1959? Schwinn Paramount

[Nostalgic Dave]

I just picked this up yesterday. I know nearly nothing about road bikes or Schwinn Paramount. I have questions!

I was told it's a '59. Serial number is only 3 digits?

Also, I don't know what to think about the quality of the chrome. It looks pretty old, but also kinda funky around the head lubs.. its as if during the pre-chrome polishing, they were scratching away at rust or slag in the lugs, but never polished it back nicely? Doesn't seem "Schwinn Quality" so maybe this is a old re-chrome? Lack of the usual decals is suspect too.

Any help is appreciated, thanks!

 

[Nostalgic Dave]

 

[Schwinn Sales West]

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Dave, here's my guess............the bike was originally painted, as in premiered, painted, and then pin stripped. The bike was a Wastyn built bike. He was a local bike shop, frame builder that was local to the Schwinn factory. He was able to handle the "one off" orders for the factory. Paramounts have always been a custom, hand built bike. Each bike has a blueprint with all of the requested sizing and options. Since it was a built to be a painted bike, it was not necessary to do a full polish job required for a chromed frame. I agree with you that Schwinn would not have shipped that level of work on what was their premier model.

Schwinn was very proud of the Paramount model line. They eventually brought the frame production back "in house" (called The Cage, a fenced in part of the Chicago factory). They were always happy to support customers with Paramount's that might have been damaged during racing by doing frame repairs at a very nominal cost. They offered a refinishing program for older Paramount's to bring them back up to "looking new". I had my 1963 Lime Green Track bike #N27 refinished in Kool Yellow after several airline trips in a travel bag across the United States bike racing. The service program was "unpublished" and the price was a smoking deal in 1971 at $25.00 labor plus dealer paid the shipping. Schwinn did all of their chrome plating "in house", and they offered it on Paramount's in several different versions as well as "full chrome". If they were building a Paramount which was to be finished in full or partial chrome, the bikes received extra metal polishing before the frames were assembled and soldered or brazed together. That is the reason I made "my guess" that your frame was originally built as a painted bike. I have two 1940's Paramount track bikes, and one has original paint, the the earlier production had been Schwinn Factory Refinished with chrome tips and lugs, then pinstriped. It was common to see the "thin chrome" dark areas around the bottom bracket due to electro magnetism during the plating process. Over coming this discoloration would have required more hand work during the plating.

Hopefully @Richard.Schwinn will chime in and give you some better information about your early bike.

John

 

[ccdc.1]

Nice find of a generally complete early Paramount. The three-digit serials seem to run from the early 1950s to 1959. 456 would likely be the first half of the 1950s. The Dural S-10 rims are uncommon and of that era (but not likely for track use). If all those parts came with it, it may have been someone added a brake around 1964 (the caliper and brake levers are from that era) for road use.

As for the chrome and quality, I can only go by what I have seen (mostly in pictures), and there is a range....some beautiful, some not so much. One possible interpretation might be the frame was one with the uncommon cromovelato finish. That would be a thin/slightly translucent coat of paint over the chrome. This often occurs leaving the chrome lugs and even some tubes unpainted, and the polishing of the chrome on the tubes is left a bit rough for the paint to adhere better. There are several examples in my archive, including 314, 414, 715 and a few others. I am attaching a couple of pics of 314, and you'll note the lug finishing has similar characteristics to 456.

The one hint that the frame is possibly in its original state is the remaining tubing decal at the bottom of the seat tube. It would be surprising to see someone re-applying that decal, while not applying the Paramount decal on the downtube. It is very common for chrome frames to be missing the original down tube decals, as they deteriorated and exfoliated from the chrome pretty easily, it seems. (the original decals were varnish-applied and more delicate than later reproductions).

No definitive answers, but some thoughts....

 

[cyclingday]

I agree with the sentiments above.
It looks to me, like a bike that was intended to be painted.
The serial number suggests 1951 as the build date.

The wheels are super nice!
It looks to have been set up for road riding, so maybe refinished at that time?

 

[Schwinn Sales West]

I agree with the sentiments above.
It looks to me, like a bike that was intended to be painted.
The serial number suggests 1951 as the build date.
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The wheels are super nice!
It looks to have been set up for road riding, so maybe refinished at that time?

Those new #S-14 Laminated wood rims are still on "Back Order". LOL
John

 

[Schwinn Sales West]

Nice find of a generally complete early Paramount. The three-digit serials seem to run from the early 1950s to 1959. 456 would likely be the first half of the 1950s. The Dural S-10 rims are uncommon and of that era (but not likely for track use). If all those parts came with it, it may have been someone added a brake around 1964 (the caliper and brake levers are from that era) for road use.

As for the chrome and quality, I can only go by what I have seen (mostly in pictures), and there is a range....some beautiful, some not so much. One possible interpretation might be the frame was one with the uncommon cromovelato finish. That would be a thin/slightly translucent coat of paint over the chrome. This often occurs leaving the chrome lugs and even some tubes unpainted, and the polishing of the chrome on the tubes is left a bit rough for the paint to adhere better. There are several examples in my archive, including 314, 414, 715 and a few others. I am attaching a couple of pics of 314, and you'll note the lug finishing has similar characteristics to 456.

The one hint that the frame is possibly in its original state is the remaining tubing decal at the bottom of the seat tube. It would be surprising to see someone re-applying that decal, while not applying the Paramount decal on the downtube. It is very common for chrome frames to be missing the original down tube decals, as they deteriorated and exfoliated from the chrome pretty easily, it seems. (the original decals were varnish-applied and more delicate than later reproductions).

No definitive answers, but some thoughts....

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I'm not sure the remaining decals add much to the history. The Schwinn decals on your bike and also Dave's bike were available to any Schwinn Dealer from his local Schwinn distributor at a very nominal cost. They were water transfers, and damaged very easily, and were easy to replace. Your correct, on the chromed frames the water transfer decals "almost fell off" just by looking at them.

The really interesting decal is the remaining Yellow/Gold shield decal at the top of the seat tube. It is what's left of a Dealer Decal, likely who originally sold the bike, or maybe even a shop that worked on it. If the lettering was still on that decal, it could add to the history.
John

 

[Schwinn Sales West]

One question. Is the sprocket currently on the bike a 1/2" by 1/8", or a 1/2" by 3/32"? This would add to Marty's belief that it was used as a road racer with gears and brakes added. The optional drilled fork and rear brake bridge also show the bike was ridden on the road. I think you can see a mark on the down tube where a D/T shifter was bolted.

It was common for racers to like to ride and train on their track bikes, but not everyone had access to a velodrome, so many were ridden on the road. When I grew up riding my track bike, the closest velodrome was 400 miles away. Adding a rear derailer was not difficult. You just used a normal freewheel hub and added the derailer by using a normal "bolt-on" hanger. The hanger was reversed for the rear facing track drop out. A new notch was filed into the hanger for the derailer positioning screw and you were riding with gears.

The interesting thing about old track bikes is to look them over closely and see how "previous owners" used them, they were just Racers, Riden hard, Put away wet.

John

 

[Nostalgic Dave]

Dave, here's my guess............the bike was originally painted, as in premiered, painted, and then pin stripped. The bike was a Wastyn built bike. He was a local bike shop, frame builder that was local to the Schwinn factory. He was able to handle the "one off" orders for the factory. Paramounts have always been a custom, hand built bike. Each bike has a blueprint with all of the requested sizing and options. Since it was a built to be a painted bike, it was not necessary to do a full polish job required for a chromed frame. I agree with you that Schwinn would not have shipped that level of work on what was their premier model.

Schwinn was very proud of the Paramount model line. They eventually brought the frame production back "in house" (called The Cage, a fenced in part of the Chicago factory). They were always happy to support customers with Paramount's that might have been damaged during racing by doing frame repairs at a very nominal cost. They offered a refinishing program for older Paramount's to bring them back up to "looking new". I had my 1963 Lime Green Track bike #N27 refinished in Kool Yellow after several airline trips in a travel bag across the United States bike racing. The service program was "unpublished" and the price was a smoking deal in 1971 at $25.00 labor plus dealer paid the shipping. Schwinn did all of their chrome plating "in house", and they offered it on Paramount's in several different versions as well as "full chrome". If they were building a Paramount which was to be finished in full or partial chrome, the bikes received extra metal polishing before the frames were assembled and soldered or brazed together. That is the reason I made "my guess" that your frame was originally built as a painted bike. I have two 1940's Paramount track bikes, and one has original paint, the the earlier production had been Schwinn Factory Refinished with chrome tips and lugs, then pinstriped. It was common to see the "thin chrome" dark areas around the bottom bracket due to electro magnetism during the plating process. Over coming this discoloration would have required more hand work during the plating.

Hopefully @Richard.Schwinn will chime in and give you some better information about your early bike.

John

Thanks for the info John, that makes a lot of sense, this being painted with chrome lugs, but paint was stripped at some point in it's history. Interesting about Wastyn and the "cage"!

 

[Nostalgic Dave]

Nice find of a generally complete early Paramount. The three-digit serials seem to run from the early 1950s to 1959. 456 would likely be the first half of the 1950s. The Dural S-10 rims are uncommon and of that era (but not likely for track use). If all those parts came with it, it may have been someone added a brake around 1964 (the caliper and brake levers are from that era) for road use.

As for the chrome and quality, I can only go by what I have seen (mostly in pictures), and there is a range....some beautiful, some not so much. One possible interpretation might be the frame was one with the uncommon cromovelato finish. That would be a thin/slightly translucent coat of paint over the chrome. This often occurs leaving the chrome lugs and even some tubes unpainted, and the polishing of the chrome on the tubes is left a bit rough for the paint to adhere better. There are several examples in my archive, including 314, 414, 715 and a few others. I am attaching a couple of pics of 314, and you'll note the lug finishing has similar characteristics to 456.

The one hint that the frame is possibly in its original state is the remaining tubing decal at the bottom of the seat tube. It would be surprising to see someone re-applying that decal, while not applying the Paramount decal on the downtube. It is very common for chrome frames to be missing the original down tube decals, as they deteriorated and exfoliated from the chrome pretty easily, it seems. (the original decals were varnish-applied and more delicate than later reproductions).

No definitive answers, but some thoughts....

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Thanks for the pics, yeah that does look like mine, with what looks like tool marks from scraping out the solder/brazing (or whatever). That wouldn't show after it was painted.