Originally Posted by
noglider
Nice!
My father wasn't a cyclist, but as a kid, he desperately wanted a Schwinn and saw them as the best you could get. So the first bike he bought for me, when I was four, was a Schwinn.
And he taught me how to ride, at the age of four. Maybe that's why I love it so much. He had left our home soon before teaching me, which hurt a lot, so the riding lessons are a strong memory.
Same deal here except my pops passed away. My older sisters got the new Schwinn bikes and I got those bikes when they went off to school. Mine was purple, not a "boss" color in my book but I knew well in advance that two 20" wheels (not krate platform or a cruiser) and the Bendix "kick back" two-speed was what I wanted.
By the time I was 15, that original Stingray had taught me to ride, become a "moto-cross" bike. a side car motocross bike and then a full suspension BMX that I raced in very early BMX races.
I need to build a moto-cross stingray like I did in 1970. I think it took parts from four or five different bikes to make a decent dirt bike.
This is a great thread topic.