@RideMC3
On Training Wheels
Hi there!
I'm new here, so I hope this is the right place to post...
I'm a freelance writer working on a story for Bicycling magazine about a Vista Torino 400 that gets discarded at a prison and restored by an inmate as part of a community bike recyclery. I don't know much about this bike, but figured out it was a knockoff of the Schwinn Stingray, made for National Independent Distributor Associates in Minneapolis.
I'm trying to learn more about these bikes and want to talk to people who had one as a child. (Either a Vista or a Stingray or a similar muscle bike.) I'm also trying to learn about the parts, the restoration process, and any little geeky gearhead thing I can learn that anyone who has worked on a bike can relate to. (I'm an avid rider of all sorts of bikes, but know little about restoring them.)
I don't necessarily need to quote you or use your name -- I just want to learn all the little details. What did you love about this bike? How old were you when you got it? Where/how did you ride it? What was it like when you outgrew it or got a new bike, and how did you discard it? (I'm trying to imagine the original owner.)
Here's a pic of the Torino, the main "character" in my story. (Pre-restoration, and it did get that BMX saddle removed and replaced with a proper banana seat.)
Thanks!
Kim Cross
Feature writer, for Bicycling
kimhcross.com
kimhcross.pressfolios.com (published stories)
@kimhcross
I'm new here, so I hope this is the right place to post...
I'm a freelance writer working on a story for Bicycling magazine about a Vista Torino 400 that gets discarded at a prison and restored by an inmate as part of a community bike recyclery. I don't know much about this bike, but figured out it was a knockoff of the Schwinn Stingray, made for National Independent Distributor Associates in Minneapolis.
I'm trying to learn more about these bikes and want to talk to people who had one as a child. (Either a Vista or a Stingray or a similar muscle bike.) I'm also trying to learn about the parts, the restoration process, and any little geeky gearhead thing I can learn that anyone who has worked on a bike can relate to. (I'm an avid rider of all sorts of bikes, but know little about restoring them.)
I don't necessarily need to quote you or use your name -- I just want to learn all the little details. What did you love about this bike? How old were you when you got it? Where/how did you ride it? What was it like when you outgrew it or got a new bike, and how did you discard it? (I'm trying to imagine the original owner.)
Here's a pic of the Torino, the main "character" in my story. (Pre-restoration, and it did get that BMX saddle removed and replaced with a proper banana seat.)
Thanks!
Kim Cross
Feature writer, for Bicycling
kimhcross.com
kimhcross.pressfolios.com (published stories)
@kimhcross
