But I think that might be what's misleading in this situation. It might be made by Schwinn, but it's about the furthest thing from one. Paramounts really are exactly that, paramount. They were the Rolls Royce of American made bikes back in the day, not really comparable at all to any Schwinn Le Tours, Supers, etc, I don't even think they were made in the same building by the same people.
The one in question in the CL advert. is clad entirely in Campagnolo gear, and REALLY nice NOS stuff at that. Just to collect those NOS parts over time on Ebay would cost hundreds and hundreds of bucks, the brake calipers alone were probably $300. Every component on that bike is first rate stuff.
I like my road bikes and regularly ride them, but trying to keep up with the Jones's is not my style, especially when a run-of-the-mill set of race wheels these days costs $1,400... just the wheels. I buy brand new sets of cruiser wheels for $68.
Lots of road bike frames are $4,000, and a Campagnolo Record 11 group set is at least $2,000 by now.
That's the deep end of the pool over in road-bike ville, and it's full of poseurs over there. There's also a huge mid-life crisis thing going on there too, guys straddling $8,000 rigs just putting around at 16mph while sporting the latest gotta-have-it-gear.
