Stingray weighed a ton.

Wandering around the bike shop, I saw a new Schwinn Stingray, the bike I
rode as a kid. I picked it up and was shocked at how heavy it was. Maybe
40 lbs? I'll wait till the carbon fiber version comes out, and then I'll
buy.

Claudius Vitalis wrote:

Wandering around the bike shop, I saw a new Schwinn Stingray, the bike I
rode as a kid. I picked it up and was shocked at how heavy it was. Maybe
40 lbs? I'll wait till the carbon fiber version comes out, and then I'll
buy.

That bike has a lot of unique parts, and it retails for less than $150.
That's some pretty intense price pressure; I'm not surprised at all
that there was little expense incurred to keep the bike's weight down.


Chalo Colina

Chalo wrote:
Claudius Vitalis wrote:

picked it up and was shocked at how heavy it was.

That bike has a lot of unique parts, and it retails for less than $150.

Now I realize that you must have seen one of the "Classic Series"
Stingrays, and not one of the new moto-chopper-style ones.

I doubt that the new replica Stingrays are any heavier than the old
ones. All the "electro-forged" Chicago Schwinns were complete pigs,
made strong out of weak steel by sheer mass of material.

Chalo Colina

Dear Claudius, & list:

The original stingray was about that weight too. You could do anything
with those bikes and they'd live. Bend a fork? Just straighten it out
and keep riding!

If you want light weight in a bike with 20" wheels, Staats makes a
pretty light one. So do I, but there's a wait ... and I don't bend a
curving top and down tube.

later

jn

"Thursday"

On Fri, 04 Nov 2005 21:27:29 GMT, "Claudius Vitalis"
wrote:

Wandering around the bike shop, I saw a new Schwinn Stingray, the bike I
rode as a kid. I picked it up and was shocked at how heavy it was. Maybe
40 lbs? I'll wait till the carbon fiber version comes out, and then I'll
buy.

If you're talking about the fat-rear-tire "Stingray" (quotes
intentional; it's not the same as the bike they sold in the '60s by a
long shot), then yes, it's heavy...and about as useful as a milk
chocolate teapot in my estimation. OTOH, I noted the other day that
the lbs nearby has fairly accurate copies of the original Stingray on
hand now, and they're considerably lighter...and, of course, smaller
than the Schwinn of today. The retro copies have the infamous banana
seat, but lack the absurdly long high-rise rear seat support tubes of
the many imitators of that long-past era. One thing was interestingly
lacking from them, however. A name. *Any* name. The guy in the shop
was busy, so I didn't interrupt him to ask if they were shipped with
decals that smply hadn't been applied, and/or if the plain appearance
was an intentional styling choice.

I have, of course, no desire to ride either the retro copy or the
nouveau-chic version of the Stingray; the former would tend to leap
out from under me on hard acceleration unless I rode it 'way too far
forward for comfort, and the latter is clearly designed for someone
about 48" tall or less. I will also note that in my travels this
year, I have seen numerous Wal-Marts storing their unsold excess
Stingrays chained up outside the store; this is generally an
indication that the bikes so displayed are about to get marked down
heavily for clearance sales. I won't act surprised about any failure
to capture expected market share; those almost-bikes are overpriced
toys and little more.

BTW, I think you'll see a CF-frame Stingray hit the mass market about
two weeks after they put a CF-disc-wheel mtb on the racks at Wal-Mart.
(Yes, I know, a CF disc wheel on an mtb is oxymoronic, but that has
never stopped the marketing droids in the past.)
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