Schwinn 'Stingray' revival

[Zorba]

We all had all sorts of bikes when I was a kid, Schwinn wasn't regarded any higher than Huffy or anything else - it was the features that counted! The coolest kid had a Stingray style bike which may or may not have been a Schwinn, the Banana seat wasn't really banana shaped, but it was long and heavily padded. His VERY high sissy bar had a chrome peace symbol up high between the uprights, about 3/4 way up. About the only bike in the neighborhood that we looked at with disdain was some small kid's J.C. Penney - it was a creaky, squeaky, obviously pile of crap - or Hell - maybe it just wasn't assembled right. A couple of kids had old, old bikes from the 20s and 30s that were SUPER heavy, like the frames were made out of bar stock instead of tubing. Cool bikes though. My first bike was an unknown Stingray style frame with a basic non-banana seat and a set of very strange handlebars that I haven't seen since. Upgraded to a 5 speed Schwinn Suburban as a tween.

My current bike is a German "Biria" 3 speed commute bike that I rode to work for about 15 years.

 

[someguysjeep]

How about $3500 on ebay!

[URL]https://www.ebay.com/itm/35418...d=link&campid=5337789113&toolid=20001&mkevt=1[/URL]

that's nuts.....now i notice some of these are newer replica's, but still lots of genuine 70's models for under 500. a few are askin 1k but those are new lookin and still not close to 3500.

mine would have been mid 70's i remember it had a slick on the back 3tube nut buster w/shifter on it, brakes on the handlebars blue metallic banana seat with the bands. i may not be correct about the sissy bar, but i'm still not sure........... 42yrs ago.

kinda like this but blue.

 

[InOmaha]

I should ask my parents if they have mine laying around. I have zero chance of fitting on it.

I got mine for my birthday. It was a hand me down after my 4 older cousins abused it. I did too. No shifting gears so it was probably a knockoff.

I learned to ride on gravel roads and dirt. We bent stuff up, including ourselves sometimes.

 

[Squatch]

The last Schwinn I bought was in 2005. It's a Schwinn Spoiler, and was only sold by authorized Schwinn dealers. There were only 2246 made in the latter part of 2004 and into 2005. The bike is over 7 and a half feet long. I bought it for my son's 13th birthday, but he just never really got into it. I bought it back off him a few years ago, and it now hangs in my garage.
Not mine, but identical:

 

[Zorba]

The last Schwinn I bought was in 2005. It's a Schwinn Spoiler, and was only sold by authorized Schwinn dealers. There were only 2246 made in the latter part of 2004 and into 2005. The bike is over 7 and a half feet long. I bought it for my son's 13th birthday, but he just never really got into it. I bought it back off him a few years ago, and it now hangs in my garage.
Not mine, but identical:
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That's "BOSS"!

 

[Westtown Willy]

stuff is showing up fast & furious, it's like building the TJ all over again, Christ

Today's deliveries included the sissy bar, seat post, pedals & spray paint.

Question for the professionals or back yard hack artists, the seat post is super tight, it may be a hair big for the tube & I'm not sure I can get it in there without the assistance of a BFH & I don't want to break or damage anything so I'm looking for an alternative. Prior to purchasing it I did a bunch of googlinating & the one I bought seemed to be the consensus go-to size. Any thoughts on how to jam this fucker in there, it needs to go in maybe 3 inches for perfect ride height, was thinking about cutting a slit up the side from the bottom going up around 2.5 inches which will allow me to squeeze it together & stuff it in there then smash it all together with the clamp that holds it in place, but I'm not married to that idea

Short of the obvious 'buy another that actually fits', any other thoughts would be appreciated.

 

[Cheesy]

IIRC, Schwinn had propriety sizes on a lot of their stuff before farming their product out to Asia. Your Stingray is likely 13/16 or 20.7mm. If you have the correct size post, run a small brake cylinder hone up and down the inside of the seat tube to clean up the near 50 years of ook that’s in there. Also, be sure to put a light coat of grease on the post so it doesn’t get propose to the seat tube and they get married. (bike mechanic humor)

 

[Westtown Willy]

IIRC, Schwinn had propriety sizes on a lot of their stuff before farming their product out to Asia. Your Stingray is likely 13/16 or 20.7mm. If you have the correct size post, run a small brake cylinder hone up and down the inside of the seat tube to clean up the near 50 years of ook that’s in there. Also, be sure to put a light coat of grease on the post so it doesn’t get propose to the seat tube and they get married. (bike mechanic humor)

yes, according to the description it's a "Chrome Steel Vintage Schwinn 13/16" Size Seat Post. The Seat Post is the Vintage Schwinn Size that is 13/16" or 20.7mm in Diameter, the over all length is 14". Matching up side by side & end to end they appear identical.

I don't have a brake cylinder hone, didn't know what one was 30 seconds ago , but I'll try and figure something out to clean it out. And certainly the grease is a go.

Besides that all the other parts are looking good. The sissy bar is really nice, paid extra for the one that came with the mounting brackets, no bolts though but that should be fairly simple to find. I'm surprised that thing showed up not bent coming from Connecticut to Pennsylvania stuffed into a couple flimsy priority shipping light cardboard envelopes taped together in the middle shown in that photo above, I was sure when I saw that setup it'd be twisted up. The new pedals look decent, not as solid as the original one I still have but they'll be fine. The 'leaf green' paint also arrived, I'll probably get that on there Friday. The rest of the parts are scheduled to trickle in between tomorrow and Monday, I ended up making a few more purchases so the tally is rising.

 

[Westtown Willy]

wrapped it all up today, definitely a fun project. By the way the slick didn't fit, got a real quick education on Schwinn proprietary & rather f'd up tire size situation, so I got the stock 'brick' S7 tire for the rear as well.

And thanks to @Cheesy for the tips on getting the new seat post in, I had a grinding stone drill bit that fit in there perfectly, ran it up & down & around for a few minutes which cleaned out the top few inches, added some grease down in the tube too then lightly tapped it in with a hammer & block of wood, got it down to the perfect level.

Bonus, I ended up deciding to replace the chain guard, found one on eBay from a red Typhoon. I was about to buy Sting Ray decals when it occurred to me WTF am I doing, it's not a Sting Ray, just wanting one as a kid doesn't change that so I went with the Typhoon decals. It's a rat rod anyway, not really a Typhoon anymore after everything changed and missing.

Took it for a short spin, rideable, especially with the few extra inches I boosted the seat upwards, though not real practical. Not sure what I'm going to do with it now that it's done however, probably display it in the family room, just makes me happy looking at it.

Found an all original Typhoon on the Book of Faces for sale that's identical to what I started with way back when, not interested in buying it just grabbed the photo for comparison:

Oh, & pro-tip, bike pedals are reverse threaded on one side, I figured that out (or remembered, who the hell knows), after I was pounding the ever living shit out of the reverse threaded side for 10 minutes sweating like a barn yard animal & cursing like I was working on the TJ.

 

[Cheesy]

Glad you got it together. Looks good.

 

[steelhd]

Question for the professionals or back yard hack artists, the seat post is super tight, it may be a hair big for the tube & I'm not sure I can get it in there without the assistance of a BFH & I don't want to break or damage anything so I'm looking for an alternative. Prior to purchasing it I did a bunch of googlinating & the one I bought seemed to be the consensus go-to size. Any thoughts on how to jam this fucker in there, it needs to go in maybe 3 inches for perfect ride height,

Freeze it and slide it in there. Dry ice works wonders.

 

[Mike_H]

wrapped it all up today, definitely a fun project. By the way the slick didn't fit, got a real quick education on Schwinn proprietary & rather f'd up tire size situation, so I got the stock 'brick' S7 tire for the rear as well.

And thanks to @Cheesy for the tips on getting the new seat post in, I had a grinding stone drill bit that fit in there perfectly, ran it up & down & around for a few minutes which cleaned out the top few inches, added some grease down in the tube too then lightly tapped it in with a hammer & block of wood, got it down to the perfect level.

Bonus, I ended up deciding to replace the chain guard, found one on eBay from a red Typhoon. I was about to buy Sting Ray decals when it occurred to me WTF am I doing, it's not a Sting Ray, just wanting one as a kid doesn't change that so I went with the Typhoon decals. It's a rat rod anyway, not really a Typhoon anymore after everything changed and missing.


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Took it for a short spin, rideable, especially with the few extra inches I boosted the seat upwards, though not real practical. Not sure what I'm going to do with it now that it's done however, probably display it in the family room, just makes me happy looking at it.

Found an all original Typhoon on the Book of Faces for sale that's identical to what I started with way back when, not interested in buying it just grabbed the photo for comparison:

View attachment 356626

Oh, & pro-tip, bike pedals are reverse threaded on one side, I figured that out (or remembered, who the hell knows), after I was pounding the ever living shit out of the reverse threaded side for 10 minutes sweating like a barn yard animal & cursing like I was working on the TJ.

Looks great!

 

[Squatch]

I have a 1962 Schwinn Typhoon. This one is not mine, but it's a great representation of what the one-year-only "straight tube" Typhoons look like. The straight tubes definitely change the look of the bike (not as racy as the curved tubes, but I like it). I'll have to get a picture of mine. It's not exactly stock, anymore.