Forgive me for intruding on your thread, gentlemen, if you recognize that I'm not a Schwinn guy. But when I was researching my 1959 Allegro Special I came across the following anecdote that seemed to fit the chronology well:
... in 1954 Jack Kemp became the exclusive importer of Allegro bicycles to America.
Jack, along with his son Bobby soon began selling Allegro’s from both their retail store in Los Angeles and to dealerships across the Western US. To improve delivery, in time they would become one of the first importers to begin shipments via Swiss Air, something which was unheard of in that day in the bicycle industry. What was a 60 day, three tier shipping process (via steamer, rail and truck) was cut to only six days at a total cost of only $1.50 per bike. By 1959, Kemp was importing over 600 Allegros a year to the US – a huge quantity by 1950′s standards. Feeling the full impact of Kemp’s success,, Schwinn, in an attempt to reclaim the sales of high-end bikes lost due to this and other European lines, intentionally duplicated Allegro’s geometry on their Paramounts, – down to the double tapered rear stays.
Quoted from here:
Allegro History 1960?s | Swiss Bicycles | A website about Swiss Bicycles
Any thoughts? The Allegro, with its chromed Nervex lugs, Weinmann center pull brakes, campy gears and hubs, certainly looks a lot like a Paramount. But the story sounds a bit like a story, somehow.