Kobe 

The cool kids all had Stingrays, I had a Kent. It was a neat brownish gold though and eventually was able to add the useless sissy bar option.

Brian44t

I got a green Stingray for my birthday in 1971. It had a larger front sprocket than my older brothers. I think my folks paid about $50 for it.

Ed Wiser

My grandparents living next to a Schwinn bike shop. I spent many hours there looking at the bikes I finally saved up money cutting grass to get a gold stingray. After a while I saved up money and bought up a ram’s horn handle bars for it. Then I rode up to the drug store one day to buy a Mad magazine and while I was in the store somebody stole the handlebars.

dweenk

By the time the Sting Ray was a thing I was a junior or senior in high school with a '59 Chevy Biscayne. Several years passed before I was interested in bikes again.

RobbieTunes

Our "LBS" was the Ben Franklin (he also operated a Montgomery Wards mail-order office) and the True Value Hardware.
We actually had two hardware stores, which were side by side on our little main street. Both made it until Walmart came to the next town.
One is still around, mostly to supply local remodelers and contractors, carpet, vinyl, etc. Bikes? "No mas."

Mr. Spadoni 

How could you tell that a kid was from the other side of town? He was riding a Schwinn.

bikingshearer 

No Sting-Rays for me, but I did ride a friend's Schwinn Fastback some. It was fun, but I never particularly wanted one.

noglider 

You know, girls rode these bikes, too.

Shp4man

Great response to this thread- I had no idea.. I keep this bike around. I cant swing my leg over a banana seat any more, but this bike is great for level cruises around parks or whatever.

76SLT 

My sister had a purple Lil Chik, the girls version of the Stingray.

Fusilier55

Learned to ride in a Stingray, but my family couldn't afford one. I don't have any idea what my first bike was, probably a knock off, I remember really wanting a Raliegh Chopper. By the end of that period, BMX was starting to raise its head and we ended up taking off the banana seats chain guards and sissy bars. A friend of mine has a Chopper now.

cyccommute 

Never had one as a kid. I bought a Schwinn Fastback for my daughter when she was little. I think it’s a 1967. I have the 5 speed castrati shifter but I got rid of the ape hanger and banana seat. Still have the bike hanging in the garage.

mechanicmatt

I had a 20' wheel yellow one that was my first bike, then a 24" red one with a bendix 3 speed hub. They were wonderful in that they were a bike but we're so heavy. Later when I was in high school I did have a schwinn cruiser as well to attempt to make a klunker mtb, but instead I offered it for free to a beautiful girl who had no way to get around. She was a little 90's punk girl and was a summer girlfriend. No regrets giving that bike away.

canklecat

Yup, around 1967 or '68. Green frame with white banana seat. Single speed, I think. Definitely didn't have the stick shift. It might have had a handlebar mounted thumb shifter, but I might be thinking of my next bike, a Schwinn city bike with 3-speed.

I don't even remember what happened to that Stingray. I outgrew it pretty quickly. Pretty sure we left it behind when we moved around 1970. Can't say I missed it much. Cool looking, totally impractical for anything but loafing up and down the block.

After that I got the more grownup 3-speed city bike -- which was later stolen, several times. Where I lived, on a little island, some kids would grab whatever bike they saw unlocked, ride and dump it. So I recovered it a few times. Last time I saw that bike, it was leaned against the wall of a gas station owned by the parents of the kid who was always stealing stuff. We were leaving town and I saw it as we drove by. I just shrugged it off. Never had another bike stolen after that, though (knock wood).

xiaoman1 

I had one of these in green, it's long gone but I still have one...Funny how Schwinn helped to name the Corvette Stingray.

I bought my daughter a re-issue "Apple Crate" It's still hanging in the garage.
My brothers had a Banana Yellow and an Orange crate.
Best, Ben

sewupnut

Son had one. A couple of years ago I ran into a guy who collected them and was attempting to ride one (all original) in Pedal the Plains here in Colorado. Think he said he had about 20 of em. Wondering how many guys had an instant sex-change operation flying over the handlbars of one of those bikes.

engineerbob

Me, too. My dad bought me a 20" regular bike. I think the brand was Alexander. It was made in West Germany. Some time in the late '60s, I decided t wasn't cool enough. After taking off the fenders and chain guard, I went to the LBS to buy a banana seat and high handlebars. A guy working there told me that the Schwinn handlebars were a different diameter than those on my Alexander, and that I couldn't change the bars. Bummer. A few months later, I discovered that a Schwinn handlebar stem would fit my bike's fork, which solved the problem. Being a kid, I couldn't stop there and when I saw an "extended fork kit" (chrome-plated tubes that bolted to the ends of the fork blades), I made the bike almost unrideable. Eventually, I bought a used Varsity, and my mom gave the "chopper" away.

TricycleTom

No. I was into my first car when they came out. Only one of my former riding friends had raised their seat as their legs grew, and all us cool guys were not enjoying riding any distance.

BurleyCat

[QUOTE=Shp4man;21824409]Or any of the banana seat/ape hangers/20 inch tire bikes popular back in the day?

I purchased a lime green first generation Schwinn Stingray with paper route savings. $69 bucks, I think. Pre-BMX and before motocross arrived in the US, I went nuts on the ‘trails’ that developed through the piles of fill dirt in empty lots and building sites. Wheelies around the block and while swinging through tight turns. I’ve still got it, hanging in the barn. Weighs a ton.

Columnshift

gold metalfalke with banana seat and wheels bar would have liked the gear shift front spring suspension fenders and a book rack
i had no hills to climb loved that thing
got my daughter when she was 8-10 a red one
way cool
went everywhere
we didn't stay home, mom would kick us out, for water used the hose and wasn't supposed to come home till 5-530
met at the local park with the "guys" and hung out
no cares, news shows didn't inundate us with fear of the outside
my biggest issue was when i wore long pants sometimes got caught in the front gear chain--had to hop around as i got the pants leg loose or one of my friends would hold up the rear wheel as i peddled forward
had a dynamo light powered by the back wheel
don't remember getting flats, dad put in heavy duty tubes
good times good times

sfruechte

Red, 3 speed, Schwinn Fastback. The rear rim was damaged and repaired if anybody finds it. The bike shop repairman saw the rim and started yelling at me and my Dad had to tell him 'That's enough'.

dingels75

I don't know about being an "older guy" but........in 1966 mom bought me a Schwinn Stingray Fastback 5 speed in Campus Green from College Park Schwinn (Maryland). Before that I had a Black Schwinn 3 speed English racer and about 1970 I got the ultimate..........a blue Schwinn Varsity 10 speed. The little German guy that owned College Park Schwinn always took my old bikes as a trade-in. In the late 70's I bought a beautiful Made in France Fontan racing bike. In 1987 I decided to start competing in biathlons and triathlons and bought a $400 giant-tubed Aluminum Cannondale SR400. The first climb up a hill on the Cannondale was a magical experience, it was life changing.

Here's another "older guys" forum question idea. Who competed in the USPS Triathlon Series back in the 80-90s with Allen, Scott, Tinley, Riccitello up front in the elite pack?

4panniers

I was always a little jealous of kids with Stingrays. I had a department store Royce Union bike with a banana seat an ape hanger bars. I spent a lot of time on that bike, a fair amount of it with one, or both wheels, in the air. I put extension forks (cheap add-ons to the stock fork) and a sissy bar on it for a while, but eventually, the sissy bar broke from falling over backwards while doing wheelies because the frame angle caused by the extended fork threw the center of balance too far back. I had a similarly-styled department store three-speed, but it was heavy, so I preferred the one-speed for trail riding, wheelies, and jumps, etc. In retrospect, the Stingray was a show bike and my cheaper bike was better suited to my use.

J.Higgins 

I wanted a Raleigh Chopper oh-so badly, but Mom got me a purple Western Auto stingray bike. I believe it was the price of the Chopper that turned her off.

russtopherb

I got a used 5-speed sometime around 1981. Pretty sure my parents spent $10 on it from a neighbor. I'll have to dig through my old photos, I know there's a few pics of me on it.