The Pontificato

Dang. I remember this catalog!

https://www.geocities.com/sldbconsume.../72ccpg01.html

Schinn Paramounts...all Campy Record group and Reynods 531 frame...$350.00 (sigh).

GET ME A TIME MACHINE!!!!

HereNT

Huh? I see links and stuff, but no images or anything...

el twe

I have a '72 super sport...

The Pontificato

I don't know what happened. there were images and all of a sudden there weren't.

The Pontificato

Here's the pic of the $350 Paramount:

610

Ok what the hell happened?? These bikes are awesome!!

The Pontificato

A lot of things happened but mainly 2 things: demand outstripped supply esp. during the "bke boom" and competition from cheap imports. Schwinn as a lot of us older folks knew them pretty much priced themselves out the "common bike" market.

MSRP on a Paramount in '72 (actually 1971) was $350-400. A fellow club member bought his dream bike...a race-version paramount in copper paint and chrome lugs...all Campagnolo...GORGEOUS BIKE...in 1975 or '76 and I believe it cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $1,000 to $1,500. I can contribute no other factor than demand vs. supply.

I'd give my left nut (just like Denis Leary! ) for one of those bikes today. People think a 25 lb. bike is a "tank". It wasn't back then. My $250 Falcon must've weighed 35-40 lbs.

A lot of the older guys in the club I used to belong to rode Schwinn Varsitys and Super Sports. They seemed to hold up very well.

610

These bikes remind me a lot of the Kogswell Model P frame.

huhenio

I have a 1971 traveller.

Why I did not score a 1972 Paramount Track? WHY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

<sobs in fetal position>

baj32161

My goodness but that does bring back some memories!
I remember my old Lemon Krate (circa 1970 or 71), complete with sissy bar and turn signals, that my dad insisted on me having. Thanks for sharing,

Cheers,

Brian

Kogswell

What a nice thing to say. Thanks!

Ah, The Paramount.

They were like Cadillacs: bold, shiney, EXPENSIVE. You always wanted one. Red, yellow, white, chrome. Yeah, chrome with red lettering. Short coupled frame. Nervex lugs. Chromed Nervex lugs.

I finally got a green '72 with centerpulls in '78 at a garage sale. It was thrashed. But like a thrashed Cadillac, it still looked good.

They came with a Campy 5mm allen, a Campy T-wrench (10mm socket + 6mm allen), and a Campy crank puller and crank bolt wrench. Maybe the Campy saddle wrench too. Yeah, the one you needed to get to the bolts on the 2-bolt Campy seatpost. The other end was a spanner to tighten Brooks saddles.

By '78 Eisentraut had taken over. You could get bikes from Europe, but the Eisentrauts and the SoCal Masis were 'the s**t'.

When I made the Ps I was thinking of Paramounts. Production bikes with style. The Eisentraut Limited too. BIkes that wouldn't wreck your budget, but that you didn't have be ashamed of either.

There's no trick to spending a lot of money to get something nice. The trick is to get something nice and still save for your child's education.

Kogswell

I have a '71 Super Sport. With factory chrome.

I love it.

I sold off all my good stuff to start Kogswell.

But I kept the Super Sport.

I think of it as an American constructeur bike.

budster

Adjusted for inflation, $350 in 1972 would equal almost $1600 today.

Still, Paramounts are sweet bikes. Friend of mine has a chrome one. I see it and drool.

mooncake

Here's some more 1972 Paramount porn. Ahhhh....

mooncake

Was it like this? Awesome ride!
1970 Lemon Peeler Crate

I-Like-To-Bike

Thanks for posting the link. I find the most interesting thing is the clothing/attitiude of the bicyclists (not a poser in sight) and the environment portrayed. It is light years from the bicycling world portrayed in a current Trek or Cannondale catalog.

Kogswell

I feel ya, dog.

Here's another '72. Note the curved seat tube.









They don't make 'em like they used to...

oldcrank

I bought my Continental in '72. I think that $104 was right around the price, too.

Of course, minimum wage for a high-school senior was $1.60 an hour back then!

I remembered several pages from that catalog. I also had the T-shirt, chain and combination lock, pocket-clip tire pressure gauge, and the strap-on leg safety light "assessories".

dan828

I had something that looked an awful lot like that. Complete with the stick shifter and the big spring suspension in the front and shocks on the back. Mine was dark gray and the bannana seat was ribbed though. If I remember correctly, the front wheel had a drum brake and the rear had a disc brake (which may have been after market, the brakes would have been suitable for stopping a car). I talked my dad in to trading it in on a bright orange ten-speed when I was 13 or so, which I totally thrashed.

cuda2k

I rode a '80 Schwinn Traveler for most of the last season before selling it to someone who fit it better: https://thecuda.com/Traveler.htm

Thing was a tank, specs stated that it was 32lbs off the factory floor - and that was probably for one smaller than my monster 63cm frame. I rode it in my first Metric Century this past September. I've now moved on to a slightly ligher frame and have another yet lighter frame ready to be built up. All lugged steel.

Bikepacker67

Why the hell is that idiot in the avocado green cross chaining?

610

Asthetics and lugs aside, do you think a Surly Pacer would ride very simliar to these bikes?

CastIron

I wasn't even born yet. Hell, it was Nixon's first term!