1987 Schwinn Paramountain Ned Overend Signature Edition  
 
  Completed Paramountain!  
     
       
     
       
     
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Links below are to Photos.
   
     
 
  This page is new as of January 7, 2006, so please bear with me!  
 
 

I acquired this bike through an auction, which had incorrectly listed it is a Prestige Stone Mountain (here's the auction photo).  Knowing Prestige was Tange's top chromoly MTB tubing, I researched a little.  It was obvious the bike had two U-brakes, pretty unusual for anything but a high-end bike and the "Mountain" in the name seemed like too much of a coincidence.  Thanks to user photos at the Vintage, Retro, Classic Forum at MTBR, I was able to determine with some certainty that this was a Paramountain - fortunately, it turned out it was.

Schwinn rushed to get a race-ready frame out in the mid 1980s as part of their assembly of a formal race team.  The headliner for their men's team was Ned Overend, who then worked in a bike shop in Durango that dealt Schwinns.  Ned won his first NORBA championship in Durango in 1986 riding a red Paramountain.  I have not tried to accurately reproduce his bike with this restoration, but a video of the 1986 race did influence me, specifically with regard to the rollercam brakes and metal toe clips.  Ned's bike had white Shimano stickers and one or two other sponser logo on it, but I won't go that far.

The Paramountain was available to the general public, but as a frame only.  Here is the
Paramountain page from Schwinn's 1987 ATB Catalog.  Thanks go out to another MTBR participant for this!

Here's a link to a great forum post about the Paramountain

What I've done to this bike:
+ Thoroughly cleaned, lubed and tuned it (some new cables, etc)
+ Replaced
XT U-brakes with Suntour XC roller cam brakes
+ Added a new wheelset -
yellow Bullseye hubs with Bontrager BCR-1/2 rims (since replaced)
+ Added a NOS
Vetta TT saddle
+ Added IRC GeoClaw Lite kevlar bead tires with Torelli lightweight tubes
+ Added Ritchey True grips

 + Added metal toe clips with black straps

+ Swapped on new wheelset (not in pics):  Bontrager-modified Mavic M40 on Dura Ace hubs with bladed spokes

+ Swapped on Odyssey Vapor Pro stem and black Prestige bar (replaced very short Suntour XC stem and no-name chrome bar) - also not in pics

Other Parts on the bike:
+ Full Shimano Deore XT (M730) group except for the brakes and hubs - includes 6-speed thumb shifters, front and rear derailleurs,
crankset, Biopace II chainrings and pedals
+ Suntour XC stem and seatpost (this was before XC Pro existed)
+ Tange headset

Built as indicated above, this bike weighs only
24 pounds - not bad considering it's a large frame and has 2.1" tires, beartrap-type pedals with clips/straps and a stem and bar that probably aren't particularly light.  Tange Prestige tubing really is good stuff!  This weight is based on my ever-so-accurate bathroom scale, but that scale is tested against the doctor's scale at my gym and seems to be pretty accurate.  :-)

 
 
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