To me, it looks as if you probably have 4mm of extra room under the rear brake, but it's not clear that you do under the front brake.
I have a number of road bikes, three of which have 27" rims, and three of which have 700c rims. (The "modern" bikes are the ones that I ride much more often, except for my commuter which has 27" rims).
I find that it's easy enough to get cheap 27" tires and much cheaper to get extra 27" wheels compared to 700c wheels (which also may be the case around your bike co-op).
I think one of the biggest reasons to switch rim sizes is if you want a freehub rear hub (instead of a freewheel). That said, I've built two rear wheels with 27" rims and 7-speed freehubs.
Originally Posted by
A.Winthrop
Oh, BTW, I'm still using mid-'80s brake cables (and RD cable housing) on all my mid-'80s bikes. It sometimes takes awhile to get lubricant through the housing for smooth braking (and shifting) but I've found that ultimately they work fine.
the OP should take this comment in context, since it comes from a guy who still uses a mid-'80s DOS-based text-entry program
