27" to 26" ?

Nick Hindle said:

My bike has 27" x 1 3/4" wheels. There seems to be a much larger range of tyres and spares for the
26" wheel. Anyone have any thoughts on changing my wheels from 27 to 26 inches?

Changing to 700C would probably cause less problems with brake reach. 700C rims and tyres are
readily available.
--
David Damerell <[email hidden]> Distortion Field!

"Nick Hindle" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

My bike has 27" x 1 3/4" wheels. There seems to be a much larger range of tyres and spares for the
26" wheel. Anyone have any thoughts on changing my wheels from 27 to 26 inches?

Thanks!

It is unlikely that your brakes will reach far enough to work with 26in wheels.

Why not go to 700C? This will give a good range of tyre choice and will probably work with your
existing brakes with just an adjustment to the pads.

There really isn't that much difference in size between 700C and 27in. I recently changed the rear
wheel on my 27in wheel bike to 700C after the original was ruined in a crash. With matching Michelin
World Tour tyres on front and rear it is not at all obvious that they are different sizes.

700C will give a good choice of tyre if that is what you are looking for.

Do check OLN spacing though, to make sure that you get a 700C wheel that fits in your dropouts. You
don't give details, but most bikes old enough 27in wheels will have narrower dropouts than most new
wheels (not an insummoutable obstacle, as you can get the rear dropouts re-spaced or find a suitable
hub, but you need to be aware of
it).

Andrew Webster

[email hidden]

Nick Hindle' may have said:

My bike has 27" x 1 3/4" wheels. There seems to be a much larger range of tyres and spares for the
26" wheel. Anyone have any thoughts on changing my wheels from 27 to 26 inches?

The one-integer difference in the numeric size is misleading. The two sizes of wheel are farther
apart than that in actuality. The rims are more like 3 inches smaller in OD on the 26" wheels.

Further details about this subject are here:

sheldonbrown.comtire sizing.htmlOpen ↗

The chances are that even with modifications to the frame, it will not work, or will be horribly
expensive and unsatisfactory. The brakes will not even come close to hitting the rims, so that
entire system will need to be reworked or replaced (and would probably require adding mounting
points on the forks and stays to accomodate a later style of brake system, which may further require
a different set of levers). The forks and stays are probably not far enough apart to accommodate any
but the narrowest of 26" tires. It should also be noted that 26" wheels come in several diameters
that are not interchangeable and which do not accept the same sizes of tire.

The bottom line is simple: If you want a 26" bike, buy a 26" bike. Trying to turn an old 27" into a
26", while not necessarily impossible, is a task for only the mechanically adept and technically
astute to undertake...and none of them are likely to want to try.

--
My email address is antispammed; pull WEEDS if replying via e-mail. Yes, I have a killfile. If I
don't respond to something, it's also possible that I'm busy.

"Nick Hindle" asked: There seems to be a much larger range of

Quoted message said:

tyres and spares for the 26" wheel. Anyone have any thoughts on changing my wheels from 27 to
26 inches?

Many folks have changed from 27 inch to 700C wheels, which is a more logical change than going to
26, as the difference from 27 to 700c is very small. That does still require that you change your
brake calipers to ones with longer reach, however.

I did, just for the heck of it, put some 26 inch wheels onto a bike that uses 27 inch wheels. The
brake pads came to the middle of the tires, so it was obviously unsafe, and I only rode a couple of
blocks of totally level pavement. The bike felt quite noticably lower, even though the seat etc must
have actually been only 1/2 inch lower.

Also, I have 3 bikes that have 27 inch wheels in good condition, and I have had no problem finding
27 inch tires for them. I've built a stash of about 6 or so good quality 27 inch tires that I get
new for maybe $5 apiece. Ask your LBS if they have some in the back room that they'd like to clear
out. I see no reason to change my bikes from 27 inch. OTOH, I would not choose one of these bikes
for a round the world tour, because of tire compatibility reasons. But for a 2 week tour, I'd take
my 27 inch tire touring bike, with one folding spare.

So my advice to you is that if your wheels are in good condition, just buy a few good tires and ride
what you have.

Erik Brooks, Seattle

Why not just change to 700C?

This way you can probably use the same brakes AND have a large variety of tires.

Lewis.

************************

"Nick Hindle" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

My bike has 27" x 1 3/4" wheels. There seems to be a much larger range of tyres and spares for the
26" wheel. Anyone have any thoughts on changing my wheels from 27 to 26 inches?

Thanks!

As far as I now there is no such thing as 27" x 1 3/4" wheels. And I have owned a LBS for over 25
years. The sizes that I know of would be either 27 x 1 1/4 or 26 x 1 3/4. The 27 x 1 1/4 would be a
multi gear bike. The 26 x 1 3/4 is a Schwinn size used in the 70's on a 1 speed cruiser bike.

"Nick Hindle" <[email hidden]> wrote in message "]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

My bike has 27" x 1 3/4" wheels. There seems to be a much larger range of tyres and spares for the
26" wheel. Anyone have any thoughts on changing my wheels from 27 to 26 inches?

Thanks!

Quoted message said:

Nick Hindle said:

My bike has 27" x 1 3/4" wheels. There seems to be a much larger range of tyres and spares for the
26" wheel. Anyone have any thoughts on changing my wheels from 27 to 26 inches?

David Damerell said:

Changing to 700C would probably cause less problems with brake reach. 700C rims and tyres are
readily available.

That's true. But 27" rubber is also readily available, and generally cheaper than
700C . I wonder what the exepcted advantage of such an expensive swap might be??

A broad selection of tires, which is the only rationale the OP noted, is only significant if he
can't find suitable rubber in a 27" format.

Perhaps all that's needed is a change of venue to a shop with more 27" tires??

--
Andrew Muzi www.yellowjersey.org Open every day since 1 April, 1971

[email hidden] (Erik Brooks) wrote in message
news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

"Nick Hindle" asked: There seems to be a much larger range of

Quoted message said:

tyres and spares for the 26" wheel. Anyone have any thoughts on changing my wheels from 27 to 26
inches?

Many folks have changed from 27 inch to 700C wheels, which is a more logical change than going to
26, as the difference from 27 to 700c is very small. That does still require that you change your
brake calipers to ones with longer reach, however.

<cut>

Not necessarily, e.g. my Wienmann centre pull brakes just required adjustment. I think most long
reach callipers will reach for 700C.

As another poster noted, there really isn't much to gain by changing as, shopping around, there is a
reasonable choice in 27inch tyres.

Andrew Webster

(Andrew Webster) said:

Not necessarily, e.g. my Wienmann centre pull brakes just required adjustment. I think most long
reach callipers will reach for 700C.

It all depends on the height of the brake bridge (where the caliper is mounted). The 700c wheel will
require the brake pads to be 4mm lower (assuming similar rim profiles) than the 27" wheel. If
there's at least that much adjustment range left under the pads' current position, it'll work. If
not, it won't.

Mark Hickey Habanero Cycles habcycles.comhabcycles.comOpen ↗ Home of the $695 ti frame