cheffyjay

Hello, just bought this a few days ago, finally got around to cleaning it up a bit. This was billed as a Crescent Mark XX in stainless. There are threads about this and this bike really resembles one of those. It also really looks like chrome. It has the same Nervex lugs and the strange patina on them that would indicate that they were once bronze painted. It does not have the rough brazing look that others had. It also does not have brazed BB cable guides. Campagnolo dropouts. Holes in the head tube would seem to match the Crescent badges I've seen. The front wheel will definitely hit your toes in a tight turn like the other Crescents.
The components and the drillium are marvelous. The seller said the other drilled brake lever was shattered in a crash. The BB appears to be a Phil Wood like the hubs. I always wanted to see what the Huret Jubilee would be like, all the reports said shifting was terrible but it was on all of the super light bikes back then. The shift levers are Dura Ace, making for an odd mix. The bike seems like such an exercise in 'weight weenie'-ism in some areas. The seatpost is a one off handmade thing. The pedals are German LLC (thanks to the forum members for id). The gold anodizing everywhere is something else.






I did change out the seat, what it had was horrid. I'm quite excited about this find!

Nguyen Dang

Very nice find. Great bike!

cudak888 

Can't help you with what it is, but that home-spun, period drillium and close-coupled Record triple are worth the price of admission alone. Fantastic!

-Kurt

MiloFrance

Following!

DiegoFrogs

Check it with a magnet- most common stainless steel varieties are (nearly) non-magnetic.

Bianchigirll 

I bet it was chromed under the paint. Lots of drillium but the FB is missing a nut.

Bikerider007

Whoa even the hoods are drilled. Neat piece.

PilotFishBob 

Very nice! That crankset is a beauty. I have the Jubilees on a couple of bikes, they shift nicely for me - no worse than Campy NR anyway, which may not be saying much.

CliffordK

Not the "hoods"

It appears to be perhaps Weinmann brake lever bodies without hoods.

Bikerider007

looking again yep, they look so thick. Cool piece still.

cheffyjay

It is magnetic. I've always loved the chrome paramounts and such but was excited about the stainless! I am delighted with either.

unterhausen

Paramount. Headbadge holes are in the right place for a paramount, but I don't remember where Crescent headbadges were attached. You can tell it's steel from the way the chrome is peeling from the lugs

The Golden Boy 

That's going to be a stunner when you get 'er cleaned up!

Congratulations!

2manybikes

Great bike! It is steel. Someone put a huge amount of time into all that drilling.

Kactus

The seat stay caps and some other details suggested Paramount to me as well, until I saw the bottom bracket shell.

cheffyjay

with the overall condition of the bike as found, I would have expected more pitting if it was chrome. Awfully shiny for stainless.

T-Mar

Zero braze-ons and long Campagnolo dropouts without the spring retention hole or fender eyelets suggests mid-1970s. If it's a Paramount from this era, it should have a recognizable format serial number on the non-drive side rear dropout.

unworthy1

I wonder if the shell slots were done in production (are the edges chrome-plated?) or done after-market in the same ecstasy of lightening that led to drillium of things like the brake bodies that should have been left alone (IMO)...looks like a fair bit of misguided mods have been made (I know: fashions and thinking were different back BITD!). I doubt there were many (or ANY) frame builders that would have made a chrome-plated Nervex Pro lugged frame that would pierce that shell with huge, sharp-cornered slots like this has...

T-Mar

^ Agreed, I thought the shell cut outs were DIY. They're not straight, there are jagged edges from the saw cuts and it looks like small corner holes were drilled first. I thought the edges of the openings looked corroded, indicating a post plating operation, but wasn't positive.

cudak888 

The seatstay cap diameter and look also look about right - fork also has the revised Paramount P13 geometry on it as one would expect.

Nervex lugs and a Prugnat BB shell is a bit of a giveaway, and given that the previous owner didn't seem to be shy with cutting tools, a home-spun cutout job isn't out of the question.

Any pics of the left side dropout for the S/N?

-Kurt

Kactus

I didn't look at the photo that closely, but that certainly is a possibility; it does look like a Paramount frame in many of the details and chrome Paramounts weren't that uncommon. A photo of the non-driveside rear dropout would answer the mystery.

Gavin1010

yes nice piece for sure!

cheffyjay

it sure does. B73105

Kactus

It looks like you have a 1973 Paramount P13-9, the 105th frame made in February. Nice find.

cheffyjay

Thank you all. That serial number leads to the miraculous internet which seems to indicate that this is a Schwinn Paramount built in February of 1973. This is particularly exciting for me as my old neighbor was an Olympic Speed Skater on the 1972 U.S. Olympic team and he had a chrome Paramount like this, that was given to him for participating at the Games. I always thought that it was one of the coolest bikes I'd ever seen. I certainly didn't earn this the way he did but it is an amazing find for me. You don't want to know how much i paid for it. Like Christmas Morning!