![]() Funny that now they are also very collectible. It actually rode pretty good, but wasn’t a Krate. The cops got the kid, kept the bike, and eventually made him buy my brother a new bike, unfortunately the only thing they had was a Schwinn Run A Bout with 16 inch tires, a 3 speed folding bike. To our surprise, the dog ran up beside us and kept running with us. We snuck in his garage and checked the serial numbers, sure enough, just then he came out of the house and we ran off, being chased by a barking German Shepherd, thinking we were going to get bit. Then his Krate was stolen, weeks later I saw a guy riding a flat black Krate and we figured out who stole it. I went to the Schwinn shop and they were sold out, so I started making payments on a Raleigh Chopper, but never finished it off, I was too busy ruining my teeth with candy bars. My brother and I had paper routes in 1969, he was better saving his $ than I and bought an Apple Krate, it was so cool, springer fork, 16 inch front drum brake, and shocks on the rear seat bars, full suspension. For some reason they fell apart on a regular basis too.Ĭome on guys, Krate, with a K. We created that look with just shoving disassembled fork from other bikes together, taking any frame, adding a banana seat and backrest and having a cool cruiser. I’m pretty sure a wheelie had proceeded the incident. One was going down my street, hitting the brakes, and having the front wheel pop off and going rolling down the street as I crashed down on the forks. Trying to find the my model was fruitless, but seeing the bikes in the google search brought back memories. ![]() Mine had a twin shift, one shifter for the gears with a black handle, and a brake on the right side with a red handle that would lock up the rear brake to skid. We didn’t have the income for new, so he had gotten it used from a friend of his. ![]() It was third hand and I got it from my brother after he went to a 10 speed Peugot and gave me his. I don’t remember the model of the bike I had. In 1968, a brand new Krate sold for about $87 today an original Krate in good condition sells for thousands of dollars on the auction market.ĪMT has reproduced 1/6 scale replicas for Schwinn enthusiasts.Those were the days my friend. ![]() Some of the best known are the Orange Krate, Apple Krate, Pea Picker, Cotton Picker, and Lemon Peeler. The Krates were the boldest Sting Rays, styled after funny cars, with a wide, slick rear tire a smaller (16-inch) front wheel with narrower tire and features like a five-speed drivetrain with stick shift, springer suspension fork, suspended saddle, front drum brake, rear rim brake, bright paint, and clever names. Schwinn would go on to build many variations of the Sting Ray, but the Krates, produced from 1968 to 1973, are some of the most beloved. By 1968, Schwinn had sold two million Sting Rays. The company could have sold more, but couldn’t make enough tires to keep up with demand. The two men made a 20-dollar bet, and Frank Schwinn lost big: The company sold 45,000 Sting Rays in the last half of 1963 alone. Fritz, however, predicted it would sell 20,000 units that year (1963), which would make it the best-selling model in Schwinn’s line. Schwinn, laid eyes on Fritz’s prototype Sting-Ray, he was not impressed. Kids were building “pig bikes” by adding longhorn handlebars and a polo seat (also known as a "banana seat") to a 20-inch frame.īased on the account in No Hands, Fritz assembled his own pig bike in Chicago, then added a dash of styling inspired by Southern California’s car culture-including slick dragster-style tires-and named his creation “Sting-Ray.” The story is recounted in No Hands: The Rise And Fall of the Schwinn Bicycle Company, an American Institution by Judith Crown and Glenn Coleman, as well as Schwinn Bicycles by Jay Pridmore & Jim Hurd.Īs it says in Schwinn Bicycles, in 1962 one of Schwinn’s outside sales reps told Al Fritz-then part of Schwinn’s design department in Chicago-about a trend happening in Southern California. Schwinn first introduced the Sting-Ray in 1963. AMT 1/6 - AMTD001 Schwinn "Orange Krate" Bike - Orange
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