Prowler 

Another upstate kid in a "delicate pecuniary position" in the late '50s, a character building allowance and not yet mowing lawns. My brother (became a career cardiologist) and I obtained a 20" bike - a who knows what but probably a Hawthorne. Spray bombed it black and installed the riser handle bars and banana seat. Like others, treated it like a mountain bike. Of course there were no mountain bikes but we lived near the end of civilization and it was nothing but dirt roads, dirt piles and homes under construction after that. Great fun on a bicycle you built yourself and just knew you could repair if n when needed.

Chuck M 

One of my best friends across the street had a bike with a slick on the back and the stick shifter on the top tube. I don't recall if it was Schwinn or Montgomery Ward type knockoff, but I know his parents wouldn't allow any of the rest of us to ride it.

Mine was even lower end than a department store knock off. My bike was an old, heavy bike from probably the 50s that a local guy who flipped bikes added a banana seat and high rise handlebars to and painted with a brush. I appreciate that my parents who grew up during the depression could provide that bike for me, but I was always that far behind my friend across the street and had that little bit of jealousy I should be ashamed of.

Kabuki12

I cobbled together a Sting Ray out of an old Murray bike with twenty inch wheels that I bought at a yard sale with my lawn mowing money. I then found an authentic Schwinn banana seat and some hi rise handlebars . That was the best bike ever and then I got a paper route after subbing for a friend. Many miles in and out of the “hood” in North Oxnard in the sixties tossing papers. I liked the red paint job my Murray had and I also liked that it was different than most of the other Shcwinns that my friends had. We were poor and I felt so well off that I had a bike.

ARider2

I knew I had to have a Schwinn Stingray in the late 60's and my parents bought one for me sometime around '68. It was a red Apple Crate (they all were red!) with a five speed shifter. I loved that bike and rode the wheels off of it. I would pretend I was driving a car and I had to have all the car-like features such as a speedometer and directional signal lights. The signal lights consisted of a left and right arrow that hung off the back of the bike with a switch on the handlebars allowing to select left or right. Once I was about 14 I outgrew the bike and by then 10 speeds had become the rage. I ended up with a Raleigh Record and my older brother got a little better version in the Raleigh Grand Prix. After that I don't remember what happened to the Apple Crate but I guess my parents gave it away.

When the reproduction Crates were made available again in the early 2000's I bought a few that I still have today. One is an Apple Crate but I also bought a reproduction Pea Picker and a reproduction Gray Ghost. The Gray Ghost is a 5 speed (grip shifter) and the Apple Crate and Pea Picker are 1 speeds.

Swampthing 

Most of the kids on my street had some version of a banana seat bike with big handlebars.
mine was a garage sale find that I painted red. Put a sissy bar on and rode to death.
You guys are about to get me in trouble. I have a girls 1970s collegiate frame in the attic. I am sorely tempted to get a brush and a can of red rustoleum, look for a banana seat and ape hanger bars and build it up for riding up and down the street.
I will be the coolest kid on the block, at least until the first big wipeout, and then I’ll go back to just being the crazy old man who lives at the end of the street, laying in a mud puddle, laughing at himself, because he forgot he wasn’t in sixth grade any more.

bwilli88 

I had an old Sears 27" bike of some sort that I used for delivering papers with my brother and we wore them out. I wanted a Stingray chopper and could not afford it so I spent $23 on Sear's basic copy with a banana boat seat and high bars and it was a coaster brake only.. I wanted the chopper so I took the fork from the 27" bike and put it on the 20" bike, It gave me a rise of about 3". enough for me. I also put knobby tires both front and rear. I rode that bike everywhere.


This is as close as I need to be to feel similar to it.

RobbieTunes

T-Mar

No hi-risers bicycles in my life. other than the ones I built and repaired for customers at the LBS.

cb400bill

My brother and I each had a mid 60's Sting Ray Deluxe. Both were Coppertone with chrome fenders. Our parents bought them used for us. Fun bikes.

drlogik 

I had a blue Schwinn Stingray 2-speed with high bars, a 3 foot high sissy bar and slicks. Man I loved that bike! It got stolen when my sister took it to the library and didn't lock it. That was back in the 1969-1970 time frame.

My best friend had a Stingray also and we used to "lay patches" on the school's playground after school. There was always a puddle of water in one spot so we'd roll over that and lay on the brake. Good times!

AlmostTrick

Dad converted my first bike into a 'stingray' with aftermarket high rise bars and a banana seat/sissy bar. A few years later I got an actual Schwinn Stingray with the 5 speed Stik Shift in bright red. I enjoyed it for a few years but had to trade it in to help pay for my first road bike. It was still so clean and mint that the Raleigh bike shop manager rolled it right into place on the showroom floor as is. I wish I still had it!

bikecrate

I had a muscle bike, but I cannot remember which brand. It was orange metallic with a silver banana seat and sissy bar. This is the era when you didn't ask your parents to drive you places, so I rode it everywhere. It was my transport to school, friends and shopping. Also notable, I was doing a wheelie on it and hit a bump causing me to fall off. Broke my left arm. Bike was unharmed.

Chinghis

No, all the cool kids had Sting-Rays. Me? Mom bought me a Speedster, probably 24" model or something. Maybe because she bought it at a real bike store, in a town with a velodrome? I soon found out, thought, that this bike was faster than the Sting-Rays, so I am grateful for that. Rode it until I got hit by a car. The new bike had five speeds! I was a little too old for a Sting-Ray by that time.

Thomas15

I had a Ross Barracuda 3 speed top tube shifter. It was semi-badass. Purple. We bought it in a department store don't remember which one, about 1968.


I really beat on that bike, mainly curbs. Most things I took good care of but I really abused this bike. The brackets that the low sissy bar attached to the frame held the bar by friction, it didn't have holes with pins to keep the bar from sliding down, So I was always adjusting the bar and they became bent from hitting the ground. My neighbor gave me an old one that attached to the axle. The bike wheels and stem acquired quite a bit of rust as I remember.


I had it when I started my paper route two years later, but needed something a bit better so after about 6 months on the route, I bought a Raleigh 3 speed. Once I got the Raleigh I never rode my Ross again. Compared to the Raleigh it was quite a bit of work to spin the Ross. I don't remember what I did with it probably set it to the curb, it was not in good shape.

due ruote 

I had a lime green Western Auto knockoff with a 3 speed stick shifter. I thought it was cool. Went from that to a Varsity. Still not sure that was an upgrade.

mercator

My brother got a CCM mustang marauder for his birthday - I think it was in 1968.
On his first ride, he went down a big hill and had a gnarly wipeout that put him off riding that thing ever again.
I rode it quite a bit, but just to practice wheelies.

FBOATSB

SPYDER! That's the first bike I bought with my own paper route money. It was blue. It was almost immediately stolen. Grew up riding hand me down cobbled together beaters until a Murray Wildcat was bought just for me. It was almost immediately stolen. Back to cobbled together beaters until I bought that Spyder. Then back to cobbled together beaters until a minimum wage job made me a young man of means allowing me to buy my first Schwinn Varsity. No more stolen bikes after that. I was much more careful.

noglider 

If I remember right, my bike was a GT Torino, and I don't know if that is the same GT bike company we have today. The front tire had a round profile, and the rear tire was wider and had a square profile. The rear hub was a Sturmey-Archer AW, and I had a giant stick shift on the top tube. I rode it in the playground behind my apartment building. The gears went out on me once, and an older kid adjusted the cable tension for me while I watched. Somehow I learned from that, and I can currently adjust an AW by sound and feel with my eyes closed. Someone bought me two rear view mirrors, and we attached each one to one side of the handlebar. It also had an electric buzzer horn with a button under my thumb. I also rode the bike around Central Park in NYC, as I lived only a block and a half away.

daka

Nope. I had to ride my brother's. I don't think he has forgiven me yet - since he was my little brother by three years, I tended to just help myself when I wanted to use it.

76SLT 

Back in about 66 or 67, I remember my father taking me to the lbs, which is still in business today, and letting me choose between a Stingray or a copoertone Junior Stingray. I chose the Junior Stingray because it fit me better at the time, and I liked the color. Shortly afterwards I wished I went with the regular Stingray but I still loved my first bike, and rode it for about 6 years until my parents bought me a Gitane 10 speed. I think my mom sold them both at a garage sale and made me start buying my own bikes.

sloppy12

Man same.

My first bike however my dad brought home was a rainbow paint banana seat bike. the seat I still remember had a cowboy like riding a rainbow. I am pretty sure it was a sears free spirit also fairly sure it was a closeout. lol I know my dad was super into the style and was like man its cool, I also know that I was showing the disappointment in that bike. I rode that thing for years though, It ended up with a flat black paint job, a seat and handle bars off a BMX. I tore that thing apart a million times to "fix" it.

rjhammett

I never did but a couple neighbor kids did. One had a Pea Picker and one had a Ramshorn. I had my $22 Hawthorne.

rustystrings61 

My first bike was a Sears Spyder 3-speed, fully-chromed and fitted with a big honkin' stick shift operating a Shimano 3-speed gearhub. My dad was choir director for the establishment Methodist church in Rocky Mount, VA, and an older kid who had outgrown his bike just gave it to me. This was how I learned that NO ONE in my family knew jack about bikes. The rear brake was rusted shut into its housing, the front brake worked a little bit, and the only gear that worked was high. At 46 pounds, it was a pretty heavy bike for scrawny little me. I walked it a lot. The bike that followed was a $50 Ben Franklin's special, a West German "Brownie" that was probably a Kalkhoff product.

Edit: The photo is NOT mine, but one found on the 'net.

iab

I wish.

I was relegated to my sister's Bantam. I added money bars and a banana seat to fake it.

Darth Lefty 

A few months ago there was a spy-or-leak photo published of a new Surly that apparently had a 29er rear and 26er front

https://forums.mtbr.com/surly/surly-...r-1154577.html