"I like what I do," Frank Stites said.  "I like the people and just enjoy being here every day."

"We still do business the old-fashioned way," Stites said.  "We sell a tire that's mounted, balanced, and stemmed with no extra fees."  Many retailers add these costs on top of the tire price and may even sell road-hazard insurance, which adds up quickly, he said.  "I think people want to know how much it's going to be upfront."

Stites said he founded the business with his wife Betty, who is currently treasurer and secretary, in '54 as a tire retreading operation.  As passenger tire retreading fell to the wayside, the couple became a tire retailer and eventually added undercar maintenance and repair.

Today's mix of undercar maintenance and repair--alignment, suspension, and brakes--accounts for 60 percent of sales, Stites said, while tires make up the other 40 percent.

Tire technology has paralleled the technology advancements found in vehicles, he said, adding that the tires of today typically have a 50,000-mile lifetime, compared to 20,000-25,000 miles in the past.

"We don't sell a cheap line of tires, it's not worth it," Stites said.  "I found over the years that if you sell cheap tires, that's where your complaints will come from.  A cheap tire may look good but it doesn't wear well.

"We buy most of our tires from Foree Tire Distributors, who are a great group of people," Stites said.  There are so many good brands today, but he said he mainly looks at how the tire balances and what type of tread design it has.

"I think cars are becoming much more sophisticated and difficult to work on from a technical standpoint," Frank Stites said.  "But they're much better cars."

This year the Tread Act has come to fruition, a mandate that requires all vehicles built from 2007 to be equipped with tire pressure monitoring systems (TPMS).
This has definitely changed the way the shop conducts tire work, Mike Stites said, who has worked with his father for more than 40 years.

"You've got to be extremely careful," Stites said, because the expensive wheels sensors can be broken easily.  "The first time you break a sensor is the last."  A tire technician has to be cautious when mounting and demounting the tires because of the sensors usually found on the base of the valve stem, he said, adding that it can also be mounted on a strap.

Since the shop had to be equipped with a special tool to recalibrate the TPMS system, Stites said, he now charges $20 and up for tire rotations, depending on the vehicle and its TPMS.

A future service that Stites said he will offer is nitrogen tire inflation.  He said he's currently looking into purchasing a nitrogen generator.

A lot of customers come into the shop with their TPMS light on, Stites said, and it may be a case where a single tire is only down two and a half pounds of air.  With nitrogen, he said, tire pressure stays constant and won't trip the TPMS light as often.

Aside from servicing modern vehicles, the shop also has a group of classic cars it services.

It's not unusual to see a Packard, Duesenberg, Auburn, or Cord in the shop, Frank Stites said. Many come in for wheel alignments.  Longtime technician Ralph Sanders conducts these alignments using a Hunter alignment machine, he said.  Many of the special shims required to align the classics cars are manufactured by Specialty Products in Longmont, Colo., he added.

Stites said a lot of his customers have stuck with the shop over the years and are now senior citizens.  The trust he's built over the years with them still holds strong today.  "They want someone they can have confidence in," he said, "and we fit the bill."

Since the Stites have been doing business in the same neighborhood for so long, some of their customers are second-generation.  A few remember receiving giveaway footballs as children.

The Stites said they are active in the Wheat Ridge community and in local politics.  "You have to give back to the community what you take out," said Mike Stites, who currently serves as a Wheat Ridge councilman.  He said his father served five terms as mayor of Wheat Ridge from the '70s through the '80s.