phoebeisis

This bike-said to be a Paramount "girls bike" from the 1970's is on ebay.Currently at $300+$50 shipping.

If I had the $$-I don't-I would like to get it for my wife.

My questions:
1)Is it a true Paramount?? Made in USA etc?
2)Best guess on what it will sell for? Maybe $600 or so??

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...=STRK:MEWAX:IT

Thanks
Charlie

Scooper

It appears to be a genuine 1974 P60 (serial number is November, 1974 so it could be a '75 model year), made in the Chicago factory Paramount "cage." If the history of these bikes for sale on eBay is any guide, it will go for $500 to $600. The stem shifters and turkey wings were options.

phoebeisis

Scooper,

Thanks for the response. I'm not really a vintage "type" so I'm a bit unclear.Some Paramounts-the ones I see on this forum- were hand made made in some super duper factory-Waterford??- in Waterford (which state). Others-this one- were actually made at the Schwinn Chicago factory-and others-later ones- were made in various Japanese,Taiwanese factories??
Is that correct?

It looks like a pretty nice bike. If it went for $500+shipping it would cost about 5x more than the Schwinn Traveler-chrome moly frame- my wife has now.The Traveler-Asian-has a nice ride.Considering the components $600 isn't a bad price.A Schwinn Mixte-double butted frame- went for $200 delivered, but it wasn't Reynolds tubing and it had plain Jane components. $600 isn't bad-Christmas, winter , folks are short of $$, and the economy stinks, probably best time to buy a bike.

Thanks
Charlie

Scooper

Charlie, the original Paramounts (from the first one in 1938 through those built in the early post-war years) were all built by Chicago framebuilder Emil Wastyn and his son, Oscar. In the late fifties, a special section of the Chicago factory was partitioned for Paramount production in-house, and this area of the factory was called "the cage." It was in the cage that the eBay P60 you're looking at was built. It was hand brazed, probably by either Wanda Omelian or Louise Redman. These two women were extraordinarily talented brazers and are closely identified with Paramount production in the sixties and seventies. In 1979, Ed Schwinn shut down Paramount production because he thought the technology being used was dated. A young Schwinn bicycle designer and framebuilder named Marc Muller was tasked to find a new Paramount production facility and to redesign the Paramount line with newer technology to take advantage of advances in tubing metallurgy, investment cast lugs and bottom bracket shells, etc., so it would remain a world class bicycle. The facility Marc chose was in Waterford, Wisconsin, and the U.S. built Paramounts (not the Asian built "Series" Paramounts) built from 1981 until September, 1994, are often called "Waterford Paramounts" to differentiate them from the Chicago factory "cage-built" Paramounts.

A really nice Paramount history section of the Waterford website starts HERE (subsequent page links are along the left side of the page).

Value is relative, but to many discerning buyers a handmade Paramount built of the finest frame materials available at the time and equipped with the best Campagnolo components is easily worth five times as much as a mass-produced Traveler of similar vintage.

phoebeisis

Stan
Thanks for the info.I agree $600 isn't too much for a very nice bike with very nice components. I'm glad it is a "girls" bike-holds the price down. I shouldn't bid, but I might. Frankly I like girls bike frames more than Mixte. I like the flex in the frame-takes a bit of the edge off the sharp bumps. The Mixtes might be a tiny bit stiffer-could be my imagination of course.
Thanks
Charlie

JohnDThompson 

I seem to recall that later in the 1990s a final batch of steel Paramounts was built under contract by Match Bicycle Company in Seattle. Anyone know anything about that?

Scooper

Hi John,

Yes. Tim Isaac (Match Cycle) contracted with Schwinn to build lugged steel (Reynolds 853) Paramounts between 1998 and 2000. Tim had assembled a staff of very talented framebuilders at Match, including Kirk Pacenti, Curt Goodrich, Steve Hampsten and others. Match built around 750 steel Paramounts for Schwinn over the three year period according to Curt Goodrich.

At the same time, Ben Serotta built TIG'd titanium Paramounts for Schwinn using the same graphics and geometry as the steel Match built bikes.

Schwinn had declared bankruptcy in late 1992, and Scott Sports became the new owners of the company in early 1993, so the 1998-2000 Match Cycle 853 Paramounts and the Serotta Ti Paramounts were built for the "new owners" of Schwinn.

phoebeisis

Yes,I will talk myself into bidding on it. It will sell for maybe $600 delivered-just $100-$200 more than a low end decent bike store bike-safe bet those bikes didn't get much hand work. I really don't mind beat up paint. Rust/dents not for me, but paint scratches/chips I don't even notice.My wife won't be impressed, of course, but I'll sell the other Schwinn, and a Trek 820 and an old Sekai and get maybe $400 of the $600. Doubt I'll win, but ...
Thanks
Charlie
PS I asked the seller a question-any dents in frame-but I haven't gotten an answer yet.He didn't specifically mention dents in the description, so I guess there aren't any.The seller only has 20 transaction with 3 sales, so can't really make much either way out of his feedback.Most folks are honest, but the bike is pushing 40 yo and light tubes can dent.I would bid if it had very small dents, but it would make a huge difference in what I would bid.
PPS Just called and spoke with seller-bike shop owner I think. No dents, paint not perfect, but I don't care about that.I fully expect to get outbid-but I'll take a shot.

phoebeisis

It went for $681+$40 shipping.Strikes me as a fair price-nice bike, nice frame, nice components. I bid up to $535 and dropped out there-more because of shortage of funds than thinking it wasn't worth $700+. A while back one went for $900+ on Ebay.The $900 probably had better paint.