# What Year Was My Five Speed?



## Two Wheeler (Jul 13, 2022)

This is a picture of my brother on my fenderless Five Speed. I’m guessing it to be a 1971 or 1972. What do you knowledgeable people think? I sold it to a friend of mines younger brother. I inquired about it twenty years ago. His mother had just sold it at a yard sale three months before I asked.


----------



## Oldbikeguy1960 (Jul 13, 2022)

Not easy to do with one photo from the 1970s, but here is what I know.
1). Looks like a BMA-6 Certified sticker under the Schwinn decal on the seat tube. Those were 1971 and later
2). It looks like possibly yellow pedal reflectors. Do you remember if they were clear or yellow? Clear was early 1971, yellow was mid 1971 and later. If you remember the pedal reflectors being clear that would mean early 1971 for sure.
3). The shifter was 1970-1973 so not much help there.
4). Narrow bars were 1970 and up so no help there either.
I tried enlarging the photo, but analog photos do not do that well. See if you can look at the photo with a magnifying glass for any details and I will try harder to help.
What color is it? I cannot tell for sure on my phone. Sometimes that will help.
Rob


----------



## sab (Jul 13, 2022)

For a second, I thought.... it was me in that picture, No my picture is below, still have that bike BTW


----------



## Two Wheeler (Jul 13, 2022)

Oldbikeguy1960 said:


> Not easy to do with one photo from the 1970s, but here is what I know.
> 1). Looks like a BMA-6 Certified sticker under the Schwinn decal on the seat tube. Those were 1971 and later
> 2). It looks like possibly yellow pedal reflectors. Do you remember if they were clear or yellow? Clear was early 1971, yellow was mid 1971 and later. If you remember the pedal reflectors being clear that would mean early 1971 for sure.
> 3). The shifter was 1970-1973 so not much help there.
> ...



The bike was blue and I do not recall the color of the pedal reflectors. I have no idea where the original photo is so I can't help there. It was sold in south Mpls. Maybe a CABER ended up with it.


----------



## Oldbikeguy1960 (Jul 13, 2022)

That would be cool. Blue was available almost every year the Stingray existed. One of my favorite colors.
I didnt expect you to remember on the reflectors but it was worth a shot. There were very few changes in the Stingrays between 1970-1973. The shifter wasn't used starting in 1974.
I wish I could've been more help but I hope you get a better response, or like you said maybe another CABER got it.
Good Luck, Rob


----------



## nick tures (Jul 13, 2022)

i have never seen a bma sticker on a stingray ever, as far as a year its a 1970-1973


----------



## Oldbikeguy1960 (Jul 13, 2022)

nick tures said:


> i have never seen a bma sticker on a stingray ever, as far as a year its a 1970-1973



Sure, we had established that it was 1971-1972 from the OP in his first post but that was all he knew.
I said it looks like a BMA/6 sticker, but I couldn't find anything that said one way or the other about that. One conversation here seemed to touch on it but I cannot read it in its entirety. Part of it involved a member here that was so rude to me that Dave had to put us on mutual ignore to stop the problem from escalating. 
If it is in fact not a BMA/6 sticker it would have to be a dealer decal, but like I said earler the only photo in existence cannot (at least on my end) be magnified enough to determine anything.


----------



## Oldbikeguy1960 (Jul 13, 2022)

nick tures said:


> i have never seen a bma sticker on a stingray ever, as far as a year its a 1970-1973



That was a good point though, Schwinn being a leader in bicycle safety but not using BMA/6 Certification. I have looked for a while this evening and cannot find anything one way or the other. I have a couple Schwinns from that period, I guess I can look at them tomorrow and see if anything of a BMA/6 sticker is there. 
I would like something definitive on it, one way or another even if I am mistaken about Schwinn using that standard. 
Was it a requirement or a voluntary program? If voluntary, why would Schwinn not want to participate? 
Open to anyone with info on this, or we can start another thread if it appears we are hijackers. This is pertinent to the OPs thread though since the question was brought up concerning his bike whickh is definitely a Schwinn Stingray and not a knockoff bike.
Thanks, Rob


----------



## Two Wheeler (Jul 14, 2022)

Oldbikeguy1960 said:


> That was a good point though, Schwinn being a leader in bicycle safety but not using BMA/6 Certification. I have looked for a while this evening and cannot find anything one way or the other. I have a couple Schwinns from that period, I guess I can look at them tomorrow and see if anything of a BMA/6 sticker is there.
> I would like something definitive on it, one way or another even if I am mistaken about Schwinn using that standard.
> Was it a requirement or a voluntary program? If voluntary, why would Schwinn not want to participate?
> Open to anyone with info on this, or we can start another thread if it appears we are hijackers. This is pertinent to the OPs thread though since the question was brought up concerning his bike whickh is definitely a Schwinn Stingray and not a knockoff bike.
> Thanks, Rob



I think the white reflective sticker you are seeing is the Minneoplis bicycle license I put on it when the bike was purchased new. The bike was stolen one time and I got it back a few days later no worse for wear thanks to that license.


----------



## Oldbikeguy1960 (Jul 14, 2022)

Thanks for the clarification man.
I had a bike stolen when i was 16, the next summer I was riding by the town warehouse and thought about it so I stopped.
It was in the warehouse all there except the rear tire had been changed. 
They looked up my report with serial number and I got it back.
One more day and it was going to be sitting in the town sale.


----------



## sab (Jul 14, 2022)

The town back in 1971'sh required all bikes to have license plates.  Speaking of driving around to find things.  I found two of my stolen cars driving around a certain neighborhoods back in the 80's.   Both cars if I remember were legally parked.


----------

