Memorieeeeeees, like the something something of your mind… misty watercolored memories, of the 1970 Schwinn Sting-Ray Apple Krate that you had as a kid… Maybe you didn’t have one back then but with this one, shown here on eBay in Yorktown, Indiana already at $1,225, I bet you wish you would have had one and kept it! Let’s check out this dope ride, as no Apple Krate owner said, ever.
The basic premise of this thing is as cool as it gets, literally. That’s why they were designed in the first place because kids were customizing their bikes and Schwinn saw a market there and went for it. By the way, Sting-Ray really is hyphenated, in case you were won-dering. I mean, wondering. This bike was $94.95 when it was new in 1970 which is $668 today. I would never, ever pay that much for a bike today but some people spend $2,000 without blinking. How about you?
The Sting-Ray series of bikes came out in 1963 and, yes, the new Corvette Stingray just happened to come out at the same time. Which one was first? I’m guessing that Chevrolet beat them to the punch which may be the reason for the hyphen between Sting and Ray, but I couldn’t dig up that info online. One of you may know for sure.
The Krate series of bikes came out in 1968 under the Sting-Ray name and originally included the Apple Krate, Orange Krate, and Lemon Peeler. The Cotton Krate, Gray Ghost, and Pea Krate came out a bit later as did other models. Some of these had different names such as Cotton Picker, Pea Picker, etc. A buyer could get a 5-speed version for $94.95 or a single-speed with a coaster brake for $76.95. This one is the 5-speed and you can tell that it has seen better days, but the price is still getting up there. The seller says that some parts may not be original which is unfortunate, but still, at $1,225 I’m betting that they’re making a nice profit.
Here’s the engine.. er.. I mean, the derailer and gears. The engine is your two legs and if you had the single-speed version, you most likely have bigger legs now than this kid has, but you didn’t get as many dates. The difference in price between the single-speed/coaster brake model and the 5-speed handbrake model was just $18, but in 2021 dollars that’s a $126 difference.
The unique suspension both front and rear was a feature of these bikes, as was the big wheel in the back and a small one in front, the ape-hanger handlebars, and a banana seat. They really are cool. My brother and I had a single-speed Sears version because my dad always bought everything from Sears. If they would have sold groceries we would have had Craftsman fruit loops and Kenmore meatloaf. Our bikes were like the purple one on the bottom right of this one advertisement. I wish I still had it. Have any of you owned a Schwinn Sting-Ray or similar model bike? If so, do you still have it?
Boy, was I jealous of the kids who had these and other bikes like them.
There was also one made by Raleigh, and Apollo, I think, that were just as cool looking.
Only the rich kids got these.
I knew two kids that had them and they both were Nerds.
Thanks, Johnnie. My single mom probably didn’t eat for a week to get me mine. Metal flake green with whitewall tires.
I had the lemon peeler version when I was 10. My parents weren’t rich nor was I a nerd, I was just frick’n cool.
You sound like your still jealous.
Once again, who else would feature something like this? I swear, this guy digs at our very souls,,somehow. As accurately told, the Sting Ray bike craze was huge. For many, me included, it was the last “pedal job” before a motorized contraption. It also led to the whole BMX thing, which I always thought was lame and for kids whose parents wouldn’t let them have a mini-bike. I too, never had the cash for a Sting Ray,( hey, at .50 cents that a lot of lawns to cut) and like most, fabricated my own out of an old 20 incher. Butterfly handlebars and a banana seat, and you were in business. Some with fathers that had welders, some wild stretched bikes came out of that. We all wanted to be bikers, and many became them, eventually. We all became wheelie kings, and took many a lump, but was all in good fun.
This one featured is an early 5 speed model, most were either Sturmey/Archer 3 speed, handle bar shift,( HA! Haven’t heard THAT in a while, huh?) or 1 speed with coaster brakes, ( hand brakes only on shift models) as they went to all handlebar shift in the 70’s, for obvious reasons. Many reports of impalement surfaced. Also, I think most Sting Rays had a “drag slick” rear tire, and I don’t remember that front spring, and rear seat shocks. Most all I saw were “hardtails”. Great find, and you never know what’s in a storage unit. Thanks to Scotty for the memories, now, GET OUT OF MY HEAD!! :)
Now that you mentioned it, these came with a square-edged slick rear tire. My dad couldn’t imagine why anyone would pay for a new tire with no tread on it…after all, they wound up treadless on their own.
The springer front end was an attempt to give the bike the “Harley look”. That said, did anyone have the device made by Mattel that looked like a Harley engine, mounted where an engine would go on a bike, and had a handlebar control that enabled the rider to vary the speed of the sound this device made?
More stuff from the Golden Age.
While all of the stores from the time like Sears, Montgomery Wards, Western Auto, and such sold bikes like these they are much rarer than Schwinns.
Yep, mine was blue.
The motor your referring to was called the vroom skip motor. I had one in the early 60s but never put it on my bike. Also had a pea picker krate bike and mine had a cheater slick with a green pen stripe on it. Never did the krate have white walls. Most krates today are not original but rebuilds. I lived 10 house’s up from the bike shop that sold schwinns so I got to know these bikes quite well. Sadly as I got older I sold the krate for 25 bucks. Still had original tires completely stock. Boy I wish I had that bike now!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MC0dK42wOOA
There also a device in a plastic box with a handlebar handle sticking out of it that when given a twist would make motorcycle engine sounds. Vvroooom Vvrroom!
I didn’t even KNOW any rich kids that had one of these back in the day. I also fabricated my own from a nondescript 20 inch bike, but there was no mistaking what it was when I was done.
Wonder how many of us got our first taste of vehicle modification/enhancement in this way?
Look at that shifter! In an accident, it becomes the most effective birth control in the world! Yikes!
You didn’t get impaled as receive a solid blow as your young grapes bounced off the shifter. Laying on the ground in agony. Quite the memory and as fresh today as it was when it happened.
Mine had the “slick” on the back.
Mine, too. Somehow it made me faster…in my 7yo mind.
I had a green one with a metal flake green seat, the big metal flake. Also metal flake grips. It was a 3 speed with the shifter.
Mine did not have any suspension components but was a “hard tail”. I had a super bad tall sissy bar on the back.
I had green and white streamers on the ends of the grips and would put baseball cards and other collectible cards in the spokes.
It was totally bad and I always felt awesome riding it. Like the best part of my day. I remember shifting gears with that shifter handle on the frame while my friends had single speed bikes and I thought I was just the cat’s pajamas.
There was no way my dad paid the equivalent of $668 for a bike for me so I suspect my stripped down version was a lot cheaper or he got it used.
Great memories, I always wanted to find one and just put it somewhere to look at it. Great memories.
8Pack I had the exact same bike. Loved it. Rode the snot out of it.
BFD I know, but it seems the rear Slik was used from 1968 on (tbc). It was the coolest part of these bikes, turn a sharp turn – the rear slick would pivot from the flat tire area to the very skinny edge and the back of the bike would loose traction and … well all the rest. So, change to a SLIK or go home.
https://bikehistory.org/bikes/stingray/
As a kid of the 60’s and 70’s,,i had to have one..and my Dad got me a cool lime green one…if you didnt have one..ya just were not cool :P
I was alive at the time and had no idea – until just now – that they cost anywhere near that.
The Schwinn Sting-Ray came out in the summer of 1963. I went to three Schwinn Bicycle dealers in Northwest Detroit to look at the new bike. Convinced Mom that I needed this bike even thou I had got a blue Schwinn Panther 111 3 years ago at the age of ten for my tenth birthday. It was August 1963 when we went to Jerry’s Bicycles which was on Grand River just west of Wyoming and ordered a Lime Green Sting-Ray. Now comes the month of September and it was the middle of the month when I got home from school and the telephone rang, it was the bike shop indicating that my new Sting-Ray had come in and did we want to pick it up today. We said yes and had to wait for my father to come home from work before we could go to the bike shop. He came home and we went to the bke shop. When we got to the store an employee went up stairs to get the box. He brought it down the stairs and to the back of the store where thy did the assembly of the bike. We left the store and put thebike in the back of our 1951 Plymouth Cranbrook four-door sedan. We went right to the police station to get the required bicycle license. We got home and I got to ride the bike for a little bit before it turned dark. I got up early the next morning so that I could ride the new bike before school, but I was not allowed to ride my bike to school which was a mile away.. I still have both bicycles in my possession today. I also got my Aunt to buy for me a Parsons Polo Seat in the Leopard skin covering and I still have that seat as well.
I’ve been in the classic bike scene for years now. It’s funny, it emulates the classic car scene in lots of ways. There’s collectors, dealers, flippers, scammers, etc. I’ve seen krates that are lacking a single original part listed as 100% original. There are so many cheap knock-off parts out there, you have to study, study, study these before buying one or you’ll end up getting burned in an instant. It’s a fun hobby as long as you’re careful. This one doesn’t have an original seat, which would cost you hundreds of dollars, along with many other cheap parts. And the paint looks suspect as well. Watch out
I remember kids cutting the forks off of one bike and pounding them on the forks of another, making a poor man’s chopper. Pop a wheelie!
Up here in Canada, CCM was the big bicycle manufacturer, and they were in on this craze as well. In 1970, I got a slightly used CCM Mustang for Christmas. Blue metalflake, including the seat and handlegrips. High sissy bar on the back, slick tire.
BUT, it had a two speed rear axle! You’d simply click the pedals backward (coaster brake) to change from one gear to another! I got really good at planning ahead for the next turn/jump by making sure I was in the right gear to “power out” of it.
I never saw or heard of any other bike equipped like this. Would buy it back in a second!
cheers,
BT
Being originally from the other side of the pond, though having moved to the U.S in the late 60’s, I had a Raleigh Chopper in the same style as the Sting-Ray (big rear tire, small front tire). Purple with orange lettering and a three speed shifter with a T-handle in the same position as the Sting-Ray. The Chopper had a street friendly knobby rear tire (for traction?) and a regular grooved front tire. I loved that bike and wish I still had it just for the memories.
NoFear: Here is what your bike looked like.
I love the look of this bike, so grabbed this picture off the internet a couple of years ago.
I like the twin tube bar with the shifter sitting in between.
That’s exactly it!! Right down to the small rack over the rear tire. I used to adjust the handle bars back a bit because my
6 yo arms couldn’t reach quite to the full upright position. Thank you for finding the picture and the flood of memories!
More than 50 years later, I had hoped the Sting-Ray wound of 1970 had finally healed, but apparently not. 1968, my 2 buddies across the street get new S-Rs for Christmas, one gold and one purple. No suspensions or oversized shifters, but a 2 speed that changed gears when you tapped the coaster brake. They were all I ever wanted in a bike, and Dad soon became aware. January of 1970, as my 10th bday approached, rumors of my new bike had me convinced my prayers would be answered. Then, the big reveal as Dad proudly rolled it out of the garage at my party and there it was, a giant, oversized copy of a S-R on a larger frame with freakishly large banana seat and butterfly bars. I was a little taller than most my age, so Dad had it custom built for me, but it looked like a clown prop. I was crushed–what was I, Baby Huey? My self-image took a huge blow that day, as I struggled to appreciate Dads great intentions and prepared for the onslaught of endless insults from my peers.
Who didn’t own a Stingray. Basically every kid in my neighborhood had one.
I love it
Have been being born in 1963, and living in a rural area, ten miles from town, and 2 older sisters. My chances of owning a Schwinn Sting-Ray were less than zero. My Father was 55 when I was born, so the thought of spending that kind of money on a bike was laughable. I might as well asked for the 63 split window. But I was the last child, and after riding girl’s bikes forever ( he was good enough to rattle can it to blue from pink), I received a 5 spd knockoff that was orange, ape hangers, and banana seat. I drove it Christmas Day and we lived in Michigan. I remember the feeling of pure elation, but it was short lived, the derailleur never worked properly, and my Father (65) was not to be bothered. After trying to enjoy the bike , I gave up, and rode my oldest sister’s full size green Schwinn that could really fly. It kept my friends quiet, because I could smoke them in a race even if it was a girl’s bike. We rode bikes everywhere, it was 3 miles to my closest friend’s house. Not a care in the world and summer lasted forever. We didn’t realize how lucky we were.
Vance: Thank you for sharing your story about the bike. How little did we know how good those times were!!!
I had a 5-speed white “Cotton Picker”! Got it for XMas in `69. Loved it. A friend had a “Lemon Peeler”. I remember it well. It got me by until I got my dk. brown metallic 10-speed “Varsity” in `72.
Had the cotton picker too! Some jerk off stole it in 1974,still miss that badass bike
Wow! Some of the best writing and memories to ever appear on BF. Well done!
Was there ever a bike designed like this but with the brand name Raleigh?
This would be the late 60’s that I’m remembering. Christmas morning saw a green, a yellow, and a red(?) bicycle with bows on them. If memory serves, the brand was Raleigh and although they had the look of the Sting-Ray, the seat was very different. Thickly padded in a rectangle shape. It also had a padded backrest that stood fairly tall. I remember having to tilt the bike over quite far in order to mount it.
TimothyJay: Yep, here is a picture.
There were a couple of these in my neighborhood growing up, and I was jealous!
I had the Orange Krate. By HS it was relegated to the attic. When I moved out of the house,my Mom asked me to clean my stuff out, so out went the baseball cards and the bike.I sold it to a neighborhood kid for $50.
YES!!! Great memories. Being from a labor working family, we did not have much “Extra” money for new bikes, but my father made due. At around age 6 or 7 (61″ or 62′)Santa bought me a new basic 20 inch, I believe “Western Auto” bike. Three years later Santa added the high handle bars and banana seat after a fresh paint job. I was now “COOL”. Didn’t know Schwinn started the craze.
I see people with AWESOME Car collections in a building built to showcase their vehicles almost ALLWAYS have the entire collection of these up on a shelf or hanging from the ceiling. I have seen several collectors on tv showing their “car stash” and you will see these bikes ALL COLORS lined up in the back.. They are huge collector bikes and they are NOT CHEAP!!!
Guilty!
Holy Mother of all collections! WOW!
I have about 9 Stingrays, originals, half original and reproductions, even an adult 2006 Schwinn Spoiler. Amazingly the 90s-2000s reproductions are collectible. For a while, you could make more money parting out some bikes then selling them whole. The springer fork has been around a long time, I just bought a green 1959 Phantom. A great deal back around 2009 I ran across a 3 speed Raleigh Chopper at a yard sale for $20.
If they made these today, i bet they would only be grey in “color” & no chrome & no USA domestic parts.
they still make them…
https://www.schwinnbikes.com/collections/krate-sting-rays/products/orange-krate
Great memories all !!!
I got a Schwinn Sting-Ray around 1977 or 1978. It was 5-speed electric blue, and the front wheel was the same size as the rear which was the squared-off slick. I do not remember the “shocks” on front or rear. My dad outfitted (or bought) it with a speedometer and a head light – both chrome. I’m sure there were some great times on it, but I can only remember a funny wreck and how the fenders collected mud (not a good bike for a muddy trail).
I loved my Lemon Peeler (the yellow one) 5-speed. Such a fun bike in 1972!
Yes these are super cool, i think the banana seat started the fun craze. Over $200 for shipping.
Lotta “Repo” parts on this bike
I do not remember them having whitewall tires.
My brother had the Orange Crate and I had the Grey Ghost. Wish we still had them
1968 Christmas morning, after all presents opened was taken to backyard. There was a Orange Krate. Large Orange glitter banana seat, 5 speed, Blackwell Slick and little groved front tire. Front drum brake and rear was side pull caliper. Never told my parents I wanted one. My Dad was the best. Mom good too. Always loved and treated me so generously. I was way luckier than I ever deserved. Dad always kept me in minibikes, go carts, dirt bikes and lawnmowers.
I’ve bought and sold a lot of Krates but I prefer the 3-speed stick. Cleaner look on the rear hub and you still have the shifter between your legs. I’ve owned mine for over 40 years and it does have the V-Rooom engine in it. I have a twin to it that has a Marx Motor-Roar engine in it. We take them out now and ten but with the values climbing I worry about them a little more. Those rear shocks are just on the seat. There never was a rear suspension frame.
My Mom and Dad did most of their shopping at Sears too (Viewmont Mall Scranton PA). I had many a pair of Toughskins jeans and Survival Parka jackets with the snorkel hood through grade and middle school. Even my colonial style dark pine cannon ball bed and matching bedroom furniture were from Sears.
More related to this find, when I was ten (in ’75) “Santa” brought me an orange Spyder bike from Sears! Rear wide cheater slick tire, hi-rise handle bars, 5 speeds with the nut cruncher shifter on the top bar, padded chopper seat, hand brakes, chrome, and more! WOW!
I put A LOT of miles on that bike! I know, as I put an aftermarket speedometer/odometer on it (from Sears of course). I also had the Sears generator powered head and tail light kit, but since they weren’t really that bright I eventually took those off.
Beyond a coooool bike it was an education too. I learned A LOT about gear ratios, cleaning, polishing, and maintaining, tools, and designs as I had to adjust the brakes, derailleur, spokes, wheel alignments, tire pressure, seat height, etc. that “Santa’s elves” had not quite managed to do right before the bike was set beside the Christmas tree. Wasn’t long before I had that bike finely tuned!
Mine looked just like the one this image (from the Sears catalog)…
https://thecabe.com/forum/attachments/j26-gif-spyder-5-jpg.17866/
Alas I eventually grew taller and traded it in on a 26 in. ten speed “racing” bike that I still have. Faster yet (I’d often pass cars bombing down a hill)! Wish I still had my Spyder though!!
What fun my buddies and I had riding our bikes all over our rural area with our dogs in hot pursuit (on and off road), exploring state parks when we went family camping, packing our gear out into the woods to have a boys’ night tenting out, doing “Evil Knievel” jumps (out of Mom’s sight of course), blasting down hills (with my buddies anxious to know how fast we had been going since they didn’t have speedometers), and sometimes learning our limits the hard way too (still have some gravel buried in my right forearm). Of course those were pre-helmet law times – and we survived!!
What memories of idyllic carefree times!! Even just doing laps in the driveway in the morning before gettting on the school bus was fun! Before cars, girls, and part time jobs were longed for and eventually became our realities that left such innocence receding in a cloud of dust in the rear view mirror of life.
Peculiar how this non-car find seems to have generated so many great posts.
BravoCharleyWindsor: My parents couldn’t afford a brand name bike, so I got something very similar to yours. Not sure if it was a Sears, but they did a lot of catalog shopping from there.
Mine was gold with a gold metal flake banana seat. Since it was a Christmas gift and I lived in New England, I had it set up in front of a window and would sit on it and pretend I was outside riding around.
Gentlemen, thanks for revisiting your childhood bike memories really made my day.
I didn’t have a Schwinn, but I did have an AMF Roadmaster that got the banana seat/ hi-rise handlebar treatment. I rode it everywhere from 1966 until I got my drivers license in 1972. I loved to sit on top of the hill where Hot Metal Harley-Davidson is now and watch the long summer sunsets, getting home just before the street lights came on. The Port Authority was building a new bus garage and they didn’t mind us kids riding around inside after the construction workers went home.
It planted a seed that would come to fruition when I got my motorcycle license in 1984.
I was just sitting on my bike, watching the sun set, when a motorcycle officer rolled up beside me. “Whatcha doin’?” he asked. “Something I used to do when I was a kid”, I replied. “What’s that?” he asked. “Watching the sun go down. I grew up about a half mile from here.” I said. He smiled, put his bike in gear, and rode off.
Yep, I got a brand new Lemon Peeler in ’66. It had the “slick” on the back and both tires were RWL. I kept that bike shinier than any car I’ve ever owned! My parents gave the bike to the son of a family friend and he promptly trashed it! I should’ve gotten it back, but…..shoulda, coulda, woulda…..hindsight is 20/20…
Brings back memories at 9 in ’69. Christmas found me a new Sting-Ray, ‘Pea-Picker’ Green, 5sp, springer front end & the banana seat rear shocks, that nice ‘slick’ rear tire! Playin cops & robbers was a blast, jumping curbs & so forth. Sad when I outgrew it a few years later. Dad went all out Christmas, I was very fortunate & blessed! RIP Dad & Thank You again!.
Here’s a picture of the Ross Apollo, which looks a lot like the Raleigh Chopper.
Here is a picture of a “Kool Kats Orange Twist”.
My father picked a Lemon Twist (very bright yellow, as I recall) up used for my younger brother and he loved it.
Very unique with the small front wheel, drum brake, and high sissy bar.
I have never seen another one and this was the only picture I could find of one.
Transition, always it seems, bike’s like this are what the older kids had growing up,, then BMX specific bikes took over like a storm in ’75-’76, by 1980 they were common place. Thats how it is for me,,,, air cooled two strokes to water cooled, three wheelers to quads, carburetion gave way to fuel injection, etc, etc.police went from revolvers to semi autos!
I had one schwinn in my life, at eight years old. Gold colored sporty looking thing with actual forks up front. That bike was so cool it gave me credibility with the slightly older kids, and of course one of them stole it at night. Left it in the front yard by mistake/ gonzo. Up next was an old red bike with tall bars, banana seat, stripped bike too with that slick in the back. I really liked it. From there a Huffy decked out like an evil knievel bike, spirit of ’76 was very “in” but that Huffy had me literally laughed at and mocked by nearly two hundred kids one day after school. That Huffy got the BMX treatment-stripped of all the dumb fake motorcycle stuff, good nobbies, and AnA bars. Ashtabula forks black of course. From there the killer RNR, chromolly frame, redline forks, gold aluminum wheels FMF bars I think.
I kind of forgot about those years, just a ten-twelve year old kid trying so hard to fit in with the older crowd…..known as the stoners. Thanks for that.
My train of thought went first to the similarly looking “Swing” bike. Never did get either but my old black 20” Schwinn did get the ape hangers and banana seat. Single speed and eventually turned it into a bmx style ride eventually having saved for it I bought a Western Auto bmx type bike with yellow mag wheels, seat, grips and frame padding. Loved both and put many many miles on them because a ride into town was twenty miles from front door of home to the edge of town. Miss both bike too. Good times and memories with this thread. Thanks BF and the others who posted.
I still remember how those slicks could squeel the tire if you locked the brake up. Especially if you were close to the curb on a cement gutter. Good times.
Thank you Mom for buying the Schwinn Banana Peeler for Christmas 1968.
Didn’t realize at my young age how expensive that bike was at the time.
Now I know why that bike accompanied me in the house instead of the garage. Close to $700 in todays money for an 8 year old kids bike seems a little over the top, but money was no object for her son.
Purchased it at Sam the Bicycle Man on Meacham Avenue in Elmont, N.Y.
Mom would take me there to look at the bikes…She knew I liked the Banana Peeler.
Thanks again for all the sacrifices you made in your life to make a little boy smile.
Phil: I am sure “YOU” did a lot of thongs to make your Mom smile. Do you still have your bike today? Thank you for sharing your story.
Hello George,
That bike is long gone…I gave it to the moving man for his son back in ’81 when I moved to Florida…It was a Lemon Peeler, I don’t know why I called it a “Banana Peeler”, probably remembered the banana seat.
My mon also supplied the funding for my first car, a ’76 Pontiac Astre in 1977. That car visited every horse race track in the tri-state area until it blew a valve or two on my way to Aqueduct. Limped into Reese Brothers Dodge in Lynbrook N.Y. and traded it for a triple white ’80 Mirada.(Thanks again Mom)
Phil Vacca: Thank you for the timely update and story, glad to see you got a Dodge Mirada, Did it have the 225 six-cylinder engine or the 318 V8. I used to work at Chrysler Corporation in Production Control and had a lot of contact with the Production Control Guys at the Windsor, Ontario Canada Plant where that car was Built. Windsor is across the river from Detroit and in fact, is South of Detroit, Mi. which a lot of people do not realize or recognize.
George…I had a 318 in the Mirada, still wish I had that car!
People would look and what kind of car it is, when I told them
it was a Dodge Mirada they all had a puzzled look on their faces! Traded that car in on a 1984 Chrysler Laser Turbo.
Had an Apple Crate when I was a kid. Swapped out the slick for a “knobby” tire so I could ride it in the woods across the street from our house and do jumps off a sheet of plywood on cinder blocks. Had lots of fun but broke the smaller bars on the front forks. Oh well, If I only knew then what I know now.
I got my Apple Crate for Christmas in 1969. The neighbor backed his car over my old clunker bike. Probably my bad parking.
I still have it out in the barn.
My dad was always happy to over spend for a good set of flashy wheels.
In a few years, I will go out and find it and clean it up so that my grandkids can ride it. It is all original except for the seat, tires and maybe the cables. Having a bike in AZ didn’t allow the rubber or seat to survive very well. It lived in the folks attic for years… very much like an oven.
Boy I wish I had my first car!
Okay Jeff: So finish the story, “what was your first car?” Thank you for sharing your story.
It was a 1968 Mustang convertible. Black lacquer with a white top and a 289. Not a fast car, but cool. The strange thing about this car was that it was a GT California special. The problem is that ford didn’t make any of those. I didn’t know it until about 10 or 15 years ago when I started looking for one. Someone did a great job of adding all of the appropriate parts to make it “whole”. I still cannot find anything like it. I am hoping that it shows up in someone’s barn and on this sight some day?
Hey Jeff, they also made a Mustang “High Country” that was the same as the California model. It was only available to Ford dealers in Colorado, and was offered by Ford. The “High Country’s” are even rarer with only 333 examples sold compared to over 4100 California Specials. Good luck finding one.
Howard! That is interesting info about the high country.
I understand that the GT California Special had 4100 units, but NONE of them were convertibles that I can find… only coupes. I didn’t know about the High Country Special. It does look like they made it in a convertible with the same body as the GT/CS, but with different decals and chrome lettering. It would have been easy to get new lettering on the HCS to “make” my Convertible GT/CS. I keep looking at your posts hoping that it will come out of a barn some day.
I’d like to thank all that participated in this, it really shows we’re pretty much all cut out of the same piece of tarp. As kids, we had the world by the axx, we MADE our own fun, not something that belches out of a screen. ( BTW, I realize the irony of me bashing the computer while typing on one, so don’t bother pointing that out) Road race sets, model rockets, Sting Ray bikes, gas model cars and planes,, Heathkit products, ( remember Heathkit?) and eventually into the motorized stuff, it really was a great time to be a kid. I feel sorry for kids today that can’t have that kind of fun.
I’d like to remind everyone, we DO have women that visit here, and while girls 20 inchers made lousy Sting Rays ( no top cross bar, many girls bikes would break in half) the bike makers catered to girls also with models like ” Fair Lady”, “Pixie Dust”, and “Lil’ Chick” ( that last one may or may not fly today) and girls had just as much fun. Tip of the hat to all, and BF’s and Scotty
Well said, Howard! Thanks to all for a great follow-up and such great memories.
I am with Howard A, I read and re-read all of these stories, and we made our own fun. The TV had 3 channels, cards and board games if it was raining, and WJR for my father and I listening to Ernie Harwell’s comforting voice in the summer, after we had spent the entire day cutting grass, and tending his huge garden. Listening to my Father tell stories about Ty Cobb ( my Father was born in 1908), Hank Greenberg, and countless others. I never got the Schwinn Sting-ray, but I had so much more to be thankful for and I was smart enough to know it.
Can anyone post pictures of the Colorado and California editions of the Sting- Ray bicycles just mentioned. I never heard or have seen these, of course, why would I having grown up and residing in Southeast Michigan. Thank you.
Hi George, the High Country and California GT’s were Mustangs, not the bicycles.
I saved all my berry picking money to buy a used Apple Krate. Of course it wasn’t exactly the way I wanted it, and being the year of the 1776-1976 Bicentennial, I tore it down, stripped the paint and repainted it blue, with a star spangled banner, red white and blue banana seat. The shocks were already shot and falling apart so I went with a standard Stingray sissybar. I used Rustoleum to brighten all the chrome.
The day I had it all reassembled and proudly displayed in the driveway, one of my moron brother-in-laws came flying into the driveway and hit it with his POS Buick, that was of course missing a front fender. My Krate survived the attack, but the dragster-styled drum brake front wheel did not, so it hung in the garage rafters for years and years as I had no money to buy another wheel.
I still have the Krate tucked away in a safe place, and a replacement wheel has been obtained, so it will roll again, and likely returned to its original Krate Red color, but I’ll keep the Spirit Of ’76 banana seat.
Auction update: this King of Kool bike sold for $1,650!
There were more than $1,650,000 worth of memories here, thanks for the great comments!
Hello Everybody
I have a 100 % original Schwinn Krate Cotton , Unrestored . They are very cool bikes . Still has the booklet that came attached when sold new . I never thought i would see the day that some of these go for the crazy money that they do . There was one on Mecum that sold for $5900.