robot.hebobo
Dirt Disciple
Pretty pleased to have finished (almost..) my first actual vintage build. I've been interested in early 90's MTBs since pretty much when they were current, and have been lurking here for ages, but this is my first actual build.
Story of the bike is a bit random, I never was particularly into Schwinn or Paramount, but when we moved to the midwest over a decade ago (2013), one of the first things I did was look on the local classifieds for a winter 'beater' bike (the winters here are brutal on bikes). Pretty soon I spotted this bike on sale for about $170, and picked it up. While it wasn't a model of bike that was special to me, the era and parts spec were just right - full M735 XT, thumbshifters, Japanese built (AFAIK) Tange Prestige frame... It needed some work, but also seemed too nice to actually put into winter commuter use (which is basically a death sentence for a steel bike around here). So instead it sat in the garage gathering dust in not-quite-rideable shape for 12 years.
It was mostly stock but the original fork, headset, and stem were gone, replaced with a cracked Judy XC fork, aheadset, and cheap theadless stem. Other than that it was pretty much original.
Over the years I slowly collected parts - a Paramount/Tange rigid fork (I think it's possibly a 1990 model), new headset, and a Syncros stem.
Anyway, finally this summer I decided to get it together. Bike was stripped down to the frame, revealing a lot of rust and basically shot bearings everywhere. Crank also had a hairline crack.
Anyway, here it is, cleaned up as much as i can without repainting or refinishing.
Everything is original except for:
- Saddle (I have the original but it's moldy, and not very special, so replaced with a 1993 Specialized ProLong)
- Brake booster (Brodie magnesium), Brake pads (KoolStop salmon)
- Stem (Syncros Cattleprod)
- Tires and tubes (reissue folding Smoke/Dart, TPU tubes)
- BB (original was wrecked)
- Grips (ESI silicone for now, have some Ritcheys on order)
- Cables (Jagwire... with aluminum end-caps that I painstakingly sanded down to silver to look more period correct)
- Headset (Ritchey Logic, with DiaCompe hanger)
- Pedals (have the original Sakae LowFats, but currently has some modern SPDs on, and I have some M737 SPDs coming from eBay any day now...)
I'd forgotten how diabolical cantilever brakes are to adjust... I used to be pretty good at it, it took a couple hours of tinkering to remember my old tricks for setting toe-in and stop this thing squealing and shuddering.
I still have the cracked crank on there. I plan to ride it lightly and keep an eye out for a replacement...
The TPU tubes are the only blatantly non-period-correct thing, but they save some weight and the orange stems fit with the color scheme
Story of the bike is a bit random, I never was particularly into Schwinn or Paramount, but when we moved to the midwest over a decade ago (2013), one of the first things I did was look on the local classifieds for a winter 'beater' bike (the winters here are brutal on bikes). Pretty soon I spotted this bike on sale for about $170, and picked it up. While it wasn't a model of bike that was special to me, the era and parts spec were just right - full M735 XT, thumbshifters, Japanese built (AFAIK) Tange Prestige frame... It needed some work, but also seemed too nice to actually put into winter commuter use (which is basically a death sentence for a steel bike around here). So instead it sat in the garage gathering dust in not-quite-rideable shape for 12 years.
It was mostly stock but the original fork, headset, and stem were gone, replaced with a cracked Judy XC fork, aheadset, and cheap theadless stem. Other than that it was pretty much original.
Over the years I slowly collected parts - a Paramount/Tange rigid fork (I think it's possibly a 1990 model), new headset, and a Syncros stem.
Anyway, finally this summer I decided to get it together. Bike was stripped down to the frame, revealing a lot of rust and basically shot bearings everywhere. Crank also had a hairline crack.
Anyway, here it is, cleaned up as much as i can without repainting or refinishing.
Everything is original except for:
- Saddle (I have the original but it's moldy, and not very special, so replaced with a 1993 Specialized ProLong)
- Brake booster (Brodie magnesium), Brake pads (KoolStop salmon)
- Stem (Syncros Cattleprod)
- Tires and tubes (reissue folding Smoke/Dart, TPU tubes)
- BB (original was wrecked)
- Grips (ESI silicone for now, have some Ritcheys on order)
- Cables (Jagwire... with aluminum end-caps that I painstakingly sanded down to silver to look more period correct)
- Headset (Ritchey Logic, with DiaCompe hanger)
- Pedals (have the original Sakae LowFats, but currently has some modern SPDs on, and I have some M737 SPDs coming from eBay any day now...)
I'd forgotten how diabolical cantilever brakes are to adjust... I used to be pretty good at it, it took a couple hours of tinkering to remember my old tricks for setting toe-in and stop this thing squealing and shuddering.
I still have the cracked crank on there. I plan to ride it lightly and keep an eye out for a replacement...
The TPU tubes are the only blatantly non-period-correct thing, but they save some weight and the orange stems fit with the color scheme
