Convince me to go 700c, or convince me to stay 27
 

For Father's Day, my wife wanted to pick me up something I wanted (not something I need).

Question comes, and I respond with a new wheelset. Of course, this is not something that she can pick out and surprise me with, so I send her a link to the CR18/quando 27" wheelset from VeloMine. Target bike for these is my Miyata 610, running original equipment wheels. They are serviceable, but some spokes could use replacing, some nipples are corroded, etc. The good thing about these wheels, when I built the bike up earlier this year I put a brand new freewheel on, and a brand new set of 27x1 1/4 Panaracer Pasela Tour Guards. These parts would obviously swap over to the new wheels upon arrival.

I was wondering though, since I am getting new wheels, why not get the 700c version of the same wheelset? I don't mind the freewheel interface, I actually prefer it at this price level. Biggest benefit I can see is tire selection, but this is almost completely voided by the now 500mile old set of Panaracers in the 27size that I already have!

Now, BF, what would you do!?

For visual sake, here is the bike in question:

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3571/1...58306104_b.jpg

650b and Compass Loop Loops....just my 2 cents

Depends on how long you'd plan to keep the new wheels and how many miles/sets of tires you'd put on them during that time. My choice would probably be to go with 700c since I'd plan on keeping them for at least 50,000 miles and probably go through 10 sets of tires so the greater tire choice would win out. And I'd also keep the old set of wheels/tires around and plan to use them during the winter/rainy season and as emergency spares if something breaks in the new wheels (I presume your brake pads have enough adjustment for both sizes).

Ironically, as a result of poor pre-trip checking, I found myself looking for a replacement tire on a short tour just a couple weeks ago. The only bike shop in town was closed that day so I checked at a discount shop. They had several tires in the 26" size (not surprising), and also had one in 27" - but none in the needed 700c. Fortunately my tire survived another 50 miles to the next town with bike shops.

I am quite certain my cantilever's could not make that stretch. I could be wrong, but I really doubt it.

Your talking about changing the look of the bike for a choice of tires. Keep the 27".

Would you elaborate pls, why 650b and not 700c?

gt eunuch, as long as you plan to change wheelsets I would go 700c for just the reason you mentioned: tire selection. Can your breaks be adjusted to accommodate the couple mm smaller dia rim? The only reason I didn't go to 700c when I bought new wheels for my Sekine is I had a couple sets of new tires already, and need to replace my rear brake with a long reach. So I went super cheap on the wheels.

Oh ya, almost forgot: check your current rim width - you might want to go with similar "wider" 700c rims. If I'm not mistaken, most 700c rims are narrower. Makes a 27mm tire look bulbous, not as nice as on the wider rims of our older bikes.

That's a really pretty bike.

Some people say you can, it is only 4mm's difference. I'd rather not though, so stick with 27".

I absolutely have enough adjustment to get to 700c. The first thing I did was measure to verify that I did when I started having these crazy thoughts... :p

edit: the comment above about not having the adjustment, would be going from 27 -> 650b as motoChick mentioned

Why not fix the spokes?? Its easy and 27" works fine- nice tire width unless you are racing on a track...

There is a 27" x 1" size also for those that just have to have a narrower tire.

27's

3.50, pay the secretary on the way out.

Going with 700c would add a few mm for larger tire clearance, or even fenders (it is a touring bike after all). But the clearance already looks pretty decent with the 27x 1 1/4 Paselas, (which I quite like). As long as you're cool with Paselas, I'd probably stick with 27s.

Meh. Unless you're trying to squeeze in fenders where they don't really belong, is there any reason not to go with what you have? 27.

I personally really like 27's, and the tires are usually nice and beefy. If I was upgrading however, I would most likely go with 700c because of the availability of tubes/tires and anything else related. It really depends on what you want to do with the bike. I feel you can do a lot of things with 700c's, but 27's are better for comfort and touring. Just a personal preference :)

27" is the classic size for older sport and touring bikes. Nice vintage 27" rims can often be found for cheap, while their 700C counterparts are getting pretty expensive. Tire size is very limited compared to 700C --basically 27x1, 1-1/8, and 1-1/4-- but the selection of models among those 3 sizes is good. If you're OK with those sizes then I'd say 27" is fine. For the really big tire sizes I'd go with 700C.

A 700c cassette wheel would be a nice upgrade, it would broaden tyre choices and give you a stronger rear hub with more gearing options.

A higher volume 700c like a 32 is going to give an equally plush ride.

On the other hand, if you like the way the bike is set up with 27's and you already have invested a little in tyres a simple swap is going to be pretty economical... the 610 came with fairly decent hubs so rebuilding the wheels around those is also a nice option if they are in good condition.

It really doesn't matter much. 700c has nicer tires available, but with this bike, it may not matter. Sticking with 27" will get your money's worth out of your existing tires.

I recommend getting wheels lighter than your current ones. You'll enjoy them.

I would make sure that the brakes can be adjusted to 700c rims first, lots of times on older tourers they can't. I believe it has to do with the distance between the canti studs. Often the brakes will dive instead of contacting the rim square. My Univega Gran Turismo had that problem, so I stayed with 27" wheels.

I felt that I was in a similar quandary for a few months with my '85 Miyata 210.

I was more concerned with the quality of the wheels I had on the bike, since the front hub was pretty worn out.

In the end, I decided to stick it out with the 27s since my Paselas were working out just fine and were in good shape, replaced the cone-nuts on the front hub (which sorta helped), and got a great N+1 with 700c Mavic rims. Just put Panaracer Pasela 28s on them.

Now from time-to-time, I just think about swapping over the whole wheelset. Nice to have the option....:thumb:

Your bike looks good as it is. Keep the 27's

It's 4mm difference between 27" (630mm BSD) and 700c (622mm BSD). Don't know 650b off the top of my head but it's certainly a lot more than a 4mm difference in radius from a 27" wheel.

Definitely not. I'm guessing motochick didn't see the picture. ;)

23mm, I was confusedly talking about 700c :thumb:

I made the switch recently on my old Raleigh because I got a set of ksyrium SL's at a giveaway price. So I put those on my less vintage roadbike and did the hand me down thing with the Raleigh. At the time, it did need either a new rear wheel or an overhaul of the existing wheel, so switching them out was basically a no brainer.

So what are the advantages that I found? Pretty much just a cassette hub. For me though, that's a pretty big one since I had already converted it to 3x7 gears and I was having problems with bent axles. For you it may not be an issue.

Tires weren't that big a deal. The way I see it, a vintage bike should be somewhat cheap and it doesn't need to be a super high performance machine. For that role, I'm already content with the tires that are available in 27".

.
...I think you should follow your heart.

584mm vs 630 mm is a 23mm difference at the rim.

19mm difference with 622.