What happened to the Paramount build?

Factory.

I finished it, with exception to a roll of cotton bar tape. The Record crankset remains as well; never did mount the Topline arms. I have yet to weigh it at the local shops; hence, I have not started a new thread yet.

One of the main reasons I haven't mounted the Topline crank is for lack of a suitably lightweight BB. Come to think of it, I'm not certain what these were spec'ed with originally.

-Kurt

With reference to the "Cannondale Sports Group" on Schwinn cruiser boxes these days, whom can you trust indeed. Dorel owns everything these days, I swear!

As far as being hated, it's okay, hehe. Moving from Houston to Lake Charles had me going from two bike finds a month, to two every six months. If I find any parts like this it's a miracle.,,,,BD

The Fuji appreciated the upgrade. It's officially under 23 pounds now! 22.15 with the bottle cage AND thick leather toe straps. A hollow spindle UN72 came with the cranks

Now.... Anyone want a set of PURPLE chainring bolts?

I just went to Cannondales site to look at those cranks. They do look nice, but.... $735.00!!!! I thought Deore XTR cranks were outrageous at $400. on clearance.

Even the super blingy TA Carmina is a fraction of that cost!

Not all that untrue considering my dad's Sampson cranks cracked due to over torquing. They are about the same in weight as the Toplines.

I've raced on the Topline MTB cranks for many, many years, and those 110mm cranks are still on the bike I race 'cross on.

The OP's pictured cranks not only have the road (130mm) spider bolted on but are the super-light variant of Topline cranks and thus carry a 175lb rider weight limit iir.

Repeated torquing of the crankarm bolt was known to split the left-side crank arm, but the failure was usually "safe" in that there was usually no separation of the pedal/crank from the bike and the bike could even still be ridden home. The proper installation was a single initial torquing with LocTite on the bolt threads.

There were also Sampson Stratics cranks with a similar design but with a diamond-shape crankarm cross-section. I once sold a NOS pair of the TITANIUM-arm version of those for over $600 on flea-bay.
Of the two top bidders, one, in Germany, had a history of only buying rare cranksets, while the other bidder, out of Japan, only bought rare, titanium parts!

My Topline cranks have endured hundreds of races, even XC, and were purchased in a very well-used condition back in 1995!
See here:


And HERE:

i must see more pictures of the yellow thing

Kurt, I have a purple bike, so I'd be willing to trade chainring bolts if you want. I have Campy Record.

You never told us how the bike rides.

BD's the fellow with the purple chainring bolts.

Not bad at all, but I can't push it that much. The 4 titanium cogs I have in the upper half of the cluster are intact, but the 5 steel cogs that comprise the lowest cogs in the HG 9-speed cassette are worn and skip. I'm also hesitant to start a thread until I can get it weighed at the LBS.

Mind you, I can't get too exited about anything anymore - I pulled the '61 Paramount out of retirement just a few days ago, only to rediscover that it remains the most phenomenal riding bike I've ever owned - and I've never had any other Paramount that matches it either. It's unique.

-Kurt

"...more pictures of the yellow thing "

Goin' all dragster on the "B" start in Sacramento:


Out on the brutal UCI Skyline Park Loop:


Reelin' 'em back in after the paved section:


That's alot of years on those light old Toplines! Obviously made of the finest materials.

What is that yellow thing, anyway?

In the local cyclocross circles, it's known simply as "the flying machine".
It's actually a Cheltenham-Pedersen, ca. 1980.
It's one manufacturer's re-pop version of an 1890's Dursley-Pedersen, touted at the time as the lightest bicycle in the world.
Ridable examples from the turn of the century came in under 20 pounds. Mine weighs about 29 lbs in CX trim, give or take a pound for the XC and RR setups.
BTW, I broke the frame in my first outing at the Napa course (ably repaired by Hugh Enox) but it has held together for another twelve years of racing.
The bike features a sprung hammock saddle, a form of suspension.

i dont want one, but i want to try one:

Wow, same here.

That's a wild looking bike! Looks like you've had some fun on it-

I'm bumping this thread.

Just acquired these.

Wow, those are drool worthy. I can almost hear them whisper "mount me on a brushed titanium frame"

Those are definitely drool-worthy. The closest I have to that, weight-wise, is the old 2nd-generation Kooka cranks, in anodized black. They have that allen-bolt-type of deal, holding the crank-arm to the spider, but I'm not sure if that means swaged or not, after reading this thread. (?) For an excellent square taper BB, try to find the old Race Face titanium-spindle BB, that was sold around the same time as their original Turbines. The cups are an anodized light blue, very much like the chainring bolts just recently posted, color-wise. I wish I could find another one, with Italian threads.

They sure are gorgeous, and I still remember being jealous of the rich kids that had them on their BMX bikes. I'm surprised by their weight, though.

My Victory crankset weighs 580g with rings, auto-extractors, and no rider weight limit. These are famous for being about 20g lighter?

realestvin7, can you weigh yours for us please? Surely they must be in the low 500g range...

There was a set of these in polished silver for a tandem that sold on eBay not too long ago. I'd have loved to have them, but couldn't justify getting them, though they actually went for a pretty reasonable cost in the end.

The published weight for these - no rings, was 363g. So find some light rings and bolts and you're in the low 5's

The purple ones with the perforated spider are another set of the SL's. They're strong enough for a 170lb RACER as long as no one keeps tightening the spindle bolts, which is known to split the end of the crank. Same for the Kooka's, good enough for racing but too many people habitually tightened the spindle bolt instead of using LocTite during the initial torquing.
Toplines are cool! Good catch.
BTW, I used a 113mm JIS spindle with a 130mm spaced frame on the yellow bike, but set up my 130mm Canondale road bike with a 107mm bb. Both have good chainline, but the 'cross bike benefits from the added tire clearance.

There are different methods of "swaging" alloy or steel crank spiders. Some use a weld all the way around, while others press the spider or big chainring (integral spider) onto splines before swaging/peening the snout on the crankarm over the installed spider. The welding is/was used on steel cranks only as far as I know. I've ridden swaged cranks (both alloy and steel) very hard over many miles, but I weigh only 155. Swaging usually refers to a cold-working process, so wouldn't have been used on any Al-7000 alloy billet cranks like Toplines.

I have a pair of these if anyone is lusting. They aren't so purdy.