LesterOfPuppets

Usually a one person job with bike upside down. Put cog on chain, rest axle ends against dropout openings, spread triangle and wheel drops in. After a couple of years riding around with a 130 in there the rear triangle will slowly spread to that width. Only drawback compared to a pro coldset is dropout parallelism my be slightly lacking.

D1andonlyDman

I have an older Trek model 510 frame from 1979, which originally used 27" wheels, and I have gone back and forth between 700c and 27" wheels several times with no problems at all - and my bike has short Winemann side-pull calipers. There is plenty of room on the brake shoe mounts for the degree of adjustment needed. So basically, even the earliest Trek frames will accommodate 700c wheels.

cyccommute 

I find it to be a one person job with the bike right side up and in a stand. I have bikes that are designed for 135mm hubs that are harder to get the wheel in than most of the 126mm to 130mm bikes I've worked on.

Camilo

Why not just buy a bare 700c frame and build it up. It doesn't sound like a bike with old parts is part of your vision anyway. I'd go with one of the many, many British or Italian steel frames from the 80s or 90s, but I'm not someone who places any special cachet on the brand Trek. If you open your market to bare frames, shipping is very easy and realatively cheap, opening up ebay for you. Unless it's that vintage of Trek that is what's interesting.

LesterOfPuppets

Who takes a stand with them "on the road"???

bres dad

This is for my wife who is a Trek fanatic (I'd call her a Trekkie but that has a different meaning here...) I pitched the idea of a vintage bike to her and she is game but it HAS to be a Trek per her. More specifically, she's wanting a steel frame Trek. I've had some vintage aluminum Treks and her first road bike was an older 1200 but she hated all of them. She'd pretty picky and this is what she wants.

Camilo

Excellent reason to find a Trek!

wedgeSG

There are some decent 27" wheels and tires out there....(not as many as 700c by a long shot), but some decent rolling stock that looks good too at very affordable pricing. I recently did a conversion on a fat-tire, full fender, cruiser bike from 26" TO 27"....it's a long story; but was based mostly on available parts and low dollars. The bike now rides on 27x1 Weinmann LP18s (with sealed bearings), wearing Continental Ultra Sports in 27x1-1/4. Smooth, and pretty fast set that was $179. for wheels with skewers, tires ,tubes, & rimstrips. See [url=https://www.bicyclewheels.com]Bicyclewheels.com that's where my 27's came from. The brakes are a pair of Ebay sourced Cane Creek SCR-3L fronts. Unless you have a specific 700c set in mind, there are some impressive 27 wheelsets available.

dedhed

Done it a number of times, easy conversion. Treks are nice, all common threading and sizes. I did have to file the slots on one to run the 6600 Ultegra DP brakes. I never had to set the frame either to run a 130mm hub. I have drilled out the brake bridge and fork for recessed brakes. These were mid-late '80's early '90's 6 - 7 speed originals.

Might also look at this for stop and run w/inline adjusters.
https://www.amazon.com/ORIGIN8-Alloy-.../dp/B004FSVVN8

bres dad

Picked up the bike Saturday. Near mint save some scrapes but damn nice given the age. The freewheel is a bit sticky and doesn't spin free, but not too concerned about that. Surprisingly my wife loves it as even though she doesn't normally like DT. The only down tube she's ridden are indexed shifters, so I'm not sure how well she'll like the friction. We'll cross that bridge when we come to it though. She is open to modernizing is but wants to keep the vintage look.

dr1445

+1 and add vittoria or conti, there you have a choice of 3. i have been running sapim racer spokes [thorusa] with either sun m-13 or cr-18 27" rims.

dwmckee

I have done this conversion on two bikes without cold setting. The frames I had simply have enough give with a light flexing to slip the wheel right in. That was on a very old Cannondale and a Bob Jackson.

dwmckee

Very nice looking ride. I'd just tune it and ride it as is for a while and maybe put on bar end shifters...

Gresp15C

Matching Xmas tree lights. Nice touch.

rpenmanparker 

If the clamp-on lever bosses aren't compatible with the most common downtube cable guides for STI, just switch to a model of clamp on boss that is. They are all over ebay. Or it might even be simpler and you can find a clamp on set of cable guides and skip the bosses underneath the guides altogether.

bres dad

I've sourced the parts I need to update the bike. Just need to see if my wife can deal with the DT frictions shifters. We'll see where we go from there. It stays as is until then

noglider 

I wouldn't change the wheel size if I were in your shoes. I have a 1971 Raleigh Super Course with 27" wheels. It wears Panaracer Pasela tires, which I like a lot. I have changed a lot on the bike, but I'm fine with the wheel diameter as it is.

Raiden

If dt is no good, and brifters are too expensive or something, try bar ends, theyre a great compromise. But a set of used 7speed sora brifters is cheap on ebay.

Quick and dirty sticky freewheel fix: turn the wheel on its side and dribble chain lube through the end of the freewheel (between where the spinning and stationary parts pass each other) while spinnging the freewheel.

noglider 

Even cheaper are stem-mounted shifters, and they can be very convenient, depending on your riding position.

bres dad

What happens to the bike next is going to be decided by my wife, probably in the spring. Mean time I've got plenty of other bikes to upgrade & overhaul.

takenreasy

This was my primary concern when thinking of going for 27" to 700c. Many seem to trivialize the bending of steel frames. I just was never really sold on the idea.

LesterOfPuppets

126 to 130 is really next to nothing. 120 to 130 is when I start to worry a little.

3alarmer

...I kinda reworked one of the 400 series bikes a couple of years ago as an around the town rider, with a rack and bags.



Mine came in worse condition, and the wheels were kinda shot, so I put some decent 700c wheels on it that showed up at the co-op.
It works fine, pretty much as is, but it's very flat here, so most of my shifting involves wind or climbing very short ups onto the levee.

IIRC, the brakes it came with had adequate reach for the 700c wheels. I don't recall changing them.

The whole brifter thing, IMO, is better done by just buying a used bike that already has them. They've been around so long that the local CL here always has some of them at bargain prices. But your wife would have to expand her definitions of what's acceptable. This can be a major hurdle.