when to know you need a new bike

[Oss]

One day as a teenager I was riding my 3 speed up a hill  It was a used bike when dad got it for me as my Stngray had been stolen a few years before in the Bronx and I was walkin everywhere which kinda sux

anyways I was standing up and sorta pulling on the handlebars which helps on hills

Suddenly the handlebars are in my hands detached from the frame of the bike.

I sit down hard and the seat breaks off

then the left pedal fell off the bike

a car is coming down the hill as I am helpless, kind of like the person in the video someone posted of the truck on ice daniel posted earlier

I felt like I was in a bad cartoon and

at that point I knew I was going to have to abandon ship as I couldnt control anything so did that

escaping without getting run over

I walked the bike home a mile or so with just a few scrapes and cuts

Then took a big hammer and beat the crap out of it  also threw it against a few trees just for good measure

Went out and bought a real bike  Schwinn 10 speed Varsity with the money I was earning mowing lawns

Had that one till a few years ago  tough bike hit cars and rocks and it still rode true

Just wasnt my day I guess

[solo1]

I had a Schwinn Varsity too (as an adult),  One tough bicycle.  Heavy though.

[Kaiser]

Then took a big hammer and beat the crap out of it  also threw it against a few trees just for good measure

Word on the street is that if you post pictures, they will be removed (reference to another "bashing" thread, for those of you who do not know what I am talking about). 

[Davet261]

I had  Stingray bike when I was a kid.  You just had to love that bananna seat!!  Had to be late 60's

[POPS 57]

I had a stingray also. It was a great bike untill..... You would stand up so you could really peddle harder. Thats when your knee would bump the shift lever and the next thing you know. Your boys are hitting the bar.      

[Oss]

you must have been a rich kid 

Mine had one speed ape bars  I do remember the 3 or 5 speed on the center bar though

originally the slick  wore that out  then a knobby  wore that out then another slick right before it was stolen


learned how to drift, lock the wheel downhill and into j turns

wish I lived in the boonies could have learned off road correctly would have made me a better rider now

[C908]

I still have my Stingray it's probably about a 1965 model. I have it in storage in the top of my garage. I also still have my 1967 Schwin Super Sport 10 speed. I remember it being on display in the dealerships front window. I was 12 years old and my parents gave it to me for Christmas. I can still remember when I broadsided a rambler. I just got a few scrapes and bruises but my bike had 2 bent wheels that had to be replaced.

[Jess Tolbirt]

i remember my sting ray having a 2 speed rear end,, you would pedal backwards just a bit to hit the other gear...

[solo1]

I was a Schwinn tech at one time.  Schwinn put Sturmey Archer 3 speed rear hubs on some bikes.
Planetary gears, just ease up on pedaling, and shift.  Very cool and not exposed to the weather.

[doubletee]

My grandfather owned and operated a Schwinn bicycle shop in Albuquerque, NM. I had a single speed Stingray until he gave me a Varsity 10-speed for my birthday one year. Had that until it was stolen my senior year at college. Stepped up to a motorized bicycle and have never looked back.   

[Mr.BubblesVRCCDS0008]

I had a western flyer growing up. Santa brought it to me at the age of seven. It was really too big for me but I guess santa figured I'ld grow into soon enough. Well fast forward 6  years later was riding it and the frame broke in half at the neck and down by the pedal housing. Dad had it re welded  so I could ride it until christmas came and I got a new Huffy with lights from santa/Sears.