After spending a good part of the holiday shovelling horse manure for my injured cousin I ventured over to check out a couple of my better producing thrift shacks on the way home. When walking in a gentleman in his late 20's or early 30's rode up to the entrance on a chrome road bike with ghettoized upturned drop bars, parked it next to the door and walked inside after me. A minute later I walked back out to see what it was. "Schwinn Paramount" the headbadge screamed.

Tripping over myself entering the store again while debating on letting the unlocked bike out of my sight or not, I walked up to the guy and asked if that was his silver bike. He said yes and then I asked if it was for sale. "What's your offer?" he said. "I dunno--let me look at it again," was my reply.

Back outside we go to look it over. A quick inspection revealed Cinelli Mod.Giro d'Italia bars with a Cinelli stem, Campagnolo Barcons with blue covers on them, Campy brake levers and front caliper (no rear brake caliper at all), Campy crankset and pedals, Nuovo Record derailleur set, and three Campy brake cable holder clips on the top tube. Seat tube had a small dent on the front side, and the chrome finish looked pretty good but rather weathered. No decals or stickers on it at all. Overall in filthy condition with mostly surface rust scattered about, mainly on the forks and below the seat. I'm not sure what the seatpost is as it is still covered in grime.

Not wanting to insult him I offered $80 (which I thought was reasonable for a working bike) and he accepted, later telling me that a couple previous offers of $25 or $30 were declined.

The bolted on wheels with splitting, cracking tires aren't original but I think I made out ok.

First time I found Campy stuff on a bike in the wild. The Chrome Paramount is a nice bonus!