new fenderless stingrays on amazon

[jamesdart]

From when I was a little kid I always liked stuff from before my time. Started going to swap meets and drag strip around 6 years old. I always thought muscle bikes were cool. When I was a kid I got some late muscle early bmx thing from someone. It had a mini bike style fork, a loaf seat, all black. Moto style bars. It was COOL. I still think it was someone’s creation. This was late 80s. My friends all had Freestyle bmx stuff. Some guy I knew with a lifted bronco ran it over, I guess there were only so many ways you could mess with a smart ... kid.
I didn’t get a true muscle bike till I was like 18. Picked up a Murray at a swap meet to ride around. At one time my wife wanted a muscle bike, when we went to build her one, it somehow turned into a low rider build, with parts from mega low rider. She tried to put some miles on it but eventually realized it was even less fun to ride than a muscle bike.
I still have my muscle bike many years later and I hate it. It annoys me when I see it sitting in the basement, and I won’t ride it. I have a rough spyder also. She doesn’t like how many bikes I have but tells me not to get rid of those 2.
Maybe my son will ride them or something.

 

[JaxRhapsody]

I like those old muscle bikes, Just not the prices, especially since all I want to do is rebuild it for bmx duties.

 

[ParkRNDL]

(snip)
However, I did build my own from a King Size frame with an adult size banama seat, and it is a very comfortable bike to ride. Not to mention, every time I ride some other old guy stops me and talks about his "Stingray" from childhood, and how much he loves mine.

Since I'm only 5'6", I can get away with riding a 24" muscle bike comfortably. I've been on the lookout for 24" frames lately.

 

[5speed]

It's funny you should say that.

8 or 10 years ago when I got back into old bicycles, I was DYING to find muscle bikes. I bought a few Black Friday Krates when they were cheap at Wal-Mart, picked up an original Stingray at a yard sale, built up a Ross Apollo from a frame and some parts, traded for a Ross Barracuda. Tinkered with them, rode them around the block.

Then I found a group in the next town south from me that actually RIDES old bikes... weather permitting, Thursday evenings through spring, summer, and fall, we meet up at someone's house, ride for a couple of hours, end up at a pizza or ice cream joint, shoot the breeze about old bikes and whatever. Even though our rides are best described as a "pleasure cruise" and specifically routed to be as flat as possible, I discovered that muscle bikes are NOT a whole lot of fun to ride for any length of time. I started picking up middleweights and Collegiate-type bikes. They ride like Cadillacs by comparison, they can look pretty cool, and they are far easier on the wallet.

All that said, I haven't fully kicked my muscle bike habit. I let a couple of them go, but I think I'm keeping what I have now. I have discovered 24-inch muscle bikes like Manta Rays and Spyders, which kinda split the difference between looking like a Sting-Ray and actually being useful transportation. I don't know if I can explain what the allure is, other than to compare them to muscle cars. Drive a 1970 Mustang or Chevelle back-to-back with a late-model Mustang or Charger (or even a late-model Accord or Camry) and it's clear that the good old days were actually pretty lousy by comparison. Doesn't make me like old muscle cars any less. I have a '65 Impala that I have realized drives like a dump truck, but I'm not getting rid of it anytime soon.

I guess the new repop Amazon bikes are kinda like the new retro Mustang, Challenger, and Camaro. Gotta make concessions to practicality and functionality in the name of aesthetics. And those aesthetics may not resonate with everyone; it all depends on your sense of nostalgia and where it's focused.

well said

 

[RustyGold]

Why all the interest in muscle bikes anyway? The local junk/antique store can sell all they get and I find that strange. My kids grew up during that phase and I rescued and repainted a Stingray from neighbors garbage in the mid 80s and built it up for my son. It went to the Salvation Army Thrift Store when he was too big for it. He doesn't even like muscle bikes, he likes road and mountain bikes. I don't like them cause it wasn't part of my youth and I'm too old to get on one and bend my knees and back to pedal it. I only have bikes I can efficiently ride. Three of my older buddies do have quite a few in their collection and have them up high on display shelves. They don't ride them. I always pass on these. Why the allure of this type of bike? I really am interested in hearing why they are so popular.

Its just a matter of math. If you figure '64-'74 for the muscle bike era...and the kids that originally owned them were about 10yo..add the intervening 45-55years...and you get ~55 to 65yo guys who are retired, or at least empty-nesters, with a little money in the pocket and a lot of time to reflect on the good old days.

I never knew what a muscle bike was until the late '90s when I started getting back into bikes, even though I'm only slightly out of the above age range. I was a poor kid in a small town, and all my bikes were 'curved frame' bikes built up for bmx. I didn't know that the frames I was using were muscle bike frames, for the most part, as I would usually start with a bare frame that I found in a garage sale, or on the side of the road. The only new bike I had as a kid was a Western Flyer RamRod...which, in retrospect, was every bit a muscle bike...but to me, it was just my chopper bike. After about a year or so, the new wore off and I was getting tired of getting beat by, and not being able to go with, my friends. So...I traded my RamRod frame and forks to an old guy that used to work on bikes in his garage for an old 'curved frame' bike that I build up into another bmx bike .

 

[RustyGold]

I don't know if I can explain what the allure is, other than to compare them to muscle cars. Drive a 1970 Mustang or Chevelle back-to-back with a late-model Mustang or Charger (or even a late-model Accord or Camry) and it's clear that the good old days were actually pretty lousy by comparison. Doesn't make me like old muscle cars any less. I have a '65 Impala that I have realized drives like a dump truck, but I'm not getting rid of it anytime soon.

I have to disagree with your analogy. Aside from electronic fuel injection, there is very little that separates a '60s era car and a modern car. I got a bunch of old cars (most that I haven't touched in years)...and I have an '11 Mustang GT with 5.0L and 6spd (also have a limited edition '90 convertible with 5.0L and 5spd).

I've never had a car that was more comfortable and rode smoother than either my '66 Plymouth Sports Fury or my '63 1/2 Ford Galaxie 500. My current mustang has more horsepower than almost all the mustangs built before it (aside for the two or three 427 Shelby 500s in '67)...but, it doesn't remotely compare to most of my big block cars in the torque department.

EFI allows for good horsepower AND good fuel mileage...but, really, the only thing else that separates new cars and car from the '60s is the 50+ years. If you go through an old car tip to stern and do a little modernizing while your at it...you are going to have every bit as good a car as a new one, but with better looks. The reason I daily drive an '11 GT instead of my '67 Cougar...is that while raising the kids my wife started getting a bit annoyed with me piecing together whatever car I was driving as between sports, school functions, vacations, etc and keeping a ~40year old car (at the time) running reliably was a losing battle...didn't have the time. So, I drive a ~450hp rocket daily that gets 25mpg. When I get my shop finished, I'll probably go back to driving a 50+yo car...though, I don't plan on getting rid of the GT anytime soon .

That's probably the market for the retro sting rays and such as well, old guys that want that connection to their youth, but don't want to spend the time fixing up an old bike. The retro 'Rays...eh...close enough .

Jason

 

[ParkRNDL]

I have to disagree with your analogy. Aside from electronic fuel injection, there is very little that separates a '60s era car and a modern car. I got a bunch of old cars (most that I haven't touched in years)...and I have an '11 Mustang GT with 5.0L and 6spd (also have a limited edition '90 convertible with 5.0L and 5spd).

I've never had a car that was more comfortable and rode smoother than either my '66 Plymouth Sports Fury or my '63 1/2 Ford Galaxie 500. My current mustang has more horsepower than almost all the mustangs built before it (aside for the two or three 427 Shelby 500s in '67)...but, it doesn't remotely compare to most of my big block cars in the torque department.

EFI allows for good horsepower AND good fuel mileage...but, really, the only thing else that separates new cars and car from the '60s is the 50+ years. If you go through an old car tip to stern and do a little modernizing while your at it...you are going to have every bit as good a car as a new one, but with better looks. The reason I daily drive an '11 GT instead of my '67 Cougar...is that while raising the kids my wife started getting a bit annoyed with me piecing together whatever car I was driving as between sports, school functions, vacations, etc and keeping a ~40year old car (at the time) running reliably was a losing battle...didn't have the time. So, I drive a ~450hp rocket daily that gets 25mpg. When I get my shop finished, I'll probably go back to driving a 50+yo car...though, I don't plan on getting rid of the GT anytime soon .

That's probably the market for the retro sting rays and such as well, old guys that want that connection to their youth, but don't want to spend the time fixing up an old bike. The retro 'Rays...eh...close enough .

Jason

Fair enough. It's probably true that my '65 Impala (283 2v, Powerglide 2-speed automatic) rides like a dump truck because I haven't gone through it "tip to stern," as you said, and I definitely haven't modernized it. I keep thinking if only I would get the front end rebuilt, but like COMPLETELY rebuilt, all new bushings and ball joints and tie rod ends and all that, instead of just replacing stuff piecemeal as it wears out, I'd find it much more enjoyable to drive. And then I'd replace the clapped-out 283 with that 350 block/400 crank stroker motor I've been dying to build, and a newer 200R4 or 700R4 4-speed automatic, and then upgrade the 4-wheel drums to... but I digress. I don't have the equipment or room (or, let's face it, the ability) to do all that myself, and right now with 2 kids in college and 2 more in high school I can't really justify spending the cash to pay someone to do it. I know exactly what you mean about keeping an old car together while using it for daily transportation... I delivered pizza in that Impala for a little while in the mid 1990s.

In the meantime, a couple years ago I was looking for a sensible replacement for my DD Altima, something like another Altima or a Fusion or a Sonata, and a '14 Mustang V6 convertible pretty much fell into my lap for about what I wanted to spend. I almost talked myself out of it, but my brother and another good friend pointed out that my kids were all hitting driving age and my wife had a van if we needed something practical and when was I gonna have a chance like this again? So I grabbed it and it's by far the most enjoyable car I ever had. Sure, it's not the 400+ HP of your GT, but if you can't get yourself in trouble with 305 HP you're not trying hard enough. Plus, I have pushed it over 30 MPG on a couple of long trips. But you're totally right about torque... my old V8 cars, even the 2-barrel grandma versions, had a different feel when you stomped on it, a different kind of pull. My little V6 Mustang is faster by the numbers, but it's just not the same.

Anyways, this was about bikes, right? Your point is well taken. I could spend a bunch of money on either fixing up my old Impala or buying a newer Mustang or Challenger, but in the end, the older car has something the new ones don't. Just like I could spend a ton of money rechroming and refinishing an old Sting-Ray, or I could pay too much for one of these Amazon bikes, but at the end of the day the new bike doesn't have the same character as the original.

 

[RustyGold]

Exactly

The fox body mustangs brought about a 2nd factory muscle car revolution...with a whopping 225hp on tap. So, your '14 with the 305hp V6 is definitely a potent ride .

 

[MazdaFlyer]

And to think this all started from new stingrays on Amazon...feeling like a Dinosaur myself having grown up in 50’s. What’s a Stingray?


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[us56456712]

And to think this all started from new stingrays on Amazon...feeling like a Dinosaur myself having grown up in 50’s. What’s a Stingray?


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

The sting ray I found dumped in the garbage in the 80s was a Schwinn and had a banana seat, 20 inch cantilever frame and gear shifter with a long handle on it, like a stick shift. I tossed the banana, sissy bar and shifter and made it into a single speed coaster brake bike with low gearing for my son. He rode it in the woods on hiking trails when we went camping.