mike

We often see posts by folks wanting to change their 27" wheels to 700 cm because they are afraid they won't be able to get 27" tires.

Sure, when you check out the online stores like Nashbar.com or Performancebike.com and others, you only find one or two 27" offerings, so one would be led to believe that th 27" wheel is dead.

Well maybe not - not yet at least.

I notice that our local hardware and department stores with bicycle departments carry a variety of tires including 27" tires, but no 700 cm tires. So, I wondered why there is a notion that the 700 cm wheel is so prominant and the 27" wheel supposedly vanishing.

I talked about this with our local LBS who sells all kinds of bikes including a lot of modern 700 cm wheel road bikes. He told me that for summer 2008 the 27" tire was his number one seller - hands down. Apparently, a lot of folks are dusting off the 27" road bikes they already own, putting on new tires, and riding them!

So, despite what we might hear about the disappearing 27" tire, it seems that at least for now, the 27" tire is going strong.

tjspiel

They're still dead ;-)

I've read about increased demand this year because of people digging old bikes out to fight gas prices, but I think it'll be a short lived "surge". I don't think we'll see new bikes being sold with 27" tires so while there might be a brief resurgence in demand for tires and maybe an increased supply as a result, over time the availability and variety will continue to diminish.

evblazer

If folks keep riding those bikes that have been collecting dust/rust/corrosion for so long soon other things will start going besides just dry rotted tires.
Many will get swayed into new cheap bikes or may just junk their bike and go back to the new super low gas prices

Forget 27" tires. All you folks giving those MTB people advice on getting slicks for commuting is putting my 26" tires on backorder.

tjspiel

I'll just add that I think you'll be able to get 27" tires for a long while to come. It's more a problem of getting ones you like. There's a huge variety of 700c tires and if you're patient you can get a good deal on the better/more expensive tires in the width you're looking for.

The problem I had last year with getting tires for my wife's bike is that while I could find them, the only ones that tended to go on sale were the crappy ones and it was difficult to find much of anything, especially in a store, that was narrower than 1.25. That's not a bad width for commuting but not ideal if you like to go fast.

bjornb

Try getting 27" wheels.... I wandered all over my damn city and finally had to go on ebay.

ItsJustMe

Yeah, this year I decided that given the ZERO road hazards around here, I could run the cheapest tires I could find. So I went to the department store looking. NOTHING but 16/20/24/26/27" tires. They actually don't sell any 27" bikes themselves, only kids bikes and 26".

mike

I dunno. Live for today. Right now, I am seeing plenty of 27" tires at reasonable prices and I think that is going to last for at least five more years. I bet it lasts even longer than that, so until then I am going to keep riding the twentyseveninchers.

kila kila kila

I imagine Panaracer will be making 27" tires indefinitely.

sunstealth

what we need is cyclocross like tread in 27 inch for the winter riders or mud goer!

riddei

Meh,

I have no plans on changing out my 27" wheels/tires. The 27x1.25 is the ideal size for a commuter. I love my Gator-skinned shod 27's!

Industrial

I'm riding a set of specialized armadillo 27inch tires. If they are anything like my other pair, they'll last 10,000 miles. The only thing that kills me on 27 inch rims is the winter tire situation like sunstealth said. So I'm contemplating the cheapest way to convert to 700c....

MrCjolsen

If you're happy with your wheels, then 27" tires are fine. There are quite a few decent tires made in the 27" size. The problem arises when you want to get different wheels. The SSFG people go through this all the time when they try to convert an old schwinn to a fixed gear.

mechBgon

Number of production bikes I can think of that come with 27" (630 ETRTO): zero.

Number of production bikes that use ETRTO 622 (700C aka 29er): countless.

If you like 27", then hey, keep right on with it There are still good tires available, and will be for a long time (probably decades). But as a standard, 27" is to 700C as Latin is to English. No new production bikes use it. It is a dead standard in that way.

Personally, I have an '82 Trek I'm using as a commuter. It's built for 27", but I simply slapped a 700C wheelset onto it and off we went

JeanCoutu

Look up Hero cycle's Hawk Nu-Age, then it will become one.

paulwwalters

It's 700c, not 700cm. It's 70cm.
PS: it's something like 620mm bsd.

charles vail

I ride a 27" converted single speed and I just love the wheel size. Kind of like a large volume 700c in diameter but narrower and with those old school, light weight, wide rims, they just seem to roll forever. Bumps are less noticable too. "Big wheel keep on turnin"!!!

You can still buy 27" wheels and rims not to mention tires. Schwalbe, Panaracer and Continental, not to mention several others, make them. You just have to shop a little and quit looking in you local bike shop or discount store. The QBP catalog has wheels and any good bike shop should be able to get anything they carry. Tubes are interchangeable and new spare tires can be stored indefinately, provided you use some common sense. I figure my three wheel sets should last me about 30,000 miles and thats enough for about 10 more years of cycling after which I will be 60 years old. By then I will figure out what if any change I need. Maybe a 20 inch folder bike.