Print edition: 
A chance conversation launched the Scanga family into the bicycle business — although 37 years later, that chance seems more like fate.
"My father was in the brokerage business," recalls Mike Scanga, owner of Bicycle X-Change. "He was on a plane talking to a guy. Somebody had backed out of a shipment of bikes. So my father made a deal, and we were in the bicycle business."
Asked if he'd been interested in bicycles before that time, Mike Scanga replies: "What kid wasn't? Were we going into the bike biz? No."
With that first shipment of 320 imported high-end bikes, Mike and his older brothers Ralph and Joseph set up shop in a building their father owned on East Central. The business originally was called Import Bike LTD, then Wheels. The Scangas adopted the current name when they started taking trade-ins.
Mike's older brothers eventually left to start bike shops elsewhere — Joseph in Albuquerque and Ralph in Madison, Wis., where the Scangas originally hailed from. Both are now retired.
As for Mike, he stayed put in Wichita, although he never had all the Wisconsin taken out of him.
"I've got a little twang. And you can see my (Green Bay) Packers paraphernalia," he said, pointing to a green-and-yellow-festooned wall in his office.
Today, four of Scanga's children — Nathan, Patrick, Joseph and Michelle — work at the store full or part time.
Scanga moved his business to Delano in the mid-1980s and has steadily taken over more space; he now uses more than 12,000 square feet in the 900 block of West Douglas. Virtually none appears wasted — bicycles and their component parts, plus helmets, gloves and more gear seem to fill every inch of two showrooms; customers can watch bike technicians tune up bikes in a back area. The walls look like Scanga hasn't taken down many snapshots and posters through the years.
"We liked it when we moved and it's just gotten better and better," Scanga said of the neighborhood. "Most of the businesses own their properties. It's kept neat, clean and tidy."
Five years ago, he opened a second, smaller shop on East Central, next door to the original location.
Scanga said one key to X-Change's longevity has been selling to all kinds of cyclists — from mountain and road to BMX, freestyle and cruisers — and ages.
Recently, he's seen a surge in bicycling commuters. "More people are pulling their old bikes out, putting some racks on it and riding to work," he said.
The store has also been thoroughly integrated into the city's community of serious cyclists. Mike and Ralph raced bicycles on BMX tracks around the country, and the X-Change has sponsored teams and well-known racers such as Scott Moninger and Alan Craddock ever since.
"I see kids who were racing when they were 7 or 8 bringing their own kids in," Scanga said. "Anything to do with bicycles, we've been into, whether we race them, sponsor a team, manufacture them. We're involved from top to bottom. I'm not saying we're the greatest, but that's just what we do."
Winter is a relatively slow time of year for the shops, but Scanga and his staff keep busy with a holiday bicycle give-away project the family started at their original store on East Central in the mid-1970s.
"That area is kind of poor," Scanga said. "Over the year you would notice who had bikes and who didn't. Their noses would be pushed up against the window."
The store takes in donated used bikes and trade-ins, fixes them up and gives them away to children who otherwise might not have one. X-Change has worked with several organizations through the years on the project. Currently, its partner is Communities In Schools.
On Tuesday, bike mechanic Adam Thompson hoisted donated bikes onto his work station rack when there was time between working on paying customers' bikes. On a boy's 20-inch bike, he adjusted the brakes and wheels. "Making sure it's safe to ride," he said. Other bikes get new inner tubes or seats.
Today, the staff will line up a couple of hundred bikes outside the store, waiting for children from nine schools to claim them. Scanga tries to match bikes to kids' wants when possible. Tuesday, he was looking for one that would fit one young lady's preference.
"She's not a 'pink' girl," she told them.
