Schwinn Sting-Ray And Krate Bike Facts

It was the mid 1960's in Chicago and something big was on the horizon. It hit us fast and hard. Back then, Schwinn Sting-Rays and Krate bikes invaded the American culture with a vengeance. These two wheeled wonders soared to the top of the charts before you could say uncle. Baby-boomers all across America were making their mark on the world. Our day was just beginning. Look out world, here we come!

What is it about these cool street riders that makes them still sought after well into the 21st century? Let's explore this phenomenon. 

The Inspiration

In the late 1950's and early 1960's "muscle cars and motor cycles" were making quite a statement on the streets across America. They were being tricked out with fancy paint jobs, wide tires and fast engines. The movie "American Graffiti" depicted it perfectly. The cars were super cool! The young drivers were so desperate for the thrill that they had to experience it for themselves.

In an effort to bring that cool to the teen and preteen generation, kids out west mimicked those motorized wonders by customizing their own personal bikes with high-rise handlebars, low-rider seats and slick tires. They created super cool street rides of their own. Their efforts didn't go unnoticed. Someone was watching!

In 1962, Schwinn's engineer, Al Fritz, traveled west to California to check out this exciting and growing trend. Al was so inspired by what he saw that he decided to create a bike that complimented those styles. And so he went back to Chicago and hit the drawing board.

The Sting-Rays

Al wasted no time putting his ideas in motion. He started with a strong 20" Schwinn quality bike frame, fabricated a sleek new banana-style seat and cool high-rise handlebars, labeled it with the trusted Schwinn name and thus, "The birth of the Sting-Ray".  It was fantastic! Schwinn was onto something big and boy did it pay off! 

Schwinn Sting-Ray Story

Revisit The Magic

From the mid 1960's and well into the 70's, just about every suburban child had a banana-seat bike. There was the extremely popular original Schwinn Sting-Ray followed by many knock-offs like the Sears Screamer, the Murry Muscle Bike and the Montgomery Ward Hawthorne Bike. 

Schwinn pioneered these bikes thanks to the foresight of Schwinn's designer, Al Fritz, who in 1963 heard that kids in L.A. were rebuilding their bikes to look like motorcycles, customizing them with high-rise, ape hanger handlebars and low-rider banana seats so the rider was lower to the ground. 

Inspired, he designed his own lowrider prototype for the youth market called Project J-38 and rode it around the Schwinn warehouse. At first, his colleagues laughed at him, but soon his co-workers were taking it for a spin only to find that this odd contraption was actually fun to ride. The era of the muscle bike had begun. 

Sales were initially slow, as many parents desiring a bicycle for their children did not find the Sting-Ray appealing in the least. However, after a few appeared on America's streets and in their neighborhoods, many young riders would accept nothing less than a genuine Sting-Ray. Sales took off and within a year, 70 percent of all bikes being sold in the U.S. were Sting-Rays. Schwinn began shooting all promotional material on location in Disneyland. Young Al was onto something big!

Schwinn Sting-Rays were on the market from 1963 to 1979 at the height of the muscle-car craze. There were essentially four models: The basic Sting-Ray; Sting-Ray Deluxe (that added chrome fenders and white wall tires); Sting-Ray Super-Deluxe (that added a springer fork); and the Krate series (that added a five-speed "Stik Shift," shock struts on the rear seat and the 16" front tire and 20" rear tire).