Schwinn Sting-Ray
The children’s bicycle with a banana seat and high handlebars, based on California’s customised bikes.
Children in California customised their bicycles with high handlebars and long seats, like the motorcycles in the films of the day. Schwinn’s designer Al Fritz saw the trend and turned it into a factory model.
The Sting-Ray was an enormous success and had imitators all over the world. It shows how popular ideas can become industrial design – and it was the model for the BMX bike.
Materials: Steel tube, chrome, plastic seat
Manufacture: Made by Schwinn in Chicago from 1963.
The long banana seat and the sissy bar behind it.
The high handlebars.
The small 20-inch wheels.