Rusty Bowtie
Miscellaneous => Outdoors Area: Hunting, Fishing, Firearms, Camping, Hobbies, Videos etc => Topic started by: Rattiac on July 29, 2022, 12:27:34 AM
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Pulled my 66 Schwinn Stingray chopper trike off the wall today. Man it's dusty. :o
I've had this bike since I was 14. About 15 years ago I added a trike rear axle, fat modern Stingray tires, extended it 6" and mounted a tractor seat pan. Made the front springer forks 20" longer as well as custom longer handlebars. Also a 3 speed 1950's hub was adapted.
I rode around the neighborhood once till I could figure out how to finish the cutter brakes , it was hung up on the wall.
I think it's time for this bike to ride the salt this year.
Pics tomorrow.
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I had a Schwinn Stingray around that same time frame, mine was black and a five-speed, man that was a long time ago. I rode that thing everywhere
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This was my first bike. I have no Idea how many aunts & uncles rode it before my brother passed it to me. There were 10 of them counting Dad. This is Uncle Punk before he went to WWII. This was in Texas but I moved it with us to CA in '59.
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A few pics. Just barely got the chain gaurd back on, I had lost the bracket for awhile.
Has a few small scratches but... I think some pinstriping would cover that up. Always wanted some custom striping on something like "66 Stingray " on the chaingaurd. 😎
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That's very cool! I had a Stingray back in 1971. I wanted to extend the front forks, so I took an old fork I had, sawed of the yolk and jammed the forks together.......it didn't work. ;D
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Nice bike! I always wanted one of the "Crate" Stingrays when I was a kid but my folks couldn't afford it. I had a Murray.
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Cool trike Rattiac! The old man that owned our pool hall back in the 70s had a Schwinn factory trike, never thought about chopping one of those. He also had a Stingray with the 2-speed kickback shift. He lent it to me a couple times when i broke mine.
I got my first Stingray for my birthday in '65. Money was tight as dad had just bought a house. He picked up a second hand girls bike, cut off the upper girly bar and salvaged the upper bar from a dump frame. Painted it black with big silver flake to match the silver flake banana seat. It made it look more like the fastback that came out a year later. Fall of '66 my brother got a new Stingray copper color Fastback 5-speed for his birthday.
Like Chopper noted, in '67 dad showed me how to extend forks using bigger bike forks. But, he welded them on to my originals. Then i had to have the tall sissy bar and the racing slick, cool man,cool😁 Built and sold a lot of those in the early 70s to friends that couldn't build one.
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If it has wheels someone will hot rod it. 8) Sometimes if it doesn't have wheels they'll put them on and then hot rod it. ;D
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Speaking of extending forks, I had a childhood friend who like to take things to the limit. When the fad of extending forks started, he took conduit 10' lengths flattened one end and cut a slot for the front wheel and slid the other end up over the forks. the rake on that thing was long. the turning radius was enormous.
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My Dad helped me put conduit on mine but not 10' maybe about 3'. Still ride-able!
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Before we welded the front tank, we raked the neck. Cut the top bar and took out about an inch. At the time it was cool but it did bring the handlebars in closer.
Had I known, we shoulda cut the lower bar and extended it an inch. Ahhh the Jr High day's. My buddy had the 1950's trike , he took a sharp turn and folded both the rear 26" wheels.
Years after High school we bumped into eachother at the gas station. He said, you want that old trike?
I immediately started modifying the rear axle by trying to find 20" wheels that had 32 spokes. Took awhile but found a set and had them laced up.
Speaking of that, I need to get those trued up straight.
The early days of this bike in the 90's , it was a lowrider bike.
Glad I grew out of that.