#1968 schwinn stingray serial number series

This bike is so cool, this is like Ford remaking a 65 Fastback Mustang exactly like they did back in the day only with better production techniques.

I dont want to spoil the details of the story below, so I will just say that I wish I had an 8 year old kid that I could buy one of these for. So it was was great excitement that I learned of Schwinn's decision to make one more very limited run on their famous Sting Ray Wheelie bike as a tribute to its designer Al Fritz. Then there is the argument he has heard from some people that changes or no changes, he must be nuts to spend close to $500 on a Krate.50th Anniversary Schwinn Special Edition Collectible bikeĬommemorating the 50th Anniversary of the bike that changed it all, the limited edition “Fritz Fifty” is available this holiday seasonįew things bring back memories like my first Schwinn and the adventure I put on that thing cruising around Southern California. After a childhood of seeing other kids on the Krates, not to mention the frustration of living less than two blocks from where the bikes were made-on Chicago's West Side, before the company moved to Colorado in 1993-the new Krate is good enough for him. Though Schwinn won't say how many have been ordered, the company has 'drastically increased' the number of Krates it will make, he said. That doesn't matter to several thousand people who Mundy says have ordered the Krates. 'It was like they were saying, `We know what you are going to do so we make it so you can't,' ' said Crittenden. Not only that, but because the Krates are single-speed bikes with coaster brakes instead of hand brakes, turning one into a multispeed bike with a stick shift would be a lot of work. So, gone are the stick shifts, and with them the five gears. One of the reasons the memories about the Krates remain vivid for so many 40ish men is because they have all heard about riders who have come in unexepected and painful contact with the stick shift. (In the early 1970s, some of the Krates did not have the stick shift.) When Schwinn was thinking about reintroducing the Krates, one thing they were told by the Consumer Product Safety Commission was they would have to do it without the stick shift, said Schwinn's Mundy, who added that sky-blue and lemon yellow Stingrays also are on their way back in time for Christmas. 'And when I say it is not going to have a stick shift, they say, `Oh,' and they frump out the door.' 'I've had 30 people come in the door with money in hand,' he said. At the Village Pedaler, Crittenden said he has not had one customer order a bike. 'Most of my customers (stores) do have some on deposit.' It is the same with other dealers,' said Wonicker-Cook. Hajduk, who has an original Orange Krate hanging from a pole in the middle of his store, said several customers have put down deposits on the bikes. Schwinn made a few Krates and doled them out to sales representatives such as Wonicker-Cook, who took them to bike shops to put them on display. What really made the bike stand out was the stick shift mounted on the top bar, or tube as it's called, between the seat and the handlebars. And with a 20-inch slick back tire and a 16-inch front wheel, they looked like a bicycle version of chopped motorcycles. Krates not only had the banana seats and ape hanger handlebars, they also came with front and rear suspension systems. In fact, according to Schwinn marketing manager Cache Mundy, the Krate name was borrowed from a California dragster popular in 1968. These were to the Sting-Ray what dragsters were to automobiles.

#1968 schwinn stingray serial number series

It was the bike others were measured against.įive years later, came the Krate series of bikes-the Apple Krate and Orange Krate. Unlike anything on the road, the Sting-Ray, with its banana seat and ape hanger handlebars, was immensely popular.

That is when Schwinn, then based in Chicago, introduced the Sting-Ray. To understand why the Boulder, Colo.-based company hopes the Krates will not only be popular among today's kids but also will interest yesterday's, it is necessary to go back to 1963.