Posted on 11/18/2018 10:53:43 AM PST by ETL
A Nod to the Man Who Changed It All
Al Fritz took a risk and created a bike that had a huge ripple effect ..."
After getting nearly taken out by a Japanese mortar in World War II, Al Fritz came home to the states and got a job at Schwinn as a welder. Fritz eventually worked his way off the floor and into management.
In the early 60s, word spread from Los Angeles that kids were modifying old Schwinn frames—bolting on Ape Hanger bars and adding other accouterments from early choppers.
Fritz made the kind of leap of logic which seems so obvious in retrospect, but is often overlooked at the time.
The logic goes like this: "If my customers are busting their asses to modify my product, wouldn't it just be easier if I sold them what they wanted?"
Thus, in 1963, Schwinn cranked out a run of Sting-Rays, despite the fact that no one at Schwinn, aside from Fritz, thought the homely children's chopper would be a success.
The Sting-Rays flew out of bike shops—46.630 of them at fifty bucks a pop. For comparison's sake, at the time the Sting-Ray debuted, Schwinn generally moved about 10,000 units of their best selling models each year.
Schwinn would have actually sold more Sting-Rays that first year, but they couldn't get enough 20-inch rubber tires from Uniroyal (their tire supplier) to slap on the things.
They rectified that problem in short order. Within two years Sting-Ray-esque bikes (other companies quickly followed Schwinn's lead) accounted for a staggering 60 percent of bike sales in the United States.
How many Schwinn Sting-Rays eventually wound up in people's homes? At the time of Fritz' passing, the LA Times reported that two million Sting-Rays were sold during the first five years of the bike's 15-year model run.
Millions and millions of the things prowled America’s cul de sacs and dirt lots. No matter how you slice it, it's a hell of a lot of banana seats and ape hangers.
None of this probably comes as a shock if you are anywhere between the ages of 30 and 60. If you fit within that demographic, you've probably ridden one of these things at some point in your life.
The ridiculously-easy-to-wheelie Sting-Ray also laid the foundation for BMX. As the sixties gave way to the `70s, modified Sting-Rays served as some of the first BMX bikes.
Clearly, it was only a matter of time before someone realized that there had to be a better mule for flogging on dirt, but still, when you look at a Sting-Ray, you're looking at the foundation for dirt riding.
A lot of those kids on Sting-Rays became BMX riders and, in short order, went on to become the first generation of mountain bikers.
From the Sting Ray to your mountain bike. Full circle…in a six degrees of Kevin Bacon kind of way.
Happy 50th to the Sting-Ray and a nod of respect to the recently-departed Al Fritz. You may not have met, much less known, Al Fritz, but the man had an impact on anyone who rides the dirt today.
“BTW, I happen to own and regularly ride a ‘66 Schwinn Stingray that I bought a little over a year ago.”
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Nice!
I’m still recovering from my bike being stolen very early this year. My beloved had it up on the wall in our carport. The bike was up about 7 feet (the bottom of the wheels!) and someone stole it.
How were they able to do so? My beloved didn’t have a lock on the bike because he figured it was high enough off the ground to be a problem for bike thieves. Sigh.
His bike was lower to the ground and was locked. Naturally, they left his and took mine. Still a touchy point of discussion in our household. LOL He’s still looking for a replacement bike for me. The bike I mean, not me. LOLOL
Now that you mention it, I DO remember the Alamo.
You people are all mocking my pain.
:)
Maybe, but it's far more commonly known as a "Springer Fork".
This is a girder:
My first was a 5 speed in 1972. That shift lever hurt like hell jumping ramps and landing wrong!!!
I almost got killed with one going airborn over a small hill way too fast. I remember how the entire bike flexed a few times at the neck when I landed. There is a God.
Who is that?
yes - that one is a springer ...
Mr. Fritz was born in Chicago on October 8, 1924, and died on May 7, 2013, in Barrington, Illinois.
He graduated from the 8th grade and then studied stenography.
He joined the US Army and was on Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s staff when he was wounded in the Philippines.
He was awarded the Bronze Star for his role in the first advance team to land in the Philippines.[citation needed]
He joined Schwinn in 1945 and worked initially as a grinder and a welder.
He was vice president for engineering, research and development in 1962 when he launched the Sting-Ray.
He retired from Schwinn in 1985 as head of Excelsior, Schwinn’s exercise division.
He was inducted into the BMX Hall of Fame in 2010.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Fritz
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From the usually slimey New York Times...
Al Fritz created stylish roadsters that were yearned for by young hot-rodders in the 1960s and ’70s. But his rolled on two wheels, not four.
Mr. Fritz, who died on May 7 at 88 in Barrington, Ill., created the Sting-Ray, the rugged, compact bicycle that Schwinn sold in the millions beginning in the early 1960s. The model, instantly recognizable by its banana seat and handlebars as high and curved as longhorns, found its initial market in young baby boomers at a time when motorcycles and souped-up vehicles of all kinds were the postwar rage.
Mr. Fritz was Schwinn’s vice president for engineering, research and development in 1962 when he flew to Southern California to investigate a new fad: children were buying used 20-inch bicycle frames and refitting them with long handlebars and banana seats. Recognizing the design’s mass-market potential, he built a prototype and came up with the name Sting-Ray because the curved handlebars reminded him of the upswept pectoral fins of a swimming stingray. ...”
More at link...
https://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/11/business/al-fritz-inventor-of-the-sting-ray-bike-dies-at-88.html
Mike Wolf from American Pickers [History channel]; he loves old bicycles.....and motorcycles.
I had the Western Auto version.
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