Originally Posted by SchreiberBike
27 inch tires are available at every bike shop I've ever been to and at discount stores too. There's not as much variety available as almost all quality bikes in the last 20 years or so have been sold with 700C instead of 27", so you're not likely to find "fancy colors".
The difference is small enough that one size tubes fit either size. In fact, I've never seen a tube purporting to fit one but not the other.
You would think this to be true but I had a heck of a time here in Atlanta trying to find 27" tires of half-decent quality. Finally found a 'conti' at REI but they had to call another store to find me a second one (and they only had one as well). The local bike stores only seem to have 700cc tires and the sporting goods stores carry trash. You are correct, however, that the 700cc tubes fit fine in 27" tires but there seems to be a good chance that you will end up converting from schraeder to presta when switching to 700cc tubes. Since that was the case with mine, do I need to be concerned about the oversized hole in the rim? I picked up adapters for my floor pump and my frame pump is convertable but I have not yet found a pressure guage (other than that on the floor pump).