Schwinn Sting - What have we here?

[birdzgarage]

It looks like it may have been repaired at the headtube downtube area.paint has been spotted in.do you see any evidence of a reweld there?

 

[GCrider]

Very cool piece - I hope you still have it. Those are the first gen forks. The second gen had the bump on the front of the dropouts to beef 'em up a little. That frame has the patent sticker for the Tri-Oval tubing with a patent number. The earliest bikes had a patent applied for sticker. The black frames were warranty - they were never available to buy. I've heard that any stock Schwinn color could be ordered, however. There was a Midwest team that ran green ones. Here's my '79:

 

[Schwinn Sales West]

Very cool piece - I hope you still have it. Those are the first gen forks. The second gen had the bump on the front of the dropouts to beef 'em up a little. That frame has the patent sticker for the Tri-Oval tubing with a patent number. The earliest bikes had a patent applied for sticker. The black frames were warranty - they were never available to buy. I've heard that any stock Schwinn color could be ordered, however. There was a Midwest team that ran green ones. Here's my '79:

View attachment 1987624

As a District Sales Representative that inspected the broken frames, and approved the Schwinn warranty credit for the dealer, I can assure you the that the black frames were not just used for Warranty replacements. If you purchased a chrome Sting frame, or a chrome Sting bike, we replaced any warranty frames with the same finish. You could not order any Schwinn color on a Sting like done on the Paramount program. The Stings were built in batches and chromed or painted in batches. Every Paramount built was a "one off build" so it was easy for the factory to offer the custom paint feature on them. If you were a Schwinn Factory sponsored BMX team anything was possible, including "Custom Frame Sizing". Brad Hughes and Russ Okawa ran the Schwinn Factory program. Russ originally worked for Bert Straub and ran one of his Canoga Cyclery locations before Brad hired him.

The frame tubing and the forks were Schwinn factory sourced from Tange. The frame tubing is "scary thin" lightweight, and it is butted (thicker on the ends, thin in the middle of the tubes). Many years ago, I had a chrome Sting frame that was cracked at the seat tube and I replaced it under the Schwinn Warranty. I cut the frame tubes in half lengthwise at the joints for a sample to show how it was made. I had painted the inside of the frame tubes to show the butting points in white and yellow. I'm sure that frame still exists somewhere today with a Vintage BMX guy.

John

 

[A.S.BOLTNUT]

 

[Schwinn Sales West]

View attachment 1987668

Your King Sting shrunk!

John

 

[A.S.BOLTNUT]

Your King Sting shrunk!

John

I gave the bike to a buddy of mine in parts and that's the way he returned it to me, I never asked him why he used those decals, just kind of rolled with it.

Rafael ~

 

[Schwinny]

Ok, zombie thread update....

That bike came in as a frame attached to a tricycle rear end. It was almost scrapped till I noticed it was a sting frame. The wheels were there but it had an extra and stingray type handlebars.
As pictured in the first post is how I put it back together as a bike with it's own and used bin parts.
It sold just like that in two days for $350 to a highschool shop teacher that had plans to use it as a class project having the school budget pay for needed og sourced parts. He knew exactly what it was.
The plan when done was to raffle it at the school fair.
Haven't heard anything about it since.
So it was saved.

 

[GCrider]

As a District Sales Representative that inspected the broken frames, and approved the Schwinn warranty credit for the dealer, I can assure you the that the black frames were not just used for Warranty replacements. If you purchased a chrome Sting frame, or a chrome Sting bike, we replaced any warranty frames with the same finish. You could not order any Schwinn color on a Sting like done on the Paramount program. The Stings were built in batches and chromed or painted in batches. Every Paramount built was a "one off build" so it was easy for the factory to offer the custom paint feature on them. If you were a Schwinn Factory sponsored BMX team anything was possible, including "Custom Frame Sizing". Brad Hughes and Russ Okawa ran the Schwinn Factory program. Russ originally worked for Bert Straub and ran one of his Canoga Cyclery locations before Brad hired him.

The frame tubing and the forks were Schwinn factory sourced from Tange. The frame tubing is "scary thin" lightweight, and it is butted (thicker on the ends, thin in the middle of the tubes). Many years ago, I had a chrome Sting frame that was cracked at the seat tube and I replaced it under the Schwinn Warranty. I cut the frame tubes in half lengthwise at the joints for a sample to show how it was made. I had painted the inside of the frame tubes to show the butting points in white and yellow. I'm sure that frame still exists somewhere today with a Vintage BMX guy.

John

Cool info. Thanks. Good to get some info straight from the source. Brad and Russ are/were solid guys. I worked with Brad at Diamond Back/WSI in the mid-90's and with Russ at Giant in the early-mid 2000's.

 

[Schwinn Sales West]

Cool info. Thanks. Good to get some info straight from the source. Brad and Russ are/were solid guys. I worked with Brad at Diamond Back/WSI in the mid-90's and with Russ at Giant in the early-mid 2000's.

You likely knew Kevin Jackson also.

John