Front and Center: Steven Forsness steers obsession into a business of painting bicycles

HAYDEN – Most people might expect to pay $400 to $3,000 to have a car or truck painted.

But a bicycle?

Before passing judgment on Steve Forsness’ prices, consider what’s involved.

Depending on clients’ wishes, his services may include disassembling the bike, improving its design, repairing damage, sandblasting old paint off, priming the frame, sanding it, then painting a base coat, top coat and clear coat. Premium jobs require four clear coats, each followed by sanding and buffing.

He says it’s “very common” for custom painting to cost more than the bike’s original price tag.

“An average paint job takes 10 to 20 hours,” says Forsness, owner of gForse Bikes. “A fancy one can take 65.”

People bring him everything from BMX racers and top-of-the-line custom bikes to 16- and 20-inchers they rode growing up and want to pass along to their kids.

“I painted a local triathlete’s bike pearl orange with black and silver details and her name – Ziggy – so her family and friends could pick her out from the pack as she sped by during Ironman.”

During a recent interview, Forsness discussed his early career as a roving industrial designer, his open-heart surgery, and his latest invention: “the world’s best snow sled.”

S-R: Where did you grow up?

Forsness: Yellowstone National Park. My dad was the park photographer. We used to tell visitors that we had nine months of winter and three months of bad summer, because even summers were cold and snowy.

S-R: How did you spend your time?

Forsness: Fly-fishing, fly-tying and backpacking. And I was always good at building things and taking things apart.

S-R: Where did you attend high school?

Forsness: Gardner, Montana. The park headquarters are in Mammoth Hot Springs (Wyoming), close to the park’s north entrance.

S-R: Did you have a favorite class or activity?

Forsness: Playing basketball and downhill skiing.

S-R: What career did you envision for yourself?

Forsness: I was always artistic and liked mechanical things, so I earned a degree in industrial design from Montana State University.

S-R: Then what?

Forsness: I moved to the Seattle area and got a job with a small company designing boats for Fiberform, a Spokane manufacturer. I redesigned decks and cabins for smaller boats, and the entire command bridges as well as decks for their 30- and 33-foot models.

S-R: What else did you design?

Forsness: A Chinook-brand camper that fit on the back of the full-size Chevy Blazer they made back in the early ’70s. I also designed the control panel for a marine radio. I worked for one company that made things out of wire, and another that fabricated equipment for Alaska’s fish-processing industry. A friend and I even designed and built one-tenth-scale remote-controlled replicas of the 12-meter sailboats that raced in the America’s Cup. One of my boats was used in the (1992) film “Wind,” because they needed an exact replica.

S-R: Why did you start gForse Bikes?

Forsness: The longest I ever worked anywhere was five years, because once a designer does his job, he’s not really needed anymore. Eventually I got tired of looking for new jobs. I was always interested in bicycles, and I loved painting. So I started specializing in cleverly painted designs on high-end bikes when I lived in Puyallup (Washington).

S-R: How much did it cost to launch your business?

Forsness: I already had paint equipment and a paint bay in my garage. But then I got divorced and had to sell my house, so I started painting from 6 p.m. to midnight in an industrial facility where my son worked.

S-R: Why did you relocate to North Idaho two years later?

Forsness: My ex-wife moved here, and after living alone decided I wasn’t such a bad guy. We got together at my son’s wedding in 1996, and she offered me a loan to build a shop here.

S-R: Twenty years later, are you still together?

Forsness: Yes, but we’re not a couple. We just live together.

S-R: How has the business evolved?

Forsness: I planned to focus on bicycles, but when I moved here, one of my first customers built after-market Harleys and needed them painted.

S-R: Being an artist or an industrial designer requires different skills than running a business. How did you learn to be a businessman?

Forsness: (laugh) I still haven’t done that. I can deposit money in a bank and avoid overdrafts, but that’s about it. I’m not good at getting out and telling people what I do. I just want to make something cool, but being good doesn’t make you successful.

S-R: How do you market your business?

Forsness: That’s been a big problem, partly because I have three different business names. I’m putting together a website, and a brochure I can take to area bike shops.

S-R: Bike frames have evolved from steel to aluminum to carbon fiber. How has that affected your business?

Forsness: Carbon fiber bikes have been a big boon to me, because I’m good at repairing them. Not one that I repaired and has ever broken.

S-R: Did the recession impact your business?

Forsness: Not much, because instead of buying things new, a lot of people fixed stuff they already had.

S-R: What’s your busiest time of year?

Forsness: Winter, when people aren’t riding their bicycles.

S-R: What’s a typical workday?

Forsness: Nine in the morning to 11 at night. I get most of the painting done after 6 p.m., because no one calls or comes over to talk.

S-R: What do you like most about your job?

Forsness: The interaction with customers – discussing how to integrate their ideas into a finished product.

S-R: Do they sometimes suggest things you don’t like?

Forsness: Yes, but generally I talk them out of it. (laugh)

S-R: What do you like least about your job?

Forsness: I don’t get to ride my bike enough.

S-R: What are you most proud of?

Forsness: A sled I designed and hope to start producing. It’s the world’s best snow sled.

S-R: Where are your sleds available?

Forsness: Nowhere yet, because I don’t have $300,000 to produce them. If I did, I’d be rich.

S-R: What’s your business philosophy?

Forsness: I only want to do something as good as it can be done.

S-R: What’s the career outlook for custom bike painting?

Forsness: It’s growing, because there are more custom builders like (Spokane’s) Gary Selner, and high-end carbon frames.

S-R: What challenges lie ahead?

Forsness: For me personally, overcoming my second open-heart surgery – the result of rupturing my aortic valve when I fell hard during a mountain bike descent eight years ago.

S-R: Are people who pay hundreds, maybe thousands of dollars for a bicycle paint job kind of obsessive?

Forsness: I suppose.

S-R: How about you?

Forsness: I’m probably over-obsessive. Once I worked nonstop from 8 a.m. to 3 a.m. the next morning airbrushing a picture of a lady on the back of a helmet. But being able to get into a zone is a good trait if you’re going to paint bicycles.

S-R: What’s atop your bucket list?

Forsness: To spend one summer riding my mountain bike wherever I want to go – Moab … Colorado … remote parts of Montana and Wyoming where people have never ridden mountain bikes.

S-R: How do you relax?

Forsness: I’m not good at that.

This interview has been condensed. Correspondent Michael Guilfoil can be reached at mguilfoil@comcast.net