1964 Flamboyant Lime J38 Stingray find

[Schwinn Sales West]

Hi Sean,

Thank you for this wonderful post!
Plus a Big Thanks for turning me onto this 1964 J38 Lime Survivor.

Fortunately I had the few items needed to get this old Stingray where it deserves to be.
I love these early Polo seat bikes.

Regards, Chris.

View attachment 2032871

Looking at that photo looks so dated to me today. No, it's not dated by the "new" Sting Rays.

You would never see that store today without Graffiti Painted, Bars on the Windows, Security Gates, Locks and Cables on the Display Bikes, never easily broken glass windows that large. That photo shows the completely different time in which we grew up. We lived in a "Leave it to Beaver" era, be home by dark Johnny, AND Don't get in any trouble! Today, you can't even buy a toothbrush at Walgren's without someone unlocking the plastic security window.

This is a photo "of a time in my life, that I miss". You have to ask the question; would you allow your grandkids to do today the fun things you did as a kid?

Sorry to derail, it was a very cool photo that was posted.

John

 

[Wolfmac]

That's cool, back in those days all you had to do was take your empty pop bottles back to the store and get a dime for each one ! O boy we would load up on penny candies, sure miss those days.
Rafael ~

Yup. I remember it well, 10 cents would get you a full size candy barMy allowance was a Quarter a week and it was a lot less effort and more fun scavenging for those bottles than it was earning my allowance

 

[cyclingday]

Looking at that photo looks so dated to me today. No, it's not dated by the "new" Sting Rays.

You would never see that store today without Graffiti Painted, Bars on the Windows, Security Gates, Locks and Cables on the Display Bikes, never easily broken glass windows that large. That photo shows the completely different time in which we grew up. We lived in a "Leave it to Beaver" era, be home by dark Johnny, AND Don't get in any trouble! Today, you can't even buy a toothbrush at Walgren's without someone unlocking the plastic security window.

This is a photo "of a time in my life, that I miss". You have to ask the question; would you allow your grandkids to do today the fun things you did as a kid?

Sorry to derail, it was a very cool photo that was posted.

John

Yeah, no kidding!
You could shoot the remake of Gone in 60 Seconds, if a scene like that existed today.

But, I have to admit, I’d sure be tempted to walk off with that sign over the door, and that neon sign hanging the window while the rest of the crew was making off with all of the bikes.

 

[60sstuff]

Looking at that photo looks so dated to me today. No, it's not dated by the "new" Sting Rays.

You would never see that store today without Graffiti Painted, Bars on the Windows, Security Gates, Locks and Cables on the Display Bikes, never easily broken glass windows that large. That photo shows the completely different time in which we grew up. We lived in a "Leave it to Beaver" era, be home by dark Johnny, AND Don't get in any trouble! Today, you can't even buy a toothbrush at Walgren's without someone unlocking the plastic security window.

This is a photo "of a time in my life, that I miss". You have to ask the question; would you allow your grandkids to do today the fun things you did as a kid?

Sorry to derail, it was a very cool photo that was posted.

John

John,

Yes it is depressing to see how we are forced to live today compared to yesteryear.
I could rant for days how the lawlessness has changed our lives.

My user name “60sstuff” sums up what I try to live as much as I can.
Anything from the 60’s is cool with me. The Stingrays (Chevrolet and Schwinn) take me back to those wonderful days.

My Lime Stingray in this thread is a Feb.‘64 and I’m a Feb.‘54.
I was ten years old when the Stingrays took flight and they were the Coolest bike on the streets, and still are.

Imagine having a bottle of Blatz (legally), getting a haircut and then shop for a Schwinn next door at Bike Rite.

Those were the days and I’m thankful I lived them.
Chris

 

[Schwinn Sales West]

Yeah, no kidding!
You could shoot the remake of Gone in 60 Seconds, if a scene like that existed today.

But, I have to admit, I’d sure be tempted to walk off with that sign over the door, and that neon sign hanging the window while the rest of the crew was making off with all of the bikes.

I have the neon sign that's in the window. It's Pink, and Green Neon, very Art Deco period. It hung in the window on 7th Street at Arizona Cycle, that was sold to Art Salem and operated as Salem's Schwinn. I bought the sign when Salem's closed in the 1980's. What's amazing is that it has been moved several times and still works.

John

 

[mrg]

That's cool, back in those days all you had to do was take your empty pop bottles back to the store and get a dime for each one ! O boy we would load up on penny candies, sure miss those days.
Rafael ~

Wow, a dime, in socal in 64 it was 2 cents for the small bottles, 3 for the regular & 5 for the quarts, filled up my newspaper bags everyday and down to the corner store to get the cash!

 

[60sstuff]

Another 1964 Schwinn advertisement showing a Lime J38.
Find it fast in the “Yellow Pages”.

The possibility of doing a “day 2” modification on your Stingray was a trip back to the dealer for a leopard polo seat and an amber reflector.
I installed a nicely used seat that matches the bike perfectly. Unfortunately someone wiped the Persons tag clean.

 

[60sstuff]

Nice Bike! Is the fork bent, or is just distortion of the photo?

John

John,

Fork is where it should be and I’m not sure what would look distorted?

Obviously the fork on this bike had been bent out as the down tube frame rub shows paint damage from turning the wheel around.
Many early Stingrays show the frame rub from countless wheelies back in the day. The thin wall steer tube did not hold up well on these forks.

I received the bike with the fork location where it is now. Obviously someone corrected it as the distance from the tire to the down tube is consistent without rubbing.

Character flaws on this old Stingray.

Chris.

 

[Schwinn Sales West]

Chris, thank you for the additional photos.

I can assure you that doing wheelies does not flex the fork "back". When you come down, the fork flexes and bends "forward".

The problem with the original 7/8" ID thin wall steerer tubes was that kids raised the handlebar stem up to the point the stem lug was into the threaded portion at the very top of the steerer tube. The steerer tubes are weaker where the fork threads stop. If the rider runs the stem high, and use a hi-riser bar (extra leverage), you stand a good chance of breaking a pristine Flamboyant Lime Green fork. Your stem height looks fine to me. The breakage of forks was a safety issue and that is why the industry adopted the smaller 13/16" diameter stem size as the industry standard. This allowed the use of the same one inch headset and allowed for a thicker steerer tube.

So, how would you determine if it's bent or not? The first thing to try is a road test. Can you ride the bike with "No Hands" easily, or is "it twitchy" and will not track by moving your weight on the seat? Basically a fork that is bent back has reduced rake (camber) and it will not track as easily. It's like riding and feeling the difference in frame geometry between a road bike and a track bike with steeper frame angles. If it's twitchy, just drop the fork out and use a straightedge to compare the steerer tube to the fork legs. The fork legs have a taper, but you can still see if the middle of the fork leg aligns with the middle of the steerer tube.

The most likely place for the Ashtabula fork to bend is right under that chrome fork trim cover. The weakest point of the fork is the horizontal part that connects the leg to the steerer tube. It's also the easiest place to straighten the fork. Before we get into how to straighten the fork, lets first determine if it's actually bent, or if it's just my old eyes.

You have a very nice piece of Schwinn History. It's obvious that you have taken a good deal of time to detail the bike, it's beautiful. If you determine that the fork has a slight bend to the rear, I'm certain you would want to correct it since everything else is perfect on your bike.

John

 

[mrg]

Great find Chris/Sean, speaking of running the goose neck to high people have re-posted my OG pic of me on my optioned out 63-4 standard on FB and big topic of discussion is how dangerous the neck looks! well only I would know how "Funny" that is because I was running a cycle truck neck I robbed of my dads bike and it's all the way down in the fork.