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.
That’s great.
I always saw the ads for selling Grit in Boy’s Life or other Kid’s publications.
But I never even saw a Grit in my life and knew no one who had.
It was almost mythical to me. I couldn’t imagine what it was like as a paper.
I did deliver Oakland Tribune, an afternoon paper, for a while.
It was great money.
I think my cousin is still wealthy (relatively speaking) to this day because of his diligence in his paper route and stinginess - ie he saved everything.
You could get the v-rroom motor separate. I had a paper-route so I only had a conventional bike with a huge basket on the front, but I had the motor. It was a morning route and the dogs would hear me coming.
Man that photo takes me back. 9 years old riding mine in the snow Christmas morning.
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?”
Those frames look a lot like what is on some current recumbents.
Kids these Days,,,Yup!
I delivered papers in San Bernardino
and had a Golf course in the middle
Of my route.
20 inch bikes,
Bags swinging off the Bars and
Getting just the right spin
Off those papers was an Art!
They real Milkmen back in those
Days and I was tempted to grab
Those cool bottles and take a
Swig now and then.
Having mothers say “get out of the house and go play in the street”.
I didn’t have that problem. Almost all my waking memories from 63 to 68 are with my butt glued to that Stingray of mine. Explored the world with my buddies or on my own. Took absurd risks down 60 degree slopes or leaping over concrete canyons. I regretted outgrowing it.
I had a blue Sting-Ray. I won it at the American Legion Post Christmas party where I grew up back around 1966 or 67. It was a great bike. Traded it in on a Schwinn Varsity when I got older. Lots of good memories.
Cool. I had a stingray bike with the sissy bar. Gold. I also had a nice, sweet yellow ten speed. It was one of those that was lightweight, you could pick it up with one hand, it was weightless. The rims came off with a lever. I forget what ever happened to it.
Never heard of it, but one of the best looking bikes of the type I've seen.
A little old for this sort of thing, IMO.
Nice job on the bike, though.
Anyone remember the AMF Aero Bee?
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