#Schwinn manta ray full#
#Schwinn manta ray pro#

apart and spread it out on the rear patio and thought my dad would be proud of me for doing so.

I remember as a tot (5-6 years old) my father bought me my first two wheel bike. Truly believe that without our bikes many of us would not of carried over to working on cars. Funny how our bikes gave most of us the starting knowledge to work on our cars. The bikes we had were bought from Western Auto and we kept them for life as a kid. He wouldn’t let anyone ride it, so we made our own, without the shifter. We had “THE” rich kid in the neighborhood get a 20′ 3-speed Schwinn Stingray, as in the photo for Christmas one year. Life can be hard, life can be short, be kind, give a guy a lift up, give a good deal on a set of wheels if he/she is polite and cordial. I have the bike now that CJ is at the bmx race in the sky. Cecil had to slam that last pitcher though and he did with style, finishing just as the last rider pulled in with a huge smile on his face. Even though he was at the races to support and wrench he still had his skills and was not to be denied.

#Schwinn manta ray pro#

He was an outstanding Retired bmx pro and it really showed. The front wheel of that bike stayed off the ground almost his entire lap and the crowd went wild. Everybody knew it was up to the last lap and all eyes were on this legendary rider CJ to take the win and all 4 bikes for his team. Just beer flying everywhere and guys wrestling for bikes.

#Schwinn manta ray full#

The clincher was each participant had to pound a FULL pitcher of beer in between handing the bike off. 4 Schwinn sting ray bikes, 4 teams, 4 guys, winner takes all. We were struggling mountain bike racers and the PR people at Schwinn proposed a relay around the Schwinn booth then up behind the booth on a big dirt shoulder. What do you think it’ll go for? Do you have a memory of one of these that you’d like to share? Let me know in the comments!ġ999ish Schwinn re-introduced the stingray. At the time I’m writing this, the bid is up to $1,700 with a few more days to go. I’ll admit that I don’t’ know my head from my tail when it comes to old two-wheelers, however I had a similar bike at one time, and I totally dig nostalgia pieces like this. It even has the “Stik Shift” and white-lettered rear tire! Has peppering on it on the Chrome in some places and the handlebars are the worst.” We can see that it is far from pristine, with worn paint and dry-rotted original rubber, but it looks complete. So, for this particular piece, let’s look: The seller tells us: “ All original no touchups.

Some say that the Sting-Ray helped pave the way for BMX bikes, but that’s a whole other story. Schwinn made multiple versions of the Sting-Ray from 1963 to 1981, totaling many, many thousands, and their competitors made many, many more. Schwinn executives weren’t sure, but they took Fritz’s word for it, and ended up selling four times more Sting-Rays the first year of production (1963) than their best-selling traditional models – and they had to stop early because their tire supplier couldn’t keep up with demand. Fritz was an intelligent man, but it didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that Schwinn could do well selling people exactly that which they were busting their humps to create from scratch. Real motorcycles were very cool at the time, since muscle cars were still in their early stages, and young people who wanted those kinds of things did the best they could to have a kid-version of those grown-up toys. He put two and two together when he learned that kids, particularly those in California, were home-modifying their existing traditional bicycles by removing extra bits and adding chopper-motorcycle parts like handlebars and long seats. In fact, the man who came up with the idea for them in the early 1960s, Albert Fritz, was a manager in Schwinn’s R&D department, having started there as a welder when he came home from WWII. The story of how the Schwinn Sting-Ray came to be is much more interesting, and isn’t nearly as complicated – it’s not like anybody had to really do a lot of engineering or road-testing for a bicycle. It is regarded as the modern bicycle’s forerunner Drais introduced it to the public in Mannheim in summer 1817 and in Paris in 1818″ We should start with a very brief bit of history: According to Wikipedia: The “dandy horse”, also called Draisienne or Laufmaschine, was the first human means of transport to use only two wheels in tandem and was invented by the German Baron Karl von Drais. Our faithful readers and fans know that we usually stick to motorized classics and antiques, however we saw this and just HAD to tell you about it! It’s up for sale right now here on eBay in Benton, Arkansas, so let’s check it out!