VALDOSTA — What began as a hobby became an obsession when Valdosta cyclist Jordan Ganas began riding bikes with friends around town. And soon after, that obsession grew into a talent.

Ganas builds custom bikes for friends and other community cyclists looking for something fun and trendy to ride around town. He works out of the small office above Red Door Records, but he doesn’t own a “bike shop” in the traditional sense.

“It’s actually a hobby space where I work, that supports itself and helps out the community,” Ganas said.

His bikes typically sell for between $200 and $350, but he is willing to build whatever project his “customers” want. In these cases, the price depends on the parts, he says.

“You can spend a lot on a part or a little, so I figure out what they want to spend, whether that’s $1,000 or $300, and I build it,” Ganas said. “It’s like the difference between a Honda Accord and a BMW.”

As a side-service, Ganas will sometimes share his knowledge with friends and cyclists who ask, helping them learn how to better maintain their machines with a little bit of training.

His affinity for building began four years ago, when Ganas was living in a five-bedroom house with other roommates. They were all lazy, Ganas said, but that changed when a friend who had moved to Reno said he was coming back to Valdosta to start a bike-messenger service.

“So we got two bikes and after a while we weren’t lazy anymore,” Ganas said. “We were always out riding.”

Ganas looked into building when more people expressed an interest in riding with him, because “the more people are out riding, the more fun it is,” he said.

He found a junk sale of 50 bikes on craigslist.org, and followed the sale until the sellers were willing to give the bikes away for free.

“They went down to $100, then down to $50, then they just wanted to get rid of them,” Ganas said. “When we went to go pick them up, it took four truck loads, stuffed to the brim.”

Ganas cleaned and constructed a number of bikes from those original 50, building about three bikes every two weeks, he said. He eventually sold all of the bikes, but he ended up with something even more valuable — experience and passion.

“I have a passion for 10-speeds, single-speed and fixed-gear bikes,” Ganas said. “I can relate to them. They’re the main bikes I ride. I like to stick to alleycat races. All bikes interest me, but my heart belongs to alleycats.”

Since 1990, urban cyclists have organized informal races known as alleycats, which have grown to international status. Now, the North American Cycle Courier Championship alleycat race draws cyclists from cities across the United States and Canada.

“I like alleycats because it’s an amazing rush,” Ganas said. “It’s a check-point race through the city. You start at the beginning of the manifest. In some races you do the check-points in order, and some you can do in any order.”

Cyclists native to the competition town have a significant home-court advantage, Ganas said, especially if the race is held in an any-order format. Familiarity with alleyways and cut-through routes allow competitors to shave precious seconds off of their times to completion.

“The whole point is to mimic messenger riding,” Ganas said.

Through the years, Ganas has become one of the fastest alleycat racers in the nation. He placed 15th in the 2012 race, held in Richmond, Va., May 24-28, earned 27th in the 2011 race in Austin, and rushed to 23rd in Atlanta in 2010.

Ganas and his circle of fellow racers have made a name for themselves in the alleycat community. Others know it’s going to be a heated race “when the Valdosta boys show up,” he said.

Apart from knowing the city, success in alleycats comes with a particular riding strategy that emphasizes an awareness of one’s surroundings that goes beyond stopping at every traffic light.

“It’s all about paying attention,” Ganas said. “It’s like a game of chess; you get to where you can see a crosswalk signal and know when the traffic light is about to turn yellow.”

Manipulating traffic can improve a competitor’s time, and many times, safety is a matter of predicting the movements of motorists and steering clear, he said.

“I like to think if I’m staying out of everyone’s way, I’m doing good,” Ganas said about drivers. “It’s not a matter of how drivers affect you; it’s a matter of how not to affect them.”

When this zen-like awareness fails to earn an advantage, race tactics come into play. In an effort to keep up, Ganas sometimes attempts to identify the fastest rider with the best knowledge of the city and follows that rider, hoping not to be led in the wrong direction, he said.

Ganas has found his niche in alleycat racing, partly because daily urban commuting has become a lifestyle for him, but he enjoys many other styles of riding, he said.

He rides with the Azalea City Cyclists, a local adult and family cycling club; the Valdosta Tri Sport triathlon club; and Valdosta State University’s club, Blazer Cycling.

Ganas will tear up a trail on a mountain bike or go the distance on long road rides, and he has visited Atlanta to check out track cycling on the velodrome, a closed cycling track with banked turns. Track racing is performed on a fixed-gear bike with no brakes, with the rider’s feet strapped to the pedals.

However, while Ganas can hold his own with many riders, he feels most at home on an urban bicycle.

“When I’m riding with the ACC, 75 percent of them are faster than me on the long, straight rides,” Ganas said. “But when it comes to riding in a city, we know how to handle it.”

For more on this story and other local news, subscribe to The Valdosta Daily Times e-Edition, or our print edition.