Schwinn StingRays @ Walmart ?
 

Was in Walmart today and they had Blue and Green Schwinn StingRay reproductions for $125. Damn

They looked REAL close to the originals too.
Paint, Lettering and Emblems all looked good
Front forks are a little bulkier, but similar design.
Rims and Spokes seem a little less quality than they should be.

Overall they looked like ahelluva copy for $125

I might buy one and build/clone it as close as possible to my old Schwinn Typhoon Stunt/Daredevil/BMX bike i rode way back when

I found a picture of one on the Wal-Mart website, interestingly they only showed a gold one and said it's out of stock. The front fork is a lot different than the originals, so is the rear fender.

There's someone trying to sell the exact same bike on eBay for $550. :confused2

http://forums.maxperformanceinc.com/...9&d=1593407189

CHINA bike.

They don't show any at all when i tried Walmart.com earlier - "in-store" or "online only"
But they had 2 Greens and 1 Blue in the store.

My local craigslist has a new Blue one for $250. haha opportunist
The Blue ones actually aren't dialed in as close the Green ones.
The Gold one you pictured is pretty close in character to the Green.

If they make a CandyApple Red the same color as my old Typhoon - I'm Sold

The Blue bike in the store looked cheaper/less authentic
Didn't have Schwinn cursive logo on top frame bar, instead it had StingRay.
No StingRay logo on the chain guard.
And the forks were painted white.

The Green bike looked good... for $125 New

That's fun even if it's not perfect. And if Schwinn was making them today they'd probably be made in China!

My parents probably couldn't afford a StingRay. I got a Rollfast imitation.. was good enough for me at the time! Let me know when they get cloned..:D

Just checked eBay
They have Red , Green , Gold repops of the original StingRays
Prices are all over the place - $250 up

The Blue one is a repop of a late 70's StingRay

Guess i'll be running around a couple towns tomorrow hunting a Red one.

Old worn out beat up rusty Typhoons and Stingrays are usually 200+ around here on craigslist.

As a kid .... the Stingray was the Nancy Boy bike compared to the Huffy Cheater Slick :)

That’s what I had, and it was my brothers hand me down. Wish I still had it.

Look MA!...
 

... Don't recall ever having any top of the line bikes.
My folks couldn't/wouldn't buy them.

Always used the "you'll just ruin it" so we would usually build our own,
growing up watching Evil on the Wide World of Sports didn't help ;)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...270cf7c7_z.jpg

I have owned more than ten of these and my friend has a basement FULL of these and Krates with the tags still on them.
It's all about the welds on schwinns.
The real stingray slik was real cool too.

The history is interesting too.
The banana seat was invented for bicycle polo.
Schwinn, (or maybe troxel) ordered thousands of banana seats in anticipation of a bicycle polo trend that didnt happen.
they used the stock on the stingray; and it became popular.
I preferred the Ross Apollo 5 speed myself.
Apollo was the type of bike= A polo bike; but also handy because of the space race.

They are all the rage now with Schwinn collectors. They don't mind paying $125 for a Chinese knock off for them and their kids and grandkids to enjoy so they can spare the originals from possible damage from riding. Been following them on FaceBook for about the last month or so when they first hit the stores.

I used to have a bike that was a hand me down from my uncle, it was a GTO by Firestone. It was gold, with a 3 speed shifter in front of the handle bars, banana seat , wide tire in the back and small tire up front. I wish I would have kept that. I have never seen another one.

Growing up in Dayton, OH, (world headquarters for Huffy), kids like me and our parents were in a bit of a bind. Clearly, the Schwinn bikes were better made, more balanced and the 5 speed models shifted well and the chains stayed on. To be loyal to the locally built Huffy's, most parents bought them for their kids, along with them being about 30% less expensive for similar models. I remember trading my plum crazy, (purple) cheater slick Huffy, even up for a several year older green 5-speed Schwinn . My dad was furious.

Back in the early 60s I had a hand me down Schwinn 26" 3 speed. I was riding it around a corner when I had a head on with a car that was on the wrong side of the road. Luckily he was only going about 10 mph but the wreck totaled my bike. He offered to buy me a new one and I chose the Stingray. I was the only one in my group that had one and I came to regret it. Everyone else had the full size bikes and I caught He!! trying to keep up with them!
Today, I have an unrestored 54 Red Phantom that I ride occasionally.

Schwinn Sting Rays @ Walmart
 

I picked up a 2007 Walmart Black Friday Special in 2011. It was in mint condition. The rear racing slick still has the nobbies on the tire. Walmart price was $88 back in 2007.

That looks almost identical to my old Grey Ghost - single speed.
Except it was Silver and had shocks on the rear seat support struts.
Wow - $88 for all that
Mine was around $100 new in 1970 iirc

Walmart.com showing 6 copper ones in stock:


https://www.walmart.com/ip/Schwinn-S...pper/841993718


6 left.... as I just placed an order and paid. :D

We will see if it goes through of if I get an email in a few hours saying out of stock!

The Birth of BMX

My first bike i think was a Huffy (purple) at age 5
It came from Roses Dept. Store
Had it at my grandfathers house one time on a visit (age 7) - and he backed over it with his station wagon. (ruined)

It was my fault for parking it where i did, not his.
But the next day we all went to the Schwinn Shop and he bought me a Schwinn Grey Ghost Springer/Chopper bike.
I didn't even get to pick it out.
It wasn't what i would have picked - honestly ended up not really liking it.
It was heavy and hard to peddle (big front sprocket)
But it looked Killer and Super Cool

Fast forward a couple more years - Evel Knievel is King
who could ride the longest wheelie and who could jump the ramps the farthest.
Grey Ghost was a total turd for all that, i had to borrow friends bikes.

Then we met up with this "older cooler guy" who was the Bicycle King
Guy could ride a one-handed wheelie about a mile (other hand was giving peace sign or middle finger- depending on location)
And he had real motorcycle dirtbike handlebars - first we had ever seen on a bicycle.
And a small 10 speed seat.
There was no such thing as BMX bikes or BMX kits yet, back then.
So he was the pioneer in our town - and we followed suite.
Thats when we all became stunt riders - show offs.

He knew all about working on and building bikes - none of us did.
So we learned (9-10 year olds)
He said all the Schwinns were just way too heavy to make a good jump bike.

I traded the Grey Ghost to him for a half-ass backup bike he built for himself.
It was a ready-to-go Jump Bike with dirtbike handlebars, knobbies, 10 speed seat.
My parents were ABSOLUTELY FURIOUS i traded the Grey Ghost.
i thought it was a great trade. LoL

Broke the frame in less than a month from big jumps.
We were getting braver and braver , and the jumps bigger and bigger
Regular handlebars (medium and low-rise) would bend from hard landings after a while, then break - everybody had to have real dirtbike handlebars to take the punishment.

We all had various makes of bikes - we broke every frame known to man.
But we didn't have Schwinns - "they were too heavy".

Got a new Sears bike and swapped all my stuff over to it - broke it in 1 week.
Sears gave a replacement bike for the "defect-bike"
Broke it in 1 week - Sears refunded money

Got a new Columbia bike - broke it in about 2 weeks.
They gave a replacement bike and said no more warranty.
Broke it in less than a week.
Had it welded and gusseted and it was holding up for a while.

So here's the punch line
The older guy i traded my GreyGhost to - had secretly decided to tear it all down and build it into a Jump Bike (Schwinns were No Good, Too Heavy, remember)
We all were breaking frames and getting re-welds on regular basis.
He rides up on the skeleton of my Grey Ghost one day.
Still doing mile-long wheelies, and jumping just as far as ever.
New Rule - Schwinns are the Ultimate
We all need to find Schwinn frames.

I wanted to strangle him. lol
He had my GreyGhost frame and i wanted it back !

So i tell my Mom - if i can get a Schwinn frame i won't break any more.
" NO - NOT buying you a new Schwinn - too expensive - AND you HAD one ! "
" And you said they were No Good ! "

Well Mom, turns out, we found out they will work just fine.
And the welds on my Columbia are cracking
" Too bad your GreyGhost couldn't have been turned into a jump bike "
Well, he actually did strip it all down and built it, and jumping with it now, and he loves it.
She just about blew all her gaskets ...but she settled down ...and laughed at me.

Found an early 60's Schwinn Typhoon in Trading Post paper for $20.
And she bought it for me
Never broke it with about 8 more years of hard riding/jumping

It was a cream-puff original with big long chrome fenders front and back, and a spring loaded solo seat.
All that went straight into the garbage.

We all had Schwinn frames within a month or so of him converting the Grey Ghost.
I "think" 1 or 2 "might" have been stolen.
idunno
maybe
idunno :o

The “Real McCoy” Stingray 1963-1973
 

More 60sstuff,

I had a ‘66 violet deluxe Stingray as a kid and me and my buddies would ride our Schwinns, Huffy, Sears etc. type of bikes for miles doing wheelies, riding through creeks and jumping off hills back in Illinois.

No Nancy Boy crap with us!

The Schwinn bicycles were of the highest caliber construction (Heavy and Brutal), not flimsy like the other brands of that time.

This is my scaled down collection of Survivor Stingrays.

All 100% factory paint, original seats and having their OEM date coded tires.
Yes, the front and rear tires were dated on one sidewall when these bikes were new.

The Flamboyant/Radiant colors Schwinn used on the 63-65 Stingrays were the coolest!
The 1966-1973 colors were toned down.

Chris

The early Stingrays are the most difficult to find in good condition, but you can still locate a nice Krate (1968-1973) today.

I only have two Krates now.
A 1973 Sunset “Orange Krate” with its factory rear disc brake.
A 1970 “Pea Picker”.