Spinning his wheels, and loving it

Most people look at an old bicycle and think junk.

Dave Stromberger and his customers look at old bikes and see gems.

Stromberger, a 35-year-old Spokane native, restores bicycles. What started as a hobby turned into his full-time job about three years ago. Although his company, Dave’s Vintage Bicycles, is not making him a rich man, Stromberger said it beats his former life in the working world – sitting in front of a computer screen all day.

“When I was a little kid, my dad bought me an old Schwinn and I painted it,” Stromberger said. “I don’t know if that’s a coincidence or what.”

Creating and restoring runs in Stromberger’s family. His dad, Tim, builds and refurbishes hot rods at his Spokane Valley company, Tim’s Hot Rods. His mother, Arlene, is a jeweler. When she’s not designing a custom-made piece, she might be working on the family’s 100-year-old home in Davenport. The Strombergers bought the six-bedroom house a few years ago and are restoring it back to its original splendor.

Although no one is living in the house full time, Stromberger spends several hours a week in a garage that was built on the property last year. Both he and his father use it for their work.

There are bicycles scattered throughout the spacious shop, the sort to make any red-blooded, bike-riding American flash back to childhood memories of racing down the street on a Schwinn 3-speed.

One of the more eye-catching bikes in Stromberger’s current fleet is a Rollfast Hopalong Cassidy cowboy bike, shipped to him by a man in Georgia. The 50-year-old bike is black-and-white with chrome trim. It has a pair of built-in pistols with jeweled holsters and a fringed rear carrier. Stromberger has restored it to showroom perfection.

Although the idea behind his business is to restore customers’ bikes, Stromberger finds it hard to pass on buying. One of his favorite recent finds is a junior 36-inch wheel High Wheel bicycle from the 1880s. He bought it from a man in Pennsylvania and still is searching for tires.

Stromberger said became interested in restoration when traveling the car-swap circuit with his dad. At one swap meet, he spotted a 1948 (or thereabout) Schwinn. He picked it up for $20.

“I thought it would make a neat project,” he said. “That’s when the seed was planted.”

Stromberger, who earned a degree in computer programming at Spokane Falls Community College, was working in the computer business at the time. He said he never was sold on computer work as a lifelong career because it wasn’t creative enough.

As Stromberger got more interested in bicycle work, the Internet came along. Suddenly, finding impossible-to-locate parts became easier. Aside from restoring bikes, Stromberger generates much of his business by buying and selling parts.

“A lot of bikes, it’s difficult to find parts. Just when you give up looking, one will turn up on eBay,” Stromberger said.

Many of Stromberger’s customers also find him on the Internet. His Web site is www.nostalgic.net.

Stromberger said he works on about four to five bikes a month. A typical restoration of a complete bicycle runs about $1,500, which includes chrome, paint, leather for the seat and various small parts. A labor-intensive paint job on a Schwinn cruiser runs around $600. Stromberger has a graphics machine that allows him to make exact copies of original stencils.

“The job pays my bills,” said Stromberger, who is single with no kids, “and there’s enough left over for pizza.”