The vintage electric garage is tucked into a dusty armpit of the San Jose airport, fronted by old bay trees and sycamores. The facility is unmarked, as shops with the word “electric” in their name are a target for burglars, founder Andrew Davidge explains.

Each week, the 23-year-old Davidge and his small team construct and ship upwards of 10 of their retro-looking bikes, which can be pedaled manually as well as propelled up to 25 mph by an electric motor.

The bikes resemble a cross between a beach cruiser and the early 20th century board track racer, which were essentially bicycles with V-twin motor mounted onto them. The board track bikes served as inspiration for Davidge—both aesthetically and in terms of craftsmanship.

He estimates that a Vintage Electric e-bike will last “hundreds of years, if you take care of it.” His bikes have no plastic parts and hand-welded, powder-coated frames. The only exposed metal components are hard-to-corrode aluminum and stainless steel. The Vintage Electric’s battery casing is sand cast at the hundred-year-old Kearney Foundry, right next to Diridon Station.

Vintage Electric’s bespoke production comes with a price. Both the original E-Tracker and the recently introduced Cruz models cost $4,995—well above the usual price point for an e-bike. But Davidge says the quality of his product is worth it and notes that his company is currently backed up on orders.

“Usually an e-bike company is someone that sees a market and finds a Chinese supplier to make something that’s cheap and easy to get and won’t last for more than a year or two,” Davidge says.

The company began as a friendly competition between Davidge and one of his buddies. While studying at West Valley College, Davidge and his friend set out to see who could build the better gas-powered bike. The project soon went electric, and Davidge decided to use it as the basis for a business model in one of his classes. From there it became yet another Silicon Valley startup story. Davidge dropped out of school, found some good business mentors, got a loan from his parents and wha-bam—Vintage Electric is turning out quality e-bikes one garage over from a group of DIY drone enthusiasts.

Makers like these occupy garages all over the South Bay, and Davidge hopes to eventually start something like an industrial incubator for projects like his.

“That’s kind of my end goal, to have an incubator—not for the software side of things, but for toys,” he says. “I love toys. I can’t get enough of them. It’s like bicycles, motorcycles, cars. I think people need that in their lives.”