Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Mini Sting Ray - Blast from the Past and Present




Behold another example of really poor photography by yours truly - that be me. The bike however is really cool to see. Old school Schwinn mini Sting Ray with 16" wheels, guessing early '70s vintage. You don't see many with 16" wheels, most have the usual 20" wheel size. This era of bike reminds me of being a kid, as many Sting Rays and cheaper copies cruised the neighborhood "back in the day" - when kids roamed miles from home on their own.

We also converted many of these to BMX bikes with knobby tires, swapping the banana seat out for a "10 Speed" saddle and if you were lucky, actual BMX handlebars. Compared to the bikes of today, crude and heavy boat anchors. We knew no better and still had fun on 'em.

This bike belongs to our neighbors and their youngest girl takes it out occasionally. She told me she learned to ride on it, as well as her older sister, dad and uncle. Gotta love that and it's still being ridden to this day.

Bit of a bike boom on our street lately, with all the kids dragging out the two wheelers and buzzing around. Fun to watch and always great to see 'em having fun outside. No matter what the era, some things never change.

4 comments:

  1. Cool! I had a white Huffy and we had a bicycle club for about 2 weeks until....Kids don't stay focus on anything for long.

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  2. The "Sting Ray" was and is and will always be a classic.

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  3. I spent a lot of childhood time riding Sting Ray type bikes - so always dig seeing one. When you revisit one up close, amazing how crude and heavy these things are.

    To think we used to jump and BMX these things - yikes.

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  4. Yeap, If I find one at a garage sale or someplace going to buy, tune, and cruise.

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