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Ray's 1973 Schwinn Paramount Track Bike Restoration
Bicycle - After |
This is Ray's 1973 Schwinn Paramount track bike, a rare and beautiful bicycle. Some of the highlights of the Schwinn Paramount is a Campagnolo crank, Cinelli stem & handlebars, Campagnolo hubs and sew up tire rims.
The Schwinn Paramount is just an amazing bike, the Paramount will get a complete restoration, new paint, tires, handlebar tape and polishing of all the bright work (Does not need a lot of new parts being a track bike).
I can't wait to see the results!!
More write up to come.
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Ray's 1973 Schwinn Paramount Track Bike Restoration
Bicycle Before |
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Ray's 1973 Schwinn Paramount Track Bike Restoration
Bicycle Before - Stem & Handlebars |
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Ray's 1973 Schwinn Paramount Track Bike Restoration
Bicycle Before - Stem |
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Ray's 1973 Schwinn Paramount Track Bike Restoration
Bicycle Before - Beautiful Frame Lugs |
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Ray's 1973 Schwinn Paramount Track Bike Restoration
Bicycle Before -headset & Fork Crown |
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Ray's 1973 Schwinn Paramount Track Bike Restoration
Bicycle Before - Front Wheel Hub |
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Ray's 1973 Schwinn Paramount Track Bike Restoration
Bicycle Before - Front Wheel Rim |
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Ray's 1973 Schwinn Paramount Track Bike Restoration
Bicycle Before - Down Tube |
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Ray's 1973 Schwinn Paramount Track Bike Restoration
Bicycle Before - Brooks Saddle |
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Ray's 1973 Schwinn Paramount Track Bike Restoration
Bicycle Before - Seat Lug |
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Ray's 1973 Schwinn Paramount Track Bike Restoration
Bicycle Before - Campagnola Crank |
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Ray's 1973 Schwinn Paramount Track Bike Restoration
Bicycle Before - Bottom Bracket |
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Ray's 1973 Schwinn Paramount Track Bike Restoration
Bicycle Before - Frame Bridge |
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Ray's 1973 Schwinn Paramount Track Bike Restoration
Bicycle Before - Chrome Chain Stays |
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Ray's 1973 Schwinn Paramount Track Bike Restoration
Bicycle Before - Rear Wheel Hub |
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Ray's 1973 Schwinn Paramount Track Bike Restoration
Bicycle Before - Rear Wheel |
Ray has a nice original track fork to go a long with an original Paramount fork that can accept a front brake.
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Ray's 1973 Schwinn Paramount Track Bike Restoration
Bicycle Before - Original Track Fork |
The frame took a lot of work to get prepped for powder coating. There where a few stubborn layers of paint, most of the paint removed with Aircraft Stripper, the rest took some elbow grease. I then cleaned the frame really well before powder coating.
The lugs are beautiful and the quality of the brazing is incredible, amazing to see with out the paint!
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Ray's 1973 Schwinn Paramount Track Bike Restoration
Frame Stripped & Prepped |
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Ray's 1973 Schwinn Paramount Track Bike Restoration
Frame Stripped & Prepped - Head Tube Lugs |
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Ray's 1973 Schwinn Paramount Track Bike Restoration
Frame Stripped & Prepped - Head Tube Lug |
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Ray's 1973 Schwinn Paramount Track Bike Restoration
Frame Stripped & Prepped - Bottom Bracket |
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Ray's 1973 Schwinn Paramount Track Bike Restoration
Frame Stripped & Prepped - Seat Lug |
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Ray's 1973 Schwinn Paramount Track Bike Restoration
Frame Stripped & Prepped - Frame Bridge |
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Ray's 1973 Schwinn Paramount Track Bike Restoration
Frame Stripped & Prepped - Chrome Stays |
The yellow of the powder coat I think is a pretty darn good match. I laid out the chrome an masked it off and masked of all the other important areas. The powder coating went fairly well and turned out nice, the clear coat added nice depth. I am currently finishing the two forks and they will be completed and installed shortly.
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Ray's 1973 Schwinn Paramount Track Bike Restoration
Frame Powder Coated |
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Ray's 1973 Schwinn Paramount Track Bike Restoration
Frame Powder Coated - Head Tube Lugs |
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Ray's 1973 Schwinn Paramount Track Bike Restoration
Frame Powder Coated - Seat Lug |
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Ray's 1973 Schwinn Paramount Track Bike Restoration
Frame powder Coated - Chrome Stays |
I have completed the track fork for the Schwinn Paramount. I media blasted the fork and cleaned it thoroughly. I applied the yellow powder and then the clear powder, I am pretty happy with the results and I love the construction and looks of the fork.
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Ray's 1973 Schwinn Paramount Track Bike Restoration
Track Fork Media Blasted |
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Ray's 1973 Schwinn Paramount Track Bike Restoration
Fork Complete |
The headset and bottom bracket are both Campagnolo and are beautiful pieces. They are in pretty descent shape, they polished nice. The headset cups have a little marring where they meet the frame edge that would not completely go away, this is okay because it will never be seen when installed. I will post photos of the headset and bottom bracket installed when the frame is complete.
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Ray's 1973 Schwinn Paramount Track Bike Restoration
Headset & Bottom Bracket - Before |
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Ray's 1973 Schwinn Paramount Track Bike Restoration
Headset & Bottom Bracket polished |
With the main section of the frame powder coated I installed the bottom bracket. I replaced the bottom bracket bearings and applied new grease. The Campagnolo bottom bracket really cleaned up nice and looks great installed against the yellow.
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Ray's 1973 Schwinn Paramount Track Bike Restoration
Bottom Bracket - Complete |
I can not complete the headset with out the forks being complete so for now I pressed the headset cups into place, looking great so far.
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Ray's 1973 Schwinn Paramount Track Bike Restoration
Headset Cups Pressed |
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Ray's 1973 Schwinn Paramount Track Bike Restoration
Headset Cups - Pressed |
With the fork complete I was able to install the rest of the headset, the look of everything is incredible!
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Ray's 1973 Schwinn Paramount Track Bike Restoration
Stem & Handlebars - Installed |
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Ray's 1973 Schwinn Paramount Track Bike Restoration
Stem & Handlebars - Installed |
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Ray's 1973 Schwinn Paramount Track Bike Restoration
Stem & Handlebars - Installed |
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Ray's 1973 Schwinn Paramount Track Bike Restoration
Stem - Installed |
The Schwinn Paramount is coming along beautifully!! Below is a photo so far.
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Ray's 1973 Schwinn Paramount Track Bike Restoration
Stem & Handlebars - Complete |
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Ray's 1973 Schwinn Paramount Track Bike Restoration
Stem Cinelli Logo - So Cool! |
The crank is beautiful, can not beat a Campagnolo track crank for beauty!! The delema with the crank is it has a brushed textured finish to the alloy, its not in bad shape at all just not as bright as it could be. I decided to just clean and very carefuly hand polish to keep the texture as I like the texture look best and its original for this crank. The crank did clean up very well and looks fairly bright with the hand polishing.
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Ray's 1973 Schwinn Paramount Track Bike Restoration
Campagnolo Crank - Before |
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Ray's 1973 Schwinn Paramount Track Bike Restoration
Crank - Polished |
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Ray's 1973 Schwinn Paramount Track Bike Restoration
Crank - Complete |
Ray had found replacement dust caps for the crank which is really nice. I cleaned the caps and then went through a few grits of compound, the caps look fantastic and make all the difference. I also heavely greased the threads because the solid metal caps often freeze into place.
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Ray's 1973 Schwinn Paramount Track Bike Restoration
Crank Dust Caps - Polished |
Wow!!! That Campy crank and yellow is stunning!!
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Ray's 1973 Schwinn Paramount Track Bike Restoration
Crank - Installed!! |
Ray also found an original Brooks Professional saddle, I believe in Minnesota. The saddle is in fantastic condition with just the right amount of patina. I just cleaned the saddle and treated it a little and also polished the rails the best I could with out damaging the leather. The leather is amazingly soft.
The seat post is a nice Campagnolo seat post, I cleaned it and then polished it out, it turned out very nice and the polished binder bolt makes a huge addition to the yellow.
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Ray's 1973 Schwinn Paramount Track Bike Restoration
Seat Post & Brooks Saddle - Before |
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Ray's 1973 Schwinn Paramount Track Bike Restoration
Saddle Cleaned & Seat Post Polished |
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Ray's 1973 Schwinn Paramount Track Bike Restoration
Saddle & Seat Post - installed |
Below is photo of the Paramount and where it stands while the forks are finished up.
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Ray's 1973 Schwinn Paramount Track Bike Restoration
Bicycle to this Point |
The wheels are beautiful quality, the hubs are such nice Campagnolo hubs. Around half the spokes where frozen in place and after a few weeks of soaking they did not break free, The wheels will get relaced. The old glue on the rims from the old sew up tires was very very suborn, I eventually got the rims clean.
I polished the hubs and components and reassembled the hubs. The hubs polished fantastic, is there are not many bicycle parts that look better then polished Campagnolo high flange hubs!!
The rims also polished very nice which was easier to get the results with no spokes. The spokes where suppose to be here already as soon as they show up I will lace the wheels. Has also anyone been experienceing horrible shipping speeds the last half year or so??
The correct spoke size finally showed up with the mail, the tracking number had the spokes coming by UPS, when they got to the UPS hub about 10 miles from my house they where then transferred to the United States Mail and then took 3 days to go from there to my mail box, does that seem as inefficient as it does to me?
So this morning I have been able to get the rear wheel built, it took sometime to get the dish correct and the wheel rim brought into true but the wheel looks fantastic all polished out and new spokes. For anyone ales out there working on the same wheel the spoke length is 295 mm for the rear wheel.
I was staring at the rear wheel complete, well complete minus tire and it is just beautiful, I could not be happier with the rear wheel to this point!!
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Ray's 1973 Schwinn Paramount Track Bike Restoration
Rear Wheel Laced & Complete - Minus Tire |
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Ray's 1973 Schwinn Paramount Track Bike Restoration
Rear Wheel Laced - Minus Tire |
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Ray's 1973 Schwinn Paramount Track Bike Restoration
Rear Wheel Newly Laced - Installed |
Front Wheel coming soon.
On the photo memory card I am working on right now I have the front wheel of the Paramount so its time to post it. The front wheel looks just as good as the rear, both wheels are some of the most beautiful I have ever seen. The front rim is not absolutely perfect true round but it is pretty darn close, the rim has just a little bit of wear in it.
The new spokes really make a huge difference!
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Ray's 1973 Schwinn Paramount Track Bike Restoration
Front Wheel Complete & Installed |
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Ray's 1973 Schwinn Paramount Track Bike Restoration
Front Wheel Complete |
Originally for the Schwinn Paramount track bike cloth handlebar tape was it. White has been chosen to go with the yellow and yet to show up white decals. I installed the white cloth tape and then the red twine. the red twine I think is a perfect accent for the white and yellow and such a classic look. I am super happy with the results!
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Ray's 1973 Schwinn Paramount Track Bike Restoration
White Cloth Handlebar Tape - Installed |
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Ray's 1973 Schwinn Paramount Track Bike Restoration
Red Hemp Twine - Installed |
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Ray's 1973 Schwinn Paramount Track Bike Restoration
Cloth Handlebar Tape & Red Twine - Complete |
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Ray's 1973 Schwinn Paramount Track Bike Restoration
Cloth Handlebar Tape & Red Twine - Complete |
Next memory card with the photos of the tires installed soon. Wish the dang decals would get here.
The pedals where next. The pedals are very nice Campagnolo pedals. I did the polishing by hand as with the power polisher I would damage the black paint. Ray has original toe straps that will replace the old ones, it is so cool to see the wrapper the straps came in.
Ray also had new dust caps to replace the dust caps on the pedals. While the caps where off I cleaned and flushed the bearings and added new grease.
Polishing the clips went really well, they look fantastic. I did some touch up paint of the black paint and installed the pedals, they look great and spins like silk.
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Ray's 1973 Schwinn Paramount Track Bike Restoration
Pedals - Before |
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Ray's 1973 Schwinn Paramount Track Bike Restoration
Pedals - Exploded |
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Ray's 1973 Schwinn Paramount Track Bike Restoration
New Pedal Dust Caps |
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Ray's 1973 Schwinn Paramount Track Bike Restoration
New Dust Caps - Installed |
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Ray's 1973 Schwinn Paramount Track Bike Restoration
New Old Stock Toe Straps |
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Ray's 1973 Schwinn Paramount Track Bike Restoration
One Pedal - Complete |
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Ray's 1973 Schwinn Paramount Track Bike Restoration
Both Pedals - Complete |
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Ray's 1973 Schwinn Paramount Track Bike Restoration
Pedals - Installed |
I like sew up or Tubular tires so much more then clinchers tires. Sew up tires go on so much easier, there is no pinching of tubes, the draw back is there is some dry time but maybe the most important thing is when you get a flat you still have tire between the ground and the rim so you have control of the bike. With clinchers when you have a blow out or flat you are riding on the rim edge and you have no control so you crash.
The continental tubular tires went on with out a hitch and after some dry time they are well placed. I would say I am not a huge fan of 145 PSI tires though when i ride around 70-75 PSI in my all around bike.
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Ray's 1973 Schwinn Paramount Track Bike Restoration
New Tubular Tires & Glue Strips |
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Ray's 1973 Schwinn Paramount Track Bike Restoration
Front Tire - Installed - No Air |
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Ray's 1973 Schwinn Paramount Track Bike Restoration
Front Tire - Complete |
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Ray's 1973 Schwinn Paramount Track Bike Restoration
Rear Tire - Complete |
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Ray's 1973 Schwinn Paramount Track Bike Restoration
Tires - Complete |
I installed the chain at this time and then one of the most fun parts, I re taped the head badge threads and installed the head badge. So cool!!
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Ray's 1973 Schwinn Paramount Track Bike Restoration
Head Badge - Installed - So Cool!!! |
Below is a photo of the Paramount complete minus the decals.
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Ray's 1973 Schwinn Paramount Track Bike Restoration
Bicycle Complete Minus Decals |
I had to try the Paramount down the street for a quick break in check of the spokes and the like, I must tighten the lock ring and hopefully the decals come in this afternoons mail or Saturdays mail.
Below are a few teaser photos with out the decals, it looks fantastic now but those decals are really going to bring it all together, it just looks like a repainted frame at this point. Also have to install the new rim decals.
Had to wait for this photo until the snow melted and I could climb the hill where the final photos are taken. We got our first dusting of snow early this morning, winter is here.
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Ray's 1973 Schwinn Paramount Track Bike Restoration
Teaser Photo |
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Ray's 1973 Schwinn Paramount Track Bike Restoration
Teaser Photo |
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Ray's 1973 Schwinn Paramount Track Bike Restoration
Teaser Photo |
The decals finally came this afternoon. The decals are pretty good quality and they look great. I installed the decals and that went easy. The decals look fantastic and really complete the Paramount's look, I am thrilled!!
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Ray's 1973 Schwinn Paramount Track Bike Restoration
Decals From Velocals.com |
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Ray's 1973 Schwinn Paramount Track Bike Restoration
Drive Side Down Tube Decal |
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Ray's 1973 Schwinn Paramount Track Bike Restoration
Seat Tube Decal |
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Ray's 1973 Schwinn Paramount Track Bike Restoration
Reynolds 531 Decal |
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Ray's 1973 Schwinn Paramount Track Bike Restoration
Seat Tube Decals |
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Ray's 1973 Schwinn Paramount Track Bike Restoration
Non Drive Side Down Tube Decal |
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Ray's 1973 Schwinn Paramount Track Bike Restoration
Down Tube Decal - Installed |
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Ray's 1973 Schwinn Paramount Track Bike Restoration
Decals Complete - Paramount Complete |
Tomorrow final photos!
I almost forgot to post the wheel decal photos. The rim decals are beautiful and I am super happy Ray had them because they make a huge difference in completeness. They installed easy and look great with the polished rims.
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Ray's 1973 Schwinn Paramount Track Bike Restoration
Wheel Rim Decals |
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Ray's 1973 Schwinn Paramount Track Bike Restoration
Front Wheel Rim Decal - Installed |
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Ray's 1973 Schwinn Paramount Track Bike Restoration
Rear Wheel Decal - Installed |
I only road the Paramount maybe a quarter mile at most for two reason, one is I can't use the toe clips because of a bad foot and I did not want to scratch the clips on the ground by flipping them over and I ride fixed gear all the time but it has been 15 years since I road fixed gear with out brakes and the bad foot doesn't all me to skid stop like I use too. So I guess the short answer is I did not want to crash it or scratch it!
In the distance I rode it i was able to allow the spokes to set and adjust them and found it rides fairly good, I am not use to track geometry anymore either. Also the 145 PSI wheels where not the best ride on my very bumpy road here.
All of that are the characteristics of a track bike but then there is the looks, there is nothing like the looks of a track bike, the minimalism, the angles, the wheels, all so cool!!
This Paramount turned out absolutely beautiful, the yellow pops, the decals bring it all together, the original Brooks saddle makes a huge difference, the sew up tires look sleek and awesome, the white cloth handlebar tape and red twine are perfect!! I love it all around. If this where my Paramount it would be hanging above my fireplace and I would stare at it instead of the TV on football Sundays! Love It!!!
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Ray's 1973 Schwinn Paramount Track Bike Restoration
Bicycle Complete |
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Ray's 1973 Schwinn Paramount Track Bike Restoration
Bicycle Complete |
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Ray's 1973 Schwinn Paramount Track Bike Restoration
Bicycle Complete - Front |
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Ray's 1973 Schwinn Paramount Track Bike Restoration
Bicycle Complete - Handlebars |
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Ray's 1973 Schwinn Paramount Track Bike Restoration
Bicycle Complete - Twine & Handlebar Logos |
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Ray's 1973 Schwinn Paramount Track Bike Restoration
Bicycle Complete - My Favorite Part |
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Ray's 1973 Schwinn Paramount Track Bike Restoration
Bicycle Complete - Front Wheel |
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Ray's 1973 Schwinn Paramount Track Bike Restoration
Bicycle Complete - Front Rim - Poor Photo |
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Ray's 1973 Schwinn Paramount Track Bike Restoration
Bicycle Complete - Stem |
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Ray's 1973 Schwinn Paramount Track Bike Restoration
Bicycle Complete - Front Half
Also a Favorite Photo |
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Ray's 1973 Schwinn Paramount Track Bike Restoration
Bicycle Complete - Paramount Decal |
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Ray's 1973 Schwinn Paramount Track Bike Restoration
Bicycle Complete - Brooks Professional |
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Ray's 1973 Schwinn Paramount Track Bike Restoration
Bicycle Complete - Seat Tube |
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Ray's 1973 Schwinn Paramount Track Bike Restoration
Bicycle Complete - Drive Train |
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Ray's 1973 Schwinn Paramount Track Bike Restoration
Bicycle Complete - Campagnolo Crank |
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Ray's 1973 Schwinn Paramount Track Bike Restoration
Bicycle Complete |
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Ray's 1973 Schwinn Paramount Track Bike Restoration
Bicycle Complete - Rear Wheel |
