A Nod to the Man Who Changed It All [History of the Schwinn Sting Ray (bicycle): 1963-]

BikeMag.com ^ | November 19, 2013 | Vernon Felton

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Sorry, my reply was meant for the post just before yours.

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“If my customers are busting their asses to modify my product, wouldn’t it just be easier if I sold them what they wanted?”

You cannot fault the logic.

Yes, but there's nothing like a well-done *unique* custom.

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Huffy...

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[Chode]

had a Stingray bought and paid for by paper route money that i road till i went to work at the paper, seems like 100 years ago...

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Lol! This I have never seen or heard about before.

[ASOC]

Now custom bikes are still the thing

From the working bicycle to the garish 'show bike"

Yes, large, the better to see the 'garish' parts....

[Zeneta]

In my youth I “acquired” dozens of bicycles of all types.

I chopped them up and created many unique designs.

I thought the Sting Ray was overkill. I liked the front shock but the seat shock and gear shifter wasn’t practical. It was also extremely heavy.

[ifinnegan]

Re 23.

They were so cheap the sissy gars would bust right above the seat.

[lgjhn23]

I remember when the Stingray first came out. I was about 12 years old.
I had an old 26” J.C. Higgins (Sears, Roebuck) bike that was handed down to me from an older cousin. Needless to say, it had seen better days. I could barely ride it as it was so tall and I was just a little fella. Our wealthier neighbor up the road got one of the first StingRays in the area. He let me ride it on day and I was hooked. I just had to have one, but coming from a large, very poor, family, where there were more mealtimes than meals, it was totally out of the question....even as a potential Christmas present.
So what’s a man supposed to do? I couldn’t rob the local bank...although it did cross my mind...LOL. I was too young to get a job so I decided to try a paper route. I ended up selling The Grit, a weekly newspaper at the time. They were 15 cents/each and I made 5 cents off every copy sold. I boosted my subscribers up to about 110 customers and worked my butt off for $5.50/week profit. I delivered em whether it rained or shined. I wasn’t about to lose a single customer. It took me a good 3 months to come up with the money for the StingRay. After I had the money, I thought about how hard it was to make that money and decided to just stick with my old 26” JC Higgins since it had a basket and I used to deliver the papers. I saved my money instead. Yeah, I remember the StingRay real well.

[Blurb2350]

A few kids in my neighborhood had Stingrays — mostly single-speed with the usual coaster brakes. They were very cool and all, but slow, and often hard to pedal in our mountainous terrain. I remember reading many years ago about boys injuring themselves, sometimes quite seriously, on those silly shifters mounted on the crossbar.

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AMF "Renegade"

[ifinnegan]

It says Sting Ray but it looks like a modified Lil’ Miss- Sting Ray hybrid.

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Columbia "Playbike"

[BikerTrash]

Gold 5-speed Stingray here. With a nod to my Mopar DNA I whittled a pistol grip for it in shop class.

I remember the piece of black walnut my shop teacher gave me was hard as a rock, purd' near wore out my pocket knife.

Yep, had a knife...IN SCHOOL! Oh the horror!

[caltaxed]

The rich kid down the street (only kid) had an Apple Krate. He wore dress shirts and never tucked them in, but they never wrinkled.

Had to paint my POS stingray with metal flake rattle cans. I get resentments thinking about it.

[ifinnegan]

Great story.

I never heard of or knew anyone who actually sold Grit before.

[Eddie01]

Mine was red.

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JC Penny "Swinger"