bike time vii - beater schwinn stingray

It's 2011,

you're in 5th grade.

What better choice of wheels!

schwinn stingray

I picked this up years ago from a friend who was having a yard sale.

If you can believe it was in worse condition it was.

It took about 2 years for one of the kids to fit it.

Our oldest,

Jaxon really wanted to ride his bike to school.

Around here,

kids are riding BMX style bikes.

I asked him if he wanted to paint it up or clean it up a little.

Nah. Why?

swapped out banana seat

It had been sitting out in the yard,

so the paint had faded.

We just ended up wiping it all down with some oil to brighten it up.
Greased the heck out of the bearings.

It took a while to clean the rustiness off the chrome fender with a razor blade.

ketchup & mustard stingray

Maybe since he's grown up around dirty hot rods his whole life,

he can see through perfect paint and chrome at a basically cool bike.

Uh oh!

kids cruiser

He rode to school that first time.

I half-expected a little rousting,

but nope.

He said the other kids loved it.

Wow,

there is hope!

rusty cranks

It's been almost 2 years since that first ride to school,

and it's still going.

We did replace the s-7 front rim with an aftermarket unit.

Now it has big and little s-2 20 in tires.

date?
who cares.

That's the fun thing about a  kids thrasher bike.

Restorers get caught up in the date, the correct parts, paint etc.

This bike is just made to ride.

comin

oh man...

goin

The next thing is to build a little ramp jump.

I better get on that.

hippy kid

Jakob's stingray is the 80's bmx home conversion

Jake's bmx stingray

The bummer with Jake's bike is the seat.

His backpack is so big,

it rubs on the back tire!

The plan is to convert it back to its banana seat,

but that is for another bike time post.

hot rod stingray

We have created a little problem though.

Now he wants 2 more stingrays, different colors.

Holy chit.

My wife's gonna kill me!

He also recently found Sublime's version of the Grateful Dead's Scarlet Begonia's...

Hay wey...

Better make some space in the garage!

TP