tcs

Yeah, if the sidewalls are good, the spokes not corroded and the races not pitted, I'd just slap some modern 27s on and not look back.

jefnvk

If you're "keeping with the times", you shouldn't be buying bikes with 27" wheels to begin with

But seriously, I challenge folks to give me a touring tire you can get in 700c that you can't get something equivalent in 27". Yes, if we are looking at something like cyclocross 27" is out the window, but for general use there are lots of good 27" options. Conti Travel Contacts maybe?

J.Higgins 

Thanks for your advice, but I buy and sell a lot of bikes. Since I've recently retired, I formed an LLC to restore old bikes and I often buy bikes in sad shape and give them a second life. Some of them happen to have 27" wheels on them. If the bike is worthy of a full-on restore, like an old Ciocc or Mercian, I'll keep the original wheels.

fietsbob

There are a good number of 27" wheel bikes , converted to 650B wheels,
buying long reach brakes, to grip the smaller diameter rims..

then you get to run (metric equivalent of ...) a 1.5" wide tire...


(still prudent to bring an extra, 3rd, tire)


.....

jefnvk

That is cool and all, but doesn't change the fact that there are more than enough suitable tire choices for 27" that one doesn't have to change wheelsets just to keep with the times. Whether that changes in the future, I cannot say, but I maintain that someone truly that picky about tire selection is not buying such bikes anyhow.

Dave Mayer

Replace the tires. I've had too many surprises with dried-out old tires. As in the sidewalls exploding during inflation, or 200 feet into the first test ride.

Check the branding of the brake calipers. If they are labeled: Dia-Compe, then these are unsafe for light riding on flat dry roads, due to their flimsy flexy arms, poor mechanical advantage, and cheap awkward hardware.

Forget about any kind of loaded touring with these brakes. At the bike Co-op I work at, I bury many sets of these deep in the trash per week, to ensure nobody else is misguided enough to use them.

Also, replace the brake levers, and cables and housing.

djb

I figure if one can buy regular marathons in 27in, then thats fine. I have a pair of regular marathons with probably 10,000 kms on them and they are in reasonable shape, and are probably ten years old with no sidewall cracking or anything.
But as said, depends on the condition of the rims, spokes and hubs.
At a certain point, one has to be realistic about how much to put into a bike given its intended use, but you guys know that.

J.Higgins 

Well I'm not sure what you are on about here. I buy bikes. I fix bikes. I restore bikes and I sell bikes. I do this. Me. Not you. What's your beef, man? If you like 27" wheels and tires that is great. Ride them until the cows come home. I must have challenged you in some way for you to single out my comments about a dead and dying tire size. I certainly did not mean to offend you or anyone else partial to a certain tire size. For that I will apologize, because I didn't mean to ruffle any feathers. Everybody does something different and that's what makes us different. Hey I like riding naked down main street every night at midnight on a Mattel Big Wheel, but hey that's me.

djb

chuckle

they were the bomb back then, in the ads , the kid would do a parking brake turn, and to me that was pretty darn cool.
but I wasnt naked.

wahoonc

No pictures, however I have met people touring on penny farthings, not sure if they were reproductions or original. My newest touring bike is a 1989, oldest was made in the 70s. To me it is more about the trip than the equipment. If it gets me there and back with minimal issues it was a good trip. I have also found that the older stuff is easier to repair on the side of the road than the latest indexed electronic stuff.

Aaron

jefnvk

No beef, just can't stand when people insist that 27" isn't capable enough and must be discarded because there aren't three thousand tires to select from. Wheels are not an inexpensive upgrade, at least if done right, saying they must be changed out is silly. Outside of some specialty need, there are more than enough 27" choices to not necessitate tossing perfectly usable equipment to upgrade a vintage bike to some sort of modern status.

And, FWIW, I have rehabbed a number of bikes older than myself. 27" is perfectly suitable for the overwhelming majority of needs, including a weeklong tour in Europe where I couldn't differentiate between road types on a map and seen them go through everything from a few miles of muddy tractor track to cobblestone and gravel to smooth asphalt.

J.Higgins 

See above.

Cougrrcj

Refurb the Nishiki and ride the tires off it! Perfectly suited to touring with its longer chainstays. If you think the brakes aren't up to the task, a set of dual-pivot sidepulls and decent pads should be an improvement -- especially with new Teflon-lined cable housings and slick stainless cables. Figure ~$40 for a set of Tektro dual pivot brakes, and another $30 for top quality cable set.

Only ONE of my 'road' bikes has 700c tires, the other three are 27". I have no problem running 27x1-1/4 (32mm) Pasela TGs on my Gran Tourismo (Univega's mid-grade touring bike). The Fuji that I used for touring for years wears 27x1-1/8 (28mm), as does my Viva Sport. Both the G.T. and old Fuji wear triple cranksets with ratios down into the upper 20s. Here along the southern shore of the Great Lakes where I ride, I have not used anything lower than 40gi. My 25-mile r/t commute needs nothing lower than 60gi. And yes, I have ridden in central Ohio and south-central Indiana (Hilly Hundred anyone?) where there are some moderate hills. Heck, when I rode Hilly Hundred, my Fuji wore it's stock 39/51 crankset and 14-28 five-speed rear freewheel - making my lowest available gear 40.7gi.