well, more like strong suggestions. These are good rules of thumb if you want to retain the value (or slow the depreciation) of your vintage frame.

I posted these in a post in Mechanics forum in response to someone wanting to convert a 1973 Paramount.

in the end, your the owner of the frame, so you can do with it what you want, but it is truly a shame when I see the derailleur hanger hacked off a Paramount, PX-10, etc.

1)DO NOT HACK/GRAND ANYTHING OFF THE FRAME.

1) Keep everything you take off and keep on what you can. Clean the removed parts, and put it in a box somewhere where it won't decay. Later in life, you may want to restore it to its original setup. You should find lots of Campagnolo parts, and Cinelli handle bars on that bike.

2) Use high end componets. This is one of the best bikes of its time, and is still a very nice bike. It deserves the best. Think about a Phil Wood BB, and Campagnolo pista cranks. Keep the headset/stem/handlebars/brakes on the bike. They will look fantastic after you clean them up.

3) Keep the original paint unless its too far gone. If it can be salvaged, keep it. It would be a shame if you bead blasted and powder coated a 73 Paramount.

4) If you don't like the sound of this, please please consider selling the Paramount and buying something with less value to convert, like a Univega, Nishiki, other schwinns, and on and on. there are thousands of frames out there just waiting to be "fixed".

5) Quit being a jackass and just ride it with gears.

+1

seriously, not all old road bikes are meant to be converted.

My favorite thing to do is to take former time trial frames, grind off all the brazings with a dremel, rattle can the thing, install some dope risers and oury's, and put an aerospoke on the back.

i cant wait till someone actually does this and then you realize that the image actually burns your eyes

... or do whatever you want because it's just a bicycle.

this first rule should be.....do not do it.

+1

If it's worth so much sell it and pocket the change for a VINTAGE TRACK BIKE...Or try to trade straight up.

Every time I go to the dumps I see vintage road frames in the metal recycling pile. I think I'd rather see one spray painted and converted to fixed gear rather than be melted.

My PX-10 is set up as a fixed gear right now

AYHSMB

But really- It would see little to no road time in its stock form, nothing has been hacked, the paint is stock (albeit very ****ty) and I have the original parts stowed away in my garage for when I have the time and money to do a resto worthy of the bike's heritage. Or most of the original parts anyway, the front der was missing when I bought the bike for $10

i think i'd rather see a vintage road bike rebuilt, then fixed.

+1. This thread should be relabeled "The Sacred and the Profane"

I'd love to see someone chop it up and turn it into an alt bike now that it's been put on a ridonkulous pedestal.

There is a line here, on the one hand, it is just a bike. Unless it was something particularly rare that really is one of a kind, there are hundreds of bicycles identical to it. That is the beauty of mass production.

On the other hand, throwing away the campy components is just a waste, why get rid of something that still has value. Same thing for the braze ons. You might not want a derailer hander now, but if you remove it, that option is forever lost to you. It's a small benefit, but at almost no cost, so I say it's worth it.

It's always better that a bike be ridden, but versatility is good, and the ability to go back to geared, if you ever so desired is not a bad thing.

I'm well sick of this argument. They're our bikes, we do what we want with them, as it should be. Mods please just close this thread so I don't have to see this dead horse beaten again and again and again...

Cheers mate! well done!

YOU chose to click on it. YOU chose to read it. YOU chose to take another whack at that dead horse. Maybe you spend too much time on the computer.

ignore it if you wish it to go away.

Most of those bikes getting trashed aren't very nice bicycles. Usually stem shifter bike-boom garbage.

I bought a '73 paramount track bike, it turned out to be both too large and too rust patchy for me. Decals were "okay" but overall it needed a repaint. Looks better in this pic than it was:

Anyway, because it was too large I didn't want to spend $ for a repaint, so I sold the frame, fork & headset. The buyer contacted r. schwinn, and obtained proper decals after authenicating the frame. He then had it powdercoated virtually the same color as the original, and applied the decals himself. It looks great but the powdercoat does mask some of the nice lug details. I guess my point is a repaint or powdercoat can work fine if you think it through first and try to do it "right".

Powdercoating goes on heavy and obscures lug details so I'd spend the extra cash and have it painted correctly. That also helps the value whereas powdercoating lowers it for fine vintage frames.

Scroll down a bit to the "Bushnelli" bicycle. https://davesbikeblog.squarespace.com...?currentPage=2

Of course a proper repaint is always preferable for higher end frames, but the reality is that not every high end frame owner have that much disposable income. It would of cost more to repaint and redecal the paramount via waterford than the cost of the frame and fork.

Here is my opinion... Yeah it is just a bike, but a hand-made classic should be just that. Taking an unrestored original bike and spray-bombing it/hacking off braze-ons/etc to "personalize" it is just sad. Trying to make it look like an off-the shelf no-name track bike (IMO) is like taking an original 36 Chevy and hacking/modding it to look like a PT Cruiser.

Two rules: if the paint and decals are gone have it bead-blasted and powdercoated with the original paint color and new decals applied at the same time.

Install up to date components to make a vintage bike modern. And it will have cleaner lines.

Enjoy!

Ditch the wheels if they are 27". Tire choices are going to be limited and its fun building a frankenbike. Not every one will like your conversion. But it will be uniquely yours!