cudak888 

Though I didn't meet my goal to finish this Superior by the 23rd (right saddle rail hasn't arrived in the mail yet), I was able to complete a mock-up for photos.

I wished to keep the build as French as possible, but I had to make some compromises to suit the frame and my tastes. Following are the specs:

• Spidel (Mafac) brake levers. They look good, feel great...and allow for no quick-release of the cable whatsoever. Drives me nuts. No Q/R on the cable housing stops either. Form over function? Yes.
• CLB-2 brake calipers
• NOS Mafac stamped rear brake cable housing stop
• Generic front brake cable housing stop w/Dia-Compe barrel adjuster
• Velo-Orange 37mm fenders
• TA Pro 5 Vis 175mm crankset 53/42
• Mavic SSC (Simplex) retrofriction shifters
• Simplex SLJ 6000 RD, Motobecane badging
• Simplex SJA 102 FD
• Stronglight BB cups, shimmed on drive side 2mm
• Unknown 118mm spindle - I've had more 118 spindles in this bike than I care to remember
• Cyclo-Pans freewheel, Ultra 6 (rear hub at 123mm)
• Campagnolo Record high-flange hubs; Schwinn Paramount drilled pattern in rear, standard in front
• Super Champion Gentleman 36h rear rim, Wolber Super Champion "Gentleman 81" 36h front; identical except for lettering
• Campagnolo Triomphe headset (one of the few parts that survived off the 199X Guerciotti EL after it's untimely demise with a Mercedes-Benz CLK 230)
• 3TTT Record handlebar stem paired with 3TTT handlebar - engraving doesn't show model of bar, but the original factory sticker states Mod. Record.
• Campagnolo Nuovo Record seatpost
• Brooks Professional large rivet saddle
• Newbaum's brown bar tape
• NOS Dia-Compe/Schwinn brake cable housing, brown, stamped 1982; matches the bike in more ways than one.
• SR SP-11 touring pedals with MKS tan straps and NOS Christophe Special X (XL-size) clips. Pedals are missing dust caps - they've really been kludged, take my word for it. Lots of toe overlap around here...
• One old Wolber 700x23C tire up front, one old XLM(?) Sport 700x20C tire at the back.
• White Silca Impero pump that just doesn't belong.
• TA bottle cage
• Generic aluminum bottle from Walgreens

-Kurt

Drummerboy1975

How dare them build a fake Paramount!

Michael Angelo 

Great pictures, very clean looking.

cudak888 

Long before I bought this bike, it was wearing that badge. I'm not going to run around like a chicken with its head cut off looking for a red (1983 only) Superior badge. Until one shows up, it'll wear the P-mount badge.



Funny thing - I discovered that the front wheel wasn't sitting correctly in the forks, just last week - it was offset to the left by 2mm. I went nuts trying to find out whether I had built the rim with the wrong dish or whether the fork was off. If I only looked at these old pictures that pre-date my owning it, I would have seen the tweaked fork - notice that the wheel in the above photo is offset as I describe.

No matter now - I found that too much chrome had pooled under the left dropout; the fork blades were fine. A bit of filing cured the problem.

-Kurt

auchencrow

Wow Kurt ! Truly first class (and very French looking!)

VERY nice !

SteveSGP

Great looking bike as per usual.

flash2070

Very nice build! It looks really great Cuda! Drummer, good eye catchig the Paramount badge! :-)

Flash

cudak888 

Thank you, Auchen. I'd been carrying the image of this bike in my head for three years - waiting for just the right parts and Paramount to come along.

I wound up settling on the Superior as it had the eyelets and the proper brake reach for the CLB's - and the right color (a repaint, and a darn good one; appears to be Imron).

-Kurt

Chris W.

Beautiful!!!
How does it ride/feel?


Cheers,
Chris

cudak888 

I'm dying to find out - I can't sit on it until the rail comes in (and I'd rather not throw the adjustment off on one of my other saddles).

Took the '72 chrome P13 out today though - it'll be tough for it to beat it; the '72 is one of the best riders in my fleet.

-Kurt

well biked

Beautiful bike. Very nice job. I especially like the color.

WNG

Very elegant and sharp. I really like the paint color. Another great build!

Charles Wahl

Nice bike -- but: what, no Stronglight Competition headset, Maillard 700 hubs, Idéale 90 saddle? You still have some work to do, Kurt! If you get a pair of the Mafac half-hoods, they come with nice integrated brake housing adjusters.

cudak888 

I considered the Mafac versions of the levers, but deferred to the irksome Spidels as the lever reach is much more manageable on them. The Spidel levers also lack the slight indentation at the rear of the casting that is necessary for mounting the half-hood.

I know where I can get an complete Spidel group with little wear for $350, complete with the hubs and headset you speak of (not to mention a Stronglight 105 crankset). I'm a cheapskate. I'll wait.

As for the Idéale 90 - I'm comfortable on a broken in Brooks Pro. I know they're pretty much the same, but I'd rather stay with what I feel comfortable with (read = "it was cheap").

-Kurt

Bike Cottage

That's a sharp Schwinn.
Love the bartape. What brand is it?

cudak888 

Newbaum's. Goes on much easier than Velox, though the adhesive back protector gets in the way at times.

-Kurt

Bike Cottage

Thanks, I just read the component list and gave myself a Doh! I was too busy drooling over the pics to bother reading the list of parts. Well done.

djkashuba 

Beautiful build. What pedals are those? French thread or did you tap the TA's?

-D

noglider 

Very nice. How long are your rides, typically? Looks like you could sit on that bike all day.

cudak888 

On a strangely related note, I ran into the following site tonight; completely unrelated except for a single passage and a photograph of a Studebaker Avanti:

https://www.sdckeystoneregion.com/member_don_jones2.html



That describes the paint on this Superior down to the last metalflake. It's always a brown metallic unless I get it into the shade - then it turns red, which I always felt was contradictory to the nature of what a certain hue is expected to do when exposed to sunlight.

Obviously, the paint was designed as such, and it's an interesting touch because of that. Unfortunately, his site appears to be the only one that references a "Winesap" color in the Porsche color pallet.


SR SP-11's - English thread - mated to English-thread TA cranks.

Not long enough to have had the pleasure of realizing that I'd been on a Brooks Professional all day and not cared one bit about my posterior's comfort.

-Kurt

pastorbobnlnh 

Any chance in talking you into side by side pictures with your original orange Superior?

Did Schwinn really make a red background Superior headbadge?

I'll add my praise as well. Beautiful.

cudak888 

As soon as I get the toe clips and straps, you shall have side-by-side pictures. I might add that the Coppertone on your '66 next to this color is a sight so fantastic that it isn't quite of this world.

Schwinn did make a red Superior badge in 1983; it was no longer necessary to match the Pearl Orange paint.

-Kurt

pastorbobnlnh 

Former, '66 Paramount. Rightfully Jimmy's at this point!

cudak888 

I'll always associate that bike with you, Bob

-Kurt

DavidW56

Very nice looking bike, and I appreciate the unique paint. Did you already write about the type and source of the paint elsewhere, and how you chose it?