Though the Wastyns were shut out out Paramount production, they remained Schwinn dealers under favorable terms with Schwinn. The Paramounts received the best of everything, including hand sprayed paint and the delicate pinstriping of Frank’s father, Joe Brilando and Adam Smith. Joe had quite a glorious history in racing including a stint in Europe before World War II. Joe Magnani developed the component side of the Paramount, working on race wheel building, Campagnolo derailleur systems and other top of the line equipment. Wanda Omelian performed brazing almost from the outset, and Stanley Peters joined the group in 1960 to file. This area became known as “the Cage”.įrank started production in 1959. To make production even more special, Schwinn cleared off an area right next to the office entrance and fenced off the Paramount frame shop from the rest of Schwinn’s production. Up until then, only a few of the Paramounts had this level of equipment. Schwinn’s updated Paramounts now all sported Reynolds 531 double-butted tubing, Nervex lugsets and bottom bracket shells as well as Campagnolo dropouts. It was particularly tough because he couldn’t take advantage of any of the old sources of framebuilding know-how.
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Greco worked feverishly for six months, learning everything he could how to build racing bicycles including fixtures, alignment and geometries. This kept more of the basic strength in the tubing and prevented other mishaps. Silver solder meant a real revolution in frame building since it allowed brazers to use much lower temperatures than they needed for brass brazing. He worked with Frank Brilando to develop processes for using silver solder instead of brass as the brazing material of choice. In 1957, Frank was put in charge of building the Paramounts from scratch. Spike Shannon, a race enthusiast and bike designer, was responsible for the frame layouts. Frank went on to head Schwinn’s Engineering through the 1960’s to the 1980’s. He joined Schwinn after the end of the War.įrank Brilando, engineer, earned spots on the 19 US Olympic teams, joined Schwinn in the early 50’s. He ended up trapped in France during the War, where he helped with the resistance movement. Joe Magnani, though a US citizen, raced the European circuit before World War II, marrying a French girl just before hostilities began. He also helped Ovie file frames when at the factory and, along with Stan Natanek, assembled Paramounts. Around the time of the Korean War Frank moved back to Chicago to join Schwinn, first in the assembly department and them in the Parts Department. During that time he started the San Diego Cycle Club, bought his first Paramount and became very successful at selling them. Frank Greco, a Chicago native, spent his war years in California, and stayed out in California after the war.
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