uncleivan 

I know a few of the former builders at match are members of these forums. Curious as to how many of the match built match frames were built? Were they specced with a steel fork, or carbon?

uncleivan 

squirtdad

I don't know the answer but carbon fork, chris king headset do not seem to compute with classic BB..

uncleivan 

It's from 2000-2001 give or take a year. I don't know the history of the bike. The forks may have been swapped out as well as headset.

KPacenti

Very few of these were built. If I recall correctly, it was mostly an effort to use up Schwinn materials (lugs / tubes) after Schwinn canceled our Paramount contract.
More than likely a straight bladed fork (LC18 crown) would have come with the frame, as that's what we made for the Paramounts.

Curt, Martin and Mark may remember it differently. After 20 years the details are more than a little fuzzy.

bulgie 

I moved on a little before Curt, Martin and Kirk (like a rat fleeing a sinking ship), so the Match-branded ones were after my time there.
I see one thing in the pic that I like — straight chainstays. I disliked the Serotta-style S-bend stays on the Paramounts. I thought that feature was goofy and pointless. Probably didn't hurt the ride any though, just a product differentiator. There's much I did like about those frames.

That was a great (but doomed) shop. Fun was had!

Mark B

KPacenti

I couldn't agree more.

The other thing I didn't like about the Paramount frames (and Match?) was the really high (imo) bottom brackets. If memory serves, they had 65mm of drop.

bulgie 

And the tubing flared to bigger diameter at the bottom bracket, yuck. Maybe defensible for the seat tube, but hard to justify for a DT.

Framebuilders there were given the opportunity to make themselves a frame with the Paramount stuff, but I said "no thanks", I knew I'd never want to ride one. Too stiff for me, and I'm a large fast-twitch sprinty kinda guy (or was back then).

Kirk, did you make yourself one?

-mb

KPacenti

Yes, I built a Paramount for myself but never rode it.

Mostly because the geo wasn't to my liking - sold it to a guy who owned a marketing agency downtown.

duanedr 

I was thinking the seatlug doesn't match the HT lugs.

uncleivan 

I think its great hearing about your time at match, and discussing the frame/s. I didn't care for the curved stays on the paramount either, not that my opinion matters. They are alike in alot of ways.
This is how I found it. If it were 'vintage' I would have finished it by now, but I don't have a stash of parts for this era frame.

uncleivan 

I'll take some better pics of the lugs. I took those last year in the wrong light and couldn't see the screen on my phone, just kind of hoped it was focusing.

KPacenti

One may debate whether or not the seat lug aesthetics match the HT lugs. What is certain is that the seat lug on this bike is the seat lug Tim designed for the Paramount frames.

JohnDThompson 

He'd been using that long before Match was making Paramount frames. This is a frame I bought from him, built in 1979 for the 1980 US Olympic team.

N.B. it's actually a standard lug without ears. The seat stays are mitered to fit the back of the lug, plugged with a steel insert, and drilled, tapped, and counter-bored for the binder bolt.

KPacenti

That's right, the DNA of the Paramount lugs evolved decades before Match was founded. You can clearly see Tim's thumbprint in the Paramount design, and many older Trek frames as well.

My point was that the lugs on the Match bike posted above were designed specifically as a set for the Paramount frames. I assumed, perhaps mistakenly, that duanedr was suggesting that the shoreline of the seat tube lug didn't match those of the HT lugs.

In any case, it's a great looking bike as are all of Tim's bikes. What size is your frame? There's one here in town, hanging in a bike shop in museum quality condition. I'd like to own it, but the shop has no intention of selling. Next time I go in, I'll take a couple pictures and post here.

uncleivan 

The frame measures 55cm center to center st and tt. I rode it before I broke it down, very smooth, but a hair too big for me. 54cm is about the top of my range. I can make it work with a shorter stem, but I have quite a few bikes, so I'm not in a rush. The bike was posted on craigslist in boston. It was up for a couple of days. Couldn't help myself.

uncleivan 

The serial is RC005.

Nessism

To each their own of course but to my eye that's a really nice looking frame. Reynolds tubing is hard to fault and I personally like the lugs. The Ritchey dropouts are a good match too. What's not to like? I even like the blood red color, and I'm not a color guy.

BTW, what size are those chain stays? They look like fork blades. Nice and beefy unless the photos are fooling me.

uncleivan 

I like the ritchey dropouts as well. Were the vertical drops a seattle thing? Haha. I'm half joking... my klein, and davidson have vertical drops also.

duanedr 

I have no doubt you know what you're talking about. I didn't see the front of the headtube lugs but now in later pictures, I see they are more intricate than I originally thought.