Monday late afternoon I saw this bike come up on the internet for sale near me. Contacted the seller, a very nice gentleman as well as his wife I met the following day, made the deal on the bike and picked it up yesterday. The ad for the bike described it as being serial number starting with a DA. The few photos showed it though as being a 1964 with the seat, square back strut, 36 spoke rear wheel, knobby rear tire. I asked the seller about this and he said it was hard to read with the wheel nut and sissy bar on the bike, but serial number started with a DA. I said I am good with everything as it looks like a great bike even though it has the wrong seat and a few other items for a 1965 bike and we made the arrangements for me to pick it up the next day. After our phone conversation I thought immediately that I bet it is a D4 bike as it looked all original, and that the A and 4 in serial numbers can be mistaken as they do look somewhat similar at a quick glance, add that to the age/patina ( I just used it although I hate that word patina, most overused word describing vintage items the past 20 or so years) of bike and seat strut on the bike partially covering number I thought chances are it is likely a D4, 1964 bike. I thought that someone could have swapped out seats and other parts to make a 1965 look like a 1964, anything is possible, but I was leaning toward that 4 being mistook for an A. Anyway got the bike the next day and first thing I did was look at the serial number some of which was covered by strut and nut, saw most of the second character and it was an A. Took the strut and nut off when I got home, nice clear D4 to start off serial number. Just love the bike, just started cleaning and looking it over today, looks like everything is original on it, paint, screens, 36 spoke center stamp rear S2, center stamp front S7, seat, reflector, Q bolts, pedals. Not a ding or nick on fenders that I see, guard has a few scratches but real nice, overall paint is good and should clean up well, and seat has a few small nicks and discoloration but also should clean up. Some old stickers on paint which I should be able to remove very carefully. I do think it is all original especially after talking with owner stating it was his uncle's bike and has been stored away in his uncle's attic for years in Santa Rosa, bike also has a metal Santa Rosa bike license plate on it. This bike will look great in my collection, I have a couple other original 64 Stingray Deluxe bikes, but not a blue one. My first new bike was a 1964 Flam Lime Deluxe stingray I was fortunate to have my parents buy for me when I was 9 years old back in 1964, have the sales receipt for that bike with serial number on it, but bike was long gone as my younger brother who inherited the bike having traded it for a Sears Spyder in the late 60's. I know it really does not matter to most, but I like that when I look at my collection I can say that not one of the bikes was ever shipped to me, all I have personally picked up myself or on a few occasions local sellers bringing them by my home for me. I am not in anyway suggesting that there is anything wrong with having bikes shipped, and having collections with shipped bikes, probably most collections now days have shipped bikes within them. I know I am fortunate to live in a highly populated area and state for that matter here in California, And some less populated areas of the country collectors have no choice but to have bikes shipped to them. I used to tell people that back before the world wide web, if you wanted a nice Stingray bike you really had to work at finding them. I could have money burning a hole in my pocket back then, but finding the bikes, especially nice ones was tough. It was easier to find nice vintage cars, toys, other antiques, but besides a few national publications, bikes were a tough find, still have some of my CABE's that were mailed to me back in the day. Now I tell people that if you have the money, and I mean a lot of money, and an internet connection, you can have the nicest collection of just about anything in the world including bikes without leaving your home or office. Now I am not saying at all that there is anything wrong in getting bikes shipped to you, of course not, and I know it can still be a lot of work tracking down and securing these out of area/state, even country bikes. I just personally like the fact that I have picked all my bikes including this one. Can still pretty much remember who/what/when I got my bikes from but one thing I regret is not writing down all this each time I purchase a bike as I start to forget some things at times now. I was smiling ear to ear last week when I just found a flyer I made about 40 years ago I had forgotten about that stated "Wanted Schwinn Stingray Bikes & Vintage Minibikes". The flyer was all handwritten not typeset, with a funky sketch of a Stingray on it. I used to get some local merchants that let me tape the flyer in their outside window, put some on telephone poles, would get good responses and found some nice bikes that way. Anyway, hope to have this bike all cleaned up over this weekend as long as nothing comes up and will try to remember to post some pics then. Just another of my long winded posts here, some rough stuff going on in my life right now though not health wise thank goodness that I am sure will all be OK in the long run. If my rambling on in these posts about my opinions and personal stuff much of which happened 30 or more years ago bothers some of you I apologize, don't be mean, just simply do not read my posts. Typing these posts up takes my mind off other things for a while, and sometimes makes me smile doing it like just remembering some of the store owners/merchants I used to know way back when that would let me tape up my flyers in their stores.
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