Yuku free message boards

My name is Bill and I've been a bike junkie for a very long time. I'm an old guy in my mid 50's and was there when the muscle bike thing happened in California. I'm full of stories so I'll try not to ramble. My bicycle story starts in about 1961 when I got a Firestone middleweight for Christmas. The bike was too big for me then so my mom made my dad go downtown and buy me a 20 inch full fendered Hawthorne middleweight. In a year or so I grew enough to ride the Firestone. Riding your bike to school was what most kids did at the time. People started to build 20" high rise bikes and the Sting Ray was introduced - it was huge. So I had the Hawthorne 20" cantilever bike sitting in the carport and thought I'd turn it into a cool bike. In March 1964, I asked for a banana seat, butterfly handlebars, and knobby tire for my 9^th birthday. I opened the gifts before school and could hardly wait to get home to transform my bike. After school I tore into the bike and finished building it in time to ride it to Cub Scouts for it's unveiling. It had a Person's solo polo and rectangular knob tire. I rode it to school for about a year and a half before getting a Violet Deluxe Sting Ray for Christmas 1965 which I would ride to Grammar school until Spring of 1967 when I graduated. I sold the Hawthorne to a friend in 1966 and that was the last bike I have sold! Early in 1967 I went to the Schwinn dealer to ask about adding gears to my bike. He said it would be cheaper to get a new bike. As a result I got a 1967 Violet Deluxe 3 speed stik for my birthday in March. A few years ago I made up a list of the bikes by owner in my neighborhood and came up with 18 Sting Rays. Off-brands were very rare where I lived. I only remember one gold Columbia with the cool triple tree fork that Davey got to replace his stolen red '63 Sting Ray. I still have my '65 Deluxe. By the time the Krates were introduced, I had moved on to minibikes, then Hodakas, and rode a bus to school until I could drive. Now I'm not so much a collector as an accumulator as I always seem to pick up orphan bikes that no sensible person would want to try to resurrect. My other hobbies are cars (mostly 356 Porsches and 55-57 Chevys), slot car racing (I was considered by some to be the top Aurora Thunderjet racer in the country in 2000) but I've reduced my time and money spent on those activities in the last few years. Bikes are nice as I can work on them even if I only have a few spare minutes and the investment can be whatever you choose. I found out about this site while searching for information on a 1964 Huffy Dragster. Ron, I really appreciate your efforts.