Mr. Lowi wrote:
Speaking of history, as the Czechs had just finished rebelling against the Soviets a few years earlier, frankly I am more impressed with their efforts at high end cycle manufacture than I am with a huge company like Schwinn, in a USA that was sending landing modules to the Moon at the same time as building Paramounts.
Emanuel Lowi Montreal, Quebec
You make and excellent point. A huge company from a technolgically-advanced nation like the U.S. could have been building lovely bikes using state-of-the-art 60's technology. Skunk Works had sorted out welded CP ti jointing well before this time. I have no doubt that the vast majority of CR members would be far more impressed with a tig-welded CP ti Paramount than any 531/Nervex antique. What was Schwinn thinking allowing this type of technological stagnation? For the equivalent of maybe $20,000 2006 US dollars, I'm sure people would have been lining up for Space Age Paramounts in 1968, and if any had survived someone might even pay a tiny fraction of that for one today.
Gotta hand it to those Czechs... getting viciously crushed by the Soviets and building a decent racing bike all in the same year! Hooray!
Funny thing is, there are guys still racing Nervex/531 Paramounts at T-town, but not too many Favorits.
Tom Dalton Bethlehem, PA
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