HillRider

No, not good/bad at all. If you have 27" wheels, keep them. If you are starting from scratch, 700c wheels offer more choices.

Steve Whitlatch 

I was just saying that in general is all. Higher end bikes tend to come with 700 C wheels with the exception of some very nice touring bikes. Some very nice bikes came with 27 inch wheels at a more affordable price. Not everyone needs a top end bike. For the way I ride I have no need for a Paramount. I just always wanted one as a kid. I have a feeling that the ride of the Paramount would not be night and day different from my Prelude. If you hang out here you are into bikes. Putting people into great bikes is always going to be the goal. No big deal. If I had a dollar for ever time I have seen the phrase "that bike only has 27 inch wheels" I would have a mint Paramount.

HillRider

I don't know of any current touring bikes that come with 27" wheels and by 1990 Trek had already converted the 520 to 700c wheels.

There is nothing "wrong" with 27" wheels and if you already have them or can use their presence on a used bike to get a price break, go for it. However, would you buy a new or very recent used bike with 27" wheels?

rpenmanparker 

I had my share of 27" wheel road bikes back in the day. If I still had one, I would be happy that some 27" wheels were still available. But that doesn't justify buying a new bike with 27" wheels for any road or nearly road use, racing, recreational road riding, touring, cross, etc. There is no upside to strapping oneself anew to this obsolete technology. Think Beta vs. VCR. Sooner or later it is only sensible to crown a winner.

hueyhoolihan

on 27er's...

i've got a couple of vintage treks that were made for 27" wheels. when it came time to replace the rims, i bought 27" Sun ME13II's. i've managed to accumulate several sets of NOS narrow 27" tires and when they run out and if no more show up on EBay at a reasonable price, i won't be heartbroken if i have to use the 1" Panaracers.

it may just be a placebo effect, but i prefer the ride of the 27ers over my 700c wheels. probably just imagining it...

FrenchFit 

That's hilarious to me, I'd consider the hi-ten fork and 27"ers to be the best features of the bike. But, my $3.3K Roubaix is probably the least ridden bike it our garage.

rpenmanparker 

Don't leave us in suspense. Say more. Why are a hi-ten fork and 27" wheels so desirable relative to stronger steel and a more broadly available wheel standard.

FrenchFit 

Well, I like the ride of hi-ten steel, at least with a quality frameset. A decent cr-mo frame and hi-ten fork, could be perfect match if you aren't a weight weenie. 27" wheelsets seems to have a nicer ride to me, slightly longer contact point and gliding momentum using narrow 1 inch of 11/8 tires than 700c, though I'll agree the math says they are very close dimensional-ly speaking. I'm fortunate to have similar frames in 700c and 27" wheelsets, the 27"ers bring a bigger smile to my face - that's my science. It cracks me up that so many MTBers abandoned their 26ers for 29ers, but larger than 700c has become heresy for road bikes, and some have gone 650c and 26" on Tri and Touring bikes, respectively. Each to their own, but I'm a big guy liking big wheels.

rpenmanparker 

Not heresy due to any technical issue, but rather due to the inability to sensibly support two nearly identical standards neither of which is better or worse than the other. I suspect 700c has won out due to the greater saturation of road cycling in Europe at the time the issue was being decided.

FrenchFit 

Agreed. However, I'll note the drift of the BF in that respect, "You'll want to upgrade those 27" wheels to a 700c set". Really? I guess the best arguments are there are far many more tire choices for 700c rims and you're sure not going to find any low spoke / carbon Zipp-vonderwheels in 27". We all need those, of course... I'm fairly sure the Velominati don't ride 27" wheelsets... or use any hi-ten components.

rpenmanparker 

Sure. No reason that 27" would be inferior by any rational measure. It's more the situation of being "stuck" on the wrong side of the issue with regard to wheel and tire choices and, yes, public perception.

rekmeyata

Not true, they're just different. Can you get deep dished 27" wheels-no, but why would you want a deep dish wheel on a vintage bike that never had those type of wheels back then? Be kind of silly looking to have a vintage lugged steel bike with deep dish rims. They use to race in America on 27" wheel for years, so their not bad wheel by any means. Velo Orange has a couple of really nice highly polished aluminum rims, as does Weinmann (WE280), and Velocity Synergy, not to mentioned new old stock rims that pop on E-Bay all the time; and there are several really nice tires around for that size for both fast riding and touring as I mentioned earlier.

In a lot of cases trying to switch from 27 to 700 can cost a lot of money if you have to replace the brake calipers, and that would be bad and not good. The only sort of bad thing is the tire selection is low, granted, but there are enough 27" tires to satisfy most people who still use those wheels.

wrk101

Sometimes it creates opportunity. I bought a set of nice 27 inch wheels last year, came off a mid 1980s Cannondale touring bike. Seller told me that he changed them out because the wheels were obsolete. "You know, you can't buy new tires for them anymore." He even threw in four brand new tires he had "these are the last ones you will ever find". I just nodded "OK". On the same week, I had bought 10 new 27 inch tires on line.......

My comments on the appraisal forum are all about what the bike is worth to the average buyer, not what it is worth to me. 27 inch wheel road bikes tend to get discounted by the average buyer out there.

Steve Whitlatch 

It is funny that you mentioned that. I purchased this 1980 Voyageur for $35 to flip. It was in bad condition but after I cleaned it up my wife took a liking to it. It was her size. She asked me to fix it up even nicer and she asked for "the cool looking" wheels that come on the new bikes................


I think it came out good. She has 105 Indexed shifting and her pretty wheels.

rpenmanparker 

No, don't switch, but also don't buy into 27 in new either.

rekmeyata

If your wife is happy then so be it, but it now doesn't have that classic look anymore, it simply lost that flavor, not to be offensive it's just my opinion that's all; kind of like I music the original artist did, but then some rapster comes along and threads the classic song into it and it just does nothing for me but others like it.

Steve Whitlatch 

Not offended at all. No points for symmetry? I worked hard on that bike. LOL

I have a green 1975 Raleigh Grand Prix that has the original steel wheels. I polished the crap out of chrome on that bike. Yesterday I took the chrome wheels off and put my 27 inch alloy wheels from my Prelude on that bike and now I think it has lost its classic look. I hope it grows on me. Wheels do seem to change the look of a bike a great deal. Wheels are easy to change though.

HillRider

You might have lost the "classic look" but at least the bike will now stop properly. Polished steel rim wheels? Might as well discard the brakes.

rekmeyata

this is correct, the chrome wheels were horrendously poor at stopping when wet though they did look pretty cool all polished up. If the bike is to be ridden on a darn near regular basis you probably want the aluminum rims, for a show or for special ride to show off the bike (when it's not raining) simply switch back to the chrome wheels because there won't be any brakes to change out to make the swap. Some aluminum rims like the ones at VeloOrange are highly polished aluminum and look darn near the look of chrome. I have classic cars, I made some mild improvements over the original parts, but all the improvements I made are hidden under stock looking stuff and can be readily put back to original factory specs with just about an 1/2 hour of time (and I kept the old stuff). I'm not one of those guys who takes a perfectly fine factory original classic car and turn into something it wasn't, like a hotrod or a lowrider, to me thats butchering the car even though I know there are people who are interested in seeing some of my cars look like that. I'm that way with my bikes, I keep them as factory correct as possible.

Steve I wasn't trying to offend you, everyone has a different outlook on things, I knew people who worked hard and spent a lot of cash changing a street stock car into hotrods and lowriders and there were people standing in line to buy them! It's just not my thing, I want the cars, and bikes, to preserved as they were meant to be.

By the way some bikes can make the switch from 27 to 700 without changing the brakes if the brakes will reach far enough. I got lucky on my 84 Trek when I made the switch, I simply had to bottom out the brake pads on the calipers; then for giggles I swapped a set of 700 rims onto my 85 Schwinn with cantilever brakes and again I lucked out and the brakes didn't even need adjusting at all. I would say if your contemplating making the change to 700 borrow a set of 700 wheels and see if the brakes will adjust to work...but keep the 27's.

Steve Whitlatch 

I am not offended at all. I already changed out the wheels weeks ago on the Prelude. I was buying a set of Suntour Cyclone Pedals for my wife`s bike off a forum member that lives near by. He had a set of Araya rims with Suntour Hubs that looked brand new. I got a great deal I believe. The brakes lined up with just a minor adjustment. I also save the original parts in case I ever want to switch back.





Chrome wheels.

rekmeyata

Real nice collection in great condition.

Myosmith

I think you did a great job and I really like the way your bike looks.

My father and I used to fight about this with classic vehicles all the time. He owned a restoration shop and was of the opinion that all classic vehicles should be restored to their factory original state. While I certainly appreciate an immaculate restoration and think that some examples of any classic vehicle should be preserved, I also can appreciate a well-done update or even street rodding.

I think you hit the mark in blending the old and the new.

HillRider

I agree that the bike looks very good with the replacement wheels.

As to period correct restorations of old bikes and old cars, some of the old designs were just plain dangerous in today's environment and should be limited to cars (and bikes) that are display items, not daily or even special event drivers. For example, cars with mechanical brakes cannot be licensed for road use in most states today. They may be period correct but they are too hazardous to allow in traffic. I put bikes with steel rims in the same category.

SJX426 

Polishing up AL rims is better looking than the chrome rims. What I find fault with the newer rims is the brake surface being much higher profile. It is close but you can't find a low profile like the Rigida 1320's. To me, the bikes that look really light and fast that are C&V are ones with minimal rim profile. I know they are not as strong unless they are Tubular rims. Maybe that is why I like them better.

Steve Whitlatch 

Thanks for the positive feedback on the bike. None of my friends are into vintage bikes so I do not get any feedback on my builds from them.

As for the steel wheels on the Raleigh, I have thought about it and think that I am just used to all the bling the large hubs and spoke guard bring to the look of the bike. It is part of what makes the bike so cool looking. The wheels from the Prelude are just more minimal bling. I want to learn to build wheels so I think my first attempt will be to take the original hubs from the Grand Prix and lace them to a new set of polished alloy rims.