I believe that many of the '60s road Paramounts were designed for 27" wheels. Upgrading to tubulars was an option and not a problem since they were spec'd with Weinmann centerpulls which had lots of reach.

The Schwinn fillet brazed cromolly framed road bikes, i.e. Superior, Super Sport, and Sports Tourer, were definitely designed for 27" wheels. The height of the rear brake bridge and the clearance under the fork scream 27" and make using 700c wheels nearly impossible.

Your statement might be dead-on for the European road bikes. Some had enough space for 27" wheels and thus were shipped to the U.S. in order to satisfy the preference for that size in the '60s-'70s.

BTW, this could be a new sticky. Sources for high quality 27" tires. Especially the harder to find 27 X 1 and somewhat hard to find 27 1 1/8. As far as I can tell at this time, only Performance has the smaller size in their brand. The IRC Triathalons I like seem to be "out of stock" at every source I'm familiar with. I hope they will still be made.

Kurt, the blue bar tape from Loose Screws looks great!

Outside of looks