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Any Sting-Ray collectors here from the 'first wave' of boomer restorations 1990s?

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butnut

Look Ma, No Hands!
Being a 9 year old kid in '64, I was there, when the most beautiful kids bike rolled out. Made a lasting impression even though a new Sting Ray was too much money...especially since I had a twin...TWO bikes?! Nope. I had a pseudo Sears Spyder with Schwinn goodies later. I did find a Sting Ray frame under the house of the man who taught me upholstery around late 70s. Sat in my garage until the 90s. Picked up the first issue of Lowrider Bike magazine and bam, the fire was lit. I had a frame, and ideas to create my own lowrider. But I needed parts. My twin in Oregon had starting collecting Campus Green Sting Rays in every model, and one mint disc Apple. I think he told me about Sting Ray City, a small booklet with bike stories and classifieds...yes, snail mail, hand written parts lists and real photographs. Pre internet and eBay. Pete at Hyperformace StingRays was my main source for paint, seat kits and decls. Paid by postal money order...no PayPal either. My every first restoration, a '70 3speed, got in Liz Frieds Sting Ray book! I've always restored stuff, and I really got into the bikes. NOS parts were still plentiful and reasonable. I sold the Blue 3 speed and brought in the Yellow 3 speed, painted it, seat kit, decals and NOS parts. With shipping to Hawaii, it was about $300 per bike. My labor to paint, buy parts, put on seat kits and assemble really added up to a labor of love as I sold freshly restored bikes for around $700. The Lowrider crowd also brought out the OG guys, well parents really, who wanted original restorations. i probably did over 20 full restorations and a lot of frame only repaints and seat kits. Had a lot of fun, made a lot of friends and connections on the mainland and here. Got lot of rare parts from the Eki Cyclery, the Schwinn dealer here since 1911. Turned out to be a small side biz, and I was always painting or building bikes every weekend. Sold most of my show bikes, all my frames and parts by early 2000. And like my old guitars and amps...wish I kept 'em. Now I'm retired, wanna get my hands dirty again...working on a early BMX Sting Ray. So glad I found this site, got a few parts from the nice members here. Figured I can't be the only guy who started back then...
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... Same time frame for me as you for restoring the Stingrays that I always lusted over as a kid in the 60's ... You could still find good Stingrays for reasonable money back in the late 90's ... Pete was a great source for paint and seats back in the day ... Restored dozens of Stingrays and Krates to show quality including new chrome plating ... I like you was selling them for less that a thousand ... although a couple of the Krates fetchedt 2k apiece ... One of my first ones was a '67 Deluxe 3 speed that I found for $150 bucks ... Sam from Chicago drove over 500 miles round trip to buy it from me after I posted it for sale on my local CL ...

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I started collecting in about '97, when stingrays could still be found at garage sales. I remember buying boys bikes at garage sales and passing on slik chiks for $30 with really nice seats. Lots of NOS parts on ebay, good times, I only restored one than mostly started collecting nice originals.
 
Me too! I have a lot of old letters with parts lists and photographs too...the good old days.
 
... Same time frame for me as you for restoring the Stingrays that I always lusted over as a kid in the 60's ... You could still find good Stingrays for reasonable money back in the late 90's ... Pete was a great source for paint and seats back in the day ... Restored dozens of Stingrays and Krates to show quality including new chrome plating ... I like you was selling them for less that a thousand ... although a couple of the Krates fetchedt 2k apiece ... One of my first ones was a '67 Deluxe 3 speed that I found for $150 bucks ... Sam from Chicago drove over 500 miles round trip to buy it from me after I posted it for sale on my local CL ...

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Kool! Yeah, I was the chrome guy too. Guess we did it for love! I remember prices exploded once crazy money was being thrown around on eBay.
 
Same time frame for me, 1st used lime 63/4 when I was 9 in 65 and in the late 80's picked up a og 65 lime 2spd that I still have but never wanted a restored one, too many nice originals!, here's me on my 63/4 in 65 and the 65 I picked up 30 yrs ago & my og 64 replacement I picked up a few yrs ago. the 64 Violet SD just how I picked it up in the early 90's.
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I was 13 when the first Sting-Rays came to the neighborhood in 1963, but I’d recently received a new Varsity which was also somewhat cutting edge then In Bountiful, Utah. When I got into old bikes 1992, I subscribed to Sting-Ray City News, but drifted into mostly ballooners until now. This week I was hot on an early Deluxe on eBay and prepared to pay up, but the sold price was surprisingly above what I expected. So now I am again in the market for an original paint Solo Polo era bike.
 
I was 13 when the first Sting-Rays came to the neighborhood in 1963, but I’d recently received a new Varsity which was also somewhat cutting edge then In Bountiful, Utah. When I got into old bikes 1992, I subscribed to Sting-Ray City News, but drifted into mostly ballooners until now. This week I was hot on an early Deluxe on eBay and prepared to pay up, but the sold price was surprisingly above what I expected. So now I am again in the market for an original paint Solo Polo era bike.
Kool! My buddy Stu, did those funny cartoons in SRCN! Yeah, a lot of Sting Rays were traded in for he big boy Varsitys!
 
I started Jr. High 68/9 right when the Krates came out and kinda wanted a Orange but as soon as I got to school ( riding my Lime SR ) everybody had or wanted a Schwinn Varsity/Continental so I ended up with another used Schwinn, a blue 62 Continental my parents bought ( for bday or Xmas or something) from my sisters boyfriend ( now brother in law ) for $25-50 and that got me thru a couple of yrs till motorcycles then cars! sold it back to him in the 90's and it's still hanging in his garage!
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