Originally Posted by
Wogster
27" was popular in North America, up until the late 1970's when they started disappearing in Canada. I think it had to do with the start of the failed start to metric conversion. I think they held on much longer in the US. Even so, nobody has made a new bike with 27" wheels in over 20 years, so it's surprising that there are ANY 27" tires still around.
Why?
The tire companies aren't the bike companies. I can understand the bike companies wanting to force the change- but the tire companies sell the product to those holdovers. There's no innovation on the 27" end, and just the cursory models, and that seems to be enough to keep the people that still have 27" wheels in use.