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Free bikes, million dollar smiles
By Rusty Murry
Nevada Daily Mail
Every kid needs a bike. At least that's what Dewey Rumfelt of Walker believes. He believes in it so much that he finds old bikes, fixes them up and gives them to kids who cannot afford a good bike. At 82, Rumfelt is quiet and soft-spoken, but he has the leathery hands of a man that has put in a lifetime of hard work. His blue eyes still sparkle when talks about making a child happy.
Rumfelt has been tinkering with bikes most of his life. Having been born and raised on a farm in Illinois, Rumfelt moved to Kansas City Missouri in 1946. Living in the city, he went to work as an ironworker. He stayed at it and retired as a journeyman after more than 40 years in the trade. During that time, he and his wife Lois raised six children.
As an ironworker, Rumfelt worked on projects like the 1,450-foot high Sears Tower in Chicago, which was the world's tallest building when it was completed in 1973. Rumfelt also worked on many of the largest bridges in the country, including the Poplar Street Bridge across the Mississippi River in St. Louis.
Resting easily in an armchair in his modest apartment he said, "I've been working on bikes since I was a kid."
He remembers what it was like to not have a bike when he was a boy, and he recalled a little bit about the first bike he owned, at the age of 8.
"And my first bike had wood rims, the tire held air, but it had no inner tube, and my first tire cost, when I was 8 or 9, a half a dollar -- and I didn't have the half a dollar. It had metal spokes -- adjustable spokes -- and you glued the tire on the rim around the edges."
He likes to find and fix vintage American made bikes when he can, but he'll fix any bike that he thinks a kid can use.
His favorite bikes to work on are the old ones from back in the 1930s. There aren't many of those bikes left and Rumfelt feels like he is giving them a second life when he gives them to a child.
He gives the refurbished bicycles to underprivileged kids for free, but but if the family has money coming in, he may charge a few dollars -- never more than five -- just to cover parts. Once in a while he even finds a collectors item worth selling.
Rumfelt finds the old bikes in a lot of different places. He has people that bring him bikes, and he finds them at garage sales.
"I've pulled them out of the junkyard," he said.
He finds them in all stages of disrepair.
He has, at present, about 25 bikes, four or five of which are at his home. The others he keeps in storage in a couple different places out in the county.
He can fix about anything that will go wrong with a bike, but he doesn't do any painting.
"Oh I could," he said, "but I don't."
He keeps a lot of parts on hand but sometimes has to order them -- especially for the older, rarer machines. He can usually find the parts he needs, even if he has to cannibalize one of his other bikes.
Rumfelt began giving away bikes several years ago while living in the small Texas community of Lexington, and he figures he has given away about 100 bikes in the last 10 years. .
Rumfelt rides his bikes as often as time permits, but he works on them every day. He doesn't have a shop but keeps all of his tools in the trunk of his car. He can even work on them at a child's home, often repairing them on the bike rack mounted on the rear of his car.
Rumfelt says he will keep working on and giving away bikes as long as he is able.
"It gives me something to do."
He also tinkers around with mowers tillers and such, but its the bicycles that he enjoys working with the most.
The cost of his labor is different with each projects, so he has no idea what he spends on any given bike.
"It depends on the parts, and it depends on the bicycle. If it's a coaster bike, there isn't too much to go wrong with it. All you gotta to do is keep em greased, and nobody ever keeps em greased," he said laughing.
He admits he enjoys the tinkering, but the children are the reason he does this.
"That smile on their face is worth a million dollars," Rumfelt said, smiling.