LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — The Centennial Hills area is in the far northwest corner of the Las Vegas valley near where U.S. 95 meets the 215 at Centennial Bowl.
Tucked away east of U.S. 95 and south of Durango Road is a small neighborhood that most people might drive by and not even notice. On a quaint street called Norman Rockwell Lane, there’s the Village of Centennial Springs. It’s a hidden gem which includes restaurants, residential and mixed-use construction and a park.
One of the unique businesses is The Vault Bicycle Shop.
Things are getting better now, but owner Mike Skoy says they felt the supply chain effect of the pandemic right away.
“When it first happened, it was bad because [of] rubber shortages. We had no tires and tubes, so your normal person that came in off the street with a flat tire, we’re like, ‘oh you know, we’ll get those tubes in a week’ and we’ve never done that. It’s always, like, same day, one day service,” Skoy said.
Besides everyday repairs Mike’s got a passion for bringing new life back to the bike you had as a kid.
“It’s one connection when someone brings their broken bicycle in here and you give it back to them brand new. Oh my God. That’s been sitting in my yard and it’s rotting away and you made something beautiful of it. But to find something 20, 30 years old and put a little twist on it and make it theirs again after all these years? That’s where it is,” Skoy said.
Tn the small neighborhood known as Centennial Springs, Mike can go ahead and block off the street once a year for an all-day bike fest.
“It’s a meeting of the first generation guys, the kids now coming up and everybody in the middle like myself, all meeting together. It’s a meet-n-greet,” he said.
People set up their vendor spots and they sell parts, and they talk about old times. You’ll have trailers out here with a lot more bikes than I’ve ever restored on ’em. People are just having a great time and mixed in there we have the neighborhood restaurants coming out with food and drink,” Skoy said.
But on any given day, you can spend hours going through the memories on display in the vault.
“For me to grab something and put it in here and share it with the public is really important.”
Mike believes that all of Southern Nevada is getting behind bicycling, including the Regional Transportation Commission.
“They put maps out – fully colored maps — of the whole Vegas valley and all the places to ride. There’s a lot of neighborhoods connecting with other neighborhoods where you would drive by in a car every day and not notice that there’s a bridge going under the road where [it’s] a place you can ride. Once you get on a bike, it’s just a more beautiful place to discover Las Vegas,” Skoy said.
