motogeek 

Stingrays came around about the time I was graduating from bikes to cars. So, other than sitting on one in the Schwinn dealer and thinking they were kinds cool, I don't have any fond memories of riding them. 1964 was when I got my drivers's license and didn't have any need or desire for a bicycle. I still think they're kinds cool, tho.

tyrion

I had the Huffy Stingray clone. Too poor to have a real authentic Schwinn Stingray like the rich kids had. But I rode that bike for years, beat the crap out of it, and did zero maintenance.

SpeedofLite 

You should start a new thread. But......you must be thinking of US Triathlon Series (USTS) sponsored by Bud Light.
Scott Molina, Mike Pigg, and Lance Armstrong are other names that quickly come to mind who were alpha males at Bud Light USTS races.

Insidious C. 

Pretty much every kid in my neighborhood rode something that looked like a Stingray in late 60s/early 70s. The rich kids had actual Schwinns. I rode a POS. The abuse those bikes suffered is unspeakable. Got my first road bike while in middle school and lost all interest in "stingrays."

dingels75

Ah yes, of course I meant USTS. That error does prove that I am in fact an old guy!
I still have the t-shirts to prove that I was there and my Tinley signature wet suit still fits😎

SpeedyBlueBiker

I never had a Stingray bike of my own but I had something similar to it.
A few years later I had a two speed bike that you shifted the gears by tapping on the coaster brake.

kantquit

I had a knockoff called a Wildcat I rode the daylights out of it.As I remember my dad took me to Herpolshiemer’s in Grand Rapids Michigan for my birthday I think it was $39.95 brand new

mirfi

In 1970 our father bought my sister and I Kent 'Sting Ray Style' from the Western Auto down the street. High handlebars, banana seat, coaster brake. New for like $30 each. They were not Schwinns (The Rolls Royce/Cadillac) as they were $72 for the Varsity and Sting Ray, they had there own special Schwinn store; Pete's Cycle. I'd go in that store and knew I didn't belong. And they knew I didn't belong either. Growing up in NE Baltimore was the best. (Still there). Of course we all worked on our own bikes and it was a horrible travesty. Having a pipe wrench or pliers was about as good as it got. In a year the lug nuts were round and had gone through several tires as the cool thing to do was to get up speed and do a sideways skid. My poor dad, I was the last of seven kids, five boys, and he was disappointed when I would bust the wooden pieces off the expensive plumbing wrenches he had saved from his dad. And buying me tires and the occasional rear rear. I was such the clusterfick, still am, only more refined.

It still boggles my mine that we went on the road trips that we did. We just went places, 30+ mile round trips, we rode on the interstate, the 'Seven Sisters', we rode on the beltway, we rode around the Loch Raven reservoir north of the city. Between the 4-8 of us we probably had three dollars, couple tools and a patch kit. For water some kids had metal WWII era canteens from Sunny Surplus, most of us had glass coke bottles with wax paper and a rubber band for the lid. I rode my sisters bike 30 miles on a severely bent rear rim. By the time I got home the sidewall had completely worn through to the tube from rubbing against the chain stay. Sorry Sharon.

I rode everywhere on that bike. To football and baseball practice that was usually a couple miles away and hilly. The way home was always in the dark. Never had lights, had reflectors, but just tried to avoid cars. Funny, back then you never thought of a hill as an obstacle, just stand up. Easy to say when you weigh 120lbs.

Those bikes you see in those magazines were for the relatively rich families that had one or two kids. Sorta like the car magazines that are all about Porsches and BMW's. We as kids rode the equivalent of Toyota (Sears?) or KIA (Kent?). And NOBODY had a ten speed, maybe somebody's uncle went off to the war and gave them an old 'English Racer'. A Raleigh three speed, the absolute height of class. Needless to say, we being the skilled mechanics that we were, having 'hand' brakes meant you shortly had 'no' brakes. Oh gosh, the parts we would lose and just shred to garbage with pliers.

And as far as the road trips I'm sure we all had told our moms we were going out biking, but where we were going I never knew.

And never forgot.

sean.hwy

I had something like this. loved that bike :-)

squirtdad

I prefer experienced going back to second (or third ) childhood vs older I did not have a sting ray, my younger brother did (clones, not reall schwinns) and except for wheelies didn't want one, once found out they were not even close to as fast as my 26" schwin cruiser clone

sunburst

I had a very nice blue "two speed kickback" that my dad got at a police auction for me.

repechage

In 1973, bought a Slick Chick for $25. used at the Schwinn dealer, took it home, stripped the paint, ditched the kickstand, had Cycle Products West weld in a half height top tube in the open part of the frame after I mitered it, painted the frame chrome Yellow (similar to Kool Lemon) painted the fork satin black, tossed the chainguard, removed the strut bar loop, set the struts inside the banana seat (was replaced prior to purchase) fender washers on the outside to not dig into vinyl, stainless button head cap screws... tractor tread tires... Presto, proto BMX, before it was called BMX. Oh yeah, ditched the grips, and replaced them with just chrome caps. No grips, then later pedals from a Continental. Sold that bike for a profit.
Proceeds bought a Phil Wood bottom bracket and set of used Campagnolo steel pedals, that was it for Sting Rays.
It was 250 mi per week and road racing... In a few months, working for a shop and buying a track bike.

repechage

the contoured chainguards on those were the best part, STYLING! the construction of the frame was meh.

rogertc1

Here are some

kingston 

When I was 8 my dad put drop bars and a road saddle on a 5 speed stingray so I could ride RAGBRAI with him. We were among the first to start and last to finish every day.

Glennfordx4

I was born in 68 so I missed out on the Kool bikes but by 1973 ( the yr my dad died ) I wanted a stingray and got a Huffy which was stolen within the first two weeks out of our yard, they threw it off a very high bridge into a rocky stream, Mom got it back but it was toast. My grandmother bought me a used banana seat bike after that but the gearing was to hard for me to pedal so it just sat. By the time I was 10 or 11 we were finding Stingrays everywhere cause BMX was the new thing, a friend had a chicken coop filled with them and he gave them to me and my buddy Dave when they were moving. Most of them we built up with single seats and road them like BMX bikes. I have a 1970 Columbia Play Bike that I put a springer front end on, I am going to redo that bike soon as I have all the vintage parts to build a Schwinn Krate clone out of it, 16" drum brake front wheel a 4' sissy bar, 5spd stick shift. My pc is giving me a fit right now so I will post pics of some of the 20" bikes I've had and built later.

Glenn


Built this Schwinn for my buddy Dave's kid. She didn't like it cause people were bothering her to check it out all the time lol


Murray Eliminator, still have, sissy bar going on Copper Columbia Play Bike above

Bought this Sears Spyder at a yardsale from the orig owner, was smaller size then all the other 20" bikes I had so I sold it tripling my money.

repechage

One of those models had a removable top tube, so as the family added kids it could be set up gender appropriate.

VtwinVince

All the other kids had one, not me, so I got my generic ride and outfitted it with a checkerboard banana seat and sissy bar plus ape-hangers. And of course we all put playing cards in our spokes with clothes pegs to make that cool sound. This was in '68.

Cougrrcj

Nope. I went from tricycle to a hand-me-down, second-hand '50s-era Western Auto 24" balloon tire behemoth, to (briefly) my dad's 26" JC Higgins (Sears) Puch-made 3-speed, to my own Sears Free Spirit three-speed (age 11 in 1969), then my first bottom-tier '74 Fuji 10-speed (1974), then my mid-grade Fuji (1976) that I happily rode as my only bike for another 35 years until I joined BF.net and got infected with the n+1 virus...

Never got into 'Stingray'-style since I could do everything they did on my Sears three-speed, except ride extended wheelies... BMX started in CA in the early '70s came along to the Midwest loooong after I was already riding my Fujis.

Gresp15C

The Schwinn Pixie came with a removable top tube, so it could be a boys or girls bike. As each of the 3 of us got the Pixie, and then moved up to the Stingray, my dad put on a new coat of paint in a different color, so it was like getting a new bike.

Mountain Mitch

I didn’t even know anybody who could afford a ‘Stingray’ or similar bike. However we all had used department store bikes with after market banana seats and monkey bars so we figured we were hip!

britbikes

My first bike was what sent me on a lifetime of riding and building bikes. I had what we called an "English racer" 3 speed with 26 X 1-3/8" wheels INSTEAD of a Stingray like most of the kids on my block. Nothing special, actually an American-made Murray entry level department store bike. I count that choice as the most fortuitous bike choice in my life, because while those other kids were just riding around the block and doing little stunts with ramps and such, I was able to ride far an wide. I did the Boy Scouts' cycling merit badge with a group from my troop, and was emboldened by how easily I could ride 30 or 50 miles on this road-worthy 3 speed. I have since acquired derailleur bikes galore, done double centuries, ridden coast-to-coast, climbed the highest paved pass in Arizona, Colorado, Hawaii, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Oregon, and Tennessee, raced cat 4 and cat 3, and I am now running my own bike shop as a prolonged retirement party. Most of the kids riding Stingrays never had another bike.

BillPayton

One of my friends had a "Wheelie machine" in the 60's. It had a steering wheel and the seat must have been mounted back so you could pop wheelies anytime you pedaled hard.

leftthread

Nope, a Schwinn Bantam. Riding that bike I had a totally not-fun wipeout on chipseal that sent me to the ER to take it parts of the road out of my knee and elbow.

ER doc to the rents: "If I had known he was going to be that interested in what I was doing I would have let him do the work."

ollo_ollo

I'm one of those old enough to give a Sting Ray but my oldest wanted, and received a 3 speed, Candy Red, Schwinn Racer. It was a classy bike in our working class neighborhood, some of the best overtime $$ I ever spent and was handed down to my younger son a few years later. My brother in law went to our local Schwinn dealer in October to order a Sting Ray Christmas bike for his daughter. Dealer was sold out, wouldn't get any more til after Christmas. So, he found one at a yard sale. With a torn saddle, rusty bars and beat up paint. He tore it down, cleaned all the parts, bought a new stem, bar & bananna seat from the dealer, When first paint job turned out badly, got a re-spray. He ended up spending more than a new one from the dealer but a few late night sessions produced a newish Sting Ray for Christmas morning.