I have a friend that asked me what are some good C & V bikes with 700c wheels. He's a nut about looks and thinks that conversions have too much clearance. He'll mostly be going on short rides (< 10 miles) to and from work. He already has "commuter" bikes, so this is mostly for good weather and to add to the collection. I know he'll definitely want something classic looking so I'm thinking Raleigh Competition. The few that have come up here look right up his alley and I believe they have 700c wheels. I know my mystery Peugeot takes 700c, but nobody knows what it is so that doesn't help. I hope this isn't too broad of a question, but I'm going off one text message that says "I want a vintage road bike with 700c wheels like your Peugeot. Know anything I should look for." and I've added my own interpretation from there.

My room mate's '86 Bianchi has 700C's.

About every "good" not touring road bike in the 80s had 700c wheels. The sky is the limit.

lots of great bikes. Bianchis, fujis, raleigh, lotus, Univega. there are lots of them. it just depends on what your friend is looking for. first he needs to decide does he want a true C&V with non-aero brake cables and friction shifting or a "Nouvo C&V index and aero brakes? a tourer style or more racy?

The early Raleigh Competitions, prior to the G.S. edition (and perhaps even the GS models as well) is the worst 700C bike you could ever bring up for someone that dislikes large brake bridge/fork crown clearances. If you've ever seen a fenderless Competition with 700C's, you'll wonder why they weren't spec'ed with 27's.

I've just put Bluemels Club Specials under my '73 Competition (equipped with Mavic Open 4 CD's), and I still have tons of room left over.

-Kurt

Yeah, even the Professional needs the longer "standard" reach Campy brake caliper.

+3 Lots of them out there. I have three vintage 700c bikes in the keeper fleet right now, two came that way, a 1984 Lotus and a 1984 (+/-) Bianchi. I converted my wife's Centurion LEmans 12 mixte to 700s, just for the heck of it. You would be hard pressed to see a difference in the brake calipers, I dropped them a whopping 4 cms.

In the to move to another home stash I have a Miyata, a Giant, a Schwinn, and others. Its pretty common for the 1980s bikes.

Italian, Japanese, Trek, Schwinn all made some good bikes with 700c wheels. Myself, I would let the deal dictate the wheel size.

For some odd reason, I recommend a Centurion.

Well, that isn't unusual - the standard reach Campagnolo brake caliper is pretty much run-of-the-mill in terms of reach, even today. My '72 Paramount P13-9 uses them, and frankly, there isn't much clearance on that frameset.

-Kurt

I often think I learned a lot about bikes, but It always amazes me how much more there is to know. I'll try to get more details from him as to exactly what he's looking for but just from knowing him I'm guessing he wants true C&V over what bianchigirl refers to as nuevo C&V. I know 700c was common in the 80s, but what are some of the earlier models speced that way?

Mucho dinero... Paramounts, and top of the line Italian bikes are some. Caveat: unless you want to deal with tubulars, you need to change the rims/wheels on those

Don't know if he needs fenders, but tell him to look out for a Panasonic DX 1000-6000 model. They all have 700c wheels and not a lot of clearance.
-Gene-

any vintage bike that originally came with tubular wheels (AKA sew-ups, tubbies, sprints) will take 700C clincher wheels. That includes many, many bikes from the '60s and '70s, most with 5spd FWs, so the challenge then won't be brake reach but whether to re-space the rear triangle or to re-dish and short-axle a rear hub.
BTW, the first time I ever saw narrow, box-section high-performance 700C rims was in the early '80s, and they were Mavic Module E and/or Rigida 19 or 20...not rims we look for these days as they didn't tend to hold up.