For the right example - and it seems these days the single speed/coaster brake versions are harder to find than the five-speeders - I would pay through the nose. I might even ride it around the neighborhood, come to that; I bet I'd have an ear-to-ear grin while doing it, too :)

Yeah, I expanded my early boundaries with mine:

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7178/6...1d9b43a1_b.jpg

DD

Does anyone remember the ram's horn bars? Back then they (at least for me) added even more cool factor.

^ I don't - but I do remember those long fiberglass rods with the orange pennant on the end; no self-respecting kid would've been caught dead sporting one of those :)

DD

Yep. You're not buying the object itself. You're buying the memory and what it means to a certain generation. And a Sting Ray Crate's pricing is far from the most unbelievable. Sitting here in my office is a rather nice collection of Chevrolet 1:24th scale promotional models (those plastic cars the dealers gave away every new model year). Dad was a Chevrolet dealer, and I got the new one's for Christmas starting in 1953 and ending with the 1965's (dad left the dealership before the 66's came out). Among them I've got about a half dozen 63-65 Corvette Sting Rays. Last time I looked, every one of those Sting Rays would go for the same kind of money as a nice condition Crate.

It's just a toy car.

Nope, back in those days I had eyes for a Raleigh Grand Prix, or the Super Course that was even more out of my reach.

Did it have the leopard skin seat? Kid in the hood had one back in '67. It had the "cheetah" slick, one with the two grooves in it. Yeah, that stick shift rocked.

I remember getting a bad case of lust for a Sting Ray knockoff, a gold Huffy sourced 3 speed Western Flyer with the stick shift and the leopard seat. I think I was about 8 years old. I never got one. The former Western Auto is now a Five Guys burger place and I think of that bike sitting in the window whenever I go in or walk by.

A good friend got a Lemon Peeler for Christmas and we all drooled over it until we started riding that spring. No way he could keep up. He always showed up 5 minutes later than the rest of us, but he showed up in style I guess.