ErikO995

I recently picked this up from the junk/free pile at a local bike shop. It's different from any Paramount I've ever seen. It has the look of a rigid mountain bike. The wheels and crankset were toast, but the only damage to the frame appeared to be a slightly bowed downward right hand chainstay. My searching hasn't turned up anything useful, so I am hoping that someone can tell me about the frameset. I'm sorry for the lack of pictures, but I have no camera. Here's the info.

Tig-welded steel frame and fork with threaded steer tube, canti brake-mount posts, and non-descript
vertical dropouts.
Paint job is black mixed with blue wisps. Decals are mostly light blue.

'SERIES 40 PDG' decals on top tube

'PARAMOUNT' decals on down tube

'MOS'
'Mountain Oversized' decals on seat tube

Vertical 'PARAMOUNT' decals on seat stays and fork legs

Metallic silver sticker w/ gold lettering at base of seat tube
'Paramount'
'Prestige'
'Precision'
'P'
'Butted'
'Tubes'
'T Tange'

Closer look revealed right hand chainstay may not actually be bowed.
Found a worn decal that says,
'G-Force'
'Asymmetric Stay'

I've heard of asymmetrical stays, but only on full-suspension bikes.
What purpose does it serve here?
The rear triangle does need minor realignment and I'm wondering if this will affect the process.

Sorry if that's confusing. I'd appreciate any and all information that you can supply. I'll answer any questions as best I can. Thanks.

Walter

PDG was Schwinn's attempt in the late 1980s-? to get more play from the Paramount name. The bikes were Asian made and pretty decent though some objected to the "diminishment" of the Paramount label.

Don't know much of the mtbs but the roadies were available in either over-sized alum or a over-sized thin wall steel that was reported to have a real nice ride. I'd imagine that's true as thin-walled steel frames usually do.

Tange is a Japanese tubing and they've made (still make?) some very high quality steel tubesets. Don't know if they ever went into alum.

Hope that helps a little.

luker

The bow in the chainside chainstay was there intentionally to prevent chainslap. That's how they built 'em. I'm guessing about '92-'94, based on the paint. The frames from series 30-90 were all the same, but the component mix improved with the increasing numbers. Prestige is top-drawer tubing, but is really really lightweight, so check all over for cracks. They were prone to fail at the seat cluster or the bottom bracket if ridden hard (reverberating voice of experience here).