I flew into Charlotte to look at the drillium Paramount yesterday, and buy additional items, and I just got home now.
I ended up buying 2 Paramounts, and a lot of parts. The red Paramount is the real deal- VERY nice, but not absolutely "new". It probably has 50 - 100 miles. The milling is spectacular, and great lengths were taken to make this bike light. We weighed it and it tipped the scales at 18lbs with pedals and tires! The Cinelli M-71 pedals are fitted with Campy SR Ti spindles! Many of the nuts and bolts are alloy, as well as the guts of the Cinelli 1A quill stem. The chainrings and the rear der are extensively drilled-out, and very attractive. The BB spindle looks to be Ti, but I'll have to wait until it arrives via UPS to investigate.
SO, here's my question:
I am not crazy about the looks of, for instance, the black aluminum pivot bolts on the drillium NR rear der, and I'm not crazy about the idea of, and looks of the Cinelli pedals, (even though they have been elegantly modified with Campy ti spindles), etc., etc. I certainly agree with most, but not all of the original owner's taste in outfitting this bike. The bike presumably didn't come this way from the "factory", so you can't say that I'd be messing with it's "originality", or can you? As I understand it, the original owner passed away, and it was a relative who sold it to the guy who sold it on eBay, and then to me. I do not have any additional information about who originally owned this bike. Was it a "show" bike? If so, I probably shouldn't start replacing black alloy der bolts with original chromed steel ones, right? Maybe I can document, (take pictures of) it as I bought it, and then change things to suit my taste/liking...
Pics soon
Opinions?
John Barron
Minneapolis