I believe so, but I bought the bike after it had passed through the hands of a number of previous owners, so I can't say with certainty that it's original to the bike. It does appear to be original, though.

Thanks, Scooper.....Recommendations on where to purchase the decal?

I bought the one for my 72 P15 from H. Lloyd Cycles. According to his website, he signed an August, 2010 agreement with Reynolds Technology Ltd. as "the ONLY certified supplier of Reynolds decals in the world." He's in the U.K., not Australia as I indicated in one of my posts above. A notice on his website says he's on holiday until Sept 3rd.

He seems to have a very comprehensive 531 decal inventory.

EDIT - I believe it's p/n 531D52-73 on page 4 of H. Lloyd Cycle's catalog (second from the top of the page).

Thanks Scooper!

Cool picture. Note the color of the "531".

There's a remote possibility it might have been the variant without the TI logo off to the left (1973-1977), but there is no chance that the original was the TI-logo variant.

Should be, and I concur - it's definitely an original decal. Seeing that it's correct for the period, it's reasonable to assume that it was not replaced.

-Kurt

just remove the decal. problem solved.

Thanks....I'm going to order the decal from H Llloyd's this week.

Here's a short story about a Chrome Paramount back in that day- It belonged to Steve Shaffer who was from Indianapolis and worked at Supreme Schwinn, and then later got a job a Schwinn in Chicago and rode for the Windy City Wheelmen. Steve rode for Delta Chi one year in the IU Little 500 in 1972, but came back to train with the team in Florida when I rode in later years.

He told us all of some time he'd gotten lost in some south side of chicago area and a group of black men pulled up beside him in some badass era gangsta limosine- you know, diamond in the back, sun roof top, diggin the scene in the gangsta lene? One of them rolled the window down and said to him 'My, my. Look at that white boy on his chrome bicycle!"

Anyway, he told that to the bike team, and we all thought that was kinda funny about 1973. I always thought chrome was cool but never had a chrome bike, it sorta went outta style about then, and the racers always considered it heavier anyway. I first started riding with a couple of guys who were national road champions and they both rode chrome Cinellis and both of them had frames that broke, so maybe that was just unfortunate circumstance or maybe just because they could thrash like few others at the time.

good luck with it. A beautiful bike.

I had a '74 silver Paramount track bike- the 531 decal was exactly like the one shown above labled "through '73"- and pretty much the only one I knew at the time. The bike DEFINETLY looks about '72 period, but yes the decal isn't- so it's 40 YEARS- it's a little DECAL! - someone scratched it and put another on probably.

Thanks. I love it. I always wanted one since I was 16. At 17 I bought a Chrome Voyageur 11.8 and I thought that was pretty cool. I worked at a bicycle shop and saw them come and go. I now have a Chrome Ocshner and paramount. If a Voyageur comes up I may consider buying one.

thanks

I wonder if hydrogen embrittlement from the chroming process played into the failure of the frames.

Thanks for the additional information. What threw me off was the split right chainstay cable stop. I was the original owner of a 1972 P13 (serial #J7271), and for the life of me I thought mine had a different cable stop. I sold it in 1975, and moved on. I did get a new custom Brian Baylis this year with a finish that is somewhat of a tribute to the original Paramounts. It has a monochromatic paint job along with chrome Nervex Pro head lugs and painted seat lug. Otherwise the bike is more like a vintage Masi.

Love to see a pic of that bike

You're correct - the late '72s were the first to receive a solid cable stop over the stamped double loop design. The solid stop remained standard with the second-gen Paramounts until the end of production, though the practice was continued on the '81-83 Superiors as well.

-Kurt

Ha! I did the same thing, but had Waterford build mine. It's polished 953 stainless with stainless Newvex lugs. Here's the '72 chrome P15 posing with the Waterford.

Are you talking about this little beauty on the right chainstay of my '83 Paramount (ignore that modern Campy RD, it is no longer there)?

[QUOTE=Scooper;14704980]Ha! I did the same thing, but had Waterford build mine. It's polished 953 stainless with stainless Newvex lugs. Here's the '72 chrome P15 posing with the Waterford.

Just lovely. I'll try and get some pics up of the Baylis soon. Did 50 miles on it today.

[/E]

Yes, though the second-gen design is different from the 1982+ P-mounts:

1958/9-1972, stamped double loop:



1972-1979, cast cylindrical:



-Kurt

Love the RC cars! Polish that Chrome Cudak

From what I've observed, the Reynolds versions with the gold bar and type under didn't come out until the mid 70s. I'd use the plain, diagonal 531. The stars 531 was supposedly unique to Paramounts, but they turn up on Raleighs too for some reason. Don't know when those were introduced.

cyclomondo on ebay seems to have many of the Reynolds versions, but he's not advertising them. Send him an email: great stuff he makes.

The old ones seem to fade to that...