Sting-Ray by Schwinn, the bike that changed cycling - Life in America
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- Опубликовано: 18 июн 2021
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Развлечения
When was the last time anyone saw a pack of 10-12 year olds on a Saturday afternoon all on their bicycles being carefree kids??? That would be as rare as a unicorn sighting these days.🦄🚲🤔
In my Humboldt Park neighborhood in Chicago, most kids & young adults ride anything from electric skateboards to miniature motorcycles or the occasional moped or electric scooters.
Too dangerous and un safe for kids to be doing that nowadays !
Sadly now they play Fortnite
@@bextar6365 That was kinda my point. Although there are other factors as well. Kids today aren't as physically active, nor do they have to go outside and "play" when their entertainment and socialization is conveniently at their fingertips.
@@SchardtCinematic No idea ????
Anyone else remember clipping playing cards to the spokes with a clothes hanger clip so you could sound like a chopper?
Yes I did that many times, sounded so cool.
I only used rookie cards for that because at the time
they were just unproven beginners.
@@harrybriscoe7948 Catfish Hunter? Never heard of him...
🤣
@@scottdunn2178 I heard the name
@@harrybriscoe7948 He was around at the same time as Pete Rose and those guys in the 70's.
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!
When I was five years old, in 1969...... on my birthday, I remember a van pulling up in front of our house and a man delivering a red Schwinn with a silver sparkle banana seat with red & white streamers on the handlebars. Loved it! 🚲
My seat sparkled too. It matched the color of the bike which was purple plum. The seat covers they used were thick and tough.
I got the same one for learning my abc’s 1969 mine came with training wheels..
mine was 7th bday 1973 {had a '70 Huffy previously that was stolen} that was red with black banana seat because my mom knew I loved my Georgia Bulldawgs so had to have the colors - PEACE LOVE n HIPPYNESS!
Every time I hear of a company moving operations to China, I immediately decide that’s not a product for me!
It's not even the same company. People bought the name.
The feame quality went down back then; nut by the 2000s and 2010s quality was bacl up with models like the Voyager. EXCELLENT bike with great gearing!
People like to blame China for all the cheap junk we have today. The fact of the matter is that it is American businesses that choose to have their products made in China as cheaply as possible.
It's a sad situation that keeps getting worse every year, making it harder and harder to find American made products.
Well, take the cost of today's bike and make it tens times what it is and you might have bikes made in the US. The trouble is that capitalism gets in the way when company execs will realize that they would be restricted to the North American market if anything at all, while "cheap imports" undercut them. Meanwhile, they would be thinking, "Hmm, if we manufacture in some low paying country, we can expand our market share to the world.
You got screwed by your own capitalist ideals + efficient modern shipping methods. It's why container ships are getting bigger and bigger. In fact, they've gotten so big the shipping companies have been forcing ports to dredge ever deeper to accommodate them.
Manufacturing is a dead donkey.
@@alainarchambault2331 It's not capitalism, it's the fraudulent fiat currency system corrupt politicians imposed on the country creating constant inflation, slowly killing profit and growth. Add unfair unbalanced trade deals, and you have desperate companies trying to stay afloat and eventually turning to overseas manufacturing for the cheep labor. Inflation has grown 2619% since 1913. Capitalism is great as long as you have real money, little to no inflation, and strictly balanced international trade.
Have the old home movies with the Schwinns under the Christmas Tree and us kids in PJ’s sitting on them. Great times.
Man that's Cool.
What a great time capsule of a time of joy and not a care in the world at that age
✌️😎
Been there too! Complete with Burt and Ernie slippers too! Lol
Matching Christmas Jammie's
Had a Schwinn Sting Ray as a young boy and some SOB stole it. I cried and my grandmother bought me a new one...Thanks, Granny (in Heaven)
By any chance did you live in Chicago. 🤣 If they just cut your chain it was a heartbreaker but sometimes these thugs would make you give it up. That was worse.
I could never own one when I was a kid in LA, I would keep getting robbed by gang members wanting to convert them to lowriders.
We couldn't afford a Schwinn so my dad, after pleading, bought me a Murray (which was the knockoff brand). After a few weeks some SOB stole it from the bike rack in front of our elementary school. This was the middle 1960's, in a beach siburb of LA with very little crime, and my introduction to the new liberal America that was starting to destroy the country. My dad eventually bought me another one with a bike lock, which I rigorously used. Just around this time the Watts riots occurred, a few blocks from my grandparent's house where my dad grew up. You could see the flames and smoke rising in the distance from their street. Within a couple of years almost everyone moved from their tiny houses in the working class, mostly Catholic, ethnic white and Latino neighborhood. Most often they changed from owning their own homes and land, no matter how small, to renting cheap apartments. They fled for their lives. My grandparents neighbor had his throat cut. If he hadn't been a tough Mexican he probably would have died, but he survived and moved. He, and my grandparents, died years before they should have from the stress and disruption of becoming refugees. Every time I hear or see a Schwinn bicycle I remember rhis.
@@brianmccarthy5557 So many A-holes, so few bullits!
That's heartbreaking. I grew up in a pretty suburban area where we all had bikes. Never any chance of theft. Left garage doors open & bikes on the front lawn. I remember my dad who grew up in the Bronx & probably never had a bike, hiding my brothers to teach him a lesson. Never said a word, just jumped on someone else's, there were 5 of us. He did like spoiling us. Anyway, NJ is getting too crowded so off we go across the river to PA. It was like stepping back in time. Never thought my sons first real bike would get stolen! He's the only kid on the street so everyone was on the lookout. No luck. Terrible feeling.
I loved Schwinn bikes growing up in the 70's.
I used to see Captain Kangaroo show them on his show in the early 1960s . He was also sponsored by Hostess and Kellogs . I remember a Lionell train he had stop for corn flakes milk and then sugar at different stations to make a bowl of corn flakes.
It was a simpler time glad I had a chance to live it! I think the 70s were the best part of my life
@@harrybriscoe7948 One of my favorite TV shows was YOU ASKED FOR IT sponsored by Skippy Peanut Butter, the host was ART BAKER.
My brother & I had 10 speeds. Varsity & the Continental.
I had the Sears version it was called a Spyder.
I remember being a young boy in the 60's and wanting a stingray bicycle. I took on a paper route to make enough money so I could buy me one. It was painted a gold color and was beautiful to me. I will always remember that bicycle. I worked and bought it myself.
Michael, I too got a route to buy my 1966 stingray, then I delivered papers with it. That was fun! I still have it in my garage. I ride it around the neighborhood once in a while. That banana seat is so darn uncomfortable! hahaha
Sadly, many kids today aren't taught to work for what they want.
These days most newspapers have adults with cars delivering papers instead of kids. Especially after some kids have met with untimely deaths getting kidnapped and mugged or murdered by creeps.
@@cliffordbodine5834 sadly it’s not safe anymore for kids to have paper routes in many places due to muggings or kidnappings.
@@glennso47 I agree. It wasn't always safe back in my day to have a paper route!
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.
I was born in 1960 and I got a Schwinn Sting-ray in 1969 for my birthday. I loved that bike until 1974 when I talked my parents into a dirt bike. What a great time to be a kid I'm glad I grew up in the 60's and 70's.
i was born in 1959 . I wanted a Rupp Never got one Had a few enduros when I got over 18
I'm from 59 and got the 50 Cushman and 62 Vespa around 14 haha
Got one for Christmas when I was about 12 years old. Best present ever!
Me too 1968.
My brother and I had Sting Ray's, mine was lime green and his was purple. We had them for about 2 years but one day we left them in the garage with the door opened. 10 minutes later we were heart broken.
I was one of the kids that modified their bike to look like a stingray before Schwinn came out with their version. I also had a wheelie bar on the back.
I still have mine
As a kid in the 80's, I had a hand-me-down red one from a cousin. It was a bit out of style by then with the banana seat and all, but I loved that bike.
never follow the herd
Mine was a hand me down from my big brother. Who knows what the original color was. We painted and repainted our bikes all the time.
Mine was a new one bought in 1982. The bike shop is still in business. Very old place. Was very happy to pick it out. Have several photos of it in an album. This video certainly brought back memories.
@@RUBIZEN my brother and I did that too ... paint em over and over again ... sometimes with Testors model paint lol
These Sting-Rays were such a big part of our young lives , we practically lived on them and spent a lot of time working on them. ( Going to be hard to top this Recollection Road classic. ;-)
I know I lived on mine!
We demonize kids today. We have a completely different attitude towards children. We blame them for not being active but it’s not their faiult. If we saw kids riding their bikes out in the streets like we did, they’d be considered to be in our way/get off the road ... we’d think of them as out getting into trouble/being up to “no good” and they’re just kids being kids, being free, riding their bikes, having fun, pleying outdoors. We don’t let kids be kids
Riding my Stingray, the happiest of days of my youth.
SAME 👍
Best days of my life we had the same sort of bike called the chopper like the stingray lovely bike uk.
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 😏😏
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 had an orange one when I was a kid in 70's Huntington beach CA. Took that thing everywhere.
I do remember though that the bolt that held the handle bars would loosen up a bit after doing popawheelies. Use to drive me crazy.
Lime green in the '60s Lakewood, CA. Ditto! Over Signal Hill all the way to The Pike in Long Beach and return. Did not tell our parents!
Me too mine had Crome wheels looked amazing
@@chrishuston4445 Yeah, that too.
They still have group rides where there are hundreds of old Stingrays that ride around that area, i think the last one we had in May was in Huntington Beach. Its awesome to see how many of these are still being ridden
I bought my little brother a banana bike when I was a teenager. Single mom raising 5 kids. My bro never forgot that. Best present I ever gifted.
50 years later, taking my old Schwinn for a ride would be a good day
Already having a 20 inch bike, my dad bought me a banana seat and high handlebars and transformed my old bike into my own version of the Sting-Ray. I rode that bike until I got my drivers license in Jan. 1971, one month after my 16th birthday. Such cool memories.
My Schwinn was my best friend. Never let me down. We’d all hop on our bikes and leave school, parents and older siblings behind. I can still feel the wind in my hair flying down the road on my Shwinn stingray with angel bars. Popping wheelies and flying off wooden ramps placed over the curb!! Freedom never felt so good.
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
I had a Schwinn Speedster Fastback Manta Red Stingray with a banana seat when I turned 6.
44 years ago & still remember my 1st bike.
Hey, I still have my pink Schwinn banana seat bike in the garage.. Its cira 1963... Real good shape, but tires need air..I always loved riding my bike, streamers and all. Bell to ring, basket on front. They were the days, the good old '60's...
$$$$$$$$
Yes it was a good bike
Worth big bucks now !
Your bike and me are the same age as I am circa 1963.
BEST time ever to be a kid, the 1960's and 70's ...... my brother had the Stingray but I had to have a 3 speed because I was a girl ....... good times !!!!!
An empty bleach bottle cut off, packed with an old sheet tucked between the rear seat uprights made a great drag chute that could eject you over the bars quicker than snap. Don’t ask me how I know.
😂🤣😂🤣😂
My nickname was endo, that's how I knew I was doing something wrong right. Scabs were my constant companions. The head dents were icing on the cake.
Richard, Darrel, we were crazy back then! How did we survive?
@@rcdogmanduh4440 with a lot of scars. Road rash and concussions were part of growing up. It was fun. And as a child even going to the hospital was an adventure. Usually a painful one.
Could've possibly made eating corn on the cob difficult. Those were still better days, though.
My Schwinn Stingray was yellow with a gear shifter I got for Christmas, great memories riding it on Christmas day with my friends.
Me too- we were the coolest! Lol
Thank you for this great memory! It’s funny I’m 65 years old and still wish I had a stingray. When I look back I realize my mom and dad could not afford it. 😔
So many of my friends had them and I was so jealous!🤨
My kids say I should go on eBay and buy an old one!😂😂
Had one. Christmas present from my parents, early ‘60s. Lime green with a white banana seat. Loved it. Did lots of wheelies. Coasted down Signal Hill in Long Beach, California with my buddies at breakneck speed. Dangerous. Used it for my paper route, which was challenging. In retrospect, I would've preferred a 10-speed. Still, no regrets. It’s a nice memory from my childhood. Nowadays, whenever I see a lime green Honda Element drive by or parked in a lot I say to myself, "Wow." The color reminds me of my bike and the SUV reminds me of a VW bus from 1966. "Surf City here we come."
The stingray was one cool bike! I love mine when I was a kid!
Never had a shwinn too expensive but had plenty of Huffys and Sears as a kid you didn't care what brand it was
We cared! Yes we did!
I only got a coast - to - coast bike.
I had a Huffy, I was able to do wheelies all the way down, the street, I told my friends it was easier on a Huffy. Then they all wanted a Huffy.
That's right, be thankful for what you get. Any bike is better than no bike. Never in my childhood did we ever get brand new bikes but I did get a used plain model Schwinn one time, which got stolen.
@@charlesbaldo The CTC bike was so heavy that it was tough to just lift up the front to get up a curb. It was a beast. I tried riding out in the country with heavy single speed bike against a decent wind was not the fun we thought it would be.
Bought the banana seat and high handlebars at Western Auto and put them on my 26 inch Monarch bike when I was 12 years old. Could not afford the store bought Sting Ray version
Back around 1970 my parents bought me (11 yo) a Huffy "Stingray" style bike. (We called them Banana Bikes, due to the seat). That was my freedom as a child. I was always off somewhere, going on a new adventure.
One time I was with some neighbor kids playing around a freshly dug trench. I decided I'd go all "Evel Keneval" on it and built a makeshift ramp. Pedaling as fast as I could, I yanked up on the handlebars just as I launched off the end of the ramp. To my surprise, the handlebars popped out of the gooseneck, the bike kept going, and I landed on my back still gripping the handlebars up in the air.
I truly miss that bike.
Those bikes were awesome and a treasured memory. I had a Schwinn red 3 speed racer and had for years. It is shame they are not still manufacured here.
My brother had a Stingray with a wheel in stead of handle bars. Sooo cool.
I had the green Royce Union knock-off complete with “Sissy bar” and a red round reflector at the rear. In the 60’s we would tape a baseball card ( usually a rival player to our team) to the down tube into the spokes causing a ratcheting sound. The sissy bar was great for pulling girls on roller skates. Those were the days kids played until dark, today for 10 minutes is amazing.
Those were the days when we were playing all day and into the night. Bike riding around the bloc and doing stunts. Riding in packs like a herd of animals to a local store to get baseball cards, Yoo-hoo, soda and candy. Carrying our baseball bats and putting our gloves through the handle bars.
We lost that in America and we are worse off for it. Today the kids are risk averse and can nit be pulled away from video games and their phones.
We think Spoilers on cars are so uncool my husband & I still call them Sissy Bars 😂
I remember the big wheels even more. Filled mine with “gas” water. Rode them until the wheels wore out. Not sure what model of Schwin I had but it had red metal flake paint, a banana seat, red with a flake in it, and high handlebars. When I was a little older I upgraded to a Ross with plastic four spoke wheels. Spent hours almost every day on those bikes. Great times
The first two years of Sting Rays were the best because of the saddle. Your buddy could easily hop on back if he didn't have a bike.
Oh my gosh💟the best gift ever from our Dad, mom and dad were divorced but one day Dad came out to the house with two stingrays one purple and one green for me and my si sister. I felt like the Rockefeller kids for a few days after that. We lived in the country and it seems so strange to have these beautiful bikes out there in the middle of nowhere but we love them to death . I did anyways . Never will forget that bike iI think about it often and I'm almost 70 now 😂💖🆗!!
I got a girls purple stingray with a flowered wicker basket in 1968 for my first holy communion ….. I loved that bike❤️🚴🏼♀️
Spent more time on my stingray than I did in my house
Right? We were never inside.
I had one of the first 1963! My grandmother was a welder at Schwinn. She built it and had it painted Candy flake gold. She got three sets of seats and two different bars. We didn't have much, but I had a great bike! Thanks Nonnie! Love ya
I had an Orange Krate. LOVED that bike. I wish I still had it.
I have an original. I'll sell it to you.
Forest green Rams Horn 5 Speed. Wheelie machine!
@@iusedtoliveinmymothergary9827 better hold on to it , it's now worth alot !
My Schwinn Sting Ray was the best birthday present my parents ever gave me. I loved that bike, loved popping wheelies on it. Unfortunately, I got stupid one night and left it out front. When I woke up it was gone. I was so bummed. I had many happy hours riding when I owned it though. It was a great bike and the banana seat was the best. Later, I saved my money from my paper route and bought an English three-speed racer that was a solid bike but nothing beat that Schwinn.
My dad took me to Aurora Bicycles in north Seattle to get my first brand new bicycle. We walked in and he said “Pick the one you want!” I picked a Stingray in candy apple red with a leopard print banana seat and high rise handle bars! The only reason I picked that bike was because it said Playboy on the chain guard!👍🏼
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.
Who put a playing card and clothes pin on the back wheel to make the noise!
a half-inflated toy balloon tied to the fender rail made a very satisfying rumble.....until it popped after a few minutes of riding.
I only used rookie cards in the 1960s because they were guys no one knew about
Aw hell yeah!!
🤚
Had the Matel "Veroomm" on mine. Used a key to start it and it sounded like a motorcycle.
I had a blue deluxe stingray with whitewalls and a slick on the back and I could ride a wheelie all day on that bike!!!! Had it locked up at the swimming pool and somebody cut the lock off and stole it, I was heart broke that was the best bike I ever had and this brought back some great memories thanks for the video 👍👍
Sound like USA today.
Lots of bike thieves back then. Mine was also stolen, my parents wouldn't buy me another one so I bought a used scate board for $2 and that was my new transportation.
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’m 65 and grew up in Southern California. During those warm summer days, besides swimming, we were either on our skate boards, that had metal wheels or riding around the neighborhood on our Schwin bicycles. Speaking of popping wheelies, I was riding on a Schwin bike with my friend, I was in the back. She popped a wheelie, I flew off, injured my knee and was in bed for the first month of summer vacation. We kids had it made.
I too am 65 and was born and raised in So Cal, just 5 miles from the beach. Growing up, I thought it was the greatest place to be. We spent our summer days often at the beach, swimming in the ocean. We had our skates and skate boards. I remember all of us neighborhood kids playing Hide and Seek. But I remember my Stingray bike being special to me. It equaled "freedom" in my mind.
@@SandraHof Yes, all us kids loved our Stingrays, riding them did give us such a free feeling. How I loved playing hide and seek on those summer nights at dusk. When it got too dark to play, we’d then hang out under the one and only streetlight on our block until our parents whistled for us to come home. Sweet memories.
I remember the Roller Derby steel wheel skateboards. They were deadly. I thought I was all that when I could make a 90' turn without eating sidewalk
@@roryschweinfurter4111 Yes, me too! And we skateboarded barefoot!
@@SeaTurtle515
Just the thought of the turf toe you risked makes me cringe even today. And the vibration from those steel wheels when you picked up a rock and went straight into a header. The urethane wheels of today would be like riding a Cadillac
My first bike was a Schwinn with a vroom motor. Never had training wheels. I learned to ride it by pushing it up a type of a mound and then riding it down until I would crash but I learned to ride it within one day and didn't even have a bicycle helmet in fact I don't think they had been invented yet. By the time I moved on to my 5-speed my Schwinn had tons and tons of duct tape around the tires because they were rubber tires with no inner tubes and were extremely cracked. I can't believe I can still picture it in my mind 60 years later.
VRoom by Mattel !
Nice to know some of us still remember the Mattel "Vroom!"
This is the bike every boy wanted stingray crate with five speed shift and sissy bar! Big thank you recollection road
You mean 3 speed?
@@baddog9320 Krates had 5-spds.
@@baddog9320 I looked into it, bc my memory was my brother's bike was 3 speed hub shifter/coaster brake while my Collegiate was "better" because it was a 5 speed with hand brakes, etc. And yes, found an Ebay page selling such a used bike. The documentary skips over that part of Stingray history.
@@Qossuth I am replying to you but this is a in general answer to all
I found more info.
In the 70s there was a 3 speed with a slick on the back. And didn't have a springer frontend.
Basicly it described my brother's bike 100%. I do not remember the name. But it is in the comments here someplace. And he got it about 1975 when I received my 16 inch stingray. Which I can not find information on. Closes is a Stingray pixie. But mine was a boys bike and the top rail didn't come off. And yes it was a Schwinn and it had the Schwinn plate on the front. Now, I think it was much older. May have been new, but something tells me it wasn't. Honestly my memory is a little foggy and I maybe thinking of later. But I think my father painted before I got it. I know he did this years later when my little bither got it.
Important!!!! The 3 speed It is NOT the Crate.
Back to the baby stingray. I remember riding it back and forth to kindergarten . Which was about 2 miles each way. To school was with my brother. Home was by myself.
Lol. I remember once getting my hide tanned because I didn't ride strait home one day. Like several hours late.
I also remember I wasn't allowed to ride to school until the training wheels were off.
A few years later we, my older brother and I got 10 speeds. We rode 10 miles to school. The old type of 10 speed like the bikes in tour de France with what I call ramhorn handlebars. I know at the time Schwinn was the only company that made small 10 speeds. I thought it was 20 inch. But looks like it was 24 inch.
My father was a person that though Schwinn was the best bike. Later this caused problems because I wanted a bmx. After I built a bmx from parts I found. Thier was a compromise. ( Schwinn had just started making bmx) I was allowed to buy a schwinn bmx. But I has to get rid of the bmx I had. And it had ti have a coaster brake. My Sting cost my $500. Which was quite expensive back then. Heck a couple years later I paid less then that ($350) for my first truck.
I had though that my Sting had been left at one if the many move my parents had done. But about 20 years ago, I found it in pieces. I have all but the handle bars
To this day. I don't know why other then being a dck why I couldn't have a wedge brake. After all the 10 speed had them. Maybe he thought with a coaster I couldn't do bmx. Which isn't true. I made team Schwinn for my local shop. But moved before my first race. ( BTW it wasn't that hard. The other Sting owner in town got me on. To qualify I had to have a Sting or Predator and to of qualified on the local track)
@@baddog9320 Nice detailed story-thx.
The Schwinn Stingray was the go to bike for young boys in the 60's and early 70's. They were a good design and tough as nails. They could take a beating. I loved my stingray and to this day it remains my most favorite bike of all time. Love love loved that bike.
Incredible how that snapshot in time is so iconic. Seems like "yesterday".
I had two bikes. One was a Royce Union knock off of a Stingray. Later, I sold it to a friend and bought a real Stingray, 5 speed, from another friend. Rode it to death and now I can't remember what happened to it. I loved that period of my life and can't believe it's been over 50 years since that time. But it was good. Very good!! Because when I was riding my Stingray, all was right in my life, and the world, even though it wasn't. It was a way to escape the problems at home and every ride was an adventure, even if you just went around the corner. God, how I miss that feeling.
"Made in America." ...gone with the Schwinn.
Same with Columbia
Gone....Like most USA made products.
Craftsman Tools.
@@itsjohndell Craftsman tools are trash now foreign made junk.
Another icon gone to cheap cutrate labor and materials!
I had a red Stingray when I was a kid and a light blue Le Tour ten speed in high school. Loved both bikes and rode them for countless miles!
Me too blue Le tour 10 speed
I still have a Montgomery wards knockoff hanging in my garage. I also have 66 and 67 schwinn collegiate that are mint that I bought at an auction. Boy does this video bring back memories from my childhood in the 60’s. Thank you
I got a Montgonery wards knockoff as well in 1966 rode it until 1973 when I got a yellow Schwinn Varsity for xmas, beautiful bike could not kill it even though I tried. Schwinn's were tough bikes and heavy, you could not break the frame even if you tried.
I came home from school one day in 1963 and found a yellow Sting Ray in the garage. It was a total surprise. Soon, I could keep the wheelie going for more than twenty tar strips, about a hundred yards, when the cul-de-sac wore out. I loved that thing.
I had two Schwinns as a kid a stingray and paper boy bike and I bought Schwinns for my kids
Me too. I delivered newspapers on my schwinn stingray. Had the canvas bag draped between the handlebars loaded with 50 rubber banded papers. Would ride down the street tossing papers on front porches. I was good at it. Sunday papers were brutal. I earned about $10 a week.
That was fifty years ago. We loved those bikes.
@@steved3001
Wow, that conjured a perfect Norman Rockwell painting! Thx
Had a red and white one in the 70's. Took it everywhere.
Loved my Stingray, blue... I also loved my older sister's Schwinn 10 speed, powder blue... Both were incredible. I also had a green Huffy that had a steering wheel instead of handle bars. Man, I feel so sad for people who weren't teenagers in the early 70s... It was the greatest time in history.
The best memory was looking at all the Schwinn Sting Rays all lined up at John’s bike shop in Pasadena Ca. Also taking a deep breath of all the new rubber tires was the best part of walking onto the showroom floor. My Schwinn Sting Ray was a metallic sky blue.
My Stingray had a banana seat with a sissy bar, was flame orange with the 5 speed stick on the rail. it was a big bike when I first got it, but by the time I graduated up to a 10 speed racing bike, the Stingray had been ridden to it's rims. it got passed down to some younger kids of my mom's friends, hope he rode it hard, too.
What a great video. It really brought me back to when I was a little kid riding my blue Sting Ray up-and-down Van Nuys boulevard in the San Fernando Valley. That bike represented freedom And independence. I loved it so much.
I had a really cool aunt & uncle who bought me a Schwinn stingray on my 7th birthday in 1968. My aunt took a picture of me on it that day. I looked like i was king of the world. I still have that pic. Great memories.
I love reading all these comments about being a kid and enjoying life on your Stingray. I’m too young to have experienced this but my dad tells me stories about his green 69 Stingray Fastback. I’ve worked at a bike shop since 2006 and I take great pleasure in restoring these beautiful pieces of American history. I’m in the process of restoring my violet 1966 on my channel right now!
I remember the rich kids had them and my parents would not buy me one. I ended up making my own version of the 20" bike from parts we would find at the local dump. I liked
the Stingrays with the huge sissy bar one could lean back on for support.
Apparently we weren't rich either, monkey wards piece of junk 5 speed, thing would rust just looking at it.
I had a Stingray in 1971 I loved it!
Always wanted a Sting Ray, as a kid, but it never materialized. I did have several Schwinn wanna-bes from KMart, Gibsons and Western Auto, however. Had a bud, down that street, who had a Gold Krate (it was a special order batch from his Dad's employer). Beautiful. Thanks for the memories...
I had a 1966 gold Schwinn stingray deluxe bike. It had a padded banana seat and fenders in the front and the back. Great memories Of those carefree days🙂🙂🙂
This makes me wanna cry I had a stingray back in the sixties when I was 7
My favorite video yet! Had a huffy sting'ray when i was 8 in "66, I still have dreams about getting that Gree apple Krate !!! And dog gone it i'm gonna get me one....soon !!...
You know the price of some of those bikes today will buy you a pretty nice used car yes?
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.
Somerville Ma 1962 my older cousin Louise worked at Durans chocolate in Cambridge (really my sister) bought me a Stingray ,( my family was poor ) I went with my friends on saturdays and summer days everywhere,we took lunches ,total freedom ,went to Fresh Pond ,best of times Thank you my best cousin Louise !
We had the "Banana Bikes" Mine was blue with red and purple up the street and a yellow stingray next door.
I was born in 1980 so I missed out on this trend. But it reminded me of my pink and purple Huffy bike I had as a very little kid. ❤️
I had one of the metallic blue Sting Rays that I absolutely loved. Had an older gentleman that lived across the street from me that had a bicycle shop before retiring and provided me with the really high backed sissy bar. Man, I was a styling kid with that bike.
Yes growing up in the sixties and early seventies, my brother and I had our very own Schwinn bicycles. And how very special they were during those care free years as children growing up. I’m those days they were the bikes of choice for many a kid during those years.
My father always described the Schwinn's as the rich kids bike. (He was from the 50's era.)
He probably wasn't wrong. My dad was an Ironworker in NYC & let's just say we didn't have to wait for birthdays or Christmas for bikes or fireworks. BB guns. Lot of guys selling stuff at job sites.
@@samanthab1923 Yeah, he was just a kid.
My parents bought me a Pea Picker. I wish I still had it!
Same here. Those bikes were huge here in the UK back then and my parents doled out 150 quid for it. A lot of money back then but it had all the extras. the speedo, lights everything. I still have it do this day and I'm 66 years old now.
I had an "Apple Crate"...loved that bike, it was gorgeous!!!
I had an Apple Krate, it was the rolls-royce of bicycles back then.
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 place that sold these bikes in my neighborhood was called THE TRADING POST. This store sold baseball bats, gloves, balls, footballs, basketballs, fishing, bowling, and tennis equipment as well as converse all-Stars and Schwinn Sting Ray Bikes. The bikes were lined up side by side in various colors in perfect order. I think they were $59.95-$79.95. Well, I never got one!
I never got one either, or a Big Wheel, still pissed about that...... and I'm 65!
Never got one either..you can imagine my disappointment when I saw a Western Auto bike under our Christmas tree
@@karynroeseler2652 lol. I never got a Western Auto Bike either. But our (Mine and yours) parents were good people and did what they could. I have no regrets whatsover. My mom is gone. My dad is 89.
I had a knock-off version of a Sting Ray. Couldn't afford a real one.
@@billymitchell1513 you should be..!!
Oh yeah 😊😊
OMG!! The best memories of my childhood was my 1968 blue Schwinn Stingray bike with the slick back tire! I must have put 100,000 miles on that bike! I remember the frame welding were all smooth, looked like it was all one piece. Excellent metal work and quality!!! THANKS SCHWINN!!!!
I Loved my Schwinn Sting-Ray. Rode it every summer day when I was in grade school.
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.
Had one. It was a hand-me-down from family friends but it rode!
This brought back some nostalgia and some tears for innocence lost. Mine was blue. I remember using a clothes pin and a baseball card so that the card rubbed on the spokes and made noise like a motorcycle, or so we thought. I had a “sissy bar” on the back of mine so you could lean back when you popped a wheelie. Not sure how my parents were able to afford this. I got mine for my birthday.
Growing up in the late sixties, early seventies. I think it was every kids dream , to wake up at Christmas and see that Schwinn bike by the tree .
I know it was mine , until I turned seven . I got a Schwinn and was the coolest kid in the neighborhood. Until , all my friends got theirs .
Like Archy Bunker said : Those were the days !
I used to put playing cards in my bike spokes. Anyone else do that?
I did. Plying cards or baseball cards that are probably worth a lot of money now but who cares? It was worth it.
Did the balloon in the spokes for a good rumble - until the deafening silence following the pop! 😐
Do dog snouts and trotters count?
Yeah, sad seeing kids collecting cards like stamps now. Greedy adults ruining a kids game
No.
Thanks for the video.
Bro. I’m 70 years old and sitting in my den watching this video. Every so often I look over in the corner to see my new 2021 Stingray I bought on-line a couple of months ago. What a hoot! I’ve swapped out a few pieces to make it better resemble the 1960’s models I spent so much time on. And yes! I can still do wheelies. The neighbor guys (they’re only in their 40’s & 50’s) think I’m totally nuts (for various reasons) but when I hand them the bike they take off down the street. Good video. Thanks 👍
My ex is 68 and I'm 60, he has quite a few and does vintage bike shows and I picked up 2 that need restoration, great fun!
I'll never forget my groovy 1969 Sting Ray 🚲 and cool Schwinn 10 speed in the 1970's. I'll also never forget how old I'm becoming ! haha
This is my favorite channel, it’s slows me down and relaxes my busy mind.
THANK YOU!
I have a reproduction of the early Schwinn (I think it’s a touring bike?) it’s black and red with fenders, fat tires, saddle seat, a basket and a bell.
I have a Schwann mountain bike too and my nephews are always borrowing it. lol
Thats what i said the very first video !!!
@@halbud
Ha ha ha
Great minds think alike!
I agree. I can't believe the detail in these videos. I have no idea where he finds all these pictures. I enjoy every one of them.
Got my stingray in about 1970. Green in color. I remember it cost $66.
Exactly! Mine in Christmas 1968 was $64. Not sure how I still remember that...
Did it have a sparkly green banana seat?
@@memorykeepersarchive3953 Yes it did. 😁
One of my best memories as a kid was the day I got a new 1967 Stingray 5 speed!
Of course, I had a 1966 Schwinn Electric Blue Stingray with a Banana, tuck and roll white seat, and chopper handlebars.
The gang rode everywhere! We would venture 15-20 miles from home. We would ride to Huntington Beach, California which was about 20 miles from home straight down Beach Blvd. We called dad to come and get us because we couldn't ride back.