For Erick Cedeño, telling stories is a physical process as much as a personality trait. His eyes widen, his smile broadens, he sits up straighter and prepares his arms for all the right expressions. And behind his eyes, he seems to be accessing file cabinets, carefully sorting through the drawers to find just the right document with the specific notations of an adventure he had a year ago, a month ago, two decades ago. His upcoming trip to honor the Buffalo Soldiers 25th Infantry Bicycle Corps slides him to the front of his chair as he speaks, his arms open in front of him as though he’s carrying the invisible weight of the project. Listening to him, it’s easy to get swept into his current.
The story that lights him up most easily, though, is the one about a trip to Mexico with his mother when he was a child. Erick grew up in Panama for the first 14 years of his life before the family moved to Miami. His mother knew Erick’s education needed to expand beyond the confines of the school room. So she took him to Mexico to see the pyramids the new culture around them. Erick’s fascination grew immediately, but more importantly, his enthusiasm for the process etched itself into his being. Erick became an adventurer.
And that’s what he calls himself today. He’s quick to note that he doesn’t think of himself as a cyclist. He’s an adventurer and the bike is a tool that helps him explore. Don’t mistake him, though. He loves the bike. But he also knows how life changes quickly; he doesn’t intend to stop exploring if the bike isn’t an option. One must adapt. Erick knows that adaptation is a key part of any adventure.
His next adventure is a big one: Cedeño will retrace the original 1897 route of the Buffalo Soldiers 25th Infantry Bicycle Corps from Missoula, Montana to St. Louis, Missouri. The soldiers took 41 days to complete the trip. While Cedeño can certainly do it faster, he will take 41 days as well. His goals are to create a route that others can follow to honor the history of the soldiers — and to help give them the dignity they were denied when they were alive.
Embracing the hard parts
Being comfortable in one’s discomfort is also part of the process. And Erick is now a husband and father. Leaving his family for weeks at a time doesn’t exactly make him feel good about adventuring, but he knows it’s part of the process. He will adapt. He doesn’t like seeking out funding for his rides, or dealing with the business aspects of what he’s doing, but he is comfortable with that discomfort, too. It’s all part of the broader adventure.
The payoff? Getting into the nowhere and exploring it. Hours into that process, the noise quiets. The voices cease. Erick’s identity as a husband or a father or a son or a social media ‘influencer’ gets carefully packed away until later. He is instead an engine, a singularity.
Erick is describing the concept of mindfulness. This is Erick’s meditation. His adventure centers him in the world and lends understanding. His wife Toni notes that Erick always comes back a better man from his trips. A better father. A better spouse. The connection to a larger family of humanity forges stronger connections at home.
The benefits of the ride therefore aren’t limited to Erick. his Buffalo Soldiers project has the potential to reach even further. It’s certain he will benefit from the miles ticked away pedaling. So too will his wife Toni benefit. And Erick’s young son, Gabriel.
Now he has the opportunity to change known history. He has the chance to come back a more complete man — one capable of offering dignity to the Buffalo Soldiers 25th Infantry by sharing hard truths.
The Buffalo Soldiers Bicycle Corps
The Buffalo Soldiers aren’t separate from Erick. These men in grainy images have become him, as much as he has become one of them. He has, in fact, been inducted as an honorary member of the Buffalo Soldiers in recognition of the work he is doing with his ride.
The men in the photos are worthy of the dignity they were denied during their lifetimes. Erick knows the story well. For the rest of us, it’s convoluted, something long buried or completely unknown. The Buffalo Soldiers in the Bicycle Corps are, in a military sense, nothing more than a footnote. But they made history. And Erick wants the world to know it.
Beyond that, he wants the world to know that these men were robbed of the truth. Many were dishonorably discharged for deeds they never committed. That left many of them without pensions, jobs, or support they needed to care for their families. When Erick talks about the Buffalo Soldiers who were buried without headstones, it’s easy to sense the palpability of how much that hurts him. It immediately makes sense why he wants to pedal so far. And it’s clear why he wants to tell this story to anyone who will listen.
We have a responsibility to listen. Fortunately, Erick makes it very easy to do just that. He’s a natural storyteller. This story is fraught with racism and systemic injustice. Yet the stories of the Buffalo Soldiers that Erick tells are laced thickly with hope, and honor. These men had names. They had lives. They are as real as Erick. He is one of them. And Erick welcomes us to become part of that story too.
The Dignity & Truth ride
On June 14th, 2022, Erick will begin his journey from Missoula, Montana to St. Louis, Missouri. Over the course of 41 days — the same amount of time the original Buffalo Soldiers took to complete the ride, on far less sophisticated machines than Erick’s Niner RLT — Erick hopes to find a route others can follow to continue the legacy of the Buffalo Soldiers.
He has other goals, too. Erick would love to raise money and awareness to ensure those Buffalo Soldiers buried without headstones get them. His longterm goals are to continue adventuring to find that singularity for himself and honor for long-buried stories.
Erick calls himself an adventurer. He is certainly that. But more deeply, Erick is a storyteller. Perhaps he is the main character in this particular story, but that’s not the story that lights him up. It’s the Buffalo Soldiers. Their faces. Their names. On his quest for singularity, Erick has joined an inimitable group.
Erick Cedeño is a Buffalo Soldier.
Follow Erick’s journey from Missoula, Montana to St. Louis, Missouri on his Instagram page, The Bicycle Nomad.
And look for updates on Erick’s Buffalo Soldiers project right here on Slow Guy on the Fast Ride.
Editor’s note: The video in this story is a paid partnership between Slow Guy on the Fast Ride and Niner Bikes. Regardless of sponsorship status, Slow Guy on the Fast Ride strives for editorial integrity and truth in everything that appears on this site.
If you have questions or concerns, please reach out to Dan Cavallari, Editor, at dan@browntiemedia.com.