Originally Posted by
bulgie
Correct. You could thread on a single-speed freewheel if you wanted to have a "flip-flop" hub. Not that I recommend that! Just pointing out it is the same thread. It will take either a Phil disk or an Arai drum, but the Arai will need some customizing, the hub isn't really optimized for attaching the Arai. Arai is meant to be captured under the axle locknut, the one for locking in the cones adjustment, but a Phil hub doesn't have cones or locknuts. Some tandem specialists have modified Arai drums to go on your hub, but that's going to be difficult to find now, many years after they stopped making them.
To the OP: careful with the front wheel. Despite (or because of?) the 48 spokes, the wheel can pretzel / taco / potato chip if you put a strong enough side load on it, due to the left side flange being closer to the center of the wheel. I have seen it happen twice myself and heard lots of stories of it happening to others. It can happen at walking pace, if you just turn the wheel sharply. I saw it happen within the first 10 feet of riding on a brand-new custom tandem, as they turned off the sidewalk into the street! Phil also made a 110 mm front disk hub that didn't have that problem, but it of course required a custom fork made at that width. Your Schwinn almost certainly has a 100 mm fork and hub. I would consider replacing that front wheel with any moderately strong normal "single bike" wheel, even if it only has 36 spokes. It'll be stronger than the existing dished wheel. Some folks have even gotten great reliability with 32 or fewer spokes if the rim is a modern deep-V shape. An "aero" rim might look too out of place on a vintage bike, but they give great heat-dissipation in addition to the stiffness and strength advantage.
Definitely ditch those finned Mathauser pads, they are also deathtraps.
Mark B
Thanks for those great insights. I had read that the Phil brakes were troublesome. I have KoolStop pads on order and we'll start out on flatter terrain to see if they are enough for us.
The front hub is 100 OLD and is dished about 13 mm on the threaded side. The spokes are 3 cross except they don't cross under the 3rd spoke. Not sure if this is common with tandem wheels.
Campagnolo BB
Pulled the headset apart and the serial number on the fork matches the headtube: GJ805618, indicating a July 1973 build month.
The headbadge also has the date stamp 3449, which is Dec. 15,
1989 1979. That's a 6+ year gap! I guess they thought the boom would last forever.
The Paramount tandem wasn't listed in the 1980 catalog, so this would have been one of the last fillet-brazed tandems produced by Schwinn.
Unfortunately, the crown race is cracked. I may borrow the race from my stalled Sports Tourer project, just to keep things moving. The steerer is the same diameter, but I need to measure at the seat of the race first.
