalupe says. “Erin really wanted to do it. She had a cool route where we got to see all these Pauli Murray murals and some iconic Durham queer spaces.”
Biking is a community where Guadalupe has forged countless friendships.
“I really wanted to do that for other people. So when I find a new shortcut, or a new bike boulevard, or new bike lanes like on Miami Boulevard, I want to take people there because it’s good for folks to know how to get around safely.”
Now he’s looking to pay it forward.
“Honestly, just hearing people say that they’ve never been this way around Durham and that it was a really cool route—that keeps me motivated to keep helping with the ride-leading and route-planning because it means I’m contributing to the community. If people are more comfortable biking around here, I’ve done what I set out to do.”
Follow Reporter Justin Laidlaw on X or send an email to [email protected]. Comment on this story at [email protected].