Bicycle Mechanics - replacing 27 inch wheels with 700c

My bike currently has 27 inch wheels (1988 mavic ma 2) and i'm thinking of trying out some 700c araya wheels from around the same time. Simply because of the tire selection difference. are the arayas anywhere near the quality of the mavics?

They're both aluminum alloys but the specific alloys are different, but they will work ,
with the usual caveat that the brake shoes need come down 4mm
within the pad height adjustment slot on the brake arms.

Does the replacement wheel have hooked edge rims? without them your tire choices would be worse than for 27" wheels?

Does the replacement wheel have hooked edge rims? without them your tire choices would be worse than for 27" wheels?

The vast majority of rims are clincher, but yes if the OP has tubular rims then tire choices would be limited.

As long as your brake pads have room to move down the 4mm then you should be all set. Good luck!

I believe Bezalel was referring to vintage clincher rims that had straight rather than hooked sidewalls on the rim. The straight walls lack the hook (bump) that locks the tire in place greatly reducing the amount of pressure that can be used.

I believe Bezalel was referring to vintage clincher rims that had straight rather than hooked sidewalls on the rim. The straight walls lack the hook (bump) that locks the tire in place greatly reducing the amount of pressure that can be used.

Yes, that is what I was refering to. Having straight sides limits the amount of pressure you can use, effectively eliminating the use of narrower tires that are so popular in 700c.

Straight sides are not as common in 700c as they are in 27" but they did exist.

The vast majority of rims are clincher, but yes if the OP has tubular rims then tire choices would be limited.

As long as your brake pads have room to move down the 4mm then you should be all set. Good luck!

His 27" rims are definitely clinchers since 27" tubular rims don't exist.

Yikes, lots of confusion in this thread. Seems like much of it might be my fault.


His 27" rims are definitely clinchers since 27" tubular rime don't exist.

Sorry, I meant that if his 700c rims are tubular then his tire choices would be limited for those rims.



Straight sides are not as common in 700c as they are in 27" but they did exist.

Sorry, I thought you were referring to tubulars, not straight sided rims. I wasn't aware straight sided rims existed in the 700c size, but wouldn't they have been long gone by the 1980s?

In any case, to answer the OP's question, which I apparently didn't read, I can't say whether your Araya rims are better or worse than the Mavics. Araya made a lot of rims of varying quality, and without knowing specifically which ones they are it's impossible to judge. However, if you decide to keep the Mavics, good 27" tires do still exist. You might have to search them out on ebay though.

AFAIK, generally speaking, Mavic > Araya

As long as your brake pads have room to move down the 4mm then you should be all set. Good luck!

There's the rub. If the brake pad touches the tire, even a little bit, you are going to have frequent sidewall blow outs.

Sometimes you can just move the brake pads down with no trouble. Sometimes you can substitute long reach calipers or modify the calipers that you have and make it work. Some older frames were designed for use with 27" tires and fenders and you might not be able to find brakes that will work.

Rear triangle dropout spacing can be an issue too. Likewise, there's ways around that but it's nice to know what you're going to have to do before you start spending money.

My advice is to borrow a set of 700c wheels and test fit them. That way you'll know exactly what, if anything, you have to do to make the change.