Commuter tires that will fit on a sport frame?
 

Hi all - I recently ordered a set of 27 x 1.1/4 Panaracer Pasela TG tires for my 1984 Motobecane Mirage Sport.

I got them in last night with a set of SKS commuter fenders. Long story short I can't use them. The tread on the Pasela's protrudes a few more mm's more than the specialized tri-sports (slicks) that came on the bike. The rear one ends up rubbing my front derailuer. :( :crash:

So I guess my question is, do they make any commuter style tires in that size that won't add several MM's of tread?

27x1.25 is a standard outdated by 20 years. Your choices get pretty thin in a hurry. Having said that, I think Continental makes their UltraGatorskin in a useful size for you, say 1 1/8. Those are pretty bulletproof tires.

Will going to a narrower tire give me the clearance I need? The problem wasn't the width of the tire, but rather the height of the sidewall. :(

The tires are (more or less) a semi-circle. If it's narrower, it's also shorter.

*sigh* I'll have to give that a try. Hopefully nashbar will take the tires back. Otherwise I'm out $60.

Wish tires were held to a better sizing standard. Drives me nuts that my existing 27x1.25 tires are smaller than my new ones that are also marked 27x1.25.

It bumps the derailleur? Like the mounting bracket on the seat tube?

If you have horizontal dropouts is it possible to slide the wheel back anymore? My '87 Peugeot had some plastic shims in the back of the dropouts that when removed gave me an extra few mm.

Good luck.

Yes it bumps the derailuer where it mounts to the seat tube.

I was looking at options like that last night, but I have more vertical oriented dropouts, so I don't have much wiggle room.

I'll be sending these back and getting 27x1 1/8 tires. Hopefully that will do the trick. Hopefully this won't be a repeat in a week with me sending them back to get the 27x1's. :)

I'm not a mechanic, so I don't know how hard this would be, but you may consider at some point asking your favorite bike mechanic about the possibility converting to 700c wheels. It'd be a little bit of an investment in rims, but it would expand your tire possibilities exponentially.

Any mechanics want to chime in on this?

I'm wondering if the bike was originally designed for 700c wheels because the clearances seem pretty tight for 27". Sometimes you can find older 700c wheels in shops or on craigslist for not too much money. He'd not only have more tire options, but less of a clearance problem behind the seat tube as well.

I dunno. There are some pretty good options out there for 27" wheels (aka"630" size) - Continental, Vittoria, Schwalbe, Panaracer and Kenda all have high-quality tires that fit. Kenda even makes a knobby cyclocross tire in the size.

Velocity's still making a decent 27" alloy rim, too. Nice wheelsets with Shimano hubs and DT Swiss spokes go for only $180 or so... and generic alloy wheelsets go for $70 or so online, brand new.

There comes a time when you have to wonder how many options you really need. The Conti Gatorskins are about as nice a commuter tire as you're going to find, in any size.

On the other hand, those Pasela's don't have that much tread. I second the notion that the frame may be designed for 700c rather than 27" rims.

Well, the OP for one is bumping up (literally) against a lack of options. He's got to select a thinner tire than he intended. Tires in 27 X 1 1/8 aren't that common. You won't see them stocked many places. And the number of options is likely to decrease rather than increase as time goes on.

Well, I hate to say it, but being the Schwalbe representative on this board, our selections in the 630 size are pretty slim.

We offer an:

HS 159 (Basic Line Tire) in a whitewall or gumwall
HS 368 Standard Marathon with a reflective sidewall.

Both tire types are the 27x1 1/4, so the OP would likely have the same clearance issues.

tjspiel may be right, in which case the conversion back should be somewhat easy. However the vintage of the bike might lead me to conclude that these are the original rims, and 25 years ago, there were many more options in a 630 tire.

According the catalog page for my bike, 27 inch wheels are the factory size. (1984 Mirage Sport). Not a lot of clearance from the factory.

http://www.equusbicycle.com/bike/mot...becane0005.jpg

I ordered the Panaracers from Nashbar, who also have them in 27x1.125 and 27x1.00. Either way these tires have to go back to nashbar, so I might as well just exchange them for one of the thinner panaracers.

700 wheels would be nice, but not supported by the budget at this point. :(

Also, the tires I have currently are 27x1.25 - so theres a chance that another manufacturers 27x1.25 would clear.

I put Michelin Pilot City 1.25s atm on my bike which are bombproof. Not sure if they come in a 27 model though.

one thing you might want to consider is trying out a different front derailleur. used ones are $5-$10.

when i have fenders on my bike, i can't run any mountain FD (XT, LX). however, i have an old shimano 200 GS FD that fits perfectly. maybe you can look for that particular one too.