Well, Schwinn survived an earlier ownership in the late 80's and early 90's which degraded the Paramount name by slapping it on mid-range Taiwan-made bikes and even on computers and cheap helmet. So hopefully they will survive the latest change of control. Perhaps at least the new owners will mantain the GT sponsorship of the Lotto team, which may at least encourage them to produce high-end models including the Paramount to take advantage of the publicity generated by the racing program. It would be intolerable to see the Paramount name of some cheap piece of junk at K-Mart.
Regards,
Jerry Moos
-----Original Message----- From: Moos, Jerry [mailto:jmoos@urc.com] Sent: Friday, June 01, 2001 9:40 AM To: 'GandJFahey@aol.com'; OROBOYZ@aol.com Cc: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org Subject: RE: [CR]Old handlebars breaking?
Haven't seen a bar actually totally fail, but the infamous AVA bars on a circa 1968 PX-10 I bought used had a deep crack which followed the curve of the bar from near the stem all the way to the drops. The clue to look closely was that that side of the bar seem to bend down a bit right from the stem. I have no doubt these bars would have shortly failed is ridden. Still, one cracked bar among all the ones I have owned is a pretty low failure rate.
Regards,
Jerry Moos
-----Original Message----- From: GandJFahey@aol.com [mailto:GandJFahey@aol.com] Sent: Friday, June 01, 2001 12:49 AM To: OROBOYZ@aol.com Cc: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org Subject: Re: [CR]Old handlebars breaking?
In a message dated 5/31/01 7:10:39 PM Pacific Daylight Time, OROBOYZ@aol.com
writes:
<< I must confess in my 27 years in the biz, I have seen very few bars break.
And zero Cinellis. But who knows? How about the rest of you.. Informal poll...Have you actually seen, first hand, Cinelli bars break? >>
The thing about these polls is that they usually get responses from the few who have actually seen, first hand, a part break. The thousands and thousands of unbroken bars, stems, frames, rims, chains, cranks, etc. are mostly not talked about. There often ends up being a perception that there is rampant part breakage out there. I would guess that if a person saw a bar break, they will cast a vote. Most of those who have had no bar trouble will stay silent. So, I'm chiming in to the "No breakage" vote. No broken bars ever. I have never seen any break either. Includes my 19 year old Cinelli 64 Giro d'Italia bars on a Cinelli 1A stem. They're on my primary single bike.
However, being that a handlebar break is very serious, you can't be too careful with a suspect bar.
Glenn Fahey
Herndon, VA