Just looking for an excuse to post a few larger-resolution "before" shots of the beat '61 Schwinn Paramount:

Shots from '06, when I got it:




Note that the moron who abused this thing prior to my owning it had succeeded in bending one of the arms on the brake caliper:





Old in-progress shot with the wrong fork:



Current shots that you have probably seen more times then you care to:









You have to love a BB with tubes that were mitered correctly for the most part, yet, utilizing the cheap route on the seattube:


-Kurt

Kinda like it better in as found form believe it or not, I just woulda swapped the rusted out and broken stuff and called it good to go!

Kinda looks like that's what he did.....

Makes my heart sing! Well done!

Exactly what I did. Except for going with a Nuovo Record (masquerading as a 151 bcd Record, which I could not afford) crankset, replacing the fork with the only thing that was available (scuffed chrome Paramount fork) and the Bluemels, it is essentially the same as '61 bone stock:

From Bob Hufford's site:


Incidentally, I might have stuck with a steel Stronglight Competition if they were not so darn expensive and impossible to come by. Not that it is too important, another local '61 (That's right - another '61, local, also Coppertone, and my size ), came stock with the 151's:





Another fun fact: There is a silver '61 Paramount frameset on eBay presently - it is two serials south of mine. Mine is F54, the eBay frameset is F52.

-Kurt

I just meant the added fenders and that saddle bag.. and replacement fork.

Isn't there a thread for this already?

Saddle bag usually comes along when I'm riding for any decent distance - tubes, Pedros tire levers, and a few other on-the-road necessities sit in there. Same for the pump, which doubles as dog repellent. I prefer it without the bag though, and if I had my choice, it would not have the pump either:



^
Excuse the revised gearing from July '08. Fenders were a stock option, and I figured they improved the tatty look of the rest (not to mention complimentary to the bar tape - and what is left of the decals).

Yep, yep, there is. From January 2006: https://www.bikeforums.net/archive/in.../t-164673.html

-Kurt

I dig the shots in the park across from the Masonic temple. When I was a kid, I used to work part-time for my dad and we were frequently in the small marina that used to be where the park now stands.

In that marina and others, there were always scores of creaking wooden freighters bound for Haiti with loads of bikes piled on top (along with loads of mattresses, barrels, etc...) The going rate was somewhere around $5 a bike for the crackheads selling them. My dad bought a few back from the exporters when he saw something that caught his eye.

I wonder how many nice bikes are now hauling cargo in Gonaives and Cap-Haitien...

that thing is F***ing beautiful. nicely done.

I like it. It has become functional once again and retained an aura of dignity. A surviving early 60's Paramount is a terrible thing to waste. Good work, Kurt!

Speaking of serial numbers, there was a chrome Paramount on the 'bay a couple of months back that was within a few numbers of my 71 P 13. It was in bad shape, otherwise......?

They're still present a bit farther west down the Miami River, near the scrap metal dumps near the airport.

The one that had been dented, with a re-brazed dropout and Drew'ed cable stops? If I recall right, it brought no more then $350. Fellow sat on it for ages mainly due to his insufficient disclosures about its actual condition.

-Kurt

Coppertone is one of a few colors which shouts, "This is a Schwinn!" Very nice.

Agreed! But there really are so many great Schwinn colors. The Radiant ones from the 1960's are my favorites. What is even more amazing is how the color can be brought back to life after 40+ years. Certainly scratches don't count, but where the original paint has gone unmolested by scrapes and rust, WOW!

Kurt's '61 is always great to look at.

Flamboyant Red, Campus Green, and my personal favorite - Burgundy.

...the sun has made sure to fade it

Incidentally, I am not done with the '61 just yet. As rough as the raceways are on the original '60-dated front hub, I went ahead and rebuilt it last night with an axle, bearings, and cones from a wrecked low-flange Record from 1980:



Sooner or later, I intend to dig up a reasonably suitable NR high-flange rear to match, lace both up, and get rid of those Phil Wood's, once and for all. I'm sure the Paramount will look nice wearing polished silver rims - as it once did when it was running a pair of trouble-prone, bulged-bead Arayas (Dec. 2006):



-Kurt

Was the original fork completely hosed?

nice work, looks great!

No, I traded it to Luker for a Paramount frame he was working on (last I heard). There was nothing wrong with the fork at all, except that it had far less crown clearance then needed for this purpose (was a 700C fork, not 27"), and no eyelets.

-Kurt

I worked at Bertram Yachts back in the 80's and I remember seeing the Haitian freighters when we were testing boats. What always caught my eye were all the 5 gallon buckets. I figured they used them for hauling water back to their homes.

I also remember watching the police fish a body out of the water not too far downriver from where those shots were taken! Welcome to Miami!

trying to figure out what an improperly mitered bb could look like if this one is proper

There is a place I see often. That boathouse across from the office still exists, incidentally.

Try flat cuts (90 degree to the tube's length) that only partially penetrate the BB shell. I was ticked off to find out that Mainland finished the Superior framesets in this fashion.

-Kurt

I'll add Radiant Blue as one of mine. And some day I'd like to find a mid '60s Terra Cotta. Not a very common color.

If you look carefully above the FD, you can see where the original FD mounting band protected the paint. It's hard to capture the Radiant Blue in pictures. Unfortunately my '62 Continental sat in an unheated NH Barn for 25 years before Barney gave it to me. I also have a '64 Collegiate in the same color. Some day I'll work on it and find out if it faired any better.

well, your seat tube is square and doesn't extend to the inner diameter of the bb shell. I'm not that big on where the free surfaces of the tubes end up in the bb, but the seat tube is taking a lot of stress there, and it would have paid for them to extend it all the way into the shell. Obviously it has held up.

Interesting that the Paramounts did come in those colors. Must be a royal pain to source either, though I recall that there was a Radiant Blue that sold on the Schwinn forums not long ago for a whopping good price.


Not sure what you mean by the seattube being square (please clarify - I enjoy anything I can learn bout framebuilding), but I see what you mean about the seattube. Granted, it is not as bad as it looks (see the lightened photo), but it could be far better. They took the shortcut once again



-Kurt

I hade one of those crank sets for well over a year and sold it for $40... no one wanted it... I was suprised to have been able to sell it!