The One and Only, The Original, Genuine Sting-Ray
May 11, 2018 7:45 AM   Subscribe

For many Gen-Xers, their first bicycle after graduating from training wheels was the iconic Schwinn Sting-Ray. Known for its muscle-car inspired looks and glittery banana seat, it was originally introduced in 1964, and produced until 1982. It was designed by Al Fritz, Schwinn's vice president for research and development. It was greeted with skepticism, but ultimately sold more than two million bikes. Mr. Fritz passed away on May 7.
posted by MrGuilt (49 comments total) 7 users marked this as a favorite
 
Enemy of shins everywhere -- they weaponized Pre-Teens.
posted by y2karl at 7:55 AM on May 11, 2018


Banana Seats!
posted by ZenMasterThis at 7:58 AM on May 11, 2018 [8 favorites]


Just learned that my Schwinn Sting-Ray, circa 1978, weight 39 lbs. My main road bike, a 2013 BMC Gran Fondo GF01 is 16.5 lbs--less than half that. Even my commuter comes in at 25 lbs.

It makes me wonder how I might have done had I transitioned to more adult cycling in high school (like I wanted) rather than letting my mom talk me out of it.
posted by MrGuilt at 8:02 AM on May 11, 2018


I had one. These were great.
posted by mikelieman at 8:04 AM on May 11, 2018 [2 favorites]


Huh, I did not know until just now that my first bike (and the one I learned on) was a hand-me-down Sting-Ray. Of course I hated the banana seat and the monkey handlebars, so I swapped those out. And the gold finish wasn't to my liking so I bathed the whole thing in orange as only a seven-year-old can do. I can still hear the tink-tink-tink as the pedal hit the kickstand with each crank.
posted by rlk at 8:05 AM on May 11, 2018


Known for its muscle-car inspired looks and glittery banana seat, it was originally introduced in 1964...

I was gonna say, we far-older-than-gen-xers enjoyed the Stingray as kids, too.
posted by Thorzdad at 8:05 AM on May 11, 2018 [2 favorites]


The banana seat was the best, but not because of the long cushion.

It was that handle-loop on the back that let you tow other kids on skateboards, tie a rope and drag something behind it, etc etc etc.
posted by JoeZydeco at 8:07 AM on May 11, 2018 [10 favorites]


Gen-Xer? You flatter this boomer, who would have been 10 at the time.

Shortly after this bike was released, I recall that my brother and other kids in my neighborhood were building their own Sting-Rays by adding the high bars and banana seats to discarded little-kid bikes.
posted by SteveInMaine at 8:07 AM on May 11, 2018 [2 favorites]


I'm a Gen Xer (1967) - wouldn't have been caught dead on one of these. We are the BMX generation.
posted by bwvol at 8:24 AM on May 11, 2018 [5 favorites]


In my mind I associate these with handlebar tassels, but none of the pictures seem to have those. No doubt I had a neighbor with after market accessories, which just made me more jealous. But then again, perhaps memory fails. The tassels were for smaller kids, I bet. Stingrays had a cool big kid aura.
posted by bitslayer at 8:25 AM on May 11, 2018 [3 favorites]


Not a muscle car exactly, more of a chopper. Still one of the coolest bikes around, though. The bike that inspired ten thousand art bikes.
posted by Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The at 8:28 AM on May 11, 2018 [1 favorite]


J38 - Sting-Ray ... $49.95 (the cheapest version) in 1964 - this is $401 in today's prices. My daughter's kid bike cost $65 last year.
posted by The_Vegetables at 8:29 AM on May 11, 2018 [2 favorites]


HANDLEBAR TASSELS YESSSSSS!!

For a brief time I thought about putting a coonskin cap on the handlebars à la Henry Huggins, but I was weird enough at that age.

And that cool extension that Bobby Brady got for his license plate? Siggghhhhh...
posted by Melismata at 8:31 AM on May 11, 2018 [2 favorites]


The cool kids in my neighborhoods all had these, until they all moved to similarly useless-for-anything-but-showboating BMX bikes. The best ones came with the ridiculous testicle-removing top-bar-mounted gearshift, which was hilarious to see injuring the cool kids in relatively low-speed stops.

Me—I had a hand-me-down Western Flyer London Flyer, a heavy brick-red American copy of a traditional English three-speed, albeit with then-modern cable brakes, and it was comfortable, unbreakable, and came with a St. Christopher medal that I, as a raised-Presbyterian outsider, believed made me invulnerable. The cool kids would zip around the three short suburban streets within yelling range of their homes, and I'd click the Sturmey-Archer up to 3 and ride 7.9 miles to my best friend's house, hang out until dark, then ride 7.9 miles home, lit by a bottle generator and a glow worm in a rusty chrome headlamp shell.

Forty years on from those days, I think I'm meant to be be nostalgic about the fads of my youth, but the Stingray-style bike still just seems...sad, somehow. They looked fashionable, in a campy, overwrought way, but man, what dreadful, awkwardly-balanced, miserably-geared bikes they were. In keeping with the spirit of American design, the "sports car" bike was as bad as the American "sports car" was—all breast-beating, swagger, and strut and that's about all there was. I credit these largely with turning bikes from a utilitarian tool for moving kids from place to place to a toy that adults cast aside as soon as they're old enough to be embarrassed by being seen on a bicycle.

I went riding with my gentleman caller the other afternoon, on a beautiful, cool evening, him on his Bianchi and me on my careworn three-speed Puch, and it was a perfect bicycling day...but on street after street, and block after block, on protected, low-traffic side streets, there wasn't a single kid or grown-up out on a bike but us.

Even a fleet of Stingrays would be welcome.

"Every time I see an adult on a bicycle, I no longer despair for the future of the human race." — H. G. Wells
posted by sonascope at 8:52 AM on May 11, 2018 [10 favorites]


Schwinn’s were cool ‘n’ all but I was a Chopper kid. That 3+2 shifter was the bomb.
posted by Insert Clever Name Here at 9:02 AM on May 11, 2018 [3 favorites]


One of the popular Stingray mods in my neighborhood was to extend the front forks forward a foot or more (for that coveted chopper look) and replace the handlebars with a steering wheel. Some also extended that back loop (behind the saddle) upwards by as many feet as you could get your dad to weld.
posted by Thorzdad at 9:06 AM on May 11, 2018 [6 favorites]


The cool kids would zip around the three short suburban streets within yelling range of their homes, and I'd click the Sturmey-Archer up to 3 and ride 7.9 miles to my best friend's house, hang out until dark, then ride 7.9 miles home, lit by a bottle generator and a glow worm in a rusty chrome headlamp shell.

Yeah, all due respect to Fritz, but fuck the Sting-Ray for ushering in the trend of bike as ersatz car or motorcycle, made heavier, less functional, uglier, and generally shittier by fake gas tanks, car-style shifters, and other appurtenances of toxic masculinity, and for thereby convincing millions that a bike could be nothing more than a kid's toy analog of a car, to be discarded for the latter at the earliest opportunity.
posted by enn at 9:07 AM on May 11, 2018 [5 favorites]


My first "big kid" bike was a Columbia Silver Fox which, if we're kind, we can say it was ..."inspired" by the Stingray.

Since my parents were of the "buy a bike far too big, he'll grow into it" school, I remember constantly having to bend back the chain guard because my only method of dismounting was to ride up on the grass and jump off.
70s steel was strong, but the chain guard brackets were flimsy.
posted by madajb at 9:16 AM on May 11, 2018


The best ones came with the ridiculous testicle-removing top-bar-mounted gearshift, which was hilarious to see injuring the cool kids in relatively low-speed stops.


You had to adjust your banana seat so the front was higher than the back.

Also, the real danger from banana seats wasn't sliding, it was when the vinyl cracked, leaving sharp thigh-destroying edges that our 70s short shorts were powerless to prevent.
posted by madajb at 9:18 AM on May 11, 2018 [9 favorites]


Other Columbia "muscle bike" models included the Mach and the Dilly drag racer.
posted by madajb at 9:22 AM on May 11, 2018


Since my parents were of the "buy a bike far too big, he'll grow into it" school

Mine were of the "psht, wait until she grows into a bike before buying one" which is how I didn't learn to ride a bike until I was 8. Mine was a Huffy Strawberry Sizzler, which had training wheels for a goodly long time.
posted by kimberussell at 9:29 AM on May 11, 2018 [2 favorites]


Man this makes me feel young again! My first “real” bike was a used circa 1970 copper colored Stingray with the 5 speed console shifter. Around my neighborhood extending the front forks and putting a higher sissy bar on the back was the cool thing to do. I never did anything with the forks but did buy a taller sissy bar. After a couple of years I begged and begged and got a Krate for Christmas. I foolishly left it laying unlocked in my parent’s front yard a few months later and it was stolen. Man I was despondent! After that I graduated to a 10 speed Varsity that moved me around until I was old enough to drive. My sister’s red white and blue 1976 Varsity is still in the basement at my mother’s house; every now and then I think I ought to fix it up and display it with some other vintage Schwinns at the local dealer; he happens to be someone I grew up with.
posted by TedW at 9:34 AM on May 11, 2018


Oh, and

🚴‍♀️

for Mr. Fritz.
posted by TedW at 9:43 AM on May 11, 2018 [1 favorite]


When I was a kid in the late 70s I wanted a Schwinn Scrambler 36/36 so bad. My parents knew nothing about bikes and got me a knockoff from JC Penney. For years I seethed about it and was embarrassed to be seen in public.

Now I have a kid of my own and, if I haven't exactly duplicated that experience for her yet, I am sure I will.
posted by Kafkaesque at 9:59 AM on May 11, 2018 [4 favorites]


Shortly after this bike was released, I recall that my brother and other kids in my neighborhood were building their own Sting-Rays by adding the high bars and banana seats to discarded little-kid bikes.

TFA notes that the Sting-Ray was actually a *response* to that trend.
posted by Sys Rq at 10:03 AM on May 11, 2018


This Baby Boomer saved up her allowance for a whole year to buy a Stingray in '66-'67 or so. It was in the window of the Western Auto for that long as I hoped they wouldn't sell it to someone else (I didn't realize they had more bikes in the warehouse). It was pink! With a banana seat! Much better than the much-smaller vanilla bike I learned to ride on. I rode that pink Stingray for three or four years and someone stole it... I will never forgive them.
posted by Miss Cellania at 10:04 AM on May 11, 2018 [1 favorite]


(...which basically means Fritz saw custom chopper/hotrod bike culture and thought, “Hey, how can we exploit the creativity of youth while also eradicating it by making every ‘custom’ bike exactly the same?” Capitalism!)
posted by Sys Rq at 10:10 AM on May 11, 2018


It was that handle-loop on the back that let you tow other kids on skateboards, tie a rope and drag something behind it

We used old inner tubes to get the whip going.

You had to adjust your banana seat so the front was higher than the back.

And also because it looked cooler.

Tiny chain steering wheels were the prize but I never got there.
These were, and are, big part of low rider culture.
posted by bongo_x at 10:13 AM on May 11, 2018


There is some hilarious MetaFilter in this thread.
posted by bongo_x at 10:15 AM on May 11, 2018


I think maybe for girls there was no real brand-awareness when it came to bikes. My bike was roughly like this, but probably a Sears or Kmart knockoff, pink, with white plastic basket + plastic flowers. White banana seat with the loop. Banana seats were mostly good for 'pumping' your friends on the back to give them a (pretty unsafe and uncomfortable!) ride. Oh yeah, handlebar tassels too.

I also had a tall white pole attached to the back frame with a triangular orange flag at the top to make me visible to cars when I was riding in the street. I had no idea it was a safety feature, I just liked the way it whipped around in the breeze.

When I outgrew it, I was given my first geared bike. I didn't like it at first because I was used to braking by pedaling backwards and handbrakes seemed dumb to me. But it was an grownup bike, considerably faster and so I grew to like it. I don't know what brand it was, either.
posted by emjaybee at 10:37 AM on May 11, 2018 [3 favorites]


When I was 7, I beeeeeeeeegggged for one of these. But my folks were convinced that it was pointless to spend so much money on a bike. So the summer went by and no bike, birthday went by and no bike, and I grew more despondent.

Finally at Christmas, there was this beautiful red and white Schwinn Stingray under the tree. I was over the moon and immediately took it outside to ride in my pajamas, without a coat or shoes.

I rode that bike daily for years, until I upgraded to a 10-speed I bought with my own money in 6th grade. By the time it had retired, the most awesome bike had evolved into one of those rare things. The toy/item that you outgrow but still love. Even after it was retired to the family barn, I'd take it out every so often and ride it.

So when I was in college, my dad called one day and asked if I'd mind if he gave my bike to family friend's little girl. They didn't have a lot of money and dad's friend really wanted to get his girl a bike, and my dad knew mine was just lazying about in the barn. Feeling magnanimous and proud of myself, I said, "Sure! It should have another little girl!" Imagine my surprise when Dad agreed and added, "This will be the bike's third kid and probaly it's third paint job too. I don't think that little girl is as into red like you were."

That's when I found out that my dad started searching for that bike when I first asked for it. He then determined it was far too expensive new but he'd find it used somewhere and make it work. Eventually, he did, from a coworker who's daughter had outgrown it. Of course, her bike was pink and ever the difficult child, I rejected pink as "stupid and girly." So in the months after my birthday, he took the bike apart, repaired anything that was broken and repainted it cherry red.

I came home that weekend and Dad and I repainted the bike a really awesome purple. The little girl really dug it and hopefully that bike has had another color and another kid in the interim years.
posted by teleri025 at 10:56 AM on May 11, 2018 [31 favorites]


I learned to ride on a bike of this style. They were what all the cool kids rode. It was brand new and I got it for my fifth birthday. I disappointed my parents with my lack of interest. My birthday is in midwinter and when you are five, snow is an eternal fact of life and spring is a hazy concept. I used it as a frame to hold the roof of blanket tents and thought no more about it.

The bicycle was bright metallic blue with a white seat. The chain guard said "Miss Buzz Bike" in script letters. This slogan was an unfathomable mystery to me. When I outgrew it it was repainted rattlecan black and the seat was replaced with a bulbous motocross type thing, so that my younger brother wouldn't be embarrassed to be seen on it.
posted by elizilla at 11:17 AM on May 11, 2018 [1 favorite]


Of course, those of us of a certain age know that the REAL joy of the banana seat is how far back you could throw the center of mass of the bike, making wheelies that much easier to pull off.
posted by hanov3r at 11:27 AM on May 11, 2018 [5 favorites]


With apologies to both Al and Kermit the Frog, I guess we can say that Mr. Fritz is now Gone With The Schwinn.

.
posted by radwolf76 at 12:18 PM on May 11, 2018 [1 favorite]


teleri025 I sincerely teared up a bit there. Your dad is one awesome dude.
posted by MrGuilt at 1:17 PM on May 11, 2018 [4 favorites]


In the UK we had the Raleigh Chopper, best ridden while eating Spangles and drinking Cresta.
posted by w0mbat at 2:05 PM on May 11, 2018 [1 favorite]


I had one. Lime green with a sissy bar as long as an ironing board and a rear reflector the size of a small dinner plate. It was the best bike I ever had.
posted by SPrintF at 3:40 PM on May 11, 2018




Finally at Christmas, there was this beautiful red and white Schwinn Stingray under the tree. I was over the moon and immediately took it outside to ride in my pajamas, without a coat or shoes.

As a parent, there are few moments more exhilarating/heart-warming than surprising your daughter with her first “big girl” bike. I can still hear the near-maniacal screaming and giggling 15 years later.
posted by Thorzdad at 4:22 PM on May 11, 2018 [1 favorite]


I had one of these for a while, & it was a rattle-trap. It must hace been used. Now that I think about it, I can trace the beginnings of my handiness with tools back to the days of trying to keep my Stingray functional.

By Jr. High, I had graduated to a 10-speed Schwinn Continental, which must have been the heaviest bike ever produced, and it gave me a whole new multitude of thinks to tinker with -- trying to get the shifter tension & brake tension cables just right, aligning wheels after taking a tumble, Getting the chain back through the derailleur whenever it came loose (frequently) raising the seat to keep up with my crazy rapid growing legs, etc.

I guess I thought Stingrays were cool when I was a little kid, but really, they were my gateway to the world of mechanical maintenance, & for most of my adult life, until they got too complicated, I did the majority of my own car repairs, & have never been afraid to dive into a piece of machinery of any sort. It's a skillset that has stood me in good stead as a printer, since I maintain printing presses, & a lot of people are befuddled by the things, which seem complicated, but are basically, just a chain of gates & air hoses, a very basic computer that takes an input signal & sends an output signal based off of it, in a very orderly & easy to follow sequence, & lots of bolted on of-the-shelf doohickeys, like air valves & magnetic proximity detectors. I've gotten pretty good at problem solving these things, and rigging them together with bailing wire if a spare part isn't at hand & has to be ordered.

Being raised by wolves, I guess I intuitively knew that asking my parents for help with a broken bike would be utterly useless, but I could ask where the wrenches & screw drivers were, & go try to figure it out, if I wanted a bike to ride.

I'm glad to be good with tools.
posted by Devils Rancher at 7:02 PM on May 11, 2018 [1 favorite]


The irony for me in adulthood is that, when I took up motorcycling for taoism and mileage, I'm riding an unadorned, simply-styled-as-bikes-get BMW motorcycle that's the humble, upright latter-day motorized version of my Western Flyer while the prevailing trend in motorcycles has been the increasingly infantile rampages of overchromed, overloud, ape-hanging, maximum-bullshit, tasseled leatherdaddy cruisers and the sci-fi stabby tupperware extremity of sports bikes, so the marketing departments of the world have once again turned a perfectly rational mode of transportation into juvenile mantoys for idiots so plainly tied to prepubescent insecurity that they ought to come with a playing card clothes-pinned so that they'll clatter in the spokes like a big boy engine.

Sigh.
posted by sonascope at 7:03 PM on May 11, 2018


I begged for the Sears Apple Krate or Orange Krate. My dad got me a used purple Stingray with the 5-speed ball shifter instead, which was an awesome bike and way better than the Sears crap. Thanks Dad.
posted by Mei's lost sandal at 8:43 PM on May 11, 2018 [2 favorites]


overloud, ape-hanging, maximum-bullshit, tasseled leatherdaddy cruisers

Where are we going?
posted by bongo_x at 9:28 PM on May 11, 2018 [1 favorite]


I remember these very well, but oddly enough I never coveted them the way I coveted so many other toys and things. Even as a kid, they seemed really gimmicky. My bike was one that I used for my paper route and had front and rear baskets for holding the papers. I can't say that I have a lot of nostalgia for that bike--it was heavy as hell and only had one speed--but I had plenty of adventures on it.
posted by Halloween Jack at 8:30 AM on May 12, 2018


I had one. It was the worst.
posted by eamondaly at 10:54 AM on May 12, 2018


I made my parents get me a stupid-ass bmx bike I never learned any tricks on, because bmx was like a whole scene. Kids would taunt each other about what kind of tricks you could do and eventually I just dreaded riding that fucking bike. I just wanted to like ride to Scott’s house to trade baseball cards and you had go through the park to get there and there was always a gang of like really scary older bmx kids, like fourth and fifth grade even, who would laugh at you and sometimes try to steal your bike.

My sister had an old garage sale Sting-Ray — it had purple glitter paint and a flower basket — and it was like way more fun to ride and practical as kid transportation. I still can see the exact shade of purple and the depth of the metallic finish. Eventually I just appropriated that bike.

Before, my ride through the park to Scott’s house was like “Ha Ha loser kid, you’re not cool enough to be a fourth grade bmxer!” After, it was just: “Fag!”

One time they took my sister’s bike and rode it around while I chased after them. I had to run home and get my dad to go and make them give my sister’s Sting-Ray back.

Anyway, they say that your early childhood trauma shapes the person you become. In my head those fourth and fifth graders never left that shit town. Eventually they traded bmx bikes for skateboards, probably started smoking weed in that same park. They probably parked their stupid muscle cars and drank shit beer at that park. Maybe a few ended up ODing on heroin in that park.

I lost track of Scott in high school, but I’d heard he was off to Stanford. I stayed an outcast and a girls’ Sting-Ray rider through grade school and then in high school I found the other outcasts. Most of us got good grades and started bands then went away to college. I went to Berkeley, then med school, played music professionally, traveled the world, met and married a beautiful woman and settled into a really satisfying life. I still ride a dorky ass bike with a basket on the front of it and I love every minute of it because it reminds me of my sister’s glitter purple Sting-Ray.
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 1:35 PM on May 12, 2018 [4 favorites]


I had a Stingray Orange Krate and my friend had a Stingray Pea Picker. Both had a 5-spd derailleur with a "stik shift." I gave it to my younger brother who eventually sold it for a few dollars. I can't remember what they cost new, $250-$300 but I know they are going for $1-2k today.

Here is the Lemon Peeler variant for sale on ebay. Lots of photos.
posted by bz at 3:59 PM on May 12, 2018 [1 favorite]


My parents bought low-cost generic everything, but for some reason, applied Pratchet's boot wisdom to bikes. On our 7th birthday, my three brothers and I were each treated to a brand-freaking-new, coaster brake Sting Ray that I don't think my parents could really afford.
posted by klarck at 6:45 PM on May 12, 2018 [1 favorite]


Stingrays were all right and all, but they were no 1978 Schwinn Tornado like I cruised around St. Anthony Village, Minnesota on.
posted by umbú at 8:48 PM on May 12, 2018


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