Sting-Ray by Schwinn, the bike that changed cycling - Life in America
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- Опубліковано 29 вер 2024
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Had mine in the early seventies when I was about ten years old. That's when Evel Knievel was doing his motorcycle jumping and stunts. My friends and I would jump our Sting Rays off of dirt pile ramps and also ride wheelies as far as we could. The beating those bikes took was an excellent testimony to Schwinn quality.
An old sheet of plywood and some cinder blocks and we were Evel too!
Oh, yeah!! Yep
Our thing was jumping metal trash cans , laid on their side, with our Sting-Rays. You had to jump at least one can to have respect with the other kids. In that moment , you literally were "Evel Knievel". Evel was our biker Hero/God.
I did 2 cans once, and that was scary.
I heard of older kids jumping 5 cans, but I think that was done with bigger bikes. Most I saw jumped on a Sting-Ray was 3 , saw a couple kids crash trying to jump 3, as well. One kid broke his arm. The other got scabbed up pretty good.
Oh yea, one last thing from that era,, "Channel Locks and a Crescent Wrench" LOL -American made of course.
Then BMX bikes came along and Sting-Rays were gone.
One of the happiest days of my life, Christmas morning 1969, seeing the most beautiful magenta Sting-ray with my name on it! I'm 57 now, if I had that bike right now I'd jump on it and pop a wheelie!
Oh Yeah!!!
I rode countless wheelie miles.
But, I'm your age and I don't see any more wheelies in my future. Fart.
Hey man I miss my ole Delux but I decided to build my own. I found a Tony Hawk BMX frame someone was throwing out that has a very interesting wire brushed look and I've been collecting pieces ... found some 20" rims with real spokes on a kids bike I bought for $20. Bought a new banana seat and chrome fenders and white walls. Still got a ways to go but when it's done it will be fun to tool around in. After all...the Stingray was the first BMX bike.
@@20alphabet I rode mine in the forest all the time so it was a pretty decent mountain bike too. Actually come to think of it it was a pretty decent all around bike.
S K Are you sure it was 1969? I am 2 years older than you and was 8 years old in 69. If you were six, I think a sting-ray was too big for you. I did not get a banana-bike until 1973 when I was 12. Just wondering. No offence.
@@Brvnkaerv yep, I was six. However I do remember that my bike felt big at first, had to stretch my toes to reach the pedals
I had the one with the giant shifter on the cross bar. Go ahead and call me a Boomer. We had it all and I will be glad I don't have to face the future.
Those where the days my friend I hope they never end, those were the days!
I had the green Stingray with the 5-speed shifter on the frame. Rode that bike for years!!!
Yep. Got a green one like in the thumbnail at Christmas 1973 when I was 7. Great memories. Had a Big Wheel too 🤣
Why are you all saying 5 speed?
They were 3 speed.
Did they have 5 speed in the 60s and 3 speed in the 70s?
Also it didn't have the springer frontend. Which is what the video showed.
But I remember the slick back tire.
Ok just seen another video which explain my confusion.
His bike was a fastback
They didn't have the spring front, front wheel is a 20" and its a 3 speed.
@@baddog9320 my Stingray had a 5-speed gear shifter on the center bar/frame. I remember going up hills and my leg hitting the shifter and changing into the higher gear by accident.
@@baddog9320 '66 first year of fastbacks w/5spds.!
I remember having a Schwinn bike with a Banana Seat and the high Handlebars. This was in the late 1960's, and the early 1970's. I was in junior high school at the time. I was also in my early teens at the time.
In the late 60’s I had saved my allowance and asked anyone that came to visit if I could have their pocket change. I finally had enough money (50.00) for my beautiful pea metallic sting ray schwinn with white banana seat. I’m 63 years old now and I still think about all the fun I had riding my bike everywhere. I felt so free and happy riding my bike with my friends. Those were truly the good old days
My wonderful Aunt Elda bought me my first bike when I was six in 1962. It was a 20" standard model, black with chrome fenders. That was the year before the Stingray came out. Since I had the basic frame for a Sting Ray, my Aunt helped me build my own Sting Ray by purchasing the banana seat, sissy bar, and high rise handle bars for my base model. Because of my Aunt Elda, I have some of the best memories from my childhood starting with the selflessness of her character and the Schwinn she bought for me. That bike meant everything to me. I loved it like no other and my Auntie Elda too.
High handle bars, banana seat, cool colors. Man, all a kid in the sixties could want ( except for that cute little girl in 5th grade who scared the you know what out of a guy!)
Second grade and I ran slow enough so that she could catch me 😏😏
My 5th birthday so it must have been 1971, my dad handed me a string and told me to follow it. It looped around thru the kitchen, living room and out the door to the garage. The other end was tied to my new green Schwinn Stingray. Best bike ever! I wish I still had it.
I Loved my Schwinn Sting-Ray. Rode it every summer day when I was in grade school.
I had a gold stingray as a kid. Later I welded a set of forks on mine. That made it look like a chopper. Then I painted it shinny black. And then put my mom's Maytag motor on it. I was the envy of the neighborhood kids.
I love this channel!!!!!!!!
That bike changed everything when it came out. It made all others obsolete. We all had one. We used the parking lines in a nearby school parking lot for measuring wheelies.
My first bike was a Red Sting Ray with that famous Banana seat. I’ll never forget those days early 70s. Life was GOOD !
The Schwinn Varsity and Continental 10-speed's were all the rage in our hood. Fun to watch, thanks!
Never had a Stingray but I loved the "regular" ten-speed Schwinn I had as a kid. Rode that bike all over my neighborhood, to the library and anywhere else I wanted to go. A great bike, and a great time to be a kid.
Sadly, I never owned the Sting Ray back in the 60's as a kid. My parents got me a 3 speed Schwinn. But my grandma got me the worst bike ever!!! J.C. Higgins!!! When I would ride it the other kids would swarm around me and sing "J.C. Higgins fall apart, fall apart...". (to the tune of London Bridge is Falling Down). I did attach playing cards via clothespin to salvage whatever pride I had left.
I had late 60's, early 70's baseball cards in my spokes. I don't even want to think what that cost me, but it sounded cool!
Received a J.C. Higgins 24" bike when I was 5 years old for Christmas and rode the hell out of it using it for my paper route 6 years later. Went through countless tires and tubes but that bike was tough.
I had one back in the 60's, when I was a kid. One time, I was showing off, pulling the handlebars to lift the front wheel off the ground, doing a "wheelie". I looked as the front wheel went off the forks, rolled behind me, the forks plunged into the blacktop road and I sailed over the handlebars. lol good times!
I did the exact same thing. hurt like hell.
I have a garage full of old Sting-Rays. Been collecting since the early 1990's. :)
What is the value of one today? I would say what's the average, but I'm sure there is no such thing.
Good for you, my ex has quite a few and I have 2 that need restoration
Back on Christmas 1966 I didn't get the Schwinn, but I got a knock-off beauty from Western Auto. Bright yellow with a white banana seat. My brother got the dark red one. For the first time in my life I could not wait for the Christmas break to end so that I could ride my new 'Sting Ray' to school. Those were great times.
In grade school, I went to the Schwinn dealer and ordered a purple Sting Ray with a springer front end, box handlebars instead of the ape hangers, a saddle instead of the banana seat, slick rear tire, and the two-speed rear axle that you changed gear by backpedaling about an eighth of a revolution. From then on, when I wasn't delivering newspapers, that bike spent about 70% of it's time on the rear wheel. I loved that bike.
I had 2. They were hand-me-down fixer uppers but I loved them.
First was a yellow girls bike with the high bars and the Fastback Tire and the yellow banana seat. Single speed w coaster brake.
2nd was a boys bike single-seat knobby tires and a 3 speed rear hub with a throttle shifter. Coaster brake and a front brake also.It was heavy but I could jump it with the best of them. I had a full set of California lite pads on it. Loved that bike. My dad who is no longer with us got it for me when I was 9. Miss him daily.
Thank you for making this cool video.
I got a Stingray for my 10th birthday in 1969. A beautiful purple metallic frame with a purple and white banana seat. I loved that bike. Coaster brakes, baseball cards with wooden clothes pins holding them in the spokes and eventually the ability to pop a great wheelie. I also learned how and became comfortable with riding with no hands. Eventually when I was 14, my parents bought me another Shwinn 3-speed bike with hand brakes. A really great quality bike. I don't think I would trust the bikes sold at Target or Walmart though.
I have my dad's. He was born in 1924. Hae said he had it when he was young. Don't know what year it is. But it has a spring on the forks. Great video. Brought back a lot of memories.
Our youngest brother, Russell, was given one of these for Christmas to replace the bike that had been stolen. (Or so Russ thought!). Dad “bikenapped” it and was working on its transformation from our eldest cousin’s 1950’s Roadmaster Schwinn to the 1972 model! The sturdy frame was kept and repainted neon yellow. Everything else was new parts, tires, chain crank, “banana” seat with tall back, high rise handlebars with flame colored streamers trailing from the hand grips, with caliper brakes, a three gear shift lever on the bar, this new bike was unrecognizable from the original. Russ himself didn’t believe it until for many years.
Well I still have my 1967 Gold Stingray Fastback 5 speed. I always kept it inside and covered up with a blanket. Still looks great.
When I was old enough for a real bicycle the most popular one for boys was the venerable Huffy Thunder Road. That was 1977, I had never heard of a Schwinn. I didn't get the Huffy, I got the Sears version. The first Schwinn I saw was a BMX bike that one of my childhood buddies got in the early 80's. That old Sears bike took me where I wanted though.
Schwinn 10 speeds always had that sparkly tape on there handle bars.
I learned how to ride on a stingray when I was three years old. I've still got that bike and I'll never get rid of it. I still ride it at least once a year.
My 1967 sting-ray was gold, my brother had a red and white one, my sister had a pink one.
I got the lime green Sting Ray with banana seat and high handle bars with of course the slick racing tire on the back for my 12 b-day back in 1964 . Spent the summer pulling wheelies 2-3 hours a day until it got to dark to see . Great times for sure . I think it cost about 65 bucks. Great vid, lots of good memories.
Loved my Sting-Ray with the banana seat...
Ditto.
Growing up, my brother and I always has Schwinn biks. Back in the dy, they were considered pricey, but you got what you paid for.
Still have the scar on my knee from the shifter / brake 🥺😉
I had one in the late 80s with the banana seat all the way down. Bought it for 12 bucks at a yard sale. Thought I was the coolest
I had a 1969 Blue “Stingray”….Greatest Bike Ever….
Back in the 70s my Dad (and Mom) bought me a brand new blue schwinn bicycle. All the kids in my neighborhood asked me if it was my birthday. I said no and I was getting it without any special occasion. I didn't understand until years later how wonderful and unusual that was for them to just go out and buy me one just because I didn't have one.💕
I wanted a Sting-Ray but my dad thought the Black Typhoon was better. Looking back, the Typhoon looked like the first 'off-road' bike. It was heavy and the tires were thick. It was painted black. Then they got me a 3 speed and I loved that bike until it....passed away. I too enjoyed riding my bike all over San Francisco, Golden Gate Park, Fort Point, etc. Oh, the memories of a time long ago...60 years ago.
I had a Huffy cheater slick 3, it was orange and black, 3 speed, rear wheel was a red line slick, loved the banana seat. Rode the heck out of it. Toy's R us sold it, Sears sold a AM battery radio that mounted on the handle bar.
Never owned a Schwinn, but do remember their bike shops. I used to walk past a shop when I'd walk to the grocery store for my mother. That was about 1969. I loved looking at all the bikes outside on display, but my parents just couldn't afford them. I did eventually own a banana seat bike, but not a Schwinn. They were considered a luxury bike during the late 60s and early 70s.
Now made in China? What, a "Chwinn"? What is this sorcery?! Absolute blasphemy! 😂
Do we make anything here anymore???
@@MrTmac1951 Sure we do... guitars, amplifiers, guns... you name it.
@@MrTmac1951 Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm let me think..
@@scottdunn2178 who makes amplifiers here? I bought one at Best Buy a few months ago and I was told they are all made in Wuhan.
@@timmmahhhh Good Lord, the list is endless; Dr. Z, Friedman, Fuchs, Mesa Boogie, just to name a few. Do a Google search for American Amplifier Companies. Yes, a lot of manufacturers less expensive amp lines will be made in China, but some of these amps actually aren't bad (I just bought a Stage Right SB20 50w tube head for $399, and it sounds great).
My first bike was my dad's old Schwinn Tornado. It wasn't flashy like those kids bikes but it did have that "World" badge on the front tube.
The Schwinn Sting-Ray hit our neighborhood like a firestorm. It's all anyone was talking about. After my dad's old bike was stolen from the bike rack at the pool, I got Sears Spyder, a Sting-Ray knock-off. It was magenta, with the drag slick rear tire and flared rear fender.
I always thought that big shift lever on the top tube was dangerous. We build jumping ramps for our bikes and looked out for such hazards. I was glad mine didn't have that.
I remember that Schwinn had an assembly factory in the Northwest Industrial Park in Chicago in the 1980s locate near Chicago Ave. and Cicero Ave. in Chicago. I used to cut through the industrial park on my way to work at the Chicago and North Western's M19-A Diesel facility located at Pulaski and Lake St. in Chicago. I loved Schwinn bikes as a kid growing up in the 1960s but my parents never bought me one. I did get an off-brand knock-off of the Stingray though for my birthday. I also owed a Schwinn bike as an adult but I am sure it was probably made in China by then.
My parents never bought me a Schwinn... I built mine from parts traded from friends and bought at the swap meet, a few parts from the local bike shop in Huntington Park CA in the 60s and early 70s. I had the cool banana seat, tallest sissy bar with a diamond shaped back rest pad, straight bar tall Apple Krate handle bars and long chrome front fork extensions! Of course it had a rear slick and I wore out many of those! My friend Bruno had an Apple Krate that he let me ride occasionally... I still thought mine was cooler because I had long front chopper like forks and the tall sissy bar! It was great time to be alive! As I got older and too tall to ride a 16" (High School) I built a Schwinn 10 speed from parts too. Once in a while I would borrow (without permission) my Dad's Schwinn 15 speed racing bike... he still has that bike. In the 80s I got into Schwinn Beach Cruisers... built and rode a few of those too. I used to ride from Anaheim to Newport Beach or Huntington Beach carrying my Boogie board and a towel.... a long trip but worth it every time.
Schwinn was the best until they were bought by the Chinese investors.
I wanted a Stingray so much but my parents bought me a bike called the Spyder instead , I don’t remember who made it and I’ve looked online and seen similar bikes but they aren’t quite right. My bike was a coaster brake, it had the handle bars like a Stingray but the seat was not a true banana seat it was boxier on the back and flipped up a bit. The seat also had a “quilted” like design and was sparkly,dark magenta with a glitter like look. I rode it everywhere in my hometown of New Canaan Connecticut.
Great times 🥳
I remember taking a cloths pin and a playing card and fastening it to the rear wheel. When the spokes brushed against the card it sounded like an exhaust from a motorcycle,
The Apple krate bike is my favorite. I still look at them on line I never had one but boy did I want one I still think back if I had one.to this day riding it all over
Mine was orange with brown seat. Loved it.
My dad traded a worn-out gas lawn-mower for my ninth birthday present in 1964. A thirty-five pound standard Schwinn boys model bike with 32 inch knobby tires and a spring-suspended front-fork... the fore-runner to later 'mountain-bikes'. It was geared so high that I had 25 inch thighs by the time I was a high-school sophomore.
My parents bough me a Schwinn Sting-Ray Deluxe in 1965. The bike was kinda too big for me but I threw a fit and didn't want a bike if I couldn't have that one (it was orange). I rode the thing until I turned 14 and they bought me a Kent 10 speed. I wish I still had it now.
Late 60s, early 70s. Wasn't allowed in my grandmother's back bedroom. What WAS that weird shaped thing under the sheet?? My lovely green bike with the blue/green glittery banana seat! Got a flowery basket for the handlebars and used to ride my poodle everywhere in it!!
In the early 70's me and a few friends were trying to ride our bikes backwards, you know where you sit on the handlebars and pedal backwards, facing backwards. This old man came out ( probably 65 or so) as he was tired of our attempts. He said let me try, he grabbed one of our bikes, and the first try, maybe only dabbing a foot once, he rode to the end of a city block and back like that. We didn't know if we were impressed or ashamed of our own attempts. Anyway that era was a great time to be alive.
I had 2 Schwinn's in the 1960's. My first was a regular fast back with the add on wheelie bar that someone stole. The second was a Ram Horn fast back.
04:15 Mine was dark green, banana seat, shifter, and RAM’S HORNS HANDLEBARS! I’m 64 now, and wish my parents were still alive so I could tell them how that bike changed my life…
Sting-Rays were after the time of my childhood but I sure do remember owning at least three wonderful Schwinn's in the 1950's one of which was a red Corvette with chrome fenders. They were a top quality bicycle made in America!
It was the bice I learned to ride back in 1972 !
In the 60's I had a Schwinn 5 speed stingray bike. I rode that bike so much my leg muscles were out of proportion in size than the rest of my body.
Christmas of 71 I was in the first grade and I got my first "real" bicycle. It was a red Sting Ray. I put a lot of miles on that bicycle.
Only the rich kids had Schwinns . We had Kmart and Sears bikes but we were perfectly happy.
I remember when stingray style was brand new. So popular at first - hard to find assembled at the store. So my friend's dad bought one in a box and assembled it. My buddy was showing off in the parking lot outside Alpha Beta grocery store and did the classic "popping a wheelee" thing these bikes could do so easily. The front wheel fell off (guess dad didn't tighten) and he came down on the front forks on the asphalt & flipped / roadburgerd out pretty bad. Kind of funny in retrospect, epic fail.
My first bike was a bmx schwinn from the 80s. It had a coaster brake .
The Stingrays came out in 63' but I don't remember the popularity growing until around 66 or 67'.
Late 60s Dad bought one for me which had 3 internal gears, front and rear hand brakes, gold with flecks, and white banana seat with gold flecks. Did not see that one here.
Always wanted a Schwinn Krate but I got a Rollfast Scoot. I still want that Krate and because of that I treat myself to any toy I want.
I had a blue Sing Ray back in the early 70s. I now have a blue Schwinn mountain bike.
Notice the balloon tire model with the drum type hub brake on the front wheel. The brake lever is on the right side of the handle bars. This is still the rule in Europe but for some reason it changed to the left side in the US at some time. Every body knows that if you use the front brake you will fly over the handle bars.
Metallic green with Moto-cross grips. I loved that bike and almost died when I realized it had been stolen off my front yard.
It was the combination of a Stingray and Evil Kenival that made for the best Saturday mornings.
my dad built me a krate from spare parts he got from several flee markets. it was a very cool bike
We used clothes pins and playing cards to hit the spokes while riding to make the noise like an engine on a motorbike 😁
I wanted a Stingray as a lad. My Dad bought me an AMF Roadmaster instead. I was devastated...until my Roadmaster went undefeated against those swarms of Stingrays in our weekly bike war battles. They never stood a chance. Thanks Dad
Schwinn was a longtime sponsor on Captain Kangaroo.
“Remember kiddies, Schwinn bikes, the quality bikes, are BEST..”
My Brother had one but, after years of patch work, and remodeling...it eventually fell apart. Sad! lol
I had a Collegiate with 5 speed durelleurs. My younger brother got the Sting Ray, but my memory is that it had same size wheels (20"), but with the stick shift on the top bar, but was it a 3 speed hub shifter? I just have a strong memory that my bike was "better" because it had more speeds (and also the durailleurs however they're spelled). Anyway, the doc sort of skips over the initial design of the Sting Ray in 1962-3 to the Crate design in 1968. Our bikes would have been gotten around 1967-8.
Okay, just checked and it sure looks like yeah, they did do a hub shifter model with dual 20 " wheels.
Still have my 69 orange krate. Needs major restoration. One day I’ll get to it. I’ve had it since 71
As a kid , we used to swap (trade) stuff . I got my five speed from a neighbor who was older and had got a 10 speed for his birthday . He showed me how to cut the forks off a donor bike and make it a chopper . "Just be sure to weld them on before you poppa wheelie " he told me .
This was the beginning of a new thing , Trying to be cool and get girls .
I had a stingray, lime green, white seat, two speed. Now here I am 65 coming up fast and I miss my stingray
there’s still people like me out here restoring them to look like they just came off the assembly line
When these came out I already had a bike and my parents didn't think I needed another one :(.
I think they thought it was a passing fad. Well begging for one for my birthday, then again 7 months later at Christmas did me no good. But when my birthday rolled around again and they said what did I want, i said just that banana bike. Well they gave in and I got my bike :). Still vividly remember it 50 years later. Road that thing everywhere, my poor old bike grew dust, so my dad gave it away. I had a green one and one of my friends got a red one.
We’ll keep an eye out for ya Stingray
We didn't have Schwinns..We had Western Auto BUZZ bikes..my parents had four of us kids ..so they bought us All New Bikes from W A ...
Evil Knievel had a lot to do with the sale of these bikes also. As always children especially little boys will emulate what they see on TV.
The stingray style of a bike was much easier to jump with.
I also find it very ironic that Schwinn dropped the ball for the BMX thing, seeing as the stingray was truly the precursor to the BMX bike.
I remember mine well!
I remember I had the 3 speed with the shifter in the middle and my cousin had the 5 speed with the shifter in the middle
I clicked because I recognized my childhood bike. Anyone remembers the plastic pole+flag on the bikes back then?
I can't find it now but someone said on this comment section that if we saw kids today out riding bikes they would-be in our way!!?? Well not to me... When I see a kid on a bike-- I will wave to them I have even pulled over to tell them I think they are pretty cool to be riding a bike instead of cooped up in their house... yeah I'm 63 year old lady... I can see adults riding bikes all the time in their fancy Duds lol but I love to see kids on any kind of bikes- scooters- skateboards I like to see them out there like I used to be-- on my blue metallic Stingray... just being a kid...
Mine was the British racing green Stinger... without the stick shift, unfortunately. Great bike though, never ever a problem w/ it except the gas attendant that filled my tire blew the tube - - 15 mins. later he repaired it and I was on my way on my BAD-ASS, Banana seat Stingray.
Boy when I was kid did I want one of these . Got a cheap knockoff , wasn't near as well made as the Schwinn.
My first bicycle. Mine was yellow.
I had a 12spd Traveler and rode the shit outta it...ah great times🥰
Why don't they sell these bike's today, kid's loved them.
I have an Orange Krate. Original and unrestored. Should be on eBay in a few days.
First bike was a Stingray in 1966 .Those were the days.
The bike had a great run for about 10 years , but by 1973 , after Greg LeMond won the Tour the France , the 10 speed became the bike to own ...that fad ended with the introduction of the off road 10 speed bike
I have one a purple one my grandpa is the original owner too
Still got 2, 5 speed “fastback”
stingrays...paid $25.00 for 1... years ago..
My parents bought my brother a grey ghost. They made a big deal about it. I got a bike at the same time, but it was not a Schwinn. A big deal was not made about it though it served well.
I had a spitfire ,wore it out then a stingray ...gave to younger brother and he broke its frame 2 x places playing evil canveil
I had a Stingray and then a Lemonpealer
I never had a Schwinn when I was a kid. :(