[CR]Spaceage Paramounts

(Example: Framebuilders:Masi)

Date: Fri, 24 Feb 2006 13:27:48 -0800 (PST)
From: "Tom Dalton" <tom_s_dalton@yahoo.com>
To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
Subject: [CR]Spaceage Paramounts

Mr. Lowi wrote:

Speaking of history, as the Czechs had just finished rebelling against the Soviets a few years earlier, frankly I am more impressed with their efforts at high end cycle manufacture than I am with a huge company like Schwinn, in a USA that was sending landing modules to the Moon at the same time as building Paramounts.

Emanuel Lowi Montreal, Quebec

You make and excellent point. A huge company from a technolgically-advanced nation like the U.S. could have been building lovely bikes using state-of-the-art 60's technology. Skunk Works had sorted out welded CP ti jointing well before this time. I have no doubt that the vast majority of CR members would be far more impressed with a tig-welded CP ti Paramount than any 531/Nervex antique. What was Schwinn thinking allowing this type of technological stagnation? For the equivalent of maybe $20,000 2006 US dollars, I'm sure people would have been lining up for Space Age Paramounts in 1968, and if any had survived someone might even pay a tiny fraction of that for one today.

Gotta hand it to those Czechs... getting viciously crushed by the Soviets and building a decent racing bike all in the same year! Hooray!

Funny thing is, there are guys still racing Nervex/531 Paramounts at T-town, but not too many Favorits.

Tom Dalton Bethlehem, PA

---------------------------------
Yahoo! Mail
Bring photos to life! New PhotoMail makes sharing a breeze.