According to "Hearts of Lions" by Peter Nye, Art Longsjo rode a Schwinn Paramount in 1953. One bike pictured with him looks like a Drysdale type with a BSA crank. In 1956 he was the first American to make two USA Olympic teams in one year (cycling and speedskating). He died in 1958, a year in which he won every race he entered. His bike at Somerville that year has Mafac levers and does not look like a Paramount. He died in a car crash in North Hero Vermont, coming home from a victory in the Quebec-Montreal race. I rode by the curve where the car crashed hundreds of times on my training route when I lived in the Champlain Islands.
Joe
At 07:07 PM 8/30/01 -0500, nath wrote:
>The talk of famous riders and their frames made me wonder . . . does anyone
>know what Art Longsjo, the great racer from Fitchburg, Massachusetts rode in
>the mid-50s? I think he raced from 1953 until 1956, when he died in a car
>wreck at the age of 26. (What I've read of him reminds me of Harry Agganis,
>another Massachusetts boy who played first base for the Red Sox a year or
>so, but died in July '55 at the age of 25.)
>
>Anyway, in the little I've read of Art Longsjo, I haven't come across
>anything relating to what bikes he rode. It'd be interesting to find out.
>
>Nath Dresser