Classic & Vintage - Schwinn Paramount Racing Bike - $300

This is not my bike, but I thought it was a great deal. It is way too big for me or else I'd buy it.

http://atlanta.craigslist.org/bik/605182857.html

This is not a particularly good deal. It's a "PDG Series" Paramount, which was Schwinn's 1991-1993 attempt to leverage the Paramount brand by having bikes built in Asia to Paramount Design Group specs and importing them so that buyers could have a "Paramount" at a lower price point than the Waterford built Paramounts. This bike, a Series 2, was at the bottom of the PDG Series lineup.

PDG Series Paramounts (http://waterfordbikes.com/now/home.php?newstype=pdgseries)

22 inch too big for someone 6 foot tall???

I'm 5'5" and ride a 21 inch.

I was gonna say buy it until I looked at it. Exage 500 components? Shame on Paramount. Although I'd probably take the frame minus the components for a reasonable price.

No way that's a 22".

22 inch too big for someone 6 foot tall???

I'm 5'5" and ride a 21 inch.

I agree, I'm 6 foot and low-waisted and ride 22.5".

These Asian-built Paramounts gp by the nickname 'Pretendamounts' and ar very highly regarded by their owners. They're builtof Tange Prestige tubing, are fancifully lugged and very nicely detailed, just like the Top line bikes of Nishiki, Fuji and Univega were. Word is they ride as well as the best and are a under-the-radar bargain for those who know.

I've seen these bikes go for $400 on Ebay (though rarely) and $350 is the more typical rate for a Series 2 in this shape, so I'd say that it's not priced wrong. Many of them ran 650c wheelsets, just so that you all now.

Danny

I'm 6'1" and ride a 24-25" frame, it is the only way I can ride comfortably.

These Asian-built Paramounts gp by the nickname 'Pretendamounts' and ar very highly regarded by their owners. They're builtof Tange Prestige tubing, are fancifully lugged and very nicely detailed, just like the Top line bikes of Nishiki, Fuji and Univega were. Word is they ride as well as the best and are a under-the-radar bargain for those who know.

I've seen these bikes go for $400 on Ebay (though rarely) and $350 is the more typical rate for a Series 2 in this shape, so I'd say that it's not priced wrong. Many of them ran 650c wheelsets, just so that you all now.

Danny

IMO, these are some of the most underated high quality bikes around. Tange Prestige tubing is excellent and on par with anything Reynolds made. I'm riding 2 Waterfords in 531 and 753. The Tange is easily the equal of the the 531.

Tim

These Asian-built Paramounts gp by the nickname 'Pretendamounts' and ar very highly regarded by their owners. They're builtof Tange Prestige tubing, are fancifully lugged and very nicely detailed, just like the Top line bikes of Nishiki, Fuji and Univega were. Word is they ride as well as the best and are a under-the-radar bargain for those who know.

I've got a 1991 PDG Series-5.
Tange tubing, nice lugs (nothing really fancy, though), and 105sc all around. I lucked out and got it for the price of shipping it from Cleveland to Redmond because my father didn't want it anymore after having bought a new bike. There's some minor surface rust, but I think I'm going to strip it down and have it powdercoated over the winter.

I call it Japanamount!, to distinguish it from a Waterford build Paramount. :)

IMO, these are some of the most underated high quality bikes around. Tange Prestige tubing is excellent and on par with anything Reynolds made. I'm riding 2 Waterfords in 531 and 753. The Tange is easily the equal of the the 531.

Tim

I've never ridden them--but I've bought, rehabbed, and flipped a couple of them. They are very, very nice bikes. Both were made in Japan. Clean lug work. The 500EX stuff lacks bling--but let me tell you--it cleaned up beautifully and worked flawlessly once revived and adjusted. Plus, the cassette hubs were hyperglide, not uniqlide, which means compatibility with modern cassettes.

For nice PDG series 2 and 3 in the Atlanta area, with a major tune up and new tires and bar wrap and ready to go, $250 to $350 is well in line. Lacking the tune up and tires etc, two bills would be tops--and close to $100 would be more like it.

Dahlonega is Atlanta metro about an hour north.

btw--looks like a 25" frame to me neither rehabbed, tuned nor updated; for skinny riders 6'2" to 6'6". The frame might or might not fit 28mm tires, it depends on the tire. I've put Continental Ultra Sport 700c x 25mm's on them no problem.

The '92 I had for a while was a fine ride!....I just couldn't get used to the teeny 650c wheels....

I'm 6'1" and ride a 24-25" frame, it is the only way I can ride comfortably.

I'm the same height, and that is the frame size I feel comfortable on. Seats are a little low on the frame, but I don't mind I like the low seat look.,,,,BD

The use of the Paramount name on the "made-in-Japan" Schwinns was a bit deceptive. These are basically the same quality of bikes that Schwinn was buying in Japan in 1988, and selling as the "Super Sport"...a nice factory-made frame and fork from Panasonic...mid-priced bikes of very good quality.

But the REAL Paramounts were made in the USA, one by one, in very small numbers. Around 1970, only two Schwinn staffers did all of the brazing on every Paramount. In comparison, the Japanese Schwinns were simply re-badged frames from Japanese factories that were making about a million frames per year.

My last "complaint" about the Japanese Paramounts: the paint schemes often looked like a drunken impersonation of Jackson Pollock attempting to paint a bike...the opposite of the conservative paint jobs on the "real" Paramounts handmade in Chicago.

identify this one please, I'm assuming 1992?

http://austin.craigslist.org/bik/624680314.html

identify this one please, I'm assuming 1992?

http://austin.craigslist.org/bik/624680314.html
Yep; it's a '92 PDG Series 2.

1992 Series 2 catalog page 1 (http://www.trfindley.com/flschwinn_1991_2000/1992_Pmt_21.html)

1992 Series 2 catalog page 2 (http://www.trfindley.com/flschwinn_1991_2000/1992_Pmt_22.html)

Specifications (http://www.trfindley.com/flschwinn_1991_2000/1992_Pmt_23.html)