and is it possible to upgrade a bike with these tires to more modern rims and tires?

it is a 1984 trek 720 touring bike.

The two tire sizes you mentioned are completely different sizes and are not interchangeable. If you want to upgrade your bike to 700C, you will need wheels with 700C rims. Also check to make sure the brake pads on your Trek will reach the 700C rims. 700C's diameter is smaller than 27 x 1 1/4 inch.

You can probably upgrade to modern rims, but you'll need to rebuild the wheel. My '80's 620 has 700c wheels now. The brake reach on the stock cantis worked fine.

Honestly, if the wheels are in good shape there's no reason you can't stick with the 27" ones.

Are decent tires easy to come by in this size? If so then I may stick with the size. My concern was getting tires and tubes for it.

Yes. Nashbar and Performance have a decent selection, to name a couple. I have 27" Continental 2000's on my 1988 Miyata.

BTW, you can use 700c tubes in 27" tires. Tubes are interchangeable for the most part, but the tires are not.

John D.

Thanks, just the information I needed.

As an added plus - since everyone and their brother is bailing out of the 27" tires in favor of upgrading to 700c, bike swaps are a goldmine for cheap 27" tires. The last one I went to I scored 27" folding tires for $2.00 each.

Nashbar has a housebrand 27" tire for less that $10.00. They just had a sale last month for something like $5.00 ea, and currently have some for $2.95.

Check this out: Nashbar Tires


John D.

As far as tubes go, just get 700x28-32.

More 27"-ers: https://sheldonbrown.com/harris/tires/630.html

Contiental Ultragatorskins are available in 27x1-1/4 size. So are Specialized Armadillo All Condition tires. Either of these flat resistant tires are good for touring.

The Nashbar tires are pretty cheap. Probably similar to what you can get at Wall Mart. Yes, wally world still sells 27 in tires though not 700c - at least not in my town. Wall Mart also sells 27 in tubes (Shrader), which are as good as anyone else's.

There's absolutely no reason to switch from 27" wheels unless it's steel. The 27" tires are dirt cheap compared to 700c, nearly bulletproof and last a million years. But if you really wanted to, yeah, you'd need to change out the spokes and rim.

I have an old 10 spd, that I was able to switch the rear up to a 6 spd, with a 27x1 1/4 inch wheel. The front, I switch with my other roadbike, witch has 700c wheels.

The only issue really is with the brakes. On my front, I had to lower the pads all the way down to get the clearance for a 700c wheel.

If your not sure about yours, look at how they are set for the 27" wheel if the pads are about half way in the hole, then you should have room to move them all the way down.

Do you have a friend with 700c wheels? Try slipping his wheel on first, to see if the brake pads can go all the way down.

so anyone know of any good deals on a 27" 32H rim? I m having a bugger of a time finding one...

thanks in advance

Try Harris Cyclery (https://sheldonbrown.com/harris/rims/630.html). Look at the Weinmann RM19 rim. That's the only 32h rim I see. QBP catalog only has two 27" rims, both 36h.

If the Weinmann doesn't do it for you, Harris also has a pair of 27" wheels (not just rims) with 36 spokes for $99 complete. It's hard to buy rims and spokes for existing hubs for much less than that.

I've been wondering if newer 27-inch wheels would be any lighter than some older ones I have on my bikes. I have two 80s road bikes with UKAI rims ('made in Japan') and was thinking about upgrading for weight purposes. Would this help, or am I just chasing windmills? The 700c wheels seem so much lighter.


To the OP, the tires at Harris Cyclery look great. I'm planning on getting myself very soon.

Also, I'd definitely put an asterisk on generic tubes: I bought some recently, brand new, and I got holes on the seams at the first use--a couple. They 'seamed' to be very poorly made.

When I contacted Sheldonbrown, several months ago, about going up from a 5spd to a 6 or 7spd, they had at that time a set of 27 x 1 1/4" wheels selling arount $99. You can try going into a bike shop near you and see if they might have 27" wheels.

One by me had 1 27" front wheel, and about 6 700c wheels, they said they could special order most any part and have it there the next day. Maybe your bike shop can do the same.

Been running nothing but wally world tubes for 26 and 27 inch size for a long time. Never have problems with them.

I just found tires for 27 x 1 1/4 for 2.95 or so on nashbar. And there is a 20% discount if your order is >$80 - thru june 26 I think.

thanks but i m just lookign for some cheap (in price not quality) rims @ 27" w/32Hs, not a whole wheelset - i am building a track wheel and have a 32H hub..

You should give Harris Cyclery a call. Maybe they have some old stock that will work. 27 inch rims are getting scarce.

so basically if i m going to be building a new wheel, it would make the most sense to just go ahead and make it of 700c rim?

the only reason i was lookign for 27" rims was because thats what the bike has on it now. Is it likely that a frame that currently rides on 27"ers will accept 700c's comfortably?

I would check with Harris Cyclery first to see if they can help you out. If not, then you can either switch to a 700c rim or find a 36h track hub. If you go with 700c then, assuming you plan to have brakes (you did say it was a track bike) then you need to make sure that the brakes will reach the smaller rims. If they won't then you may be in for some long reach calipers as well which may call into question how much you want to spend on this project.

If you don't plan on having brakes, then go with the 700c and you'll have no shortage of rim choices.

thanks again for the advice!!

rock on

New ones, maybe. I've got so many used 27" rims piled up hell won't hold 'em.

I ran across a source for 32h 27in rims. St. John Street Cycles (www.sjscycles.com) located in the UK has four styles of 32 hole rims. The prices shown are in Pounds and include the 17% VAT. If you order from them, it is my understanding that they will deduct the 17% VAT so take that into account if you order from them.

Here's a link to the 27 inch rim page: https://www.sjscycles.com/store/vIndex.htm

EDIT: Well, it's a framed page so you'll need to locate the rims section.

Good luck!