Where did that knife and fork emoticon dude with the bib go anyway? lol.

Pretty impressive Ted....

very, very impressive. i'm sure a lot of us would've put it in the "too hard" basket.

i'm doing a sting myself and would appreciate it if someone could please point me in the right direction for aquiring the frame stickers.

Start saving and watch ebay, they come up.

Well here it is close to done.
The original CW bars and cut out tri grips didn't make the cut.

from BITD:



To his local bike shop display wall:



to the miracle that is Tedness.
Thank you.

and what thread wouldn't be complete without the PQuinn making an appearance.

Getting close. There'll be a few minor parts changes compared to what's in the current photo (above) before it's "complete" complete.

The bike has already received several compliments, so it will be nice when everything's final.

My thanks to all of Mark's work and encouragement to get this puppy back in shape, and, of course, Ted Carl for his expertise and skill. It would not have happened this soon, nor looked this good, without both of your involvement.

Thank you!

Keep posted for the "final product" photos.

thanks for the tremendous advice. i guess i must be an idiot not to think of that.

Oh, you must have been looking for the magical NOS shop that has an endless supply at 1980 prices that all the Schwinn collectors are hiding from you, I have the phone number somewhere around here, let me look it up and get back to you. Just trying to give you the honest answer buddy, but I appreciate the smile I got from that razor sharp wit.

On a serious note, there were OK reproductions available a few years back, but they are no longer available. The place where the original ones come up is on ebay, typically about once every 2 months or so and go between $100-$200 a pair for original, if there were alternatives, they wouldn't go for so much.

Looking good!

on the subject of decals.

i was lucky enough to get in on one of those complete repop sets. (a BIG thank you to the person who provided it...)

and i took all of the decals down to my local sign shop, they put all of the images into their computer system, had the decal material.......then didn't get the project done......and didn't get it done.....then went out of business and the decal machine got sold off... can you say dam mit!?

so last year one of the members here sold some NOS frame decals on ebay that went for big bucks. and they seem to keep reappearing but i don't know if they are real or another set of repops.

if i was doing another bike, i'd be for checking with that haney dude and see if he still has the ph number of the printer who did the original repops, i think that's who did them? correct me if I'm wrong.

i'm biased, but that sting main tube decal is a work of art and absolute perfection for the frame design. ahhhhh.

I have original versions of all of the sting decals and related ones (mini/comp). I gave them to a place that does decals and after having them forever they told me it was too hard to do because the technology has changed and the results wouldn't be the same. Now from seeing the reproductions that were out there I know you can get pretty close, but they were right, they weren't spot on. This was a few years ago, I have no idea about the state of the licensing right now, (if the vbmx crew or Pete from Hyperformance has any claim on those) so I don't know if that is what stopped the person doing them once upon a time. I also don't know how good of an idea it is to talk about it, so I'll stop, lol.

I am sure most people know this, but all of the originals downtube decals have the Dri Mark stamping on the back (except the sx-2000 ones), as do the fork decals and the quality seat tube decals. So that is a good place to start when checking authenticity, though I guess if someone really wanted to they could probably fake that.

I know the Sting downtube decals were a pain to get back in the day, but they could be found. After a lot of pestering the Schwinn rep gave my buddy that ran the local Schwinn store a stack of about 200 (they sold a ton of stings), unfortunately they are long gone, but it is possible for someone to have stumbled on a decent supply.

very cool story.
Since I seem to have all the experts in one post-I have a quick question:
I need to give a nice clean 80 sting an OA bath-but do not want to ruin the decals-I though that I heard it can be an issue with this type of decal. Does anybody have any experience with this? This bike is complete with all orignal decals intact.
thank for the help.

Yes, as one of the members in this thread (who later purchased the frameset from me) will attest too, it will pretty much ruin the decals. I had a frameset I dipped, the decals weren't great to begin with, but it washed them out/faded them pretty significantly.

bathed


repopped


but ted has mentioned in the past a way to protect the decals in a bath, he might chime in on how exactly that can be accomplished?

my untested opinion is that sting decals have some kind of aluminum content in them, which other decals don't such as other brands that use chrome looking stickers.

I've spoken with him about this in the past and a couple of ideas that were tossed around included covering them with wax or tightly sealed plastic.

I would assumed the issue is the sticker has a metal foil backing vs. standard vinyl.

well, that sucks..
I was thinking about covering them firmly and precisely with a low stick tape, but I'd hate to ruin these if it got in. Maybe the solution is just to soak the worst parts only-like soaking just the bb area, for instance, not the entire frame. But then again, this bike is really not that bad, alot of elbow grease may go a long way.
thanks for the damage control.
btw, nice sting bridge. I'm anxious to get this one going.
Jon

Thanks.
I take that one for a spin about every month. It's pure heaven, has such a light and crisp feel.
When Plainsbike sold me that frameset I was ecstatic. Hadn't seen the brazing on a sting up close since the 80s and i stared at that bike a lot during the pre-build stages.
Took me awhile to get it put together, and then i rode it around the house. Not the wisest plan if you are married, by the way.

Now that the hard work is done on Josh's bike.
Here's some inspiration and insight for other builders.

NOS Sting: http://bmxmuseum.com/forums/viewtopic.php?id=43729

Here are the tech details that have been shared by the experts at Vintage in the past, I just compiled the details.

To learn anything and everything about Stings go to http://www.schwinnbike.com/heritage

Stings have some unique characteristics.

The headtube is 5 inches.

The headset is 1inch Standard, not 1 inch BMX like a normal BMX bike. This is similar to a road bike which makes sense since Stings were made in the same shop as the high end Schwinn road bikes. New Tange Sekei Levin CDS (26.4mm race) headsets are available for about $22 bucks and have the correct top race that is pressed into the frame.

The headbadge is the same as Schwinn roadbikes. Search ebay for Schwinn badge to locate one. They are readily available and cost around $10. If you buy it when labeled as a Sting headbadge, you may pay $50 or over for the same item.

The seatpost is 26.8. New Alloy posts that resemble the original are available from Kalloy. check out aebikes.com, they should be around $7. http://aebike.com/page.cfm?PageID=30&am … sku=ST2027 . The seat clamp has an inner diameter of 1 1/8 inch, which is common for new school bikes.

The bottom bracket is a standard american bottom bracket. nothing unusual.

The dropouts take standard 3/8inch axles. nothing unusual.

The fork dropouts were modified due to strength issues. a fork with a straight dropout will be 79. Newer will have a "bubble" toward the bottom of the dropout.

--->>>Do NOT use Oxalic acid to clean a Sting as the decals will deteriorate! <<<---

This ad says 23lbs but mine weighed in at 21.5.
I've snagged every ad or catalog page that has been posted around here, but they aren't uploaded to the web. i'll try to get them organized sometime.

I love that ad for the sting. I can remember being hypnosis by that bike, dreaming of the day I would own one.
Sense then 3 of them would pass through my hands.
Now I'm building my ideal sting.

Which BTW I have 2 of those rear tires "tractor tread" NOS still with the powder on them.

ah, the oh so cool tractor tires. i was just saying the other day that they should reproduce those things. i'd buy a new set in a second.

here is the review covering old tires.
http://www.os-bmx.com/forums/index.php?sho...97&hl=tires

Looking at that Schwinn Sting ad... To think there are people nowadays that think putting a different pattern tire (not just a different size/width) on the front and the rear is a "new" idea, or ask questions as to why someone would want to do such a thing. Ah, with age comes wisdom, yes?

Bump for the seat post techniques.

Hey Josh, are you going to show off the completed Sting?
I think Ted will be impressed.
it's official, the sting has traversed the streets again on it's own chain power.

Here is the finished bike.
There is an unstamped square tuf-neck hidden under the pad, too.

This build has turned into a very special piece, so I sacrificed my own Sting parts for this one (wheels and cranks).
(anyone have some blue team schwinn cranks laying around, or a schwinn tractor tire?!)

My extreme thanks goes out once again to Ted Carl and Mark (BridgeCity) for helping make this build happen. I was telling Mark the other day that this bike, as it is equipped, with very minor exception (DX pedals would be nice), is probably as close to my ultimate dream bike that I could/would have imagined in the early 80s.

As Mark was saying to me, there's just something about the higher quality stuff (the way it looks, the way it feels, the way it rides) - no matter what you buy - that seems to set it apart from the rest. Not that you can't ride and have fun on pretty much everything/anything, but there's just that stuff that has that certain timeless mystique about it, and it lives up to that mystique year after year. Schwinn is likely to never put something out of this quality ever again, but they certainly got it right in this instance.

I just read through this whole thread. Amazing work and it must feel wonderful to have your bike back. One heck of a job done all around!

2nd that! I'm going to forward this to a friend that just picked one up & had alot of ?'s

thanks all!

Not sure if this thread is completely dead, or if it is checked from time to time. I too am rebuilding an old Schwinn Sting. The frame is not near as bad as the one shown here...thank God!!!! What I have been unable to find is the decals. I'm looking for "The Sting" decals and the Schwinn prism decals for the rear. I have been checking Ebay everyday for about a month with no luck. I would accept a repop if someone could turn me on to one. Does anyone have any ideas???? Please, please, please give me the help to find the decals to finish off my bike.

Thanks for any help,
Kris

still got my sting from 1979, cracked it same place at seat tube around 82',been sitting in my dads attic since,would like to get fixed,cause my dad wants to rebuild it to how it was when I won '79 world championship,still got sew up rims,bulleye hubs,and couple other parts, but it'll take some time and $ to get it how it was.... how much to fix seat tube like in pics,any idea??? Danny

What 50cc engine for your Bipe? We run a area 51 In a 50cc yak and it runs great.

Great restoration, Ted. Would you be interested in restoring a pair of Sting handlebars? I'm extremely anxious to have these handlebars brought back to their original glory. Thanks, Philip Jarvis

Awesome Work !!!!!!! I still wish I had my schwinn sting. I raced for schwinn when they were in Chicago from 84-85. They gave me a schwinn sting bike when I retired from racing ( Gone to college to play tennis under a scholarship ). Away from home and 1st year in college, I get a phone call from my pops. He tells me that both BMX bikes ( My race bike and the brand new schwinn sting ) were stolen out of the garage Probably, one of the saddest days in my younger years.