# Goodyear Tire Store 70's Muscle Bike?



## T-Man (Aug 9, 2016)

Greetings all.
I'm wondering if someone can solve the riddle of what kind of muscle bikes (Schwinn Stingray look-a-likes) did the Goodyear tire stores sell in the early 70's?

In approximately '73 - '74, I had a gold one, and after about a week, someone stole it right off our front porch. The next day, my father took me back to Goodyear on East State Street in Rockford, IL... and got me another one just like it! Over the past few weeks, I've been looking everywhere trying to figure out what kind of bike it was, I even came across a 'Firestone' bike that looked almost identical to it, but nothing. Both my mother and father remember me having the bike, it being gold, stolen, and purchased from Goodyear, so I know my memory is intact on this one.

Any and all help would be great, because yes...at 48 years old, I'd love to have that bike back.

Thanks in advance.


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## GTs58 (Aug 9, 2016)

I had a childhood friend back in the 60's and his Dad owned the only Goodyear Tire store in town. He and I would get paid for polishing mag wheels during some of the Summer days and I remember the showroom full of bicycles. To this day I cannot remember what brand or who the manufacture was but I'm thinking it was Huffy since the Firestone stores carried Murray built bikes. My friend had a Goodyear store 1964-65 Sting Ray style  muscle bike but I road a Schwinn Varsity and had no interest in the muscle bikes. Try looking under the Huffy name.


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## partsguy (Aug 10, 2016)

It was probably a Firestone GTO


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## T-Man (Aug 10, 2016)

I'm beginning to think it was, even though it was a 'Firestone' being sold at a 'Goodyear'.  When I spotted one on Craigslist and saw that GTO on the chain-guard, I had a mild flashback and thought..."I could have sworn that was on my bike...".  I think I'll go with that, and move on with my life.

Thanks!


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## partsguy (Aug 11, 2016)

T-Man said:


> I'm beginning to think it was, even though it was a 'Firestone' being sold at a 'Goodyear'.  When I spotted one on Craigslist and saw that GTO on the chain-guard, I had a mild flashback and thought..."I could have sworn that was on my bike...".  I think I'll go with that, and move on with my life.
> 
> Thanks!





I missed the part about how this bike from Goodyear. I did not know Goodyear ever carried bicycles. I'm not sure if they had their own bicycle brand name (such as Western Flyer, for Western Auto stores) or the bike manufacturers used their own name. In any case, in the 1950's and 60's, Murray and AMF pretty much had a death grip on large department store bicycle contracts and their independent dealers were thrown under the bus.

Huffy had contracts too, but they didn't win as many. They stuck to their guns when it came to quality and pricing, and it saved their independent dealers for awhile anyway. Huffy built bikes mainly for Firestone, Western Auto, and other smaller companies. They didn't get big contracts until around 1974-75 ish, such as with JC Penny or Sears. Rarely did they ever get Sears contracts before then.

Since this was a Goodyear bike, I'd bet it it was a Huffy bike of some kind. Like I said, they were more prone to building bikes for smaller stores.


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## partsguy (Aug 11, 2016)

T-Man said:


> Greetings all.
> I'm wondering if someone can solve the riddle of what kind of muscle bikes (Schwinn Stingray look-a-likes) did the Goodyear tire stores sell in the early 70's?
> 
> In approximately '73 - '74, I had a gold one, and after about a week, someone stole it right off our front porch. The next day, my father took me back to Goodyear on East State Street in Rockford, IL... and got me another one just like it! Over the past few weeks, I've been looking everywhere trying to figure out what kind of bike it was, I even came across a 'Firestone' bike that looked almost identical to it, but nothing. Both my mother and father remember me having the bike, it being gold, stolen, and purchased from Goodyear, so I know my memory is intact on this one.
> ...




Try ratrodbikes.com or the muscle bike forums. There's different people on every site, so exhaust all of your resources, and you will eventually find this bike.


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## T-Man (Aug 14, 2016)

Thanks all.  Still keeping an eye out for it.


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