FastJake

So this popped up on craigslist the other day: Schwinn Waterford Paramount 54cm
Please note there are more pictures in his photobucket here: Schwinn Paramount Slideshow by turn0265 | Photobucket

This bike is my size, it was made within a month of me being born (!) assuming the seller is correct, and I've always wanted a real Paramount.

Unfortunately when I look closer it's missing a LOT of its original parts for being an '89. From what I can tell the crank, brakes, and hubs are all from the much less desirable 6200 series. It also has the wrong brake levers, headset, bottom bracket, and goofy threadless stem conversion. Me being the tri-color fan that I am, I would have to put the full group back on. Keeping that in mind, what's the most I should pay?

TugaDude

I didn't see much evidence of rust, but obviously you'd want to check that out thoroughly. The seller appears to know bikes and rebuilt it with decent parts, just not the correct ones, so I would contact the seller and dicker. State your desire to only buy frame, fork, wheels and the tricolor bits. See if he/she bites. Maybe you can work the price down to a more manageable level, like $400 or so.

KonAaron Snake 

I actually disagree with the above...parts aside, it's an SLX Waterford in an attractive size, and the frame is worth 400ish. I wouldn't sell it for 400. The pricing is maybe a little high, but not by much...that doesn't seem unreasonable to me.

dailycommute

always wanted one myself. A real nice 1990 went last week on ebay for 675 plus ship. It had full 7400 DA in mint condition but was larger and had the miami vice look. But to me it was a much better view of what 600+ should bring. As others said seller appears to know bikes so no harm in chatting it up and looking it over. I would buy it for 400 - 450 if it fit, ride it and upgrade if it feels good, otherwise you could certainly part it down if necessary.

Scooper

There's really no way to tell how the bike was originally equipped since the '89 Paramounts were sold by Schwinn as framesets only. Typically, the customer specified the components to be used and the Schwinn dealer ordered the parts and built the bikes up. Some dealers built up the frames with D-A or Campy Record to put in the showroom and they got sold as complete bikes. I believe those were exceptions though.

I'm with Aaron; it's not a bargain, but it's not outrageously priced, either.

FastJake

Thanks all. I'll let it sit for a few weeks and maybe contact the seller then.

I would much rather just buy the frameset but I suspect the seller built it up with parts he wanted to get rid of, because that's something I would do.

bikemig 

No. 1. But the bike may disappear. Madison has got to be a good used bike market.

FastJake

It is, but I have so many projects already I probably shouldn't even buy it. For the right price though it would be hard to pass up. I've never had an SLX frame either.