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1983 Schwinn Superior/ Paramount? project is on the road!

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1983 Schwinn Superior/ Paramount? project is on the road!

Old 06-22-21, 02:21 PM
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1983 Schwinn Superior/ Paramount? project is on the road!

Greetings,
I’ve had this kind of mysterious Superior frame awhile and finally put it together. It’s an 83 Superior…last year they made them. It was likely made at Waterford as Paramount builds were being transitioned. It doesn’t have a typical Superior serial #. It matches up with early Waterford Paramount numbers…K8358 so it was built in October of 83. Probably one of the last Superiors? It has all the hallmarks of early Waterford Paramounts except for decals and paint. Head badge is odd too…yellow from earlier years.
It’s a nice bike and felt great on it's round the block maiden voyage. Will put a couple hours on it when it cools down this evening. I built it up pretty close to original. Gran Sport crank, NR? for rest of the bits. Pretty light compared to most of my bikes. Should be fun.





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Old 06-22-21, 02:27 PM
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That's beautiful. The paint is in amazing shape. Did you start with just a frameset only?
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Old 06-22-21, 02:34 PM
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Thanks. Yes, I got the frame off eBay about 5 years ago not knowing much about Superiors. Paint has some bubbling in few spots and decals a little damaged but overall it looks like it wasn't ridden too much.
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Old 06-22-21, 03:08 PM
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Great bike. That badge is really cool.
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Old 06-23-21, 05:46 AM
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The lugs on the headtube and at the seat post look identical to my May '83 Paramount, as do the cable guide/stop braze-ons for the BB and right chainstay. The other similarity is the metalic flecks in the paint. That was a hallmark of the early Waterford Paramounts.
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Old 06-23-21, 06:19 AM
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I really like the "art deco" font of the decals on this model.
I've been looking for one in my size(that I can afford) for a couple of decades now. No luck yet.
My understanding is that, like the orange ones of the previous year or two, these frames were made up from leftover Paramount tube sets, but used a Tange fork.
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Old 06-23-21, 06:54 AM
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Looks like they ran out of Nervex lugs - must be one of the last ones made.
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Old 06-23-21, 07:13 AM
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I *LOVE* those decals!

Freakin' Rocketeer!!!
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Old 06-23-21, 07:20 AM
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Originally Posted by pastorbobnlnh
The lugs on the headtube and at the seat post look identical to my May '83 Paramount, as do the cable guide/stop braze-ons for the BB and right chainstay. The other similarity is the metalic flecks in the paint. That was a hallmark of the early Waterford Paramounts.
Fork, crown, lugs, details, and even the serial are all early Paramount. It's definitely a factory oddity, if nothing else.

Possibly a warranty replacement after Superior production was over?

-Kurt
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Old 06-23-21, 08:28 AM
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Superimount?
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Old 02-15-24, 06:00 PM
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I know this is a Zombie, but stumbled upon this after reading a current Superior thread and loved the @madpogue "Superimount?" quote. Then when looking at the '83 catalog it seems to confirm "Superimount?" to be exactly what it is, notice the first line of the description. Different than the '81-'82, 1st mention in catalogs of Paramount Design Group.
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Old 02-15-24, 09:54 PM
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I have a 1983 Paramount and it's a great bike, but these decals are cooler.
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Old 02-16-24, 07:32 AM
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Originally Posted by SoCaled
I know this is a Zombie, but stumbled upon this after reading a current Superior thread and loved the @madpogue "Superimount?" quote. Then when looking at the '83 catalog it seems to confirm "Superimount?" to be exactly what it is, notice the first line of the description. Different than the '81-'82, 1st mention in catalogs of Paramount Design Group.
It's been years since I've dug into this so the information is not committed to memory, but as I recall, there are more than a few "old pattern" Superiors wearing the '83 decal and paint scheme concurrently with the '82 geometry, Nervex lugs, and straight-from-Tange front fork (complete with the death crown).

The catalog wording suggests that the production moved location, but not necessarily that the bike would be built identical to a PDG Paramount. We (obviously) know from the OP's bike that they did paint and sell at least one '83 Paramount-pattern frame as a Superior, but we still don't know for sure if the catalog was worded foreseeing that they'd run out of old-pattern frames mid-run or if they had PDG build the remaining old-pattern frames.

It's been a slog getting the Excel files from ALL the existing Paramount databases conformed to something that the PHP-based Headbadge replacement site can work from, but there will be a completely new, stand-alone Superior registry eventually. Perhaps once we have all the serials and photos in a row, some observable conclusions will come to light.

-Kurt
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Old 02-17-24, 11:33 PM
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[QUOTE=cudak888;23158293]... straight-from-Tange front fork (complete with the death crown)./QUOTE]

Death crown? Do tell...
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Old 02-18-24, 10:00 AM
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Originally Posted by zenbiking
Originally Posted by cudak888
... straight-from-Tange front fork (complete with the death crown).
Death crown? Do tell...
Most of the death crown discussion centers around pre-built, Ishiwata-tubed Trek forks of the early 1980's which were recalled and featured these particular fork crowns. The lack of internal tangs in the crown have often been cited as the cause of failure, and I believe there have been one or two recent failures documented on BikeForums from similar pre-built forks - with the same crown - not fitted to Treks. As of present, there's no consensus whether it affects only Trek forks, forks with Ishiwata blades, or if the crown is the culprit and should be considered suspect. This crown and the Tange contract forks were manufactured in the millions, so for every one that has failed, there is a literal ton that haven't.

https://www.bikeforums.net/classic-v...k-failure.html

The Superior was in production at about the same time the Trek fork debacle happened. It wouldn't be out of the question to assume that some of the Superior fork replacements during refinishing were motivated by the buzz around forks with of this crown design failing. Unlike today, these bikes were new at the time and would have been much more prominent in daily discussion. Plus, no internet for verification; only a rumor mill tied to the original recall.

-Kurt
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