The Golden Boy 

Most of my bikes are 27.

I've gotten the itch to go to 700c on one or tow of them, but haven't acted on it yet. Right now the 3 touring bikes are on 27x1 1/4 Pasela Tourguards. I actually ended up changing my Trek 400 FROM 700c TO 27- just so I could get a set of short reach brakes to work.

The two Trek tourers are spaced at 128, but the chainstays are 47cm long- I think they'll stretch to accommodate a 130 cassette hub- which I'd like to play with. The Voyageur SP has a badass wheelset- and it's spaced at 120 (but I want to put a 6sp on there...) Tire wise- there's a whole world I'm missing- while I might dig some 35s or something, The Trek 720 still has the Helicomatic- so a change is due.

As I understand, with some of the touring bikes, it's not JUST that the canti posts are higher, they're also narrower- making the 4mm change a little more difficult, except for a few super-adjustable brake arms... Just regurgitating what I've read...

I say stay with the 27s.

motochick 

I was so focused on the beautiful frame, and that is was my size, AND a triple, I didn't even see the brakes.....I was in a lust moment.

eMats

I wouldn't touch a thing on your bike except to research ways to recover the brilliance of your current wheelset.

chewa

I swapped to 700c on my Flying Scot, but I kept the Campag Record hubs and just built them into Mavic Open Pros.

The main reason I did that was rim and tyre choice. I want to ride my bike so envisage having to replace tyres, and the 700c option also gave me a bigger selection of lighter weight rims.

I did have to change to deeper drop brakes, but I can easily swap back. I know it's heresy, but I only resisted going the full ergo route because I didn't want to spread the rear triangle to accomodate a 9 or 10 speed cluster. I left it at 126 with a 6 speed screw on.

Fred Smedley

Nice bike!

Little Darwin

My decision would be easy.

I had a set of custom wheels built when I upgraded to a vintage touring bike with a modern component group (with 10 speed cassette) a few years ago... I went with 27" rims on the wheels.

So, I am thinking you could guess on how I would vote in your case where you prefer freewheels.

jimmuller 

I'm in the 27" camp for several reasons.

How many sets of tires will you run through before deciding to upgrade the wheels again? Will decent 27" tires disappear by then? Didn't think so.

The effect on the bike will be minor but perhaps you can feel subtle differences. I kept 27" on several of my bikes and like the result. 27" roll nicely over less than ideal pavement. They carry momentum between pedal strokes when riding uphill. They place you slightly higher up and give you a tiny bit more pedal/ground clearance. 27" is what the bike was designed for.

You may have adjust your brakes anyway, but why make it required?

DiegoFrogs

If you're going to spend the money on a new 27" wheel, make sure you actually need it and that it's an actual upgrade.

I recently upgraded my touring bike to a dynamo front hub and cassette rear hub, and you bet I went with 700c over the original 27" single-walled rims without eyelets. There was no reason not to, and everything works fine. This certainly allows me to experiment with tires and whatnot very easily, and use some slightly wider tires.

Wildwood 

+1 on all of noglider's points, especially regarding 'lighter' when you upgrade rims or wheels.

photogravity

Great discussion. With that said, the last pair of wheels I build were 700c and they were for my Norman Rapide. The reason: tire choice. The Pasela is a pretty nice tire but is about as good as you're going to find in 27", but it isn't even in the same league with some of the Grand Bois, Compass or Veloflex offerings.

fietsbob

With the cantilever brakes you have, are they adjustable enough to slide the brake shoe down about 5mm in an adjustment slot?

that is about how far they have to be moved down to meet a 700c rim,

as the radius of a 27" rim is about that much more than the radius of a 700c one.

315 vs 311..

oddjob2

Running a 27" x 1 1/4 is like running 32 mm wide 700c. I don't think you need wider than that.
As pointed out above, you pay a hefty premium for the same tire in 700c vs 27".
Besides Panaracers, their are Michelin, Contis, Schwalbe, and Vittorio all available in 27.
My budget is too tight to run the high dollar tires that Photogravity pointed out, and frankly since many of my keepers were acquired for very little money, it makes me cringe to consider a pair of tires for $125 and a $100 saddle.

https://ryansrebuilds.blogspot.com/20...w-options.html

Niagaracycle.com has two pages of 27" tires.

photogravity

I do see the Conti tires on the Niagara page. Those'd be something to consider, for sure, and probably a pretty good option for someone who is looking for better performance than wear.

Admittedly, now I've been riding nicer tires, I've gotten a little spoiled to say the least.

Chrome Molly

I'd stick with the 27's.

If it were more of a "sport tourer" then I'd go 700c.

rootboy 

I concur.