Tour De Frans
05-06-2007, 03:59 PM
My father has an early 80s bianchi. He has these old 27"x1" tire on these wheels, but I want to replace them for him. I have two main questions:
1. Will a modern size tire fit to replace the older 27" tire? My guess is no, but I want to make sure.
2. Is it possible to replace the wheels with 650c or 700c wheels, without altering or having to replace the original parts?
Bike size is about a 54cm.
Nessism
05-06-2007, 07:22 PM
My father has an early 80s bianchi. He has these old 27"x1" tire on these wheels, but I want to replace them for him. I have two main questions:
1. Will a modern size tire fit to replace the older 27" tire? My guess is no, but I want to make sure.
2. Is it possible to replace the wheels with 650c or 700c wheels, without altering or having to replace the original parts?
Bike size is about a 54cm.
You will need 27" tires, nothing else with fit.
I think you can adapt 700c wheel as long as the brakes have enough reach. Honestly though, why bother? Build a new set of 27" wheels for your dad if the bike needs new wheels.
ckilner
05-07-2007, 12:15 PM
Most bikes that came with 27" wheels had enough brake reach to handle 700c wheels (a 4mm drop) and were usually sold in other (non-US) countries with 700c wheels. Today, you will have many more tire choices with the 700c size compared to the 27" size.
Depending on how early in the 80's the bike was built, it could have 120, 122 or 126mm rear fork spacing, so you may need to get the stays cold-set to handle a modern 130mm rear wheel - steel frames are flexible enough that most 126mm frames will accept a 130mm wheelset, but a 120 or 122mm frame might be too tight.
JCavilia
05-07-2007, 12:44 PM
He has these old 27"x1" tire on I want to replace them for him.
It's unclear what you want to replace. If it just needs new tires, and the wheels are in good shape, you can still get 27" tires. As ckilner says, there are more choices in 700c, but there are plenty of decent tires in the 27" size.
http://sheldonbrown.com/harris/tires/630.html
If you're replacing the wheels, then you need to decide whether to convert the size, which raises the brake reach issue, etc.