[Mike]
-[Pat]
Picking a stromboli factory.
Here you go, you got motorcycles.
Hey, look at this! Whoa!
-This is the Paramount. -[Pat] That's the Paramount.
[Mike]
into their lineup.
These were all handmade,
and their big claim to fame back then was
this is really super thin chromoly tubing.
But the lug works were just to die for.
There was a local bicycle shop owner
by the name of Emil Wastyn,
he was an accomplished racer, he was actually on Team Schwinn
and he was also building
the Paramount frame sets for Schwinn in his shop
on the west side of Chicago.
Grab that group of papers over there.
-This sign was hanging on it? -Yep.
"1949 Gene McPherson..."
-That's the guy. -"...rode this bike
from Santa Monica, California, to New York, 20 days,
seven hours, 29 minutes."
-Dang! -And that-- and that record
held for ten years.
-Really? -Ten years.
And he was a Columbus, Ohio, boy.
-Can we pull this...? -Yep.
I need to... open this up,
I wanna get a good look at this thing.
Roll it out here.
I love the red tires.
From what I can see, it's got different wheels on it.
I mean, these are steel wheels. It's got the down tube shifter,
this is an early version of it, it's a cable system
that goes onto the down tube, onto the chain stay,
around into this derailleur that pulls a chain.
The rear derailleur on this frame,
the way it's mounted, was obviously added.
This would have been a track bike
that someone converted to a road bike,
but it's brilliant the way he did it.
See how the paint is burned off right here?
-Yeah, yep. -He braised
these little braze-ons on it right here,
probably because a lot of his stuff was self-contained.
When he was traveling, he probably had
a rear rack on it when he was riding.
-Ah... -So imagine riding this in '49,
and the roads the way they were,
I mean, no light system.
It was so crude, you know, compared to what we ride today.
I mean, I've done a lot of road racing,
I've done a lot of criteriums,
I've ridden a lot in my life.
To think about riding this across America
is truly incredible.
Let me take some pictures of it,
because my buddy in Chicago,
-he has a bicycle shop. -Okay.
And he's more in tune
-with this kind of stuff. -Okay.
[Mike]
that's had a shop in Chicago for like 50 years.
And the shop that they made these frames in
-is down the road from him. -Really?
[Mike]
the guy that owned the store collected antique bicycles.
And I was amazed by them. He had them in a warehouse.
I would go up and I would stare at them.
I just was so curious, you know,
it was stuff that I never ever seen before.
And then one day, Mark Mattei comes along,
and, uh, he buys all of them.
And I remember loading them with him into his van, and I--
and I was, like, curious, "Where are these going?"
He's like, "Oh, I have a shop in Chicago."
And they were just gone all of a sudden from my life.
And so that's when I started the quest
to try to find antique bicycles.
Did you get the photos of the Schwinn Paramount?
[Mark]
that's a little bit out of my realm,
I call Mark Mattei.
He's a Schwinn expert.
[Mark]
and that makes a lot of sense from the time
that Gene made this transcontinental...
-Yeah, isn't that crazy?
Had you heard of this ride before?
[Mark]
I found a very comprehensive article
with a nice original photograph
in a magazine from 1949.
[Mike]
an original article from a magazine.
I mean, that's the type of collector he is.
[Mark]
through Arizona, he had about 14 flat tires
from thorns that are called
-goat's head thorn.
[Mark]
And because he's riding what they call a slope
or a tubular type tire glued on the rim,
each of these flats cost him about an hour's time,
so he lost, you know, a full day's worth of riding.
And then the other thing I found,
he was unsupported on this ride.
It wasn't like a SAG wagon
driving behind with spares or nothing.
[Mike]
if he was unsupported,
then he had really no lights on the bike.
[Mark]
-on his pedals...
-which was before they became,
-you know, federally mandated.
[Mark]
the photographs are clear.
It's got all the earmarks that it's the bike.
[Mike] Was this made in the shop
that you took me to down the street
from yours in Chicago?
[Mark]
[Mike] What would you value the bike at?
[Mark]
With that history
and this heroic aspect of this sort of ride,
in an auction setting,
if someone were looking for a truly historic Paramount,
I would put it at a $10,000 value.
Okay, so you're thinking in the right auction setting,
it could pull ten grand.
Because if this was just a regular Paramount,
in this condition, without modifications,
it'd be what, 3,000 bucks?
-[Mark]
thank you for your passion, I appreciate you.
-[Mark]
-Wow. Look at that! -Crazy.
Okay, so what are you thinking?
7,500 bucks.
You got a 5,000... I-I bet ya--
-Yeah. -Huh?
I've been around antique bikes
for a long time, just like you have.
-I know. -And you know as well as I do,
to throw all the dice in on an auction price is...
Auction can go either way.
And what Mark is really saying, "Hey,
you know, I value this at so much money,
and maybe in an auction setting even more."
An auction's always a gamble.
Let's not talk about the fantasy of an auction,
let's talk about what's happening right now.
I think the bike's worth like probably seven.
-I'll take seven. -[both laugh]
-I mean-- Yeah. -Huh?
[Pat]
It's a great historical racing bicycle
that's American.
I tell you what, I'd do 5,000 bucks on the bike.
I-I don't know, after-- That's...
It's so cool. Where are you gonna buy one like that?
-Where can you get one? -[chuckles]
Give me 6,500 and I guarantee you'll make money on that.
Oh, my God.
Pat and I have traded back and forth
over the years on a lot of different things.
I've bought stuff from him, he's bought stuff from me.
Okay, so we always do the dance,
we always go back and forth, you know.
And we're both predictable to each other.
Sixty-five's good, that's fair.
There's no deal here
unless we both feel good about it.
-Eh... -I-I'll tell you what,
I'd do 6,000 bucks on it.
If I recall correctly, I think I gave like 2,500 bucks...
40 years ago, 40 or 35, I don't know how long,
I know it was a lot of money.
Sixty-five.
-Six-- 62. -Sixty-three.
[both laugh]
-Boy, you're tough. -You're tough!
-You're tough! -No, no, no!
-[laughs] -Woo!
[Mike]
I own a significant piece
of American bicycle racing history.