Maybe o/t,but---Tell your story!!

Saw this in the L.A. Times today---all you guys--and girls that had Sting Rays, what color, and were they "stock"? I had a green one,with a slick!Who's next???


http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-al-fritz-20130510,0,7472254.story

 

My story about Sting Rays???
Jealosy!!
One friend had a Orange Crate and another had a Bannana Peeler.
I had a Sears bike...

 

Bruttal!

 

My parents did what they could but I never had a Sting Ray bicycle,,they couldn't afford it although I thought Santa was gonna bring me one in the early 60's.

My dad found a used Black Phantom from the 50's repainted and swapped a local sign painter a gallon of paint to stripe the bike.

That's what I found Christmas morning,,,was I disappointed? heck no,,,,I loved that bike. HRP

 

Too soon???
I am serious when I say I loved that guy.

 

Grew up out side of Philia in the early '60's. My Dad did a lot of travelling to Los Alamos, NM and Los Angeles for work and saw a bunch of kids riding 20 inch bikes with ape hanger bars. He bought a set and brought them back as carry on luggage (try that now). Needless to say I was the coolest kid around with those bars - long before anyone had a sting ray. Just one of the cool things my Dad did for me that I never appreciated at the time.

 

Whatchu mean maybe?

 

Christmas 1971. Under the Christmas tree sat two Schwinn Sting Rays. My brother and I cheered. I had an "Orange Krate" and my brother had a "Lemon Peeler". Then we realized that since we lived in upstate New York, we'd have to wait a while till the first thaw to ride them. That bike was the only gift we got that year and it didn't matter. We invited our friends over to look at them, but they couldn't sit on them. "Not in the house!" became my mothers mantra.

By spring two other kids had them "Cotton Picker" and "Apple Krate". We formed a club. "The Little Wheels Club" because of the small front wheel on the bike. One day our dad told us someone had told them we had formed a gang. We laughed our asses off.

Years later, my dad told us those two bikes were the result of him making Master Sargent USAF. 1973 was possibly the best year of my life.

 

my first (banana seat ) bike in 1968 was a amf renegade in copper
(just like a Schwinn) so my parents said
my second bike came from sears with a 20 in rear and a 16 inch front
(just like a Schwinn) so my parents said
after it got stolen I got a five speed from Montgomery Wards with a 24inch rear
and a 20 inch front ...(just like a Schwinn)...
fast forward 35 years ...
my son saw the add for the Orange County Chopper Stingray and said "dad" please
and I remembered how much I always wanted a Schwinn ...
his birthday was coming so I headed down to the store to get one to find out they were selling out as fast as they came in with people buying out the entire stores shipment and flipping them on ( evil bay ) for double or even triple the selling price
I called the stores manager the next day and he told me he was getting 10 more the next day and that he would hold one for me when I got there the next morning to pick it up the stock room guy said that they were sold out I asked to see the manager who said he would hold one for me...
turned out the warehouse guy was buying all the bikes at employee discount and
and re selling them he got fired and I got my son a STINGRAY!!!!
when it was time for my daughter to move up to a real bike she wanted the retro bike she saw in a magazine ... a (fair lady) with the banana seat with flowers on it and the tall handlebars this time thank god for (evil bay) and scored one for $50 bucks
so when I turned 40 my mother asked me what I wanted for my birthday I said
that I wanted a Schwinn bike with spring on the front that you never could afford when I was a kid (she laughed)
she told go down to the bike shop and pick one out and tell how much !Yaaaa!!!
well when she heard that the Black Phantoms cost $600 I had to get out her (nitro) pills
I told her I didn't expect her to spend more on a bicycle than I did for my first car
so my dreams were shattered again...
3 weeks later I was at a garage sale and what was in the corner of the garage...
a Schwinn cruiser from the 80's that looked like it had never been ridden when I asked how much she replied that that was her husbands bike and she didn't think he wanted to sell it but I asked to ask him anyway ...
when he said $100 bucks thinking I would say forget it I said here's $50 for a deposit ill be back in 10 minuets with the rest and where was the closest ATM?
my kids have out grown their stingrays but I have them mothballed for their kids
I even saved the box the O.C.C. bike came in just in case it will add to the value some day

so that my kids wont have to say (its just like a Schwinn) their kids will have them

 

Periods, please.

 

I had a Sting Ray,it was fuel-injected,with two cheater slicks

 

I turned six in 1971, and that morning when I woke up I found a brand new olive green metallic junior Sting Ray waiting for me! I loved that bike. It was never as flashy as the Orange Krates, Apple Krates and such, but how cool! I still love that color, too. When we moved to Phoenix in '73, the latest rage was bicycle motocross and it got stripped of it's fenders and banana seat and went racing. I rode it competitively until about '76 when I worked at the family's business long enough to afford a new "lightweight" first gen Mongoose.

Best part though is when I bought Miss Judy a classic ladies Silver King bike about 7 years ago, she admitted that in Hong Kong she never learned to ride a bike... Sting Ray to the rescue! I picked up a '78 in red and dropped the seat so she could touch both feet and she took to it like a duck in water. I still pull it off the wall and ride long wheelies and jump it around a bit to this day! I guess I could say that a Sting Ray was my first hot rod...

 

I get the distinct impression that shinysideup did not have a Stingray...lol.

I didn't have one. I had a red standard 20" Schwinn...that I had beat the heck out of. The fenders and chain guard were long gone, and the threads in the tires were showin' through. One of my classmates had one though...lime green with the slick and a stickshift. He was pretty good athletically...but I was no slouch either. About 1966...we must've been about 9 years old...when one summer day, here he comes riding down the middle of the street in front of our house. I was riding my pos up and down the sidewalk...that's what Mom had limited me to most of the time. He said, "Let's race." I said, "But I can't go in the street." He said, "That's ok...we can still race." Ok...123 go! Whew...you shoulda seen me pedallin'!!!..just as fast as my legs would go. I had to beat this guy. And I did. Beat him by half a length. His response..."Hey, pretty good." He rode off and I took "ol' red" home, let 'er cool down, and had a little rest myself too...lol.
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I got an Orange Crate for my birthday from my Uncle Mom & Dad couldn't afford a bike like that! But I had to cut my Uncles grass the whole summer, yeah what a DEAL! Wish things were so easy now!

 

I have had 3 Sting Rays, a 65,a 72 and a 73. Too old to have had the two wheel kind.

 

me too , had a slick

 

I had a yellow one with a slick till my son popped it, then I couldn't find a new slick..

 

Of course being a kid in the 60's I wanted one. When I was 9 my rich kid next door neighbor got one so I really wanted one. Even though I'm sure he could afford it my Dad didn't buy me one. Instead he took me over to my uncle's house where there sat a very used and abused 20" Schwinn bike. Turned out this Schwinn was one my Dad had bought my older brother brand new for Christmas 1949 but had gotten passed to my cousin. We took the bike, on the way home we stopped at the Schwinn store and Dad bought all new bearings, chain and a silver flake banana seat, some high rise handle bars, shorty rear fender and new tires including a rear slick and a couple cans of "Schwinn approved" purple metalflake spray paint. Got home and Dad said get to work, I'll teach you how to build it. When I finished it I couldn't been more proud of it if it was a brand new one. Wonder why I got into this buisness of rebuilding old cars, huh Dad!

 

My 2 Schwinn crates. Both are un-restored originals. The apple was in a loft for 25 years. The ornage was not that lucky. Enjoy

 

There was a long thread on this top some time ago. I accidently killed it (closed) when I said there were listed on the greedybay. There are all gone now. But, I found a Junior Stingray on Clist. It may start all over again.

 

I always wanted one (too)

But got a Sears one (too)

At least I was spared the (just like a Schwinn) pep talk

Then I saw my first extended forks chopper bike with a steering wheel outside the liquor store in Skyline Shopping Center...

Guess what I wanted then.

 

My first stingray was a violet schwinn stingray delux. Of course the first thing I did was take off the fenders. Schwinn frames were supposed to be unbrakeable but after lots of jumps I managed toget a crack in my frame. Took it back to the shop and they replaced the whole bike with a new one.

 

Here is a picture of my current Sting Ray on the day it came home. I replaced the seat with a clean repro and threw some new tires at it... Not a slick though. Any body price those lately?!

 

I always wanted one, but I always ended up with hand me down Western Flyers and Kmart specials.

This is the '68 Schwinn Orange Krate I bought about 20 years ago:





This is the '68 Sears Screamer 3 speed that I bought at a second hand store about 15 years ago. The Screamer is brand new and was never ridden:

 

I vividly remember seeing a '63 split-window for the very first time .... I was thirteen years old (1963) and my friend Jimmie's dad bought it on a whim ... that guy had too much money.

My second big adventure concerning Stingrays ... I recently met and spent most of the day with Peter Brock ... of course ANY Stingray affectionado knows who Peter is.

 

Man I wanted one of those StingRays! Problem was my dad was a Ford man and there was no way he was going to get me anything that was anyway related to Chevrolet. I remember all my buddys comin over and parking there candy colored stingrays in my drive way next to my old "beater" 26 in Schwinn Speedster along side my dads brand new 1965 Mustang, 289, three by the knee, Duals with glasspacs, Burgandy with a white interior. I guess it must have finally got to my Dad seeing all those "Stingrays" parked in our driveway because one day after school me and my buds rode into my driveway and sitting there was the baddest bike I had ever seen! It was a 20in ,like those other bikes, but this one was a little different. It was Burgandy with a white tuck and roll banana seat and white hand grips, rear slick, and ape hangers. However when we got around to looking at the chain guard, there it was, just like the kind on my dads 65, in shiney chrome script,......... Mustang! My dad had built me a bike like no other!

 

The 1st one I saw was a kid on another block that I went to school with. His family was poorer than mine and they had a dilapidated Allstate (Henry J) in the garage. Had to be 1963, I recall the cost was $49, waaaaayyyy out of my league.

Luckily we were resourceful kids and we made our own. My first was made from a Columbia frame and I slowly gathered Schwinn wheels and other parts. I saved for the banana seat and handlebars. I had it together and used to park it on my back patio.... came out one morning and it was gone!

My mom said the homeowners insurance paid her $20 for it, but I think she pulled the money out of her stash. I had to go through the whole process again, getting a frame and the other parts. But this time I could afford a knobby rear tire, Schwinn handle grips and paint. I think I still had $5 leftover when it was done. Painted it robins-egg blue. I spent weeks sanding it down to bare metal with strips of emery paper. I knew enough to prime it before I painted it.

But it taught me a lot of things, to come back from an adversity and how to be patient while gathering parts, helped a lot with my 1:1 cars as well.

Bob