Maple Island Sales rolls to success with bicycle restorers

by Marti Attoun

SBJ Contributing Writer

Parked in Gary Jordahl's Carthage office is a 1950 blue Schwinn children's bicycle that draws compliments and comments from visitors. The bike's frame simulates a gas tank and its horn button works. It's a beaut.

This particular bike would bring $2,500 in a snap, Jordahl said.

He should know. His Lamar company, Maple Island Sales, manufactures and sells some 100 parts to restore the classic bikes: pedals, fenders, sprockets, handlebars, balloon tires, and rocket-ray headlights among them. Jordahl is one of two licensed Schwinn mail-order dealers.

Jordahl's hobby actually steered him into the vintage-bike business. Jordahl was restoring a 1948 Schwinn Black Phantom for himself and needed a carrier. After much scouting, he found a battered one for $150.

"I decided that I could manufacture it for a lot less money," he said. He had decades of manufacturing and business experience. In 1959, he designed and manufactured small pizza ovens and installed one for the Tombstone Bar in Medford, Wis. It didn't make him rich, but it made the bar owner rich when the business grew into Tombstone Pizza.

In 1991 Jordahl and his wife, Darlene, invested $28,000 in tooling to produce their first vintage bicycle part. The parts are made in Taiwan in large quantities to keep costs down. The couple relocated their business from Minnesota to Lamar in 1998. They wanted a warmer climate, plus a central location. Another attraction here was employee Mark McCoy, an avid bike collector and restorer, who lives in Carthage. Jordahl had met McCoy at bicycle swap meets around the country.

"This is the dream job for me," McCoy said. He has collected and restored bikes for 16 years. "The thrill for me is to take an old bike with not much left and bring it back to life."

Bicycle trade shows and swap meets are a major part of the company's marketing. McCoy attends at least 15 shows a year in the part-stocked company RV. The company's 24-page catalog lists the parts they sell for Schwinn, Monark and Roadmaster bicycles built from the 1930s to 1960s. Maple Island Sales was contacted by Roadmaster, owned by Brunswick, to assist in getting Taiwanese parts for a reissue of the company's 1948 bike for its 50th anniversary.

"Gary built probably 90 percent of that bike," McCoy said. The company sold $1.5 million worth of Roadmaster parts for that deal, Jordahl said.

One business tenet Jordahl swears by is "to never go into debt to start a business."

"The banks don't like to hear this, but if you're paying big interest, you're never going to make it. I never borrowed money to start a business. You have to grow with your business," he said.

He said the classic-bike business is growing, following the path of the classic-car business. Jordahl said that many classic-car collectors are switching to classic bikes.

"Bikes take up less room and they're easier to transport. People enjoy them. Lots of collectors hang the old bikes on the wall in their home or office."

A major attraction, besides the nostalgic lure, is that bikes cost less than cars to restore. It could cost $800 to $900 to get an old bike running again, resulting in an end product that might be worth twice that much or more, Jordahl said. "Some of the old bikes you can't touch for $10,000."

Although other companies deal in parts, both new and used, for the old bikes, Jordahl said he believes that his is the only company manufacturing parts. He has invested about $300,000 in tooling.

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