# Seeking Sting-rays With Stories



## @RideMC3 (Aug 26, 2016)

I'm still a newbie here but have fallen in love with the story of the Sting-Ray and how it was not created by adults or the bike industry, but by KIDS in their quest for muscle-car cool. I'm of the next generation (my first bike was a red Schwinn 10-speed that I rode to school every day) but no bike seems to epitomize the freedom of childhood like the Sting-Ray.

I'm looking for a Sting-Ray with a great story -- and an owner who'd be willing to share it with me for a magazine feature. Maybe it was owned by three generations of the same family. Or sold by a kid who grew up and repurchased it years later. Or a bike that has had at least three different owners I could track down and interview to hear what the bike meant to them. A Sting-Ray is a vehicle for so much more than a ride. Kind of like the Giving Tree (the Shel Silverstein book) was for her boy. 

I'm a lover of all bikes (I have mountain, road, BMX, cyclocross, and cruisers in the garage) and would love to own a Sting-Ray one day. I'm a writer by profession (I write for Bicycling, Bike, Outside, and other mags), so whenever I find a great bike story, I'm really happy. I came on here earlier asking about the Vista Torino and found some really great experts who were willing to help me. I hope some Sting-Ray owners will reach out and tell me about their favorite storied Schwinn.

You can vet my work here: kimhcross.com and kimhcross.wordpress.com and on Amazon. 

If you'd rather not post in the thread, feel free to PM me or email me at kimhcross (at) gmail (dot) com. 

Thanks!

Oh, and I recently found this cute little Schwinn at a recyclery. They are selling donated bikes to raise money for Trips for Kids, a nonprofit that takes at-risk kids on bike rides. I told them I'd ask about pricing. I have no idea how old it is, or anything about the model. Any idea what we should charge?


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## sfhschwinn (Aug 26, 2016)

Cool story- as for pricing $50-100. Looks clean and all original but being a girls bike, not worth much especially since it has s7 wheels and no s2.

I have some one owner bikes and some that have several owners but I would only be able to trace the bikes back to the previous owner so I won't be any help. If you wanted to write a short story on how I saved a 65 lime green I saw on CL or how I cleaned up a 67' I got from the original owner after it sat since 1970 in his dads garage I would be happy to help


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## @RideMC3 (Aug 26, 2016)

Thanks for the appraisal. I really had no idea. For that price I think I'd recommend they keep it as a mascot for the local Trips for Kids chapter. You don't see many of these around (or at least not in my riding circles).

I'd be interested in hearing the guy and the dad who had the '67 Sting-Ray. How did you come to own it? What you did to fix it up? How you ride it now?

This story I'm hoping for would be more about the people who rode the bike than the bike itself, and what the bike meant to each owner. In a way, the bike is reborn each time it inherits a new owner, and it becomes whatever that owner needs it to be. Like the Giving Tree. Or Woody in Toy Story. 

I'd really, really love to find a bike that was ridden in the muscle car heyday, converted to a BMX bike around Evel Knievel's reign, and then restored by a collector who rides it gave it to someone new to ride. The photo in my profile pic is a Vista Torino that was converted into a BMX bike and then restored by an inmate in a prison, then passed on to a little girl. But it's for another story...


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## schwinnray (Oct 10, 2016)

i have a pair of 75 yellow 5 speed stingrays that were from twins there names are on each bike 1 brother took better care than the other


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