Developed from experiences gained in racing, Schwinn established Paramount as their answer to high-end, professional competition bicycles. The Paramount used high-strength chrome-molybdenum steel alloy tubing and expensive brass lug-brazed construction. During the next twenty years, most of the Paramount bikes would be built in limited numbers at a small frame shop headed by Wastyn, in spite of Schwinn’s continued efforts to bring all frame production into the factory. While every large bicycle manufacturer sponsored or participated in bicycle racing competition of some sort to keep up with the newest trends in technology, Schwinn had restricted its racing activities to events inside the United States, where Schwinn bicycles predominated.
The Paramount is a wonderful piece of cycling history which rides like a whirlwind and is good for many Eroica races to come and as many weekend rides as you can fit into your schedule. A place for pictures, articles, and discussion of bikes and parts pre 1990. This bicycle has been refurbished to the Blue Tag standard which includes a 30 day warranty.
As a result, Schwinns became increasingly dated in both styling and technology. By 1957, the Paramount series, once a premier racing bicycle, had atrophied from a lack of attention and modernization. Aside from some new frame lug designs, the designs, methods and tooling were the same as had been used in the 1930s. After a crash-course in new frame-building techniques and derailleur technology, Schwinn introduced an updated Paramount with Reynolds 531 double-butted tubing, Nervex lugsets and bottom bracket shells, as well as Campagnolo derailleur dropouts.
For medium and smaller sizes, Paramount introduced Columbus SLX tubing. Built for distance and speed, lightweight road bikes let you push your limits. I bought this road bike for my son for Christmas, and I’ve unpacked, adjusted & given it a ‘shakedown’ 10 mile ride. I have ridden road bikes for years, have an Italian schwinn mountain bike ‘old school’ road bike – Benotto Mod 850, and this bike compares favorably. In the late 1960s, the Varsity and Continental pioneered the use of auxiliary brake levers, which allowed the rider to rest hands on the straight, horizontal center section of the ram’s horn handlebars, yet still have braking control.
If you decide to sell it one day, then you can pass by the bike NFT to the new owner and preserver the value which will be increasing over the time. Ignaz Schwinn was born in Hardheim, Baden, Germany, in 1860 and worked on two-wheeled ancestors of the modern bicycle that appeared in 19th century Europe. In 1895, with the financial backing of fellow German American Adolph Frederick William Arnold (a meat packer), he founded Arnold, Schwinn & Company.
Bikes featured on the Working Bikes website are not available to test ride. If you would like to test ride a bike, we have a small selection of bikes on our sales floor during our in-store shopping hours. As stated on the manufacturer’s site, Schwinn is no longer producing road bicycles.
The rim would accomidate the narrower 23c/23mm tires, which would offer increased performance. THE PARTSAs straightforward as the frame is, so too are the parts. The SRAM Double Tap Rival drivetrain was aided with a Wipperman chain.
The Paramount continued as a limited production model, built in small numbers in a small apportioned area of the old Chicago assembly factory. The new frame and component technology incorporated in the Paramount largely failed to reach Schwinn’s mass-market bicycle lines. W. Schwinn, grandson Frank Valentine Schwinn took over management of the company. By 1950, Schwinn had decided the time was right to grow the brand.
Schwinn’s new company coincided with a sudden bicycle craze in America. Chicago became the center of the American bicycle industry, with thirty factories turning out thousands of bikes every day. Bicycle output in the United States grew to over a million units per year by the turn of the 20th century. Most models of Schwinn bikes have years of images and information via old catalogs, advertisements and Schwinn documentation.
However, this pinnacle of Schwinn’s bicycle production underwent several changes. Sometimes it was up on the top with the best road bikes in the world, in other years it slowly fell behind in the development of racing machines and ended up outdated, only to be resurrected, schwinn electric bike renewed and put back into its place as the number one. In late 1997, Questor Partners Fund, led by Jay Alix and Dan Lufkin, purchased Schwinn Bicycles. Questor/Schwinn later purchased GT Bicycles in 1998 for $8 a share in cash, roughly $80 million.