# Early 80s Schwinn King Sting



## trailville (Jul 24, 2006)

You really don't see many interesting old mtbs in my neck of the woods (SE Wisconsin), so when I saw this sitting with the used bikes in front of the bike shop down the street, I grabbed it. It's raining now, so I didn't really ride it, but snapped a couple of quick pics.
This thing was probably completely original very recently, but it looks like someone dusted it off and decided they were going to start riding it so they had new tires, a shiny new kickstand, a fat seat, and a new RD put on. They also replaced two sections of the blue cable housing with gray stuff. I'm guessing they then took it for one or two rides, and then put it up for sale. 
The blue ano stuff is pretty cool though and in very good shape. Matching rims, hubs, cranks, pedals, brakes, levers, and stem.


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## da'HOOV (Jan 3, 2009)

nice pickup, love that blue ano...


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## jmmUT (Sep 15, 2008)

wow. great condition for that. let me know if you need someone to take that off your hands!


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## trailville (Jul 24, 2006)

jmmorath said:


> wow. great condition for that. let me know if you need someone to take that off your hands!


No plans for selling at this point. I'm working on giving it a thorough servicing and then I'm gonna ride it and see what I think. I'm not really a collector (I do have a lot of bikes though), so if it doesn't work as an occasional rider for me, I'll probably get rid of it. I really don't think it's going to perform well off-road, so it would more likely end up being a casual towny.

But I'm definately going to try it on my local trails. It's 30 years old and probably has never seen singletrack, so I feel it derserves at least that. My local trails are a bit techy, and I'm expecting an interesting ride.


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## ASI CA (Apr 27, 2008)

That may very well be from the late 70s (circa 1979+/-)

Check the rims are they Araya or UKAI?

Those came out in conjuction with the 20" Sting BMX race bike of 1979.

Very nice!


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## kingsting (Sep 18, 2007)

That bike has the small cluster so it's probably an 81'. What are the first two letters of the S/N? Also the hubs will be date coded on this bike. I see the rear derailleur was changed too. I would remove the bottle cage, those decals are very hard to find although reproductions are now available. Looks like a nice score!!!


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## trailville (Jul 24, 2006)

Serial is KR800354 so based on what I read on Schwinns, it was made in late 1980 so is probably an 81 model year. 

The rims are UKAI

The bottle cage is gone and the decals are in pretty good shape. I removed the rack too, but was tempted to leave in on since it looks to be period-correct. 

I think everything is original except for tires, rear derailleur, chain, seat, a couple pieces of cable housing, and possibly grips and seatpost. Most importantly, all the pretty blue parts are original and in very good shape. The frame does have some rust and scratches, probably more from storage than from riding. 

I've already taken it apart and cleaned and greased the hubs, bottom bracket, headset, freewheel and pedals. All in great condition and very serviceable:thumbsup: . The only thing I couldn't do was remove the stem. It's frozen in place and since I didn't really need to remove it, I didn't try all that hard. I was still able to loosen up the headset enough to service it though.

I'll put together some more pics and some specs later. But here's what it looks like now.


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## kingsting (Sep 18, 2007)

KR would be October of 1980. That should make it an 81 model.

The blue anodized stuff does look real good on the bike. Looks like all the tough (see "expensive to replace") parts are there. I would give the stem a good soaking with some PB Blaster. If it's a steel quill in a steel fork, it should come out. (I forget what the stem shaft looks like on these.)
The saddle would be an Avocet Touring or LeTour, the seatpost would be a regular chrome BMX style post (26.8). The rear derailleur on an 81 should be a "Schwinn Approved" GT model. Chain would be a Sedis. The tires would be Schwinn Studded Balloon gumwalls which are still out there but are slowly getting hard to come by. These bikes look good with period correct skinwalls too. Blue cable housing is easy to get and blue Oury grips make a nice replacement that's close to the originals. 
Scratches are typical for a bike like this. The paint was terrible on the late Chicago bikes and it didn't take much to scratch and chip it.


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## trailville (Jul 24, 2006)

*The Blue Bits*

Well here's the pretty blue bits and one purple-looking-but-supposed-to-be-blue bit (Yes, that's the actual color of the levers).


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## trailville (Jul 24, 2006)

*And some specs*

*Some Measurements	*
Seat Tube C-T	18.25 in
Top Tube C-C	21.75 in
Top Tube Effective	22.5 in
Chainstay Length C-C 18 in
Head Tube Angle	72
Seat Tube Angle	72
BB Height	12 in
Head Tube Length	135mm
Axle-to-crown on Fork	395mm
Bar rise	6 in
Bar width	27 in
Seatpost size	26.8

*Weight*
Just over 30 pounds as shown in the previous pic from today. There is an old ad that lists the 5-speed as 25 pounds. There's just no way in hell this thing was that light, but 30 pounds is still pretty light for that time.

*Blue Stuff*
Suguino Team Schwinn Cranks 170mm with 44t ring 
MKS Foot Jaws Pedals
Dia-Compe MX Brakes and Levers
UKAI Box Rims (36 spoke)
ACS Hubs
Schwinn BMX Stem (length 15mm)

*Other Stuff*
14-28 5-speed freewheel
Suntour Thumb Shifter
Big shiny spoke protector thingy (with a shine like that, you can't call it a dork disc)


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## ASI CA (Apr 27, 2008)

Wow! 

Those parts look almost new.

Keep your eye (and a good lock) on that. The Vintage BMX bad guys (most are not) would part that out and make some cash.


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## ae111black (Dec 27, 2008)

Looks sweet great looking ride! Looks like somthing I drooled over as a little kid!


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## spistols (Dec 28, 2008)

Looks awesome. I have 2 King Stings now. One black 10 speed, and one Candy Red Single Speed, that I rebuilt from an NOS frame. This is a real nice find. Hate to see it parted, if it ever came down to that. The key components on this bike that are killer and hard as heck to find in the real world are the bars, forks, stickers, and rims (in this condition).

Everything else is readily available, except the stickers. I had some repros that I acquired a while back, and have sold them off. I am down to a few sets, so I am keeping them for my future projects.


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## kingsting (Sep 18, 2007)

spistols said:


> Looks awesome. I have 2 King Stings now. One black 10 speed, and one Candy Red Single Speed, that I rebuilt from an NOS frame. This is a real nice find. Hate to see it parted, if it ever came down to that. The key components on this bike that are killer and hard as heck to find in the real world are the bars, forks, stickers, and rims (in this condition).
> 
> Everything else is readily available, except the stickers. I had some repros that I acquired a while back, and have sold them off. I am down to a few sets, so I am keeping them for my future projects.


Spistols' bikes are pretty nice too...

Your silver one is in great shape. Usually the blue anodized parts are all faded and the stickers are missing. The downtube stickers are tough and those little cro-mo stickies on the forks are impossible to find.
The Team Schwinn cranks are getting scarce too.


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## trailville (Jul 24, 2006)

*Finally have a Ride Report*

Well it took almost 30 years for this early MTB to finally see some real trails (I'm guessing based on the condition of the bike that it wasn't ridden on trails), but better late than never.

I had realistic expectations of how this would ride on the trail, and it actually did a little better than I figured. I did cheat by putting some modern Kool Stop brake pads on though because I knew I would be riding some really steep stuff and there is no way I could do it with the stock pads or some similar replacements I tried. And I just left the modern tires on it that were on it when I got it. But other than that, it's pretty much the way it was.

Anyway, I rode everything that I normally ride with my modern bikes. Steep technical ravines, logovers, and some small jumps/drops. I wasn't real comfortable with the grip of the stock pedals so it was a bit unnerving when I got both wheels off the ground or hit the bumpy stuff at anything above slow speed, but I survived.

Obviously the level of performance of this early mtb experiment by Schwinn isn't anywhere close to a modern ride, but it would have been pretty cool to have one of these in the early 80s. I didn't own a bike in the 80s (I gave away my 10-speed when I got my license in '77 and didn't get into mtb until the early 90s) so this gives me a chance to experience a little of what I missed. Now I need to find something nice from the mid-to-late 80s.


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## ScottyMTB (Oct 26, 2005)

kingsting said:


> Spistols' bikes are pretty nice too...
> 
> Your silver one is in great shape. Usually the blue anodized parts are all faded and the stickers are missing. The downtube stickers are tough and those little cro-mo stickies on the forks are impossible to find.
> The Team Schwinn cranks are getting scarce too.


Believe it or not, one of the hardest things to find for a King Sting is the seatpost for some reason. I put one up for sale a couple of years ago on Ebay and I got a ton of requests for the seatpost/seatclamp. Must be a rare size or something. Nice pickup.


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## kingsting (Sep 18, 2007)

ScottyMTB said:


> Believe it or not, one of the hardest things to find for a King Sting is the seatpost for some reason. I put one up for sale a couple of years ago on Ebay and I got a ton of requests for the seatpost/seatclamp. Must be a rare size or something. Nice pickup.


It's not an uncommon size unless you want an original steel one. They're 26.8. I can see the original steel seatclamps being tough to find too.


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## spitfire (Jul 20, 2004)

wow, great looking bike!


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## spistols (Dec 28, 2008)

The steel seat clamps are the exact same ones used on the 20" BMX: Schwinn Competition Scrambler and Schwinn SX1000, Schwinn SX2000, and Schwinn Sting Competition.

I have several awaiting their respective places on some King Stings.



kingsting said:


> It's not an uncommon size unless you want an original steel one. They're 26.8. I can see the original steel seatclamps being tough to find too.


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## ScottyMTB (Oct 26, 2005)

kingsting said:


> It's not an uncommon size unless you want an original steel one. They're 26.8. I can see the original steel seatclamps being tough to find too.


Well, that probably explains it. The one I had was an early one with the old steel post and seat clamp. I have another with the aluminum versions.


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## trailville (Jul 24, 2006)

kingsting said:


> It's not an uncommon size unless you want an original steel one. They're 26.8. I can see the original steel seatclamps being tough to find too.


Mine came with an aluminum seatpost that didn't look original, they probably had it changed when they put that giant comfy seat on it. I suspect that mine may have been all or very nearly all original until very recently, then whoever owned int had the LBS "fix it up for them" to make it rideable. I'm sure the original stuff got thrown in the trash. I think the bike shops need to be a little more educated on the seemingly worthless parts that collectors are willing to pay stupid money for. A lot of them struggle to make a profit, yet they're throwing all this stuff out. Seems like the vintage BMX guys especially will pay ridiculous amounts of money sometimes.


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## ScottyMTB (Oct 26, 2005)

kingsting said:


> It's not an uncommon size unless you want an original steel one. They're 26.8. I can see the original steel seatclamps being tough to find too.


My King Sting fork has canti posts. Was this factory?


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