Henry III

I scored my first Paramount...for fifty big ones! It's a little rough around the edges but just normal wear and tear items and a rear derailleur is needed. I knew of a weird shop that does motorsport stuff and the higher end Pacific bike stuff (Schwinn, GT, etc.) and normally has about a dozen used beaters in the back that most people don't know are there. So I headed straight to the back as it was a few months since I was there just to see if they had anything new and decent. Then low and behold the bike I've been dreaming about since the Madison Cronometro Swap a few weekends ago that I found. I was actually debating heading back to pick it up but didn't feel like doing the hour and a half drive plus it was a little more then I wanted to spend and didn't dig the red white and blue color scheme.
Now your probably like just cut the crap and lets see the bike. So here is the $50 1992 Paramount PDG30 mountain bike! It's got full Deore LX with Ritchey parts here and there. The rear derailleur is missing and tires are mismatched but like I said. It's just normal wear and tear items that would get replaces anyways. Now it's not the nice lugged Waterford Series 90 but it's still uses OS triple butted chromoly. I'm happy as I was looking for a decent vintage rigid mtb rig. I think the only thing I'll really change for right now are the tires, saddle, grips, levers and cantilevers to vbrakes. Plus I like the color as it isn't too vintage looking with the crazy paint scheme alot of the 80-90's Paramounts be it road or mtb have. I like the lugged dropouts on the fork also but man that thing has some serious rake. I can't decide if it's bent since I read some technomumbojumbo about the G-force fork. I still think it's bent judging by the brochure picture and what mine looks like. I found this also searching around



Now my ride...

tugrul

The stays are bent.

sailorbenjamin

Forget the derailler all together. put a coaster brake in the back and some wide whites and fat fenders. It would be the lightest Schwinn cruiser ever!
Man, the possibilities are endless.

Drillium Dude 

Dare I say it? Fork is bent - forward-like.

Compare gap between tire and downtube with the one in the catalog pic.

Still, for $50 - a steal! I bet you can get a replacement fork easy.

Great score!

DD

531phile 

Looks like an aftermath of a 20ft jump.

Henry III

It's going to be my rigid XC rig...with gears. I tried the SS last year when I raced and it kicked my arse so no dice. I think the fork is like a good 1" forward then what it's supposed to be. If you line up the rear of the tire it should line up to bottom left side of the "U" in Paramount. Mine lines up in the same location but in the "N". lol. I'm debating on one of those Mosso rigid forks on ebay. Did MTB around this time use a 1-1/8 threaded fork? Cause I have Fuji Suncrest that I thought used a 1" fork being it was threaded and went to use it on another threaded fork setup and it wouldn't even fit in the head tube. It would make things so much easier to find a decent fork if it was 1-1/8" and I could go threadless.

Drillium Dude 

Pull the one now and check it's measurements - you're on the right track, though. It would be a real shame (and a painful one at that) if that bad boy were to fail on you while riding. Ouch!

Good luck!

DD

YoKev

Henry III

I've had a fork snap before and still have the scar on the side of my jaw and my chest from the headset cup after I landed on top of it. I still got up and no broken bone or missing teeth but nothing I wish even on my mother in law...wait I take that back. I'll pick up one of these Mosso carbon fork with aluminum steering tube for $90 shipped.
https://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...tchlink:top:en

surreal

fantastic score, henry. Eyeballing your frame, it looks like OS tubes, and if my eyes are any good, i think it might be 1 1/8" headtube, which'd be a good thing. Quality steel threadless forks in 1 1/8" are dime-a-dozen.

-rob

monsterpile

I have a 1993 PDG50 frame and I have done some different stuff to it. The problem with it is alot of the cable stops were busted before I got it for $25 at a thrift store years ago. I have never figured out the best thing to do with it. Its a nice frame though so I have never gotten rid of it. Its pretty far back on the list projects I have at this point.

canyoneagle

New fork and a tune and you're set.
A black fork would look fine on that bike if you have trouble sourcing a stock replacement.

Henry III

I'm thinking of picking up a newer Mongoose MTB to use as a donor bike. I can use pretty much everything from it...wheels, Shimano groupset, stem, bars, headset etc. for $50 brand new on CL. I couldn't even get a decent set of tires for that much. It'll get the bike ride able and more updated.

LesterOfPuppets

Probably not the headset or stem (without adapter). I think your PDG has a 1" setup. Unless you're talking about a crappy newer Mongoose, they have 1" up front, but you don't want to hang those parts on your PDG.

And yes that fork is borked!

Maybe surreal is right. In that case a newer non-crap 'goose would be a good donor for front end bits too.

Henry III

This uses a 1-1/8" fork along with the Goose. I realize the Goose isn't anything to write home about but it'll get the Paramount on the road for 50 with newer parts. I have a older 1-1/8" RockShox and threadless headset that I test fitted just to make sure. I just want a rigid setup otherwise I would use my old Rockshox fork.

LesterOfPuppets

A mongoose can be a great parts bike. Their bikes with the same parts on 'em would frequently be $100-200 cheaper than equivalent Trek/Specialized/Cannondales. Just stay away from their dept. store lines and you're in business.

If it's an IBOC it might even be better than the PDG.

yroc

Nice ride, great find even better price

wrk101

That's how that model was made.

Chris Chicago

interesting, and the catalog pics confirm it.

LesterOfPuppets

Some of them just had the drive side bent. Univega had the same thing going on back then. Probably same frames.

tugrul

So much for deadpan delivery

That fork is un-salvageable?

Jeff Wills

IMO, yes. It looks like the aftermath of a hard landing, and it's bent at the top of the fork blades just below the end of the steerer. This is the weakest point of a unicrown fork, and straightening it could lead to cracks. I'm pretty sure you have a 1 1/8" threaded setup. Rare-ish nowadays, but replacement forks should be easy to find.

LesterOfPuppets

I think he might have been joking again.

It's hard to tell sans emoticons, though.

But yeah, I'd thoroughly check the condition of the headset and headtube also.

tugrul

Nope, no joke.

I'm looking forward to photos of the steerer then.

Henry III

I never heard of a threaded 1-1/8" before maybe a year ago but I picked up a Fuji about a month ago and was surprised that it had the same thing. Now this Paramount. I was going to use the Fuji fork in another bike and it wouldn't even fit in the headtube. Then I grabbed my old threadless 1-1/8" Rockshox just to see and what do you know. Same diameter steering tube as the threaded fork. As for the Paramount fork. It's something I don't even want to mess around with and try to straighten out. I wasn't sure if the creases up by the crown were from the factory as it's on both sides and pretty large. Not a hard crease to crack the paint but nearly wide as my pinky finger and about an inch long. It'll be a nice decoration for in the garage. There wasn't any paint chipping on the rest of the frame near the headtube or did the cup feel loose if the headtube got tweaked when the fork got hammered.
On a side note. Does any company still make those adapter clamps so you can ditch the levers and still keep the shifter assembly? I saw some at the Cronometro swap some guy was giving away if you answered his question if you knew what they were for. I knew but didn't need them at the time. CURSES! I looked around on ebay and didn't find them.