Regina oro chain and freewheel? For hood I think it is worth investing the $58 in the repos from the fellow on CR.


DOn't I know it.... example of my minds innerworkings: Hmm i have 2 sets of brakes... these ones are the original period correct QR cames and say campagnolo brev and the test is a little more pronounced but the plating is worn off.. i sorta like the polished brass look.... but I do have these nos ones that are also campagnolo brev... but the text isn't quite as pronounced... which to use???!!! hmmm well I am gonna swap this center bolt acorn nut for that one because this one is in better shape and think more about the cams when the time comes... Plus every parts has to be dismantled into it's individual parts and each washer has to be cleaned with triflow and lightly greased or oiled with phil wood and then reassembled... takes an hour just to clean and reasseble one brake caliper! I still have a ton of polishing to do and no bench grinder before corky is assembled... but great job guys!

When I first saw it after he acquired the bike, I thought he got screwed on the deal - it was a real mess. But between his keen eye for replacement parts and his savvy choice of mechanics, it turned out pretty well. :D

Seriously, the frame needed some professional restoration work (Ed Litton), and just about every part had to be replaced. We even had to dremel the Campy cable guide clips off, as the little screws were as-one with the captive bolts.

As far as I know only the frame, headset, bb, part of the crank set, and seatpost are original to the bike as it was found.

Oh, and my own personal touch on the rear brake - the radiused spacers that hold the caliper in place on the rear brake bridge came off a Chang Star caliper I had in the parts bin. The originals weren't the right radius, and the caliper would not stay centered with them. :)

this thread is pretty much what C&V is all about. really, really sharp.
someday when i have a salary i'm gonna build one of these.....someday.

Great story, great bike, great pics, and a very nice dog. The chrome is absolutely stunning :D

East SF Bay Area...

East Hill

If anyone's interested, the 24" frame (chrome plated Reynolds 531), headset and fork weighed 7 pounds, 4 ounces.

Hey Tios!

That Honey Professional Brooks was meant for Paramounts, mine looks great. It's interesting the choice of bar end shifters. I moved from downtube to bar ends also. I got my first Campy group on the Geurcerotti, but it looks bling on that bike. The Goose only has a small amount of chrome - but BlankCrows' is awesome.

BlankCrows - have you named her?

All very cool - maybe some of us D.C. Metro members could get together for a good cause.

I noticed barcons in the before picture, but could not tell what kind they were. Were they the Schwinn SunTours used in the build?

The originals were Campy, and were inoperable (missing parts).

We installed "Schwinn Approved" Suntours.

The more I see of these Paramounts the more I like them.

That is damn pretty.

I'm back -- I was out at the barn all day today. I think they feed those horses too much, but that's another story......

Thanks everyone for the kind comments. I'm glad the Paramount finally got put back together. It was great to have everyone show up to help out. John (bigbossman), thanks for having us all over to your place for the whole day. Your bikes and garage are always a treat to see. Stan, it was a pleasure to meet you and you provided excellent Schwinn karma for the build, and thanks for bringing your Chrome Paramount & Chrome Waterford bikes. Those are both stunning! Rich, sorry you couldn't stay longer. Your Ron Cooper bike is a beauty. Mike, sorry you didn't make it. I hope your wife is feeling better. John (brother), I'm sure you must owe me some change for all that beer money I handed you (at least you got some Fat Tire Ales which were appropriate with that label), and thanks for dashing to that bike shop for that stuff we needed. Your chrome Varsity needs some work!

It was a cool find back when I got it last year, but at the same time also very saddening to see a nice bike like that in such poor condition. When I bought it I was told it was in a fire (note the crankset and tires on the first photo in the thread). I hadn't ever done a project like this before and it was a big one. The frame and useable parts needed a lot of cleaning, a number of new parts to replace damaged or missing ones, a decal set, and some frame repairs. Ed Litton was able to do the repairs on the frame (sorting out a dent in the seat tube which resides under the big decal & magically removing both sheared off dropout adjusters with just a little of each showing inside of the dropouts) and supplying and putting on the decal set. He did a wonderful job. I forgot to ask him to remove the brake cable clips which a previous owner apparently hammered flat (no rear caliper or cable housing on it when I got it) because they likely couldn't remove the screws. Those were still on when we put it on the rack yesterday and John and Stan were brave enough to decide to carve through the rusty bolts with the Dremel. I've got a photo below of that.

I spent a year plus a month or so acquiring parts for it. My brother (TIOS) helped a bunch with that task (thanks John!), and I got some parts from a number of C&V'ers here. Thanks to all of you. Pastor Bob, I still have the nice Campy Record high flange hubs and flat levered skewers I got from you. I'm gonna use them--I promise! For this bike, I'd rather not put those hubs on 700c rims of any type. I'm likely not to ride on tubulars so I'm leaning towards lacing them to some old clinchers in a 27" size and perhaps adding some Pasela tires to those so it will look closer to original issue. I'm still searching for a set of worthy rims for that.

After acquiring a pair of Campagnolo gold annodized brake levers from Stone's Cyclery in Alameda, CA, (worth a visit if you are in the neighborhood) I got onto a bit of a color tangent and went down a gold/honey/red trail, hoping to bring back the bike with some class and bling after it had a rough turn for a while.

Re some of the components, the chain is a NOS Regina with gold outer plates that are drilled. The freewheel is a used, gold Dura-Ace one. The build crew talked me out of using the NOS gold Regina one I got. That likely will go onto the 27" wheels as that size was on it when new. The wheels I got from bigbossman as noted previously: rims are 700c Nisi Mixer laced to Campy hubs/skewers. I'm guessing those are later 80's or early 90's vintage, but the rims look nice with kinda gold annodizing, and the red Panaracer Stradius Pro tires look nice on them. I thought a little color on the sidewalls on those would bring out the Paramount decals, and brought some other tires out to the build too (NOS Ritchey Tom Slick and NOS Specilaized Turbo/A gumwalls), and was laying those on the rims, but the team set me straight with the Panaracers. You've got good eyes, East Hill!

Re the brake hoods, I bought some pricey NOS Campy ones (winged logo) and with the help of my brother I mysteriously got the first one on ok with a liberal amount of dish soap applied. On the second one I didn't use as much soap and I was leaning pretty hard on it, and in a flash it split all the way through. That was shameful but all my fault. The build crew was very wise to shy away from that procedure! (After that incident the build crew encouraged me not to help with anything else that I could potentailly damage, and I did hear some groans when I picked up the Brooks Team Pro saddle.) So, one of the hoods is a Dia-Compe until I track down another NOS Campy one. The original Campy bar end shifters were both a mess and the others I found later didn't have all of the nut/bolt fittings (I'd prefer red or tan lever covers anyway), so the shifters that are on are Schwinn labelled Suntour ratcheing barcons which was an optional upgrade when the bike was new. They function better than the Campy ones so that's most important.

Original parts that are still on the bike: headset, BB, cranks and small chainring (45), FD, RD (cyclotoine, thanks for the info for getting the RD put back together -- bigbossman got the stop screw out and I got it back together!), downtube derailleur cable housing stop, seatpost, and front caliper. The useable old stuff was filthy and I had to do some serious cleaning to get them presentable.

New or used parts added: brake levers, freewheel, Cinelli handle bars, Cinelli stem, rear caliper, large chainring (52 -- original was a 54 and messed up), crank bolt dust caps, derailleur cable guide, brake cable clips, pedals (I repacked a pair of used ones and touched up the scuffs with black paint), cable housings, Brooks honey Team Pro saddle, and the wheel set of course.

Dr. Deltron, the pedal cap hasn't arrived yet! It must've taken the scenic route and I'm hoping it will arrive on Monday.

Sadly, the tan Alfredo Binda toe straps I bought were too wide for the pedals, so I didn't attach the ALE 24K gold plated toe clips I got for it.

I'm looking forward to getting the Brooks honey bar tape on. It will really look sharp.

It is the racing model so I thought it would be ok to make it kinda sporty with some bling. I'm pleased it is getting good reviews. :)

John and Stan, you guys did most of the work on it. It looks beautiful because you did a great job. Thank you all very much! Not bad for the B Team. The A Team was some old Peugeot mechanic I lined up, but Cody ran him off and kept his hat, declaring that the build was a non-French event. Photos below....

I've got some more photos. I'll add them when I find that memory card.

I mentioned "Phoenix" in the find thread I believe. I think that name is still appropriate. :)

Phoenix is perfect!

I wish I had a congregation of bicylists. ;) I could use this thread as a perfect illustration in my Easter sermon! :D Maybe I could use it if I lived in the Netherlands or Portland, OR. :rolleyes:

Use it anyhow. Just make "bicyclists" non-denominational. :D

I gotta admit - putting a Dremel to a Paramount made my day......

First Congregation of All Bikes Classic and Vintage? :p

Yeah, this one was special. I had to leave early, but I made up for it by showing up late. :p

What a great crew to spend time with. John, (bigbossman), Stan (scooper), Bill (BlankCrows) and John (TIOS), I'll gladly hang with any or all of you any time.

So here it is, Paramount Day. There's Bill with that resurrected 1972 beauty to be built up with a collection a parts that can only be described as "decadent.". There's Stan, with a beauty of a chrome Paramount of similar vintage and his spectacular chrome Waterford 953 heirloom machine (and we all know that Watgeford id the true keeper of the Paramount flame, regardless of what the curent Schwinn folks ever use the name for). So, did I do the logical and appropriate thing and bring my 1967 Paramount over? Noooooooooo. Okay, it is loaded with seriously period-incorrect parts, and it is not a Schwinn color (charcoal gray, courtesy of Ed Litton) and it has braze-ons that nobody included on a 1967 frame (again, courtesy of Ed Litton), but it is a classic old Paramount, after all.

No, I brought the 1982-ish Ron Cooper instead, and while the multitude of cooks tried to spoil Bill's proverbial broth, I went off to a corner to swap out bottom brackets on the Cooper (thanks, TIOS or BlankCrows, for the use of the portable stand).

I was supposed to leave by about 1:00 p.m., so of course I didn't make it out until close to 2:30. (I call it a "previous engagement." Bigbossman calls it "whipped." :rolleyes:) But it was a blast while I was there - and the beer had only just started to flow. I just wish I could have been there for the duck. Simply a great day with great company.

Kudos also go to BBM's wife and daughter (she of the blue Battaglin with pink accents). They were very tolerant of us invading Old Pharts, although BBM's daughter was a tad peeved that her Dad served me ice water in her very own light-up disco glass from Denny's. :D

We know where services would be held . . .
http://www.flickr.com/photos/violentgrind/1580709801/


And we know why . . .
http://saints.sqpn.com/mary0004.htm

What a beautiful, beautiful restoration job. I would love to have one of those for those rides that are more wool-jersey than lycra-n-carbon.

Someday...

Yes! This will do. But you'll need to give me a big headstart up the hill in order to catch my breath before I preach! :eek:

I just mentioned to scooper in a PM, you guys deserve a big C&V three cheers for doing this with Blankcrows! :beer::beer::beer:

I have had the pleasure of hosting a couple of VW Passat / Audi A4 get togethers, and I would be very willing to host a bicycle project meet -- yours sounds like it was a blast.

Anyone living in the San Diego area -- PM me if you might be interested. I live about a mile from a Coaster station, so you could even bring your bike on the train, if you live somewhere near the coast.

Chrome Paramount... *drool*

Beautiful bike. I am in lust.

Whatever went into it, it was probably worth it:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...MEWA:IT&ih=004

Not that you'd easily part with a bike with such newfound heritage...

I can't speak for the other guys, but in my case - "Will Work For Food". :D

Here it is, in a pictorial nutshell:

From this:
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t...R_0819-1-1.jpg

To this:
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t...ramount-16.jpg

To this:
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t...aramount-7.jpg

Bigbossman, thanks for adding that old picture of that pile of parts! Wow, this bike has done a complete 360. It was sharp when it was new, got into a spell where it wasn't taken care of properly, and back to being nice again. I'm sure it could tell some amusing stories. Hopefully under my watch all of the stories will be good ones.

Until the Brooks leather tape gets on (looking like next week for that ) I couldn't deal with the bare bars, so I got some brown cloth tape to tide it over for a bit, and took it for a spin down to the park. The old girl seemed happy, as was I :). Here are a few pictures -- looks pretty good with the bars covered up. Yeah, I forgot to move the chain onto the big ring. I didn't have the good camera with me either.....

Ahhhhhh. BC, pictures of your Paramount will help me to have sweet dreams tonight! Thank you!

DANG! I should'a charged more. Next time, four ducks or it ain't gonna happen!!