THE CLASSIC SCHWINN STINGRAY | A LUCKY BOY’S FIRST FAST WHEELS
The Schwinn Stingray- sparking a boy's love affair with wheels.
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If you were lucky enough to grow up without all the crap of today that sucks our kid’s time and energy– video games, the internet, satellite t.v., then you might remember what it was like to ride your bike all day long with your buddies– crafting makeshift ramps, making up crazy stunts and tricks, and just having a honest-to-goodness blast cruising the streets until Mom called you in. For a lot of us, it was the beginning of a lifelong love affair with wheels. The Schwinn Sting-Ray was a two-wheeled blacktop beast back then– especially with the on-the-frame gear shift and a fat rear slick. It was the only bike that mattered– before the BMX madness struck, that is.
I feel sorry for these fat, lazy, spoiled kids of today– wasting away in front of their t.v. screens and computer monitors. Man– get outside you chubby little brats! Seriously– do you think kids are better off today? No friggin’ way. They wouldn’t last two seconds back in the day. It’s time to throw all that crap out and lock ‘em outside. A little road rash would definitely do the buggers good.
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Schwinn Stingray-- stunts for runts.
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Vintage Schwinn Stingray Fastback catalog color ad.
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- Schwinn Stingray
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Vintage Schwinn Stingray Manta-Ray & Krates bicycle ad.
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1967 vintage Schwinn Stingray Fastback
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Vintage Schwinn summertime fun.
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Schwinn Stingray with custom handlebars. Sa-weet!
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Schwinn Stingray and the plastic people eater- Big Wheel!
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Schwinn Stingray Grey Ghost
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Schwinn Stingray Fastback
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Schwinn Stingray Banana Bomber
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That was my first bike. Metallic orange, one speed.
Awesome
“Banana” seats, Adidas sneakers and striped pants. Does it get any better than that?
No. It does not.
Are you sure those aren’t Keds sneakers?
The “Ray”! I had one. All white w/ a silver banana seat. On it I owned my street. In fact, I felt like I owned the universe. I rode hundreds of miles around the same streets of a small town, and never felt more free.
Sorry Pritchard old friend–
You can’t go home again….
JP
My first bike as well – blue if I remember correctly. The banana seat was perfectly suited for riding wheelies. Good stuff indeed.
JP,
I had this bike!! in burgundy. The seat had these nice sparkles! Anyway, the big flaw in the design was the handle bars. If you didn’t land a jump, the handlebars couldn’t handle the weight. I had some pretty bad wrecks on that thing….but I was loyal, I loved her….Great post…Also, not a great seat for young growing boys….Talk soon.
Lee
I think I remember tweaking a set of bars as well. I’m gonna post a couple more pics, one with a crazy set of bars that might bring back memories.
Best,
JP
those first two pictures are great
The first pic is… well, I got lost in it. I tend to over-think things, so there’s a lot a meaning there for me– pensive, brooding, tweener angst at it’s best.
I have a green metallic fleck Stingray sitting in my basement, got it for 5 bucks at an estate sale.
my first one wasa metalflake green with silver sparkle saddle and grips .that was in 72,god i wish i could go back
Amen. Although I came up when the banana seat was falling out of fashion, and it was BMX or get beat up by the neighborhood bully.
Still, nothing’s more important for kids in the summertime than being bored as hell and having to get creative to fill the hours. It’s easy to forget these days. Many a dirt mound I tore up on my banana-seated Huffy (suck it, bullies), and I wouldn’t trade it for all the iPods in the world.
Too young for it, and if you showed me a picture of one 15 years ago I would laugh at you. But today I think it’s one of the best bicycles ever made and it makes me sad to be young… well… maybe just for a second. I envy you all who can say you had and loved one.
Dude, stop. You’re not THAT young.
JP
Nick, I’m only 22 and I had a Stingray as my first bike. Though it was a classic by the time I had one, nevertheless I had one as well. Blue with an off-white (more like grungy white) banana-seat. Unfortunately it was stolen.
I came along at little after the ‘Rays, but my cousin had a rusty red one, with tassels. For me and my friends, it was all about mag spokes and the modern colors of OP shorts and fanny packs. The sentiment was the same though; all we had indoors were Atari consoles and nagging parents. Outside was where the freedom lived. Going to my old neighborhood now, the streets are so quiet I’m not even sure children live there anymore.
thanks tons for the post. it takes me back to a great time. metallic blue, gearshift and slick on the rear. love it. it was all about some cool, 12 year old style. schwinn was the shit.
I had completely forgotten these ads and how wild I was for one of these Sting Rays!!! I finally got one, the gold tone one-speed with a gold metallic fleck seat. After I outgrew that bike I was ruined. Never really wanted another one. Thanks for the GREAT post.
ML
I had to share it with my brother, we had many fights over who was riding it on any given day. Great pictures, great memories – playing cards and clothes pin!
Thanks!
I’m incredibly fortunate that my father-in-law let me have his 1969 Stingray (red and chrome, thank you) a few years ago when I was in college. Got the tires fixed and rode it around during my summer courses. Still have it, and ride it around the city sometimes on the weekend–though it’s almost better just to stare at it. Lovely bike, though modern bikes are a much easier ride, as much as I hate to admit it.
Great post JP, as always.
Wow, I am glad I was a kid when I was. I noticed kids really do not ride bikes all day long like I did. It’s very sad. I think being a kid now days would be boring.
Do you think there will come a time again when kids play outside all day? I regret every day in the summer of ‘93 when I skipped sharks & minnows for Sega Genesis.
I’ve had a million bikes but never a Schwinn Sting-Ray. The lookout is now on as an adult but nice ones are costlier than a new Ducati! Okay, slight exaggeration.
That was my first bike! I started a biker gang with my friends called The Rattlers, a name that I got from an episode of Quincy MD in which Quincy goes on a roadtrip and has a run-in with a biker gang called the Rattlers, the leader of which has a skull on his handlebars…Quincy does some of his forensic science on the skull and solves a crime, but what stuck out in my head was the leader of the gang kept saying “check it out…check it out.” I imitated him and to this day I pepper every conversation with “check it out.” The bmx thing killed it – I ditched the banana seat and put a bmx seat on it because I couldn’t afford a real bmx bike. I faked it for a couple years, then got my first ten speed.
My first bike. 1965. Beautiful blue. I would do wheelies down our the entire street.
So awesome
Great pictures and commentary.
Back in the early 70’s I was fortunate enough to own a Schwinn Apple Krate which I put through its paces popping wheelies and jumping for distance over ramps made from cinder blocks and discarded plywood. At 10 years old, nothing felt greater than racing the wind as you rowed the “Stik Shift” through all five gears.
I had a green sting ray as a kid. We used to jump them on makeshift ramps of bricks, a wagon and a piece of 1/4″ plywood. And nobody wore helmets! Our greatest feat was jumping “Snake River Puddle.” A puddle that formed on our street that was over 15 feet long. My neighbor slid sideways for over half of it. We also used to find old Raleigh’s, cut the forks off them and hammer them on the solid forks of the Schwinn to make a chopper. They were a great bike and indestructible.
About 10 years ago, I used to work on the advertising for Schwinn when they were making a comeback. They were getting their street cred back. My wife found a 3 speed red stingray at a garage sale. $25.00! I still ride it around the neighborhood and get lots of jealous looks. I still feel like a kid.
I had a sting ray, red, coaster brake, single speed with red sparkly seat.
Awesome bike.
I sent that bike on a lot of ghost rides down the driveway to see it catapult up in the air when it hit the curb on the opposite side of the street.
Oh my gosh, this site really brings back the memories. I had a blue sting ray with banana seat. It was my pride and joy. Nothing I have acquired since (cars, boats, etc.) can compare to the glee that I felt while riding and jumping on the Ray.
i am taking my time reading your blogs from before, so i am late on this one.
i have two guys, 13 and 9…they are complete wiry lil string beans. they have bikes but rarely ride them now in the country. they rode much more in LA. and razor scooters were a big thing in their lives. i think there’s lots of hand held games going on and lots of computer, tons…but i think most of the kids we see are mixing it. tons of skateboarders and biking too. they seem super fit and like they are having a blast!
also, i think its the parents sitting still and showing the kids that’s how it’s done. i mean, how much time are we spending sitting and typing or surfing or chilling in front of a screen? i got on my 13 years old’s bike and road it around our field to prove to my nine year old he could ride there even if it wasn’t as fun. i didn’t want to get off that bike. it was awesome. i have to get myself a bike now! anyway, we play frisbee, jump on our trampoline, i teach them the yoga i do. who knows which things they will feel nostalgic about and maybe the culture is sort of too diversified to identify…but, there’s still something cool happening in their worlds. it’s just different. i can’t keep judging the ones coming up…they have too many strikes against them i think.
Still droolin’
You know they outlawed the gear shift. It was a nutt buster. Mine was metal flake black and was stolen within a week. My dad did everything he could and I got my bike back. I was the happiest kid in the world.
Wow! Wish I had one. Im 13 and all the newer stuff sucks. I have no money also… well you guys are lucky
OK……well — this post is in memory of my brother Andy whose picture I’m looking at right now. In the photo he’s about ten years old and is hosing down his stingray. Yep, his ray was everything. It ruled……………..he spent hours and hours and hours riding it. He even brought it to Arizona with him when he spent some time with me on the Apache reservation in 1978. Yep…….well this love affair started his love of the open road and of course, Andy grew up………..I remember when they were reissued a few years back, the conversation we had and the stories and times we revisited about that ol bike…………..it went on for hours…..well, Andy went on to ride Harleys and on Tuesday he will be buried with a photo of his stingray and Harley. Peace down the Moonlight Mile……………..love you bro
Nice blog with really nice photos. We all have stories, but honestly, the Krates were for rich kids..they cost big bucks in 1969. So, most of us made do with off-brand stingrays like Murrays or Huffys, etc. No gears or handbrakes, but they worked. Especially with T-shirts with rolled up sleeves, a “punk” hangin’ out of your mouth and playing cards in your rear wheel spokes. It was about style. Still is.
Yep, I whole heartedly agree that kids these days don’t know what they are missing. You had to go knock on the door to “talk” to a friend. No cell phones. You rode all day, all over town. You were not overweight. You fell down, you got up. Oh! Baseball cards and spokes
yeah we were cool!
I love these bikes and I still have my ‘67 Orange Krate, I spent endless hours about 10 years ago restoring it to mint original condition, just like the day I awoke and saw it next to the Xmas tree. They will bury it with me. It was truly the best present I have ever received and my parents had to sacrifice big time to buy it for me. I don’t know who had the bigger smile on that Xmas morning, me or my folks. It is the only present I really remember how I felt when I saw it.
Just bought an orange co chopper edition stingray and am looking for some background info on it. Really nice ride.Please help.
Don’t forget the optional giant extended sissy bar that was so long you could lean back against it just like Peter Fonda. They had great names like “orange crate” “lemon twist” or whatever. Popping a wheelie was the true test of manhood in the fifth grade, in 1970.
DOES SCHWINN STILL BUILD THE 60′S AND 70′S STINGRAY AND WHERE. I REMEMBER THE GOOSE NECKS,SCISSY BARS, SLICKS, SOLD FRONT FORKS, BUTTERFLY HANDLE BARS, BANNA SETS.I’M NOT CRAZY ABOUT THE NEW STINGRAYS BUT NICE.I LIVE IN RIVERSIDE CA.AND WOULD LIKE TO KNOW WHERE I COULD BUY ONE FOR MY GRAND KIDS.I’M NOT BIG ON THE NEW MODELS BUT NICE.I’M LOOKING AT BMX BIKES WHICH COST AN ARM AND A LEG.MY OLDEST GRANDSON WANTS ONE OF THEM.I RESTORE OLD BIKES FROM TRASH CANS AND GIVE THEM TO THE KIDS AROUND WHERE I LIVE.I HAD TWO THAT WERE STOTEN.KINDA UPSET ME BUT OK WITH IT.HOPE THEY LIKE THEM.THANK YOU JAMES
Oh, yeah!
I have reminisced about these great things for hours and hours on end. I have sat around and laughed for hours with my friends about ALL the great things we had when we grew up that kids don’t have today. And how we all played outside all day, every day! I had a beautiful golden sparkled stingray – banana seat, sissy bar, didn’t have the gear shift but it was so cool. A whole gang of us from the neighborhood had stingrays and would spend the entire day riding – those were the days!
In fact, I wrote a fun book all about growing up in the ‘70s! It covers bike riding, playing kick the can, playing war, having squirt gun fights. And – family vacations, music, cars, toys, TV, etc.
Keep on truckin’
My brother had one…but not me. I got a cheapo knockoff. It was still cool. I lived in Detroit…not West Bloomfield…so it was okay. All that mattered was that *I* was still cool!
We built our own out of whatever 20″ we could find, a banana seat and ape hanger bars from the Western Auto. Put a 20″ front wheel on my 24″ bike along with the seat and bars off the 20″. With the taller gear ratio and longer pedal arms I could whip the Stingrays on a speed race. Ah, the simpler days. Knew my home town like the back of my hand from riding the bike around it all day, all summer.
remember the wide slicks that came in different colors ? suburbia in the early 70s when all the kids were your age lol.all day long riding bikes till the streetlights came on
I remember that bike being perfectly weighted for wheelies. The banana seat and long handlebars were the key factors in that. The whole design really is genius.
As for kids today, I can attest, as a father of 3 boys, that they still do all the outside things we did as kids, and still come home with scrapes and cuts from jumping off of homemade ramps. Atari 3600 is now an X-Box, Stingrays are now Mongoose BMX bikes, rollerskates are now rollerblades, and skateboards are far more popular, but the activities don’t change. Same with Legos. Yes, they come in very specific designs, which last about 1 day before the kids rip ‘em apart and make their own creations.
I think the nostalgia for our youth has turned many of us into the typical curmudgeon going on about “kids these days.”
Anyway, that’s my rant. Great site!
Great article. Thanks for bringing back the memories of my Sting-Ray. I was so excited on Christmas morning to get my very first bicycle I ran and jumped right on it! Early 70s; no shifter; sissy bars; green, with sparkly green banana seat and sparkly green grips. Training wheels until my brother (who had a red one with a white seat) took them off and made me learn to ride for real.
And yes, my family had two station wagons (sequentially) with faux wood panels, just like the one in the background of the “stunts for runts” pic. I guess the 70s weren’t all bad after all!
thanks for the memories
The Selvedgeyard rocks. I’ve been forwarding it around to friends. Y’all are the coolest. Great entry.