RiddleOfSteel

Beautiful color! Really appreciative of you choosing a Prismatic powder, and one of the Illusion series colors at that. It's really hard to find good photos that give a good enough idea of how it will turn out on a bike, especially in "real" light, so thank you! I also like your black groupset idea. Sure, a lovely Ultegra or Dura-Ace 9- or 10-speed group would look great, but so would something even newer. Looking forward to how you build it up!

himespau 

That's a powdercoat? Wow, it looks great.

Mr. 66

There be some some some fine, very fine powder, on them theirs' Paramount. Your guy did a great service!

Please do tell who did this beautiful work!

AdventureManCO 

Wow, he did a good job, and you very much saved that frame. Between the chainstay and the toptube, it would have surely died had it stay on it's previous trajectory. FANTASTIC!

pnwgopher

Thomas at Sodo Powder - he has a shop under the spokane/west seattle viaduct in a cool funky building that houses a forge and a few other crafty workshops; he's right next door to rossman cycles. He's a super nice guy and was great to work with. He chased each of the numerous threads on the frame, and even faced the headtube. Pricing was very reasonable too!

I have the wheels (black mavic open pros with black/aged eggplant chris king hubs), levers/derailleurs (sram force/x-0) ready to go, but I wouldn't pass up an 11-speed ultegra/dura ace group if I can find one that doesn't break the bank. I just need to figure out brakes and crankset. Right now I'm leaning towards black VO long reach calipers (spendy but nice and pretty), but have no idea about cranks. I'd like to run a a black compact double that looks nice - open to any suggestions.

Oh, and I'm on the hunt for a black headset too. If anyone has a black chris king 2-nut or stronglight roller-bearing lying around unused, hit me up!

RiddleOfSteel

With that frame color, Dura-Ace 9000 would look stunning, but I'm biased as I love that group and have put it on a few bikes (mostly swapping between frames). Gloss silver for the pop against deep gloss black--sublime. Full groupset, bought used, is I think still going to set one back about $1100 on the nice end. Patience wins out and I think it can be pieced together for less, certainly $200 less if not using 9000 brake calipers.

Tektro R737 standard reach (47-57mm) calipers--same as the pricey VO ones you're looking at--are beautiful brake calipers and come in high polished or gloss black. And half the price. I have the polished ones on my '82 Trek 720, so as Tektro's top side pull offering, they are worthy of a top frame from Trek, at least to me. The VO calipers look really cool, like a blend between something elegant (R737s or Shimano R650 calipers) and something overtly over-CNC'd (Paul Components).

For non-$$$ CK headsets but still in black, I like FSA's Duron X headset, which comes in black as well as silver. I have both and like them a lot. Bike Recyclery has one for $40, which is consistent for what I've paid for them.

Thinking about black cranksets as well as I am reformatting my Barney the Purple Dinosaur 1980 Trek 510. It has an FSA Vero triple on there right now. Gloss black, nice design, but a Q-factor nearly 20mm more than what I ride (aka knees notice real quick). No weight savings with a Vero, but it is square taper for a BB, and the design is modern yet still vintage appropriate. Looks like they made a compact one at some point. My SRAM knowledge is pretty scant, especially as they were even worse (somehow) than Campagnolo in delineating generations of groupsets, but they've made some really lovely mid-level cranks in black that are just timeless. Thinking older Apex and Rival--trying to find the one I'm really thinking of, but a number of those older 5-arm designs look great and straddle the line between classic and modern, which would be perfect for what you're doing here.

pnwgopher

quick update: this is coming along nicely. a few parts are in there as placeholders while I hunt for a black stem/bars to pair with the black thomson masterpiece I recently picked up, but that'll be a long-term search and I look forward to getting this going on the road soon. The frame/fork has no problem clearing 38s.

52telecaster

Awesome on the tire size. 35 is kind of my minimum touring tire size. 38 is dreamy!

RiddleOfSteel

38s??? Now we're talking! Awesome!

Makes me want to transfer all the components on my Voyaguer SP to my Cannondale ST and do a "poor man's touring Paramount" build.

joesch

Nice frames especially finding a touring model.
Love the new paint on the OPs bike.
I have one that is currently in a SS setup with Phil wheels.
The bar tape and levers are just temp for safety.

pnwgopher

Either 63.5cm waterford touring paramounts are a lot more common that I thought, or we've tracked down all 4 of them in the world in this thread!

pnwgopher

Took it out for its maiden voyage yesterday and... I like it. I think I'll keep it.

beicster 

I have been thinking about selling my 63.5cm Paramount touring. You can transfer your parts to an actual paramount. 😁

RiddleOfSteel

You know where to find me!

mhespenheide 

That's awesome!

Mr. 66

I know that spot well.

When I ride a triple that spot is part of my regular. I rode my race bike there a couple times, like 30 years ago, but my 42/24 was some stiff gearing on the return.

pnwgopher

It's a great test of the brakes going down, and of the gearing (and cardiovascular fitness) going up. Last time I did it on a 39/26 I swore to never do that again.

pnwgopher

Took the bike out for a quick spin again today, and I'm thrilled with how it turned out. Really glad I took the chance on the rusty bike from the questionable craigslist ad that required a harrowing journey down a long, curvy driveway in the sketchy exurban pnw woods.

Fredo76

Nice bike! Well done. Blasting and refinishing was your only option imo, so it's nice to see it turn out so well. Congratulations.

Wish I had my stolen '70s 26" Paramount back.