fvernon

Hi folks! Not great pics coming up, but I just got home and wanted to snap a couple photos despite the poor lighting.

I picked up an interesting bike today--a 19" (48.5cm) Waterford-built Schwinn Paramount mountain bike. Serial Number 485AMWM90009, so for anyone unfamiliar with the decoding:
- 48.5cm
- short fork
- mountain
- Waterford factory
- December
- 1990
- 9th frame built that month

I'm really not familiar with non-PDG Paramount mountain bikes; I have to guess there are very few Waterford-built Paramount MTBs, and those that exist must have been custom orders? The lugs & cable routing all seem like custom requests. DT is OS, and I'll check around to see if I can find hallmarks of this being a Tange or True Temper tubeset. I'd wager a guess that it's True Temper OS, only because that's what I've seen out of other Waterford bikes from 1990-1991.

There look to be some original parts (like the Paramount-branded Stronglight headset), but it was clearly built for canti brakes (hence the rear cablestop), and the late-90's LX groupset seems like a swap. Plenty of beausage; I'll ride it around a bit this spring while I figure out what to do with it.

Anyway--if any of you have info on Waterford Paramount MTBs, feel free to chime in!

georges1

Why not clean the frame, treat the frame against rust and retouch the chipped paint with color matching nail polish? Complete repaint might be too expensive.

fvernon

Yeah, I don't know if I'll repaint. A good cleaning & treating may be all it needs. If I was going to repaint, it'd be so that I can also add eyelets at the dropouts, and maybe mid-fork eyelets to turn this into more of a touring-type rig, but I'd need to be sure that it's a keeper first and worth the added expenses.

georges1

That is true

chain_whipped

Nice find! Whatever the tubing specs, that's an exceptional looking frame. If were mine and fit, I'd have a late winter project-- full strip, repaint to original, decals from Waterford and dtessed vinti XT group.

fvernon

Thanks! It's silver-brazed True Temper OS. I posted to a Paramount facebook group along with a shot of the BB, and wouldn't you know it--the guy who built the frame recognized it as one of his by the Z id stamp (a guy named Cam Tower). He said that around 1989-1990 maybe 20% of Waterford's frames were MTBs, almost all the rest were Road, and there are a rare couple of Track & Touring framesets out there. The MTB line probably dropped significantly around then, since there were so many PDG series options coming in starting 1990/1991. He still has 4 of his framesets & rides them frequently.

I know a retired framebuilder who does a great job with the strip/repaint and who would add on eyelets for racks (and maybe a 3rd bottle cage on the bottom of the DT) if I wanted, and I definitely have the right XT groupset to rebuild if I want to go that route...but I already have a 20.5" 1989 Stumpjumper Comp that I've built up in much the same way, so I'll take this spring to ride this around and see if this more aggressive frameset is really an improvement, or if it would be better to sell & let someone else enjoy this.

icemilkcoffee 

Am I seeing things or is that a crack right where the unicrown fork goes into the bottom headset cup?

fvernon

Just some paint chipping

Clang

Cool- I remember posting the ad for this and being excited to find a Waterford Paramount for so little money. Nice to be able to identify the individual framebuilder too.